List Price Anomolies, Help Me Understand!

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Author	Replies: 5 / Views: 1,450
BuffalosRock Pillar of the Community United States 500 Posts	Posted 10/24/2014 11:25 am I know that pricing is a sore subject with some ( love to see how many YMMV people chime in whenever it gets brought up )but I tend to be a "logic seeker" and some things I see in price lists - ATB - just make no sense. For instance, my "want list" for cert Walkers contains only 2 coins at present. 1942-S MS66 and 1942-D MS67 What baffles me is that the population on these two in PCGS ( and relatively similar on NGC etc. ) shows: 448 MS66 1942-S and 48 higher 148 MS67 1942-D and 8 higher Add that 67's are obviously usually more coveted than 66's for most coins and logic would tell me that the 42-D should be considerably more valuable and priced as such! Only 1/3 the overall population exists, and only 1/9 are graded higher. But NOOOOOOO, the 66 42-S retails at around $1200 while the 67 42-D retails around $900. I just don't get it? If it is that much rarer in population why so much less in price? Crack-outs and such just cannot explain such a huge discrepancy, IMO. What else is at play here? Is there some weird "false impression" that one is rarer than the other despite the hard numbers not bearing that out? Was it rare way back when and the pricing never adjusted? I see this in other series some too. One or two outliers that defy logic of rarity/pop being the major driver of price. I think some of it is the rarity of SanFran Walkers in general and at high grades - they tend to be much weaker struck in several key areas. So that explains poorer struck coins getting relatively higher grades, but it just doesn't make any sense to me pop.-wise that it would be that bass-ackwards. Report this Post to the Staff

Tryna Pillar of the Community United States 937 Posts	Posted 10/24/2014 12:22 pm I will take a stab at answering this, Buffalo, even though many here will not agree. Much of the 'value' of coins graded above MS65 is a bit...lets say...created. The value of any object depends on several main factors 1. Rarity 2. Condition 3. Demand 4. Availability I think we do not need to describe each factor for obvious reasons To each of these we can add adjectives such as perceived. If there is a perceived rarity for an item such as an S mint half dollar then its â€˜value' can go up for no logical reason. In the modern coin market there are terms such as Condition Rarity and things such as Population Reports that bolster perceived rarity which in turn bolsters demand. It is logical that an item is worth more than its fellow item if it is better condition. When it is perceived that a S mint coin is rarer than its D mint counter part then it is perceived that it should have higher value even in a lesser condition. I think your unseen force at work here is human nature, and greed. Logic has little to do with the price of coins and price often has little to do with a coins worth. I have tried to give an answer to this without overly injecting my opinions, which are often contrary to accepted norms. I will end with some things that are true to all markets 1. Prices are â€˜downwardly sticky'. They fall slower than they rise all things equal. 2. Market perception is stronger than reality 3. Much of the price is based more on Marketing than The Market. 4. Humans run the market and humans act illogically Report this Post to the Staff
Domain555 Pillar of the Community United States 1804 Posts	Posted 10/24/2014 12:34 pm Quote: 4. Humans run the market and humans act illogically Report this Post to the Staff
mikarvey New Member United States 1 Posts	Posted 10/24/2014 5:13 pm It must be considered that there ia no "fixed price" for any coin. Each dealer (or collector) will ask a price according to what he/she thinks the market will bear. They will use such things as ebay, greysheet and other references to get an idea. But remember no two coins are exactly alike. A "fair" price on anything is what a reasonably knowledgeable seller and a reasonably knowledgeable buyer agree upon. How often do you buy or sell a coin by negotiating a better price? Always negotiate, if possible. The worst that can happen is that the other person can refuse, and it's possible, even then, that they may make a counter-offer. Also, if I had bought a coin for $500, I would be reluctant to sell it for $490, even though another person may be offering an equivalent coin for that price. Remember, a dealer is in business to make a profit, and will be extremely unlikely to sell an item below his cost. Of course, some collector may sell at a loss, if he/she is needing cash. Report this Post to the Staff
SsuperDdave Moderator United States 23522 Posts	Posted 10/24/2014 11:25 pm Interesting "price guide." Judging from Heritage results, a careful buyer ought to be able to get both of those coins for the suggested "retail" of $1200 on the '42-S. But I did see the relative pricing anomaly you saw, in real-world sales results, and danged if I can explain it. The Denver issue is scarcer across the board than the San Francisco coin, and there aren't any real population anomalies that might drive conditional value unexpectedly. And boy, do these ever carry a PCGS Premium. Wow. Report this Post to the Staff
Conder101 Bedrock of the Community United States 17884 Posts	Posted 10/26/2014 04:29 am Actually from the information you presented I would expect the 42 S to be the higher priced coin. You compared the pops for a MS 66 with those of a MS 67. Look at it this way there are only 448 1942 S halves in 66, but only 48 in 67 or better. There are 156 1942 D halves in 67 or better. So there are almost 4 MS 67 42 D's for every 42 S. How many MS 66 42 D's are there? It seems that the 42 D seems to be much more common in high grade than the 42 S Report this Post to the Staff
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