Expert: Joe Hylas - 3/19/2009

Question
Hello.  I have a friend that has some silver coins from his grandfather.  My grandfather wants to purchase some of them.  Where do we find what price we should pay?  I find that prices on the internet vary even for the same grade of coin.  I found something online called NumisMedia Fair Market Value Price Guide http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/pricesms/rsvdim/prices61p.shtml which has lower prices than what the same coins are going for on ebay and way lower prices that what we would purchase the same coin for from a company such as Littleton.  Should the price my grandfather pays be somewhere in the middle?  He wants to make sure he's paying my friend a reasonable and fair price.  All of the coins are circultated so we don't think there is anything really expensive in the lot.  Thank you so much for any help you might offer!!

Answer
Any retail price guide that is updated on a regular basis will give you a guideline.
Something like "Coins" or "Coin Prices" are retail prices.  A fair level would be 30% below that.
You can use Numismedia, and pay the fair market value based on that.  Some might be higher and some lower but it will average out.

Regards
Joe Hylas
www.AllCoins.US