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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,324 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
812 Posts |
Does anybody know of a good source of CURRENT pricing information for world coins? I have the 4 'World Coins' tomes from Krause; they're great, but I feel the prices are still valid only for relatively inactive series. I'm specifically looking for values of coins minted in the 1600s and 1700s: Spanish colonial, Great Britain, Ireland, The Netherlands, German States, France, Spain, Portugal, etc. Even more specifically, world coins used in colonial America. My perusal of closed ebay auctions is why I don't think my books are up to date on prices for these series, but I'm not confident using auction results alone for determining value. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2703 Posts |
As far as I know, no such general pricing information exists. You have to do your own continuous research. Everyday I look at retail prices on vcoins.com, ma-shops.com and delcampe.net, dealer's websites, and at coinshows on Sundays. Also I scan the prices realized from the large auction houses. This is what dealers do, it is the only way I know of to stay current. Often ebay prices tend to be higher than web retail prices and coinshow prices because the bidders get obsessed with winning and pay too much (the Shop Victoriously mindset). I've seen vcoins dealers move coins which have sat for years at the same price on the vcoins website to ebay and get more than the original retail price, even when the coin is still listed at that price on the dealer's vcoins site. So the ebay data is not all that reliable due to the large proportion of novice and emotional bidders. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3343 Posts |
A couple other places to check prices, if you're not already aware:
onlinecoins.co.uk have a tremendous amount of pre 1700 english coins, from several dealers. All English pricing, and a pleasure to deal with even from the USA.
sedwickcoins.com have a tremendous amount of Spanish Colonial, either for sale or recently auctioned.
"Two minutes ago I would have sold my chances for a tired dime." Fred Astaire
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
The thing is, market prices are so volatile, you can never predict when the prices go up and down. Unfortunately it seems most of the coin prices that I know have gone up and up and up!  Hurts what I want to collect. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
812 Posts |
My desire to know the current market value of these coins is twofold: First, I have my collection cataloged in a spreadsheet, including "market value." I feel pretty good about the entries for my U.S. coins; but my "world coins used in colonial America" have values from the Krause World Coins books, which just don't seem realistic. It bugs me to have a lot of coins with highly questionable "value" entries. (That's my OCD acting up.) Second, when I bid on these coins in auctions, I like to know at what point I've crossed the line and am no longer bidding smartly, but "shopping victoriously" (as ebay loves to promote; I do feel like I know where the line is for U.S. coins.) I may still make stupid/excessive bids, but I'd at least like to know when I'm doing it. How do others address these issues? Edited by Bilbo
09/28/2007 3:11 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1231 Posts |
It really just comes down to what you are willing to pay. I use the Krause books as a reference. If Krause has a coin valued at $100 and I think it is only worth $70, I'm gonna see if I can find it for $70. If it's a key date for a series and I want it bad enough, I become more flexible with what I am willing to pay.
I am sure everyone here at one time or another has paid more for a coin that what a book says its value is. The reason why this happens is that you want the coin. Value is determined by the buyer (and of course the market,but it still comes down to what you will pay). The seller only sets the price. To me if the price is alot higher then what I think the value is, I don't buy.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1231 Posts |
I forgot to add that there are books about coins for individual countries. Not all countries are covered.
For example there is a price guide put out yearly for New Zealand
The New Zealand Coin & Banknote Catalogue by Howard Mitchell.
The prices in this particular book are in NZ dollars. When I use this book along with Krause, I can form an amount I am willing to pay for a coin or banknote.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3343 Posts |
Here's a good site for French coins:
www.cgb.fr
"Two minutes ago I would have sold my chances for a tired dime." Fred Astaire
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Valued Member
United States
235 Posts |
I keep an on-going record of ebay auction prices for those coins -- Spanish, French, Dutch, and English. I also have favorite dealers and check their buy-it-now price. The dealer's price should be the absolute maximum bid, since you can buy the coin outright for that price. I generally bid from 60% to 90% of the dealer's price. |
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Valued Member
Italy
244 Posts |
Hi, as somebody reported there are some good books/catalogues country by country, while another way to have current market value is to check at auctions, and I'm not meaning at ebay, but real auctions, there you can find basics pricing and how much collectors are available to pay for a coin, of course there is some job to do because each auction doesn't have all coins, but usually they report auction results visible on the web. For example I'm used to report in my want list the basic auction price. |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,324 |
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Posted 09/28/2007 11:23 am
