Buying Certified Coins, The Battle Over Price With Unreasonable Sellers

First up there are NO hard and fast valuations for coins, The values are Market driven Just like any other collectable or commodity.
There are however some good resources that will give you what average sales values and current market expectations are for just about any given coin.
Most Hardcover guides are pretty much outdated even before they are printed as these will just give you a guide to what a particular coin was sold for last year.
Looking through ebay completed sales will give you a pretty good idea of what a coin is trending at and so do certain websites (subscriptions required) that specialise in coin valuations using real time information.

Even "Armed" with this information you cannot "Force" any seller to come to your "Price".
The ONLY way that you can get a given coin at a price that you have set for yourself is to "Shop around" and be patient.
If after a while this isn't working for you then obviously your price expectations are too low and you may have to revise your thinking about that.
The same applies to sellers, If their expectations are too high and they want to sell then after a while they will drop their price or just remove the coin from the market.

The prices achieved on ebay are different from those at a regular auction because ebay has a bigger audience and as with most coin auctions it all depends on who is bidding on the day as to the prices achieved, As these can and do vary wildly between auctions.

So to surmise;
A coin is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it and what a seller is prepared to sell it for on the day.
Nothing is Written in Stone

Trout,

There are many kinds of coin buyers out there. Some are informed but others not. Some are impulsive and must have the coin. Some have disposable income and don't care about price. Many sellers have learned that it only takes one to come along to make a sale so they're willing to wait.

With more expensive, higher end certified coins, I have much better luck with Heritage Auctions or Great Collections auctions. Most buy it now / make offer items on ebay are over priced and will never sell at the price asked. Most sellers are not willing to discount much at all, maybe 5-10% at most so I mostly do not waste my time making offers but rather wait until a coin I need is offered in a true auction format.

.....especially when dealing with anything rare or unusual in the Morgan family, normal rules don't apply, it's crazy.