Collectors of coins of all stripes, from beginners to experts, often commit the same mistake when it comes to currency price catalogues and guides-they misunderstand the intent of these publications and apply correctly the information for their own points of collection of currency, with disastrous results when it comes time to sell!Reply:Prices in the currency price catalogs are determined by coin dealers and resellers of currency, like any other good entrepreneurs want to earn as much profit as they can. Because the currency price catalogs are generally reflections of (alleged) market prices, dealers that contribute to these currency price catalogs have built in incentives to push prices as high as they can. Therefore, the answer to the question, "are the prices of currency in the catalogues of more accurate currency?" is a qualified No.
First off, let me define what kind of currency price catalog we discuss here. The types of coins we refer to catalogues to go by names like "Red Book," newsstand monthly "Black Book", "Coin Trends," magazines which list the prices of currency and other assorted books and publications (including websites) that provide general interest aggregated currency prices. I am not referring to auction currency catalogs that individual companies as heritage, Bowers & numismatics Merena, legend, and publish other licensees similar.
I should also clarify that I'm not calling into question the motivations of publishers, editors or traders who help these aggregated currency price catalogs. I have no doubt that the vast majority of them work in good faith when they contribute to and compile, coin price catalogs.
However, market forces quickly these obsolete catalogs make it, and here's why: the currency market is a free market capitalist system, where demand and drive the prices. To make a business of louder, dealers aggressive lowering their prices for currency compared to the levels of the catalog. More aggressive competitors somewhat further lowered their prices, and as soon as we have the actual selling prices running anywhere from 5% to 20% below "book value."
But there's more to this system only this! When the currency plunge below catalogue, sales prices develops a self-reinforcing system, where the customer's purchasing currency is excited because he thinks that he's got a great deal when he bought his currency less than the value of catalog! Of course, the opposite feeling ensues when a customer finds that he "surplus" to its currency. Therefore, there is a subtle, but very real subconscious incentive for merchants who contribute to the aggregate price catalogs price currency coins in high-end for these guides.
Where most collectors coins go astray, when using these aggregated currency price catalogs, pricing is under catalogs for their farms. When most collectors evaluate their collections, the appraisal value they have in mind is the amount of money that could sell their numismatic collection today if they had to. Don't think things all the way through and fail to consider that in order to coin dealers make a profit, can not afford to pay the currency price catalog (or even 20% below most prices catalog coins!) The fatal flaw in the logic of the collector coin fails to consider the difference between the prices of currency and coin values. (The prices of currency are what coins cost for purchase of currency values are what currency would sell for today a dealer). In order to obtain an accurate assessment of how much the numismatic collection actually worth it if you had to sell today, you need to override the sources as aggregate catalogs currency price mentioned above, (or if you use them, prices discount of approximately 25% for major currencies and around 60% for all other; for coins that trade around value of ingots use 90% of the value of ingots although many merchants will pay 95% for gold, take this as a bonus if they do.)If the purpose of your measurement currency to determine a value for insurance purposes, then by all means use the catalogs of aggregated currency price, since it is exploring replacement prices, here, not the sales values.
If you want to make an assessment of your collection of coins and do it for the purpose of obtaining a realistic picture of what you could sell for today at a dealer of currency, the Blue Book Handbook of United States Coins will provide a cheap, decent rough guesstimate that it will be much closer to true than the aggregate price catalogues previously observed. To do this right, you should obtain copies of current problems in the world of coins and Numismatic News, which are both weekly commercial documents for the coin collecting community. Do not use any "official" price Guides in these newspapers, though. Use ads to "buy chips" reseller on the back of the magazine, usually in or near the classified section. Some merchants publish very comprehensive "buy" rates in these magazines that reflect actual prices, which today are charged.
If you plan to sell your coin collection and want to make sure you get top dollar possible, obtain a number of recent issues of coin Dealer Newsletter, (called "CDN" or "greysheet" in trade). This is the closest thing to the Gospel and selling currency dealer prices and values and is published weekly, but most collectors cannot take only merchants they will pay these prices. Prices are in CDN prices dealer-to-merchant and as such, it is assumed that the coins with great accuracy are classified and expert that coins are organized by industry standards, and that the transaction can be done fairly quickly. If you're a collector who must also rely on purchasing reseller to help you achieve the grades are fixed, or you have a lot of material mix of low quality (as jars of grain dissemination cents, etc,) then use the CDN as orientation, so that you are aware what coins worth, but do not insist on paying full price CDN "bid" (purchase offer) If you need any "service", too.
Of course, if you have a numismatic collection worth more than $ 25,000 or so, some or all could be better sold through professional auction (not eBay!) This is why there is no substitute to develop a relationship with some coin dealers that deal regularly, (rather than fly only auctions). Extra po you pay purchase by say, a dealer of currency PNG is well worth the guarantees and advantages of the report.
Buy the book blue under cover price!
