How much is a coin worth?
A coin is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Just because a coin is listed at a certain price does not mean that coin is worth that much. Anyone can list any price for any coin.
By knowing the prices others have paid for a comparable item in a recent auction, you will find the item's Fair Market Value (FMV). Understanding how to determine a coin's FMV will prevent you from unknowingly overpaying or underselling. Catalog prices can serve as a guideline, but are generally not representative of a coin's FMV.
eBay is a powerful tool in determining the FMV of an item due to the large volume of sales processed on the website. You are able to search all sold listings and their respective prices within the past 60 days.
Here is an example of this process:
I want to know how much a 1932 D Washington Quarter is worth.
I will go to eBay and type "1932 D Washington Quarter" in the search bar and filter my search via auction only:
However, that will only give me ongoing auctions. In order to see sold listings, I need to select the option on the sidebar:
I can now see listings that have sold at auction along with their respective prices (this is only a small sample):
Although these are all 1932 D Washington Quarters, they each have wildly differing prices. The condition of a coin plays a very important role in its value. In order to be able to appropriately appraise a coin, you must be able to know how to grade a coin and determine if it has any additional problems which may decrease the value.
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#1 appears to have wear similar to #3, but also appears to have been cleaned, reducing the value.
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#2 is an outstanding example with complete details and no apparent issues, hence the $405 sale price.
If you owned this type of coin and wanted to determine its FMV, you would search for sold auction listings where the condition of the coin most closely matches that of your own.
This method is not only applicable to coins, but to other collectible items as well.