When it comes to coin values, collectors should always take published retail coin prices with a grain of salt. In particular, with higher value rare coins, often times published prices are for sight seen premium quality for the grade coins. Coins of this type often stand on their own and establish a price based on the individual coin. Market condition have a large effect as well. If a coin is a limited demand, high value item, the price can vary greatly from what a dealer may pay to speculate on inventorying the coin, or what a dealer will pay if he has a customer waiting for it, to what a collector looking for that particular would be willing to pay. Of these, the hardest to find is the end collector. So when looking to sell your coins, you need to keep in mind, the published prices in price guides are more a worse case of what you might be expected to pay than what you can expect to get. That being said, most dealers will do what they can to maximize what they can pay to regular customers, based on current market conditions at the time.
About a week ago, I had a visit from a local collector who had been in semi regularly over the past four years with a few coins to sell. In the past I had bought a few nice $2 ½ , $5, and $10 gold coins from him, nothing exceptional but nice easy to sell AU-UNC coins. This time he pulled out a slab box and proceeded to hand me 8 nice Saint Gauden $20 gold pieces. One at a time he handed me a 1924 NGC MS62, followed by 3-1927 NGC MS63; Next a 1925 NGC MS64, a 1927 NGC MS64, and finally a 1927 NGC MS65. He said “what can you give me for these, I need to pay my property taxes and put on a new roof.
Well I gave him a number which made him happy and wrote him a check, and as I handed it to him, he said “one more thing. I have this other $20 Liberty. It’s not as nice but it is older.” He proceeded to pull from his pocket an NGC AU55 1872-CC Liberty $20 gold piece. He said, “I see these listed in Coin World for $20,000 in AU50 and $56,000 in AU58, what is an AU55 worth?” Now any Carson City $20 is rare, but Coin World trends is really Pie in the Sky and I told him so. I said gold coins never really trade at retail levels but give me a minute. I went to the computer and pulled up the available info on the coin and checked the grey sheets. I told him that wholesale bid for AU50 is $11,000 and AU58 $20,000. These are sight seen bids which means coins that are deemed nice for the grade. I said this coin is not bad as it is somewhat frosty but it does have some detracting nicks and cuts. The last coin in AU55 to sell at auction sold for a little over $15,000 including the auction commission. That tells me the value for your coin on the market is somewhere in the $12,000 to $13,000 range to leave room for 19% auction fees. The best way for you to sell this is to have me check around and make a few calls and see what I am offered. I will call you with the best offer and if that seems satisfactory I will sell it for a 5% commission. He agreed to do this and gave the coin to me on memo.
I made some calls and showed the coin at a local show where I received offers from $11,000 to $12,000 from dealers I knew would wholesale it to someone with an end buyer. From the calls I made to dealers I thought may have customers for it the offer was a little better. I called my customer and told him the high offer I received.; said it was a good one and I could net him a little under $12,000 after my commission, which was right smack in the middle of where I had told him it would be. He was happy with the result and we had a deal.
The moral is, there is a lot more to the coin market than Coin World trends and grey sheet. These are guidelines, rare coins rarely trade at trends except to the collector and grey sheet can reflect the most recent teletype offer which may or may not be current. A coin is only worth what someone will pay for it. Be realistic and expect to leave money on the table for the next guy.
