Are World Coins On Ebay Overvalued?

Actual ebay sales prices, assuming that they aren't shill bids, are by definition the market value. Yes, I suspect that your guess is right. Danish West Indies were just not issued in any numbers. I too am surprised at some of the sale prices, because my mental picture of value is still stuck in 2005-2010 when I was buying a lot.

In some cases like India, while the coins were issued in large number, in recent years the local market has taken off, so that the catalogues of several years ago do not reflect current pricing levels.

I was watching a British 1840 halfcrown on ebay last week. It's a better date but by no means a rare coin. My catalog priced it at £65 in Fine. The specimen on ebay was barely VG. I thought it might fetch £40 but was gobsmacked when it sold for over £70.

I have noticed higher prices for World coins over the last 18 months or so.

My theory for this:
Dealers have to rely more on on-line business to survive due to the CV-19 pandemic. Their volume of business is also less in most cases, and to keep their business solvent, they have been forced to increase their profit margins.

As a potential client/customer, higher prices have severely discouraged me from buying. As the pandemic recedes over the next 18 months or so, I strongly suspect that retail coin prices are going to fall, as the numismatic market goes through a correction. Sales volumes will increase in the medium term.

As an American buyer, I remember world coins going for prices much much lower than their American counterparts. This was one of the reasons why I switched my interests a while back, as collecting world coins provided a variety of interesting pieces at much lower prices. I'm a little down to hear from many of you that this might not be the case anymore. Well, the hunt still goes on!

In addition to what has been posted above about prices, I have seen more scarce issues come to market lately, probably because of the boost in prices. So, although the prices are elevated, I am now buying coins that just haven't been in the market in many years.

Maybe those catalogs were wrong even then? I can find a VF example that sold for $150 in 2015, and an aVF that sold for 140 eu in 2016.




Don't give up. There are still some less popular types that can be found at reasonable prices. I've landed a few coins in the last month that I didn't think I would get.

I would say that world coins are not overvalued on ebay. ebay is the largest auction market, and it sets value. I would look at ebay sales (if there are enough to get a good sense of things) over some book value (which for me would be NGC value).

I have noticed that some coins consistently sell on ebay for more than book value, and some for less. To me this indicates that the book is out of date.

Figuring grade on an old coin is hard for me. You see a 200 year old coin that would be an F or VF if a modern coin described as AU, even in slabs. You have to develop a sense for whether a coin is quite nice for the year and type rather than grading on modern rubric.

Prices can get high if two bidders or more go for a fairly rare coin. Also ebay is full of buy it now coins at absurd pricing. Why do they do that? Because every now and then someone buys such an overpriced coin.

Lastly, when an ebay auction states "RARE!" is rarely is rare. When an ebay auction says "AU" it rarely is. When I sell I don't state grade if lower grade, and usually use general words like nice or high grade for better coins and leave it to the buyer to grade the coin himself.