You want how much?!

After a recent day at the Denver Coin Exposition, I am left wondering something: How much is too much? I set out on my search for a 1916-S Walking Liberty 50 cent piece in VG. After finding about 10 examples of the coin, the only one that was graded accurately was a PCGS VG08. There were many AG/G marked as G+ and mostly G/G+ marked as VG. I'll save the common practice of over-grading by dealers for another post, but when buying a key date, it's more important than usual to make sure your coin is graded accurately, hence the coin in the holder caught my eye.

Greysheet ASK on that particular coin is $115. The coin was marked at $175. I talked him down to $165 and he wouldn't budge even one dollar more. I fully expect to pay a premium when buying key date coins that have been professionally encapsulated by one of the four trusted companies, but a 43% premium seems a bit steep even for a coin dealer. At the end of the day, I walked away without buying the PCGS coin. I settled for a G+ slider (marked as a VG of course) for $100.

When it comes down to it, the people who BUY coins make the market, so if someone is overcharging... just walk away, and take your business to someone who deserves your hard earned money.