PCGS Price Guide Woes
georgiacop50
Posts: 2,909 ✭✭✭✭
OK. We all understand how hard PCGS tries to keep the Price Guide up to date. It's a lot of data. But something really should be done about the misinformation aspect of it.
Look at this example:
1951 Washington Carver Commem MS65.
The price guide has been $500-$550 unchanged for the last TEN YEARS!
Yet if you look around you will be hard pressed to find one that has sold for more than $100 in the last year.
Here's an example that went for $31 with juice!
But the average seems to be $60 to $70 range.
Yes I know the speil...one can email so and so at PCGS and provide examples and hope they will change the price guide to support your "more realistic view" of what the current price should be.
But really, if you publish a Price Guide, don't you have some responsibility to keep it as accurate as possible? Is it really our job as collectors to provide the powers that be with data that is readily available?
We, as PCGS forumites are for the most part used to the fact that most coins routinely trade for about half of price guide values. But $60 vs $500?? That is 12¢ on the dollar!
Not a big deal to most of us. We are wise to the anomalies of the Price Guide.
But this situation is so damaging to newbs. They come into the hobby and soon see that PCGS is KING KONG of the coin market. They are THE AUTHORITY! Newbs rely on them for accurate info.
I don't mean to bag on PCGS, but I just think something can/should be done to keep the guide more timely. I mean, ten years??
Look at this example:
1951 Washington Carver Commem MS65.
The price guide has been $500-$550 unchanged for the last TEN YEARS!
Yet if you look around you will be hard pressed to find one that has sold for more than $100 in the last year.
Here's an example that went for $31 with juice!
But the average seems to be $60 to $70 range.
Yes I know the speil...one can email so and so at PCGS and provide examples and hope they will change the price guide to support your "more realistic view" of what the current price should be.
But really, if you publish a Price Guide, don't you have some responsibility to keep it as accurate as possible? Is it really our job as collectors to provide the powers that be with data that is readily available?
We, as PCGS forumites are for the most part used to the fact that most coins routinely trade for about half of price guide values. But $60 vs $500?? That is 12¢ on the dollar!
Not a big deal to most of us. We are wise to the anomalies of the Price Guide.
But this situation is so damaging to newbs. They come into the hobby and soon see that PCGS is KING KONG of the coin market. They are THE AUTHORITY! Newbs rely on them for accurate info.
I don't mean to bag on PCGS, but I just think something can/should be done to keep the guide more timely. I mean, ten years??
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Comments
but i bid the buyer goodluck by not reporting it myself so i share some guilt
they never listed my sale on their own so i just eat the popcorn on the sidelines
yup it's a guide that should be "more guiding" is my 2 cents
oh my that carver example is very extreme
definitely could hurt some newbie...no lie
perhaps they'll read this thread and take constructive insight and apply it
Price Guide: $2350 I think
Last several auctions have been between $1100 and $1500.
I would call $1350 fair and a bargain at that because of the following:
2010 the pop was 40 with none higher.
+Grading came out.
Everyone and their grandma cracked out and resubmitted hoping for a new stand alone top pop!
The pops are now 57 in 67FB and 2 in 67+FB!
Trust me, there have not been 19 new examples located!!! Greed and the crack out game are very real!
People look at the pops now that they have grown by 50% and the price has tanked! The downward trend in many coins hasn't helped this past year but the neither has anything else. A nice example with great luster, like the one I sold, is a tough find!
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
<< <i>Price Guide for 20th century material that is routinely available is often 50% above wholesale (ie it's full, maximum Home Shopping Network retail). So a coin listed for $2350 can really be "worth" only $1500 when it's time to sell. >>
A few years ago, a semi-key(based on mintage) sold very very close price guide...which was largely based on recent auction figures. For common crap, I agree with you though. Auctions are close to reality and the price guides should routinely reflect that. My point was that the 31-D Merc is not nearly as common as the pops indicate...at least in 67FB or better. Good luck finding one with great luster and a great strike. There are only a few of them that exist.
Just a couple of years ago I had to send multiple emails and eventually start a thread due to the problem with the 31-S Merc...another semi-key...and PCGS raised all of the prices DRAMATICALLY across the board...at least Mint State examples when I brought the big problem to their attention.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
But, the info the give is an adjunct to their main job -- grading, authenticating, and providing a certification service. So, I surely wish I could trust the data, just as you do, but I try to just use iot as one data point in my determination of value.
In my series and grades, I find that figuring 70% of PCGS Price Guide gives me a very realistic value point.
But . . that is within the series and grades I collect.
Drunner
<< <i>Wouldn't PCGS be using their own price guide as a marker ... the grade guarantees. Seems to me this information, if accurate would protect the company, and if not create a huge liability. >>
No. Unfortunately that is not the case.
Using my original example in the OP:
If you submit an MS65 1951 WC and it downgrades, the "refund" due you will be figured at ~ $60 rather than the $500 in the price guide.