Red book vs Blue book 0

[shadroch]

I've been attending a lot of auctions since I retired and coins are almost always a big part of them.

I see some people using red books, others using blue one.

Can someone give a brief explanation of the differences, and which would be better for me to buy?

Thanks.

[tommy44]

In 25 words or less, Red Book reflects retail values, Blue Book reflects wholesale values, sort of..

 

The Red Book would be preferred in my opinion because of the detailed information available in addition to prices.

[RWB]

I would buy a Red Book -- or the "Guide Book of United States Coins." Mao's

"Little Red Book" doesn't have current coin values, and the Blue Book is ... well...how do you say it in French?

[physics-fan3.14]

Neither of these books should be used for price or value. The prices are locked months in advance of printing, and may be a year or more out of date by the time you use it.

 

The RedBook is useful for mintage and background information.

 

The Blue Book is not useful for much of anything, and I'm not sure why it is still printed.

[johnny9434]

Neither of these books should be used for price or value. The prices are locked months in advance of printing, and may be a year or more out of date by the time you use it.

 

The RedBook is useful for mintage and background information.

 

The Blue Book is not useful for much of anything, and I'm not sure why it is still printed.

a few others that i know wonder why that blue book is still around as well. i have no use for it but what ever suits the person. just saying.

[Conder101]

The blue book is still around because enough people still buy it to make it profitable to Whitman to publish it.

[Nutmeg Coin]

The Red Book is vital and fairly comprehensive guide to US coins, I know dealers who don't consider coin a "variety" unless it is in there.

 

From what I have seen the Blue Book is just rock bottom pricewise, maybe the same % under Red Book year to year, so they just print the same propaganda to give false hope that buyers could get no problem coins for those prices. At least the Farmer's Almanac has some poetry and prose that make it interesting.

[bourse28]

Red Book = Market Value at that point in time. Blue Book can be used as a quick buying reference when making an offer on an estate.

[Raisethis2]

Both are simply a guidebook for US coins. They provide coin populations and will help you understand important varieties.

 

Neither of these publications is worth much at all when it comes to buying coins at auction since auction prices for the vast majority of coins are most often lower than the prices published in these handbooks.

 

I see auction participants often who show up with the publication "Coin Prices", while closer, it's also off on most coins.

 

For common coins a used Grey Sheet's "bid" prices are accurate at least 90% of the time. For rare and unique coins researching auction prices through Heritage or the PCGS web page will provide an actual history you can use as a guidepost.

 

 

[numisport]

Red book is a valuable text but cannot be used for determining values. Don't forget that a coin is only worth what someone will pay for it.

[e1cnr]

 

The Blue Book is not useful for much of anything, and I'm not sure why it is still printed.

 

Some Brick and Mortars use it for buying offers.

 

I remember taking a few bucks in 90% silver to one place and they offered me 50% of melt.

[coinman_23885]

The Red Book lists the prices dealers wish they could sell their coins for; the Blue Book lists the prices dealers wish they could buy coins for to include them in inventory. The last time I bothered looking at either for pricing information, neither seem realistic.

[BillJones]

Neither of these books should be used for price or value. The prices are locked months in advance of printing, and may be a year or more out of date by the time you use it.

 

The RedBook is useful for mintage and background information.

 

The Blue Book is not useful for much of anything, and I'm not sure why it is still printed.

 

I agree with this statement. The Red Book contains a lot of useful information, and I still use it every day to look up mintages and general information.

 

I have viewed the Blue Book as useless from the time I was a YN in the 1960s. I have built a complete set of Red Books and have kept many of the copies I used in the 1960s - except that ones that fell apart ... . Falling apart was a problem for the Red Book in the 1970s, and I treat the books I have from the era very gingerly when I have to open them for some information.

 

I don't think I have any old Blue Books around although there might be hiding hiding on bookshelf somewhere.

[CometHunter]

The BALD TRUTH in few words :

Red Book Value- what the coin dealer charges you for his coin(s).

Blue Book Value- what the coin dealer offers you for your coin(s).

[LINCOLNMAN]

Bought one Blue Book as a kid in the 60's. One and done. Red Book gives a sense of relative value and I have used it just to keep track of want lists, upgrades. The other information it contains is alone worth the modest price.

[Conder101]

The BALD TRUTH in few words :

Red Book Value- what the coin dealer charges you for his coin(s).

Blue Book Value- what the coin dealer offers you for your coin(s).

And the values in neither one bear any relationship to real-life.

[VKurtB]

On 1/19/2017 at 2:35 PM, Nutmeg Coin said:

The Red Book is vital and fairly comprehensive guide to US coins, I know dealers who don't consider coin a "variety" unless it is in there.

And some years they go back and add in ones they never listed before. It’s getting to the point that I crack open the MegaRed more often than the regular Red Book.

[VKurtB]

On 1/28/2017 at 11:00 AM, e1cnr said:

 

Some Brick and Mortars use it for buying offers.

 

I remember taking a few bucks in 90% silver to one place and they offered me 50% of melt.

I see that a lot too.

[Bignubnumismatics]

Red Book should never be used for values, but for what it is worth the last few red books haven’t been half bad with pricing. When the market actually keeps up with progressive pricing it works.

 

As for info - a lot of information, especially with colonials, aren’t entirely true. Mintages are sometimes different as well. 
Even Greysheet is pretty useless to me now except for the proof and mint sets (most wholesalers I send out to post bids regarding bid so need that part). CoinFacts is my go to now for buying & selling.

[Henri Charriere]

On 1/17/2017 at 5:05 PM, RWB said:

....and the Blue Book is ... well...how do you say it in French?

Livre Bleu.

Edited September 30, 2022 by Quintus Arrius
None

[Frank]

On 1/29/2017 at 7:52 AM, BillJones said:

 

I agree with this statement. The Red Book contains a lot of useful information, and I still use it every day to look up mintages and general information.

 

I have viewed the Blue Book as useless from the time I was a YN in the 1960s. I have built a complete set of Red Books and have kept many of the copies I used in the 1960s - except that ones that fell apart ... . Falling apart was a problem for the Red Book in the 1970s, and I treat the books I have from the era very gingerly when I have to open them for some information.

 

I don't think I have any old Blue Books around although there might be hiding hiding on bookshelf somewhere.

 

Congrats on the complete set of Red books.

 

If you are interested:

 

Oops, I can't rotate it.

 

[pigeonman333rd]

I use the blue book when I try to buy old defaced large cents that are so worn but they have the date on them. I usually start buy suggesting to the seller to sell me them all for half the average buying price of whatever the grade which is usually poor to ag3. These coins I use as fillers. 

I use the red book when buying a coin that I feel is more for my collection rather then the hoard however I'm just learning to use books for example I got to start deducting from the redbook price when a coin is corroded or cleaned which I have never done before. I use the red book mostly now and have seemed to have misplaced my old blue book. The truth is if you think a coin hoard you are attempting to buy needs a fair price for both seller and buyer suggest paying by weight for the melt value of the hoard rather then deal with the blue book. Good Luck buying silver or gold that way.  

[Nutmeg Coin]

A local collector had a Blue book he was consulting as I bought a significant collection from him that did not have any real rarities.  I consulted Greysheet and also auction records for the low grade raw coins.  The issue of when the book was published did not figure on most of the coins as the price changes on many coins have only glacial updates.   And Bluebook was high for market on some of the coins, but not many.   

[Henri Charriere]

On 11/30/2022 at 12:51 PM, Nutmeg Coin said:

....   And Bluebook was high for market on some of the coins, but not many.   

This is the first time in my life I heard the Blue book was high on anything, but I've only got 70 in.  Maybe I ought to wait a little more.  

[VKurtB]

On 11/30/2022 at 11:51 AM, Nutmeg Coin said:

A local collector had a Blue book he was consulting as I bought a significant collection from him that did not have any real rarities.  I consulted Greysheet and also auction records for the low grade raw coins.  The issue of when the book was published did not figure on most of the coins as the price changes on many coins have only glacial updates.   And Bluebook was high for market on some of the coins, but not many.   

Depends on the year. 

[GoldFinger1969]

On 1/17/2017 at 3:59 PM, tommy44 said:

In 25 words or less, Red Book reflects retail values, Blue Book reflects wholesale values, sort of.

In an era of online information (let alone the Greysheet) information and auctions....why is the Blue Book still being printed ?

I get the Red Book for sentimental and historical purposes and to give newcomers an annual book that is great to start off with.

[Nutmeg Coin]

On 11/30/2022 at 5:23 PM, Quintus Arrius said:

This is the first time in my life I heard the Blue book was high on anything, but I've only got 70 in.  Maybe I ought to wait a little more.  

I think that the "high" items, were US mint issues.  And rigorous analysis was done, auction records, ebay which goes back 90 days or so, and GS.   If you use anything as an infallible guide when buying you will be doing charity work and giving money away which there is already too much of.

[ldhair]

When I was really young, the Blue Book was good for me. I used it as a log to keep track of my collection. Just enough room to write in the date I bought a coin and the price I paid. When I bought a computer the book had most of the information I needed to move over. Today, I have almost a perfect record of every coin I own. 

[davidturner]

On 1/28/2017 at 2:26 AM, Raisethis2 said:

Both are simply a guidebook for US coins. They provide coin populations and will help you understand important varieties.

 

Neither of these publications is worth much at all when it comes to buying coins at auction since auction prices for the vast majority of coins are most often lower than the prices published in these handbooks.

 

I see auction participants often who show up with the publication "Coin Prices", while closer, it's also off on most coins.

 

For common coins a used Grey Sheet's "bid" prices are accurate at least 90% of the time. For rare and unique coins researching auction prices through Heritage or the PCGS web page will provide an actual history you can use as a guidepost.

Of course, I'm not going to retire anytime soon. But collecting coins is my hobby, which I will probably never give up in my life. This has been my passion since I entered university. I even once wrote about coins, sometimes I had to find information. Then I found free plagiarism checker for students, used https://paperell.net/free-plagiarism-checker for that. In fact, people make good money on this. If my children keep all my savings, then in 50 years they will sell the coins for a lot of money. As for books, I use the Red Book, everything is described in more detail there.

 

The red book has just a detailed description

Edited January 29, 2023 by davidturner

[USAuPzlBxBob]

On 12/4/2022 at 9:24 AM, ldhair said:

When I was really young, the Blue Book was good for me. I used it as a log to keep track of my collection. Just enough room to write in the date I bought a coin and the price I paid. When I bought a computer the book had most of the information I needed to move over. Today, I have almost a perfect record of every coin I own. 

The one advantage I have of only having a 14 coin gold type set collection is that I still have all of my original paperwork of buys and returns, as well as Crossover and Conservation paperwork.

When the paperwork is compressed between thumb and forefinger, it is about 1/4th inch thick, and kept in a manila folder, inside an old teacher's desk that a friend dropped off where I used to live, since he got it when he worked for the township public works department.  (boy was his boss mad when he learned what became of the desk; I still have it and when I got it, first thing I did was refinish its top/applied a few coats of polyurethane)