Prices, Prices, Prices

Greysheet.

Coin prices lately are all over the place. Not many really go by any price guides anymore. A coin store must always factor in a profit enough to cover store expenses and enough to cover family necessities. They will ask for a lot more than any price guide usually.
Coin shows as a rule are just coin and currency related flea markets. Dealers all know that average customer will always ask for a reduced price for anything they have. So the average dealer looks up the price in the grey sheet, adds on about 10 to 25% for their prices. now for most customers they start right out with I'll give you 10% off since 'I like you", "the sky is clear", "you look like a steady customer", "I need a sale". etc. This starts the usually haggling where the customer says still a little high. Then the price is lowered by about 15 to 20% and the customer buys the coin for the grey sheet sheet price anyway.
Going to coin shows all the time I've only seen a few Red Books being carried by customers, never saw a dealer use one. At one larger show there is a table in front with free copies of the Numismedia Magazine and yet no one used it at the show for prices.
Last Sunday at a coin show one dealer lowered all his prices I asked about by 25% and all because I was a steady customer. I never even remember seeing him before. I checked later and found that even with that massive discount his prices exceeded the Red Book.
In the FAR past coin shows were always the one place where it would be impossible to beat for prices. That is still basically true but now you really have to know what a coin is really worth or end up paying almost as much as ebay.
What is fun is to take a coin with and pretend to want to sell it. Fantastic difference in what you'll be offered to what they sell one for.
There really is no such thing as a real coin price list. They are all just GUIDES.

DOH!

Carl is right - they are all guides. The key is knowing what you're doing and using them as a reference.