How to value coins?
stevepk
Posts: 238 ✭✭✭
I'm new to the forum and have plenty of questions. My first of many (which I will address in this post) is how to assign a value to my United States coin collection. I should first state that I am a collector rather than a dealer. This means I usually cannot buy coins at dealer prices. I suspect many of the forum members on this board are dealers. I am not buying to resell in the immediate future. At the same time, I would like to know I am not throwing money away on something I'll never be able to recover my original purchase price. There are a few methods I could use:
1. face value (but do I really want to spend a $3 gold piece?)
2. scrap value x 50% (value most gold buyers offer to the general public)
3. Ebay reference minus seller's cost
4. Heritage reference minus seller's cost
5. PCGS Buy Sell Trade forum
6. Greysheet
7. Redbook and other price guides
Each of the following has their faults. Greysheet is notorious for those faults. For example, I cannot find a nice 1857 large cent for anywhere near Greysheet, yet the local coin dealer tells me the best he can pay for mine (an eye appealing PCGS XF45) is 15% to 25% less than Greysheet because that's how he buys all of his coins. It seems some coins are accurately priced in Greysheet while other series are completely unrealistic. Usually the early US issues are priced unrealistically low in Greysheet. Suppose I have a nicely toned example. Is it still priced at Greysheet? Some dealers who I have spoke to say Greysheet applies to low-end coins only. Some have told me they apply to typical coins and some dealers have even said Greysheet only applies to CAC (Green Bean) holdered coins! Sometimes I'll ask a dealer how much a coin is, reference my Greysheet, and question how that value was determined. Did he pull a number out of thin air?
Heritage may be useful, but I do have one question. How much of a seller's fee applies? Does that fee differ depending on the value of the coin I want to sell or how many coins I have to sell? Suppose I have ten coins in my collection that average to $500 apiece on recent Heritage auction records. Can I tell myself I have $5,000 worth in coins? If I were to put these ten coins on Heritage and if they sold for $5,000, how much of that $5,000 would I see after the Heritage fees? In my opinion, the fee should be the responsibility of the buyer, not the seller. This would allow Heritage a larger volume of quality material which would in turn attract more buyers and therefore more revenue.
How much is a seller's fee on Ebay? If I sell a coin for $100 on Ebay, how much of it will I actually see (excluding shipping costs). Also, if my photo cannot capture the eye appeal of a coin (some of them can be tough to photo), the coin is automatically worth less on Ebay. Because of this, I would want to avoid selling coins on Ebay for those which are difficult to photograph.
How can I determine when Greysheet valuations apply? How much value should I apply to my coins with superior eye appeal? How should I know when a dealer is over charging at a small coin show where I do not have the luxury of hunting down and comparing four or five examples?
Numismatic pricing seems chaotic and unorganized. Can anyone help?
I know photos are popular on this forum. How do I post images? Apparently my attempt failed.
1. face value (but do I really want to spend a $3 gold piece?)
2. scrap value x 50% (value most gold buyers offer to the general public)
3. Ebay reference minus seller's cost
4. Heritage reference minus seller's cost
5. PCGS Buy Sell Trade forum
6. Greysheet
7. Redbook and other price guides
Each of the following has their faults. Greysheet is notorious for those faults. For example, I cannot find a nice 1857 large cent for anywhere near Greysheet, yet the local coin dealer tells me the best he can pay for mine (an eye appealing PCGS XF45) is 15% to 25% less than Greysheet because that's how he buys all of his coins. It seems some coins are accurately priced in Greysheet while other series are completely unrealistic. Usually the early US issues are priced unrealistically low in Greysheet. Suppose I have a nicely toned example. Is it still priced at Greysheet? Some dealers who I have spoke to say Greysheet applies to low-end coins only. Some have told me they apply to typical coins and some dealers have even said Greysheet only applies to CAC (Green Bean) holdered coins! Sometimes I'll ask a dealer how much a coin is, reference my Greysheet, and question how that value was determined. Did he pull a number out of thin air?
Heritage may be useful, but I do have one question. How much of a seller's fee applies? Does that fee differ depending on the value of the coin I want to sell or how many coins I have to sell? Suppose I have ten coins in my collection that average to $500 apiece on recent Heritage auction records. Can I tell myself I have $5,000 worth in coins? If I were to put these ten coins on Heritage and if they sold for $5,000, how much of that $5,000 would I see after the Heritage fees? In my opinion, the fee should be the responsibility of the buyer, not the seller. This would allow Heritage a larger volume of quality material which would in turn attract more buyers and therefore more revenue.
How much is a seller's fee on Ebay? If I sell a coin for $100 on Ebay, how much of it will I actually see (excluding shipping costs). Also, if my photo cannot capture the eye appeal of a coin (some of them can be tough to photo), the coin is automatically worth less on Ebay. Because of this, I would want to avoid selling coins on Ebay for those which are difficult to photograph.
How can I determine when Greysheet valuations apply? How much value should I apply to my coins with superior eye appeal? How should I know when a dealer is over charging at a small coin show where I do not have the luxury of hunting down and comparing four or five examples?
Numismatic pricing seems chaotic and unorganized. Can anyone help?
I know photos are popular on this forum. How do I post images? Apparently my attempt failed.
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Comments
Numismatic pricing seems chaotic and unorganized. Can anyone help?
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That about sums it up, and why it is a hobby, not an investment vehicle (again dealers are excluded because dealers make the bulk of the money). A single coin might trade in a wide range of prices. The low wholesale price might be 1/4 or perhaps even 1/10 of the full retail price. You listed quite a few sources, so it seems you already know the answer. Not sure how to help. The price a person might sell for if they take their time and try to sell at retail to other collectors is going to be much higher than if they solicit offers from dealers, especially dealers that they don't know. Even then, dealer offers will vary widely, as will offers from other collectors.
Track whichever source(s) you like. When the rubber meets the road, is when a buyer agrees to buy at whatever price level can be agreed upon. Again, if selling to a dealer for inventory, that price tends to be lower than selling to another collector that wants the coin for their collection. How much lower depends on a lot of factors.
<< <i>Numismatic pricing seems chaotic and unorganized. Can anyone help? >>
no need, that is the perfect answer
xxxx
stevepk
all i can offer you at this point is, read read read
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Member Services Post.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Dealers ...... here comes the big secret ......... make money by selling coins for more than they buy them for. That's what they do. Every financial transaction in the world represents two people trying to agree on what something is worth. There are 7 billion of us trying to figure out the answer to your question, every day, in a million different ways.
You've got the same basic roadmap in front of you that the rest of us have (greysheet, price guide, auction results, B&M dealer, etc.)
I "value" my collection at 80% of what I paid.
All the other posts re the value is what it sells for, the guides are just guides etc aside.