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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,956 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
790 Posts |
I've always assumed that Krause obtained its values from completed auctions. Of course I know Krause is what it is, an interesting reference, no more. When I was growing up I was a stamp collector and the "catalog value" in the Scott catalogs was some kind of joke representing 10X the actual value. Krause seems to be slightly better than the Scott catalogs used to be. However, Krause seems to be so far off for some countries. Sometimes so high and sometime so low. Why? I've noticed some countries values are listed so high as to be silly. As examples I'm thinking of Denmark, Portugal, and Hungary. The values listed for these places are just crazy. If they were true, I'd sell my collection from these places for a huge bundle. For other places it is indescribably low, places like Angola, Seychelles, and Mozambique (to be truthful, Krause seems about right in Unc grade, but in circulated grades it is totally off). Does Krause update using actual closing auctions, like off of ebay, or do they just pick prices out of their a.s.s. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3499 Posts |
Jays-Dad- You raise a very good question here. It really would be impossible for them to calculate the fluctuation of value for every coin in each book. So I have a feeling that certain countries are often overlooked. A lot of countries, which are not collected by many in the US, are often ignored by both Krause & dealers. After all, I know of a lot of dealers who throw nice coins from countries that are not widely collected in the states into junk boxes since "who would want to collect those pieces of junk?" So I say just watch the auctions to decipher a realistic value for your coins and enjoy getting nice, unappreciated pieces out of junk boxes.
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Valued Member
United States
104 Posts |
I think they take the population of the country, the mintage, the face value, the value of the metal, plug it all into an equation and then just adjust the value a little higher then inflation for every edition. It's kind of like the Farmer's Almanac whole-year weather predictions but adapted for coins.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
Quote:
It's kind of like the Farmer's Almanac whole-year weather predictions but adapted for coins. Good comparison--Krause is a "rule of thumb" at best.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1082 Posts |
I wouldn't even give Krause that status. I would say that maybe they're a fair reference work, and even then, they're not totally complete, but they're better than nothing. As to where they get their prices from, they probably monitor such things as auctions both online and offline, the Red Book, dealers' prices in the US and elsewhere, and then pull prices out of all that data. Krause publishing is responsible for some of the worst books on collectibles there ever was, for example the Warman's Antique books, which have nothing at all to do with reality, and ditto their "U.S. Stamp Field Guide", which is nothing like the Scott's Catalogue (which is the approved authority on the subject). Add to that their catalogues on such things as Firearms, Baseball Cards, and World War II collectibles, etc., which most collectors will say their pricing is way off. Actually, the only thing I think Krause are experts at is selling overpriced books that are basically useless except for maybe as a doorstop or a paperweight. |
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Pillar of the Community
Mexico
1304 Posts |
So, how about a recommendation? I have practically zero access to books where I am...
I just saw "Official blackbook price guide to world coins"...any good?
Edited by harrison2
11/23/2009 01:15 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
Right, Krause is a glorified doorstop.  But, until I find a Siegs Møntkatalog, it's the only info I have on Scandinavian coins. |
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Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
Ja, Krause is garbage - but it does have uses; for me anyway, this is basically 'identification' and 'translation' (of Katalog Numbers into KM#)... The only way to go, is to buy katalog's that relate to your interest. As has been mentioned above, if you're into US coins, you cant go past the Red Book; for German coins it's the Jaeger Katalog; Australia is a toss-up between Macca's and Rennicks... You get the picture (plus, my the only real info I have have is on the area of my interests, German and Australian), I'm sure there are MANY more Katalog's for whatever you're into. But to rely on Krause for real values is dangerous - I do remember a story from a friend who collects world coins, who based a purchase of a Polish coin for his collection, on Krause Values; the next edition of Krause had been 'revised' and suddenly valued that coin at less than 1/10th of what the previous version had. I can't confirm that, as I only have one Krause myself (I dont see the point in updating my 1999 copy - and I have photocopies of the German Third Reich Sections of another few editions), but I have no reason to doubt this... But yeah, I'm sure Krause has a Database sitting on a Server somewhere - some lucky schmuck gets to go through and update the prices on the Premium coins and from there all manner of Algorithm could be used to determine 'relative' prices (I know I have played with generating grade prices, based on minimal inputs) and adjust them every year for growth. |
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Moderator
 Australia
16873 Posts |
Krause's standards have slipped somewhat since they became a monopoly. They could afford to be lazy, since there's nothing else we could buy. If you look at the title page of your typical Krause catalogue, you'll see two people credited: "Market Analyst" and "US Market Analyst". So they've got one guy checking the prices of US coins, and another guy checking the prices of everything else. You can't expect that method to be too thorough. Turn a few pages in, and you'll find an Acknowledgements page; these people are the ones that helped make corrections and additions to the catalogue, often in fairly narrow fields of expertise. If nobody on the list is knowledgeable about a particular country's coins, that country gets a pretty basic treatment - the prices get adjusted for inflation and bullion metal value, and that's about it. On that page there's also a list of auction houses Krause uses for it's source prices. If those auction houses don't sell the coins, they won't know about them. Quote:
I think they take the population of the country, the mintage, the face value, the value of the metal, plug it all into an equation... Population of the country of issue is not a very good indicator of demand, because coin collecting is more popular in some countries than in others. Britain and France, for example, have almost the same populations, but coin collecting is much more popular in Britain than in France. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,956 |
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Posted 11/21/2009 5:15 pm
