To start, I know nothing about foreign coins. That said, I recently got ahold of a couple large lots. Now I have a 2010 krause catalog that I got as a gift sometime ago and never even opened it before. My question is: are the values listed in the book realistic? Or over inflated like the Redbook for US coins? Also, would they be relevant since the book is 2010? I am doing this mainly for fun,and the education,but I may want to sell some of the.coins at a flea market and would like to price them realistically. Thanks in advance....Dennis
Krause price accuracy runs the gamut from way too low to way, way too high. The age of the edition doesn't matter a whole lot as the updating is very uneven. Your best bet for valuation is to search completed auction results, including EBay.
The Krause book is regularly used by coin shops and dealers to get the maximum amount of money from the sale of a general issue coin. Rare coins are a different matter all together. In turn if you sell a general issue coin to them, you get about a quarter of the price or less. So a coin in UNC condition listed in Krause as approx $20.00 US may be bought by a dealer for $2.00 to $5.00. Many general issues are considered junk by a great many coin dealers here in the Southern California region. They'll buy them at around $.03 a coin or at a set bulk price of theirs by the pound. They'll fish out precious metal and unusual/rare coins and this is where the Krause books come into play as a means by which to sell a coin of worth on the "buy board." Prices for slabbed coins are more certain, so a roughly $100 coin may be sold to a dealer at a negotiated price of $90.00. The dealer may sell it for $100.00 and make $10 bucks profit. This is common practice and not unusual around here. Hontonai is right on the money! "Your best bet for valuation is to search completed auction results, including EBay."
As a general rule for price guides, they overvalue common coins and undervalue rarities. This is true of nearly every price guide I have ever owned. There are reasons for this, but you don't really need to know them, just remember if its listed for little money its worth less than that, and if its an expensive coin chances are you cannot buy it for that price. Coins in the middle are usually about fairly priced. Also, price guides are prices for PROBLEM FREE and nice coins for the grade. Way too many collectors think their XF that is damaged or cleaned is worth "about" regular XF price. Its not. ONLY use price guide prices for perfect examples for the grade of coins.
It's a mess. There are about twenty rules you can use to get close to the right price but they don't necessarily apply to any coin and they might lead you even further astray. Prices range from about 3% of realistic price to about 450% in the '10 Krause. There are actually some even higher and much lower. Generally modern coins are listed too low and silver too high but these are not hard and fast rules. Some of the most overvalued coins are modern cu/ ni or steel. There's no simple way to help and if I provided all the formulae it might make it worse. Your best bet is to get into these coins anyway despiute the lack of price guidance and go slow. Even the most desirable world coins can often be bought for a fraction of their value since the market is thin and chaotic. Just go slow and avoid paying premiums unless you know what you're doing which will take some time.
I tossed the '10 in the trash recently since it's one of my least favorite editions but here's what you're dealing with; The '09 lists the '54 Indian proof set at $50 and the new one is at $2850. It lists the '91 Russian mint set at $10 and the new one at $2875. There are numerous Indian and Chinese coins in the new edition that aren't available but list at less than a dollar. Of course, I don't know if there's any interest in them but I know they aren't available in the US and the Indian coins aren't available anywhere. It cuts across the board with numerous coins from numerous countries that aren't available but list for pennies.
Though I don't have the Krause book I do look over it ay a bookstore / library. I have found many mistakes in the mintage numbers. The prices are just as any printed price guides, completely outdated or off.
