Ebay Vs NGC Pricing Guide Vs Heritage Auction

It's been a mystery to me too. I never have trusted ebay since my kid told me how him and his friends use it to get rid of junk.

ebay is higher priced than greysheet and most other places but it's easy to use, hence they get the people that value convenience over savings.

Are you comparing apples to oranges? Unless you kept records sales data from ebay is the last 90 days (1 year if you have access to Terapeak) whereas Heritage sales are 3 years. I don't have any hard data but have heard the price of 1921 Peace dollars has increased recently due to release of 2021 Peace dollars.

Do the Heritage results include the buyer's fee?
That's a big chunk of money.
Around 20% of the winning bid if I recall correctly.

The 1921 Peace dollar has currently a price abnormality because of the recent sky rocket in price for the 1921 Peace dollar. There is a lot of hype on the reissue of the 2021 Peace dollar and Morgan. Forget about looking at the last 3 years of auction pricing for the 1921 Peace dollar as it means nothing. If you want a 1921 Peace dollar MS64 with a decent strike in the current market, you are going to pay $1200 to $1400. NGC has updated their price guide to reflect the current market. Heritage sold a MS64 1921 Peace dollar on 3/17/21 for $1380 that reflect current pricing. ebay sold is in the same ballpark for current pricing of the 1921.

Dealers go to HA to buy high end inventory, or are looking for a specific coin that they know one of their customers may be looking for.
Since a profit has to be made on a re-sale, the buy-in price with buyer's premium has to be low enough. Also may be the start of a provenance from a reputable company, or the continuation of a provenance. That can make a Heritage coin seem cheap, if the buy-in price is right.

I like to compete with the dealers at public auctions because they know what they are doing, price wise. Serious research work before the pre auction view days is essential. If un slabbed, which I prefer, you have to trust your own grading skills. I usually submit a single price written proxy bid, to avoid an auction room war. Winning bid one bid step higher than 2nd highest bid, so there is the possibility of getting a coin at a lower price than my written bid.

ebay 'buy it now' prices are an ambit guide price, and are more usually based on the highest dealer retail price catalog value.
Not able to carefully inspect the item before making a bid. As such, slabbed is essential, but I can't dismiss the possibility of fake slabs.
There are CCF members that have far better skills than I, when it comes to addressing the problems of ebay.

and as a collector as well, I suppose...but if looking for a specific coin, it may not be available when you want it

The ones that sold in the $900 range had some issues like poor strike, finger prints, low luster, excessive marks for grade. If these same coins went back on the marked today, they would most likely be in the $1100 to $1200 range because there has been another price jump in the last month for the 1921 Peace dollar.




NGC and PCGS are simply retail price guides, and you are correct they are overstated. A lot of ebay BIN pricing does follow the TPG price guides, but there are still good buys on ebay is you are selective for price and quality. Buying quality coins at a fair price is where you find them: ebay, coin show, online dealer, LCS, Heritage, GC, etc.

Buying at Heritage auction can have it own pit falls. A lot of sellers will put their market desirable coins up for auction at Heritage and it can create a bidding war. Some times you can get a better price on a market desirable coin from a dealer because you are not in a bidding war. I tried the flipping game of buying at Heritage and selling on ebay. I could sell the coins on ebay for more than I paid for it, but the only ones making money was Heritage and ebay.