About ma-shops and valuations

I use searches in ma-shops to gain a feeling both for valuations and assessment of condition.

The thinking being that the sellers there are professionals and know what they're doing. However, very often I find examples of entirely ordinary banknotes at incrediby inflated prices and/or with seemingly wildly generous assessment of condition.

My strategy to tackle this is to put my valuation near the cheapest end of the spectrum if there are multiple available and give it a range of 60-80% of that.

Are ma-shops a fair assessment of value (retail)?

Hello 🤖

Without pictures, it will be very difficult for anyone to help you. Could you please post clear pictures of each side of your item?

Please note that this is an automatic message. Feel free to ignore if it is not relevant.

However, very often I find examples of entirely ordinary banknotes at incrediby inflated prices and/or with seemingly wildly generous assessment of condition.

Yes, it is true that a lot of sellers generously assess their notes as "UNC but with writing," etc.  What we have seen is a lot of “UNC -” & other idiosyncratic symbols/details (so they're really AU or lower) & prices can be inflated but there are also sellers who remain honest/competitive.  There's also a lot of notes listed with no further adjectives so you have to go by feedback & reputation.  Typically a “bargain” isn't a bargain b/c the note has been graded too high, processed (or there's some invisible problem with the note). 

I, & a few members here, have found some good sellers who seem to have fairly decent grading skills & list their notes at fairly reasonable prices.  Some prices will be high due to social media demand & hype out of the blue.  This thread on “Known good online sellers” may be helpful.