I found your website when I searched Google for 'realistic coin price guide'. A page on the older version of your site, Why Coin Price Guides Are Not (Always) Accurate, was #8 on that SERP.
I am very impressed that you have done it the right way--a way that no other coin price guide has done to date (at least for U.S. coin values)--namely, as you describe it: "Coin Help determined that it would be best to reflect the most current trend in coin values by using final auction bids, when available, from the last few months to the last couple years."
Because, as you said so well, "...a visit to a coin show or a look at completed eBay coin auctions, and you can see the difference in how much less a coin sells for when compared to most of the major price guides. Often it can be as much as 50% less than the price guide list value!"
Just glancing at some of the U.S. coin values on your site, I thought to myself, "Wow, this really is a realistic price guide!"
Here's a specific example which highlights the accuracy of your guide. I just finished listing a 1943-D Lincoln cent (graded MS-67 by NGC) on eBay. I used the eBay search engine to find final sales prices for the coin over the last three months. I wanted to determine a realistic auction Starting price and Buy It Now price since, as you discuss on your site, the standard price guides give such a distorted, unrealistic picture.
With a wide range of sales prices such as the above, the best statistical measure of central tendency is the median, which in this case is $99.99. And guess what your price guide says about a 1943-D LWC in MS-67? Not $120, or $150, or $162.50 (!), but ... $99.Retail price guide values for a 1943-D Steel Lincoln wheat cent in MS-67 are as follows:
CoinWorld = $120.00
PCGS = $150.00
NGC = $155.00
NumisMedia FMV = $162.50
The eBay average sales price for 1943-D Lincoln Wheat Cents graded MS-67 by NGC over the last three months is $109.42i
...
Geeknote
i. This average does not include Best offer accepted sales, since those sales prices are unknown. For the 16 recorded sales over the last 90 days:
range = $71.00 to $164.99
arithmetic mean = $109.42
geometric mean = $106.89
median = $99.99
standard deviation= $23.27
Do you see why I'm so impressed? :thumbsup:
Thank you for this exceptionally helpful price guide. Folks like me, for whom coin collecting is mainly a hobby, no doubt appreciate your consumer-focused guide.
Best Regards,
Mark