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Anybody know offhand what the going rate is these days for a USA 1937 D 3 Leg Buffalo graded AU 58? I've had this and a few Silver Morgan & Peace dollars from scarce years or scarce mint marks hanging around for ages but not sure what the actual price is that these change hands at.

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I just got the March 2008 (!) issue, and it shows the following:

AU-50 $1500
MS-60 $2650

Realize that doesn't help all that much, without the split grades. You can put in a perpetual "search" for that coin in Ebay and then over time, track what they list and sell for, etc.

Another way to get an "appraisal," costs you about $5, is to put the coin on Ebay with an outrageous hidden Reserve, say $4000, then see where your bids cluster. It won't sell, and you're out the listing fee, but you gather a lot of real-time price information.

Thanks Doug that helps quite a bit. I'd imagine just over 2k USD would be somewhere near right for this coin then.

Again thanks.

I think more like $2250.

Here are a few others if you have time to look, can do bigger scans of any of these coins if required. These are what seem to be key dates and mints. The others I have look to be fairly common dates and mint marks. Can't seem to find the scan of the front of the 1894s but easy enough to scan it again if needs be.

1880 CC
1884 S
1892 CC
1893 O
1894 P
1894 S
1900 O/CC
1901 P
1903 S
1928 P
1934 S

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Since I cannot grade the coins from your scans, I recommend that you stop at the bookstore and buy the current Coin World. You will find plenty of retail ads for these dates, in various grades, which could run (on these coins) anywhere from XF to MS-63.

For most of the past decade, there has been nothing hotter than silver dollars.

If you want to get them graded, go to www.pcgs.com and look at the terms for joining as a Platinum member (which I did), which gives you a price break for your first 8 submissions.

Including postage and insurance (both ways), membership, and nuisance fees, you can figure on nearly $40 per coin for slabbing.

I do have a Red Book which is now sadly well out of date, however catalogue values and actual retail have very little in common.

Will look into getting these graded and slabbed which I guess would give me a better idea of price for these, coins are not really my forte and it is that long since I looked at those items that I almost forgot I had them.

Will look at picking up a coin magazine after having these professionally graded.

The point of having the coins graded is not so much to get a line on prices, but to give the coins an impeccable pedigree, which allows you to sell them on eBay or consign them to an auction house with much less fuss and potential disagreement.

In my opinion, nearly any coin worth over $500 should be slabbed, while pieces from $300 to $500 are borderline, as you are paying about 10% of their value for the privilege. On the other hand, the slabbed coin vs. the raw coin seems to bring 10% to 20% more.

I would buy the Coin World now and study retail prices, because if you have a $100 or $200 coin mixed in that lot, it's probably not worth spending $40 for grading. Resist the urge to use anyone other than PCGS or NGC, as the cut-rate graders are worse than no grading at all. If a PCGS/NGC rep comes to a big coin show near you, that saves you considerable time and money to turn the coins over right then and there.

It seems impossible to predict whether you are better off selling now or waiting a year; if the recession comes, or if inflation surges, collectibles' prices (including stamps) could go either way. My argument for selling now is that I believe cash will soon be KING, as there will a huge number of distress sales in every area from housing to cars to electronics, as bankruptcies and foreclosures distort the marketplace. In a year, I think there will be absolutely outrageous bargains available to the speculator with cash.

I wasn't actually considering dumping them on the market in the near future but it will no doubt be worth me getting them graded now for the future. I will probably hold these prisoner for another few years yet.

Gold has been king currently with the dollar sliding down you now get more USD per troy ounce of gold. I did liquidate a few ounces of gold the other day at $928 an ounce.

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Shrug, if that is your plan, then I would counsel you to wait to have your coins graded. Reason is, "stale" grades, more than a year old, definitely bring inferior prices at auction.

Have your coins graded a month before you're ready to sell. It may cost more then, but you've also had the use of your money during the interim.

Re Glen: agreed on gold price, $1200 by the end of the year; however, silver is likely to make a larger percentage gain IMHO.

Agreed, gold has long been touted to exceed $1000 per ounce and back when it was in the high $600's I had a hard time believing it but now it is looking very likely indeed!

It is particularly good if you sell it in USD of course.

Re: Coins

Thanks Doug, I wasn't aware that grading over a year old would reflect on the price, is this because of possible deterioration between grading and selling? I'm glad I asked now as coins are as I said earlier "not my forte" and now I am a little wiser in that regard. Thank you for your kind and informative advice!

I bought quite a few full gold sovereigns a few years back and a couple of shieldback sovs. On bullion price alone they have definitely took a hike upwards in value so were worth buying just to throw into a box and let them appreciate.

I think grading standards might change over several years, or, there may be a perception that grading standards change. The grading/slabbing process is an appraisal, after all, and an old example is perceived to be inferior to a recent one. In any case, there is nothing to lose by waiting. The danger is in the price itself, because we are unable to recognize the "peak" when it arrives. All things being equal, we saw "peak" housing prices in the summer of 2005, but people kept buying, kept overpaying, kept financing very aggressively, and now they're under water. They did not recognize the peak.

The other reason for selling sooner, which I alluded to earlier, is that screaming bargains seem to materialize for the man who has cash. Your coins may go up 30% in the next few years, but the man with cash may find some asset selling for 50 cents on the dollar. It depends upon your alternative needs for capital. The very rich do not sell coins, so to speak, because they have enough capital to take advantage of any deals coming along. It is the middle class who must marshal capital and wait for opportunities, perhaps the ideal smaller retirement home, or the discounted assets of a failed business, that sort of thing.

I missed an incredible coin bargain 38 years ago because I could not put together $700 -- chump change by today's standards; it cost me thousands of (lost) dollars, and I've never forgotten.

I always keep plenty of cash to one side for such occasions. Many times having ready cash has been an asset when buying things where the seller is broke and needs cash today.

In my younger and broke years I missed out on a lot of opportunities too, but not anymore!