Advice — Buying Coins Between Price Guides' Grades

Or the old coin shop way (true story!)

Oh your coin is graded VF-25. It is not that much better than a VF-20. Thus it is a VF-20. I will offer 60% of VF-20 bid.

The coin was an 1814 large cent.

Numismedia + completed ebay auctions is all you really need.

great topic, something I think about often.

A couple of thoughts. For one, since I do a lot of data analysis as part of my job, using microsoft excel all the time, making a simple graph from your favorite price guide could help. I quickly made this one for some semi-key Mercury dimes. Sheldon scale on the x-axis, 2018 blue book price guide values on the y-axis. you can specify straight or curved lines, etc.



In addition to online resources for prices like numismedia and usa coin book, I like the "auction prices realized" at PCGS (others mentioned heritage and NGC):
https://www.PCGS.com/auctionprices/

You can tabulate in excel, calculate average, median, and graph these too. I usually knock of around $25 if I'm buying a raw coin vs. slabbed.

i totally agree about eye appeal effecting the grade too. you can just go by the PCGS photograde utility (app or online) but grading is often said to be an "art" as much as a "science", and pleasant toning, "originality", and other considerations all come into play when determining valuation - some of these are obviously subjective.

Josh, this is what you can do for split grades pricing. For the example you gave of the 1905-O qtr, F12 $77 and VF-20 $198. There are 8 pts of difference between grades and $121. So, each pt difference is $15.13 (121/8). For an F-15, it would then be $77 + 45.39 ($15.13 * 3) = $122.39. Not too far off the $125 you spent. So, you did fine.