Alternatives To Buying A Coin Price Guide

It is that time of year again.  It is the time when coin price guide publishers issue their newest updates.  These coin price guides, usually in paperback form, come out toward the end of the current year with next year's imprint on them.  Here's an example.  The 2010 edition will be published in late fall of 2009.  Before one spends their hard earned money, consider several alternatives.

VCOINS

If your coin collecting focuses on ancient coins, www.VCoins.com is a place you need to visit.  This website is a gigantic marketplace for ancient roman coins, Greek coins, byzantine coins and more.  Typically, there are over 60,000 current listings at any given time.  Although they don't not publish historical sale prices, the for sale prices give the average numismatic a pretty good gauge of price ranges for various coin issues and condition grades.  What makes this website even more useful is the ability to purchase items seamlessly.

EBAY

The world's largest marketplace also is one of the world's largest currency bazaars.  There are tens of thousands of items available in the coin section.  Although Ebay does not have as extensive of listings of ancient coins, it does have a comprehensive catalog of modern and US coins.  What makes Ebay very compelling is its "completed listings" feature.  This feature allows registered users to see what sold and for how much during the previous 90 days.  "Completed listings", by far, is much more current than typical coin price guide publications.

For the average collector, the two sources listed above are more than adequate for using in determining the value of your coin collection.  If you are a power collector or specialize in very rare coins, the price guides put out by various companies may be of more assistance to you.  In the writer's opinion, saving some money on coin price guides means more money for purchasing the currency you collect.  Happy hunting!