The forum category Coin identifications and valuations

Hi all,

I often see posts to the Coin identifications and valuations forum where someone asks “what is this coin worth?”.  The answer is always “whatever someone will pay” or “go look at eBay auction results” or sometimes “go look up NGC or PCGS prices but don't believe them because you don't really know what grade your coin is”.  These answers are all correct.

Perhaps “and valuations” could be removed from the category title.  I don't know if it would prevent many users from asking the question, but it might at least change the expectation of getting a numerical response.

Thanks as always for creating this space, I've found it useful and informative.

Best,

Bill 

Perhaps there could be a sticky post at the top of the category on How to find the value of your coin.  It could include all the standard answers, pointers to external resources, and maybe even an explanation of what the value indicator means or how it is calculated, when it is present, on the Numista catalog.

Then any responder to a what's my coin worth question can just point to the sticky post.

Questions about value mostly come from “members” who just enlisted to Numista for that reason and will - most probably - never really become active. 

My suggestion is to limit some forums posts by membership period or swap activity. That way, forums would be rid of such “one time” posters. 

there are so many indications of values ​​that one can take Numista for a price catalog

Dejan

Questions about value mostly come from “members” who just enlisted to Numista for that reason and will - most probably - never really become active. 

 

Hi Dejan,

I agree that my suggestion will not stop anyone from joining just for the reason of asking about value.  It is more about managing expectations and making it more convenient to reply to these inevitable posts.  It seems like many of the regulars here (I am new so not claiming that label for myself) spend an inordinate amount of time responding to such posts, often going back and forth, when at most one reply should be enough to feel like you've answered the question.

I was looking for something else in the FAQ and saw that there is already a page for How Much Is My Coin Worth? https://en.numista.com/help/how-much-is-my-coin-worth-31.html

One of the suggestions in there is Ask on the Numista forum “Coin identifications and evaluation”!  (I don't know if “evaluation” was an old part of the topic title instead of the current “valuations”.)

So at a minimum, responses to questions about value can point to that FAQ page, and perhaps it can be edited somewhat to add links to PCGS/NGC price pages and a comment about what the Greysheet values are and when they are included (here is an example https://en.numista.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=28327 - I don't know which set of coins link to such information).

Hello,

I'm not sure that removing “and valuations” from the forum section title would help. I fear it would just move the valuation questions to the section “Numismatic questions”. 

I edited the FAQ article to remove the typo for “evaluation” and mention Greysheet, PCGS and NGC. I also moved the forum to the last position, to reflect that other options should be attempted first.

Before I make my suggestion, please know that, for several reasons, I oppose the use of valuations on Numista at all, but I understand that many readers come to this website and join for the exclusive purpose of determining the value of a coin or banknote. Numista's attempt at crowd-sourcing values in the catalog seems not to serve the aforesaid purpose. Beyond my complaint that the values published here inherently suffer numerous forms of bias, many users who seek valuation are:

(a) unable to identify the coin or banknote in question, or

(b) unable to determine a grade or range of grades for the same, or

(c) unable to determine the authenticty of the same, or

(d) unfamiliar with the range in value across multiple sources (Greysheet, Bluesheet, Krause, auction sales, retail, wholesale, etc.), or

(e) otherwise in need of our expert opinions.

Thus, I propose that:

(1) Numista create a big, fat, shiny button in the header for HOW MUCH IS MY COIN/BANKNOTE WORTH?, and

(2) said link leads to a form where users can upload pictures and info about their coin or banknote, and

(2) Numista enlists a battery of qualified collectors from among its most trusted users, and

(3) said collectors respond, in real-time, to users requests for valuations.

Of course, every valuation would come with all the necessary disclaimers, explanations of where and how to sell an item, and notice that the valuation is not a solicitation to buy the item. Whew! It's a lot to swallow, but why not? We have 100,000+ collectors here, including many hundreds or thousands who actively post in the forums and buy and sell coins on a regular basis. Put that knowledge base to use in a constructive, educational system. Perhaps Numista could allow those users to then list their coins or banknotes for sale here on Numista, at the value suggested during the valuation process. It could be a uniform and controlled extension of the swap process we already use, and would eliminate the many sale listing we see in the swap forums anyway. Otherwise, we're just turning away many thousands of users and potential users every time we tell them to check ebay etc etc.