Coin Prices
Coin Prices is a publication compiled by numismasters.com and issued monthly. This is what they say about their listed values, "Values listed are average retail prices." and "The values are compiled by Coin Prices' independent staff of market analyst. They derive the values listed by monitoring auction results, business on electronic dealer trading networks, business at major coin shows, and in consultation with a panel of dealers."
Also they use the American Numismatic Association's grading standard commonly known as ANA. So this is another top coin values publication making the claim of "average" values and not the exact values of any coin. Another aspect to note is that all coin value publications claim that this is a not a buy or sell value offer list nor is their values what a dealer will pay for a coin.
What can we gain from all of this information? For one thing by their claims alone, none of them are the final say in the value of any particular coin, despite what collectors and dealers want to believe. In example, we might have 1,000 different transactions for an AU58 (Almost Uncirculated) 1928 Peace Dollar, in the span of a month, and each transaction amounted to a final price of $450 for 600 of the coins. So out of the 1,000 coins, 200 were choice for their grade and sold for $500, and 200 other examples were poor examples for their grade and sold for $380 and the remainder $450, of course.
So what would the actual value of a 1928 AU58 Peace Dollar be with this scenario? You can argue anything from $500 to $380, and this is were some confusion comes into play. A collector wants their coins to be most valuable so they would say $500 even if their coin isn't choice. High volume dealers will always claim their coins are choice and try to sell an AU 1928 Peace Dollar for $550 and up. If you try to sell the same coin, to the same dealer, with the same grade you might get 50% of what a dealer thinks it's worth retail.
So there's several values for any one coin and grade and it all depends on whom you sell it to, the coins eye appeal and if it's graded by PCGS or NGC. Personally I would value this grade and coin at $450 since I think that's a fair value for an AU58 Peace Dollar in AU58. However, if the coin isn't graded by PCGS then it will be difficult to get more than $400 for your coin.
After these most popular coin values publications, it gets more confusing, there's so many more price guides out there that a coin collectors could drive themselves nuts trying to figure the exact values of their coins.
NGC graded coins have their own value and so does ANACS and ICG graded coins and raw coins have their own value. So which is correct? What coin values publication is an accurate and up-to-date value for all coins and in all grading holders?
None of them.
It's just impossible for any single publication to list the exact coin values let alone include graded and encapsulated coins from the top four grading services. You can list guideline values for the average eye appeal of each grade, but one coin with better eye appeal will sell for more while a coin with less eye appeal will sell for less than the listed value.
That's why they are called "Price Guides" and makes claims of being an average value or just a value guide. All the publications listing values for coins is simply offering a guide so collectors can gain an idea of what a dealer will sell their coins for, and not what you might sell them to a dealer for.
I don't think the problem with coin values publications has anything to do with the author or company that publishes the coins guides. It's the collectors and dealers that choose the price guide that suits their needs for the highest value for their coin collections. It's them who make claims about certain price guides that the publications don't make.