Library addition

Tibor · July 4, 2014 3:30AM

"ShopNumismaster" has a special for the current Krause big books.
$99 ppd. for 5 books. I believe each is the most current edition.
These are the hard copy not CD. Take a look.

olmanjon · July 6, 2014 7:49AM

Thanks Tibor. I prefer the hard copy to the disc. I can always walk into the coin shop with my book but can't carry my computer in with me. This is a great price also. Everyone should order one who collects foreign.
Olmanjon

desslok · July 8, 2014 5:13PM

Hi, thanks for the tip - I just went and ordered mine.

Not only it's a great price, but they charge just $11 international shipping for the entire lot combined. That's rock-bottom. U.S. shipping may be even cheaper. However, note that it's a pre-order, the actual shipping won't happen until at least July 31st, maybe later.

It sure is about time to update my Krause, given that I've been using a 1996 edition so far. Amazing how much the world has changed in 20 years, whole nations have vanished and others have taken their place. But I collect mostly 20th century coins, so it never bothered me :-)

olmanjon · July 9, 2014 2:11PM

Just got a notice that my order has been shipped. Here in the US there was not shipping or handling charge

Tibor · July 9, 2014 9:08PM

I got my shipping notice this morning. In a few days
it will be Christmas in July!!! I hope others take advantage
of this offer. $18 per book is unbeatable. Donate or sell
the ones that you do not need. Time to buy another
book shelf or maybe just add a room to the house!!!

TPRC · July 10, 2014 12:23AM

Out of stock as of this morning.

Aethelred · July 10, 2014 12:57AM

Bummer, I was too late.

Tibor · July 10, 2014 1:37AM

ShopNumismaster sends me e-mails almost daily. Most offers 95%+
do not interest me. Their hard copy book deals are usually good.
Be patient and this same deal will come around again.

olmanjon · July 11, 2014 4:58AM

All five books arrived today in great condition. Ordered five days ago. You can't beat that.
Olmanjon

Stork · July 11, 2014 7:30AM

Same here...the funny part was when I ordered them they gave me a message they would ship at the end of July. I was pretty excited considering my last set was bought around 2004--and I didn't have them all.

However, some things never change. I only checked Japan in the 1900-2000 edition...it seems they forgot to include the vast majority of coins from 1950-1989 (insert eye roll). Silly Krause. It's still good to have a new set because there's nothing like flipping pages sometimes. Just, never use it as your only source! I wonder if errata sheets will be published

.

Cathy

edited to add: well that was so bad I tried calling customer service. The call was repeatedly disconnected (and my emails from a prior book have been dismissed by form letters). So, I did the next best thing. I wrote a review on Amazon .

pruebas · July 12, 2014 12:58AM

I think it's pretty clear by now that F+W (the newer owners of Krause) are just using these as a cash cow--milking the intellectual property but understaffing the research department (and apparently the customer service department as well) and not investing in improvements while still issuing "new" editions annually.

These are a mess and getting worse.

My impression is that, unlike Chet Krause who had passion for his business, F+W is just another corporation run by MBA types who have no clue about their products and the customers who use them. The executives are all about "maximizing shareholder value" (aka pleasing Wall Street) than really building a business with solid products and services.

Tibor · July 12, 2014 1:45AM

pruebas; how are they the " mess and getting worse"??

Stork · July 12, 2014 2:11AM

I guess you could say they are 'better'....they are only missing part of Japan and not all of Taiwan, Panama and Spain

. (I must disclose I did nothing resembling a complete survey of either the 2014, or the 2015, I am exercising my right of sarcasm and hyperbole).

I recently bought (in May) the Illustrated Coin Dating Guide for the Eastern World, which also garnered the JTG 2 star Amazon review. I desperately want a book like this, but the Japanese section had a fairly significant error (I even posted pictures on Amazon demonstrating). Apparently the whole, 'and the dates are read from left to right starting in 1948) is ignored. Really, really bad.

First I emailed and after a week got a 'great! we resolved your problem!'. Resolved???? How? Was the book recalled, did I get an errata sheet? And, what I really wanted to know, were the other sections more carefully and accurately edited? A subsequent email was a 'sorry we were so busy in June because we sold so many books, someone will look into this'. Um, I emailed in May, and it was July when I got that. June is irrelevant, nor do I give a rat's patootie that they sold a lot of books. I already mentioned the customer service response on the phone. More specifically it went like this: "ring, ring, ring, ring, click, silence, click, not connected". Multiple times.

It's still great to have the books, I just can't rely on them blindly which is probably a good reminder to have with any kind of reference material. I'm still glad I bought them and thank you Tibor for pointing out the offer. The email had landed in my junk folder and was missed, so your thread got me buying.

Cathy

Aethelred · July 17, 2014 9:51AM

Just as an FYI, they are back in stock, I was just able to place an order.

Stork · July 17, 2014 12:03PM

Well my review on Amazon generated a real person inquiry as to my customer service experience (FOUR hang ups via phone--I checked my phone, and now FOUR emails not addressing my questions or even acknowledging what the questions are).

In any case, now that I have a real person to forward any issues to, has anyone noticed anything else obviously missing or other errors? I haven't looked at much other than Japan and to see if the other previously missing countries were returned (they were). It would be nice to turn this into something useful

.

(All I really wanted to know from them is if a corrected version of 2015 is anticipated and if there are any errata forms/any other errors in the Illustrated guide. I don't even want to return them, I just want answers).

Cathy

Aethelred · July 17, 2014 12:31PM

Cathy, Very good Amazon review and comments here, I wil know what to expect and I will know to hold on to my older editions.

lordmarcovan · July 17, 2014 2:48PM

Did these come with the discs, or hardcopy only?

I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a newer set of the CDs.

Edit to add: they actually dropped three countries out of a prior edition? Wow. That's an incredible goof. They forgot Spain? Not Tannu Tuva or Liechtenstein, but ... Spain? Wow.

I've known them to omit coin types, and occasionally an entire denomination, but if whole countries are falling through the cracks, those are some pretty big doggone San-Andreas-Fault-sized cracks!

Tibor · July 18, 2014 5:13AM

I don't fully understand all of the omissions but could some of them
be binding errors? When QDB published his 2 volume set on Dollars
3 chapters were left out of the second volume. I contacted them and
they shipped another volume. The omission of Spain sounds like
the same problem. I'm just saying not defending. By the time I would
find a mistake in one these huge books I don't think it would be that important
to me. I hope everyone has better luck with their purchases.

Stork · July 18, 2014 5:38AM

When I read the comments on Spain (I don't have that edition, I was reading the other reviews and comments ATS) it appears as though it was not a binding error as the next sections occurred mid page or otherwise flowed. Just missing whole countries.

For the Japanese coins, the 'reform coinage' section started with the 1948-1950 yen, then skipped to the aluminum yen but in 1990. Every other coin started at 1990, which left off some of the older style 5, 10, 50 and 100 yen coin. The 'reform coinage' started mid-page so it wasn't like there was an 'old reform' vs. 'new' reform section (which as categories don't exist as far as I know

. Plus the KM numbers were missing too.

Oh well, I will likely answer the email on Monday, so if anyone does find something or have anything they would like me to include in my email, let me know. Heck I may even pick up the phone and use the phone number and talk. Less likelihood of sounding too snarky--too easy in email to sound like a snot when really all I want is to know if my copy is a rare defective (yay, send me a new one

), it's known error and the only one and I get an errata sheet, or 'oops we didn't know and will make an errata sheet', or 'oops, oh well, the next edition, just use the online version'.

Lord M, no disks were involved, just the dead tree versions. I do like having pages to flip. If I need to I can access via numismaster or ngc, but I do like idly flipping pages.

Cathy

Aethelred · July 25, 2014 10:04PM

Update:

My set was left on the front porch by UPS yesterday, they got here fast and in good condition. I think that 99.00 for the complete set of current editions is a screaming bargain by any metric.

I have been using Krause since the 1977 edition (1801-1976 all under one cover) and I have never seen one that does not have some kind of problem, most often in the form of information of some kind being left out.

I have always gone into it seeing Krause as a good resource, but not perfect and not the final word.

Stork · August 7, 2014 12:44AM

Well, an update to my customer service. The real person who contacted me has now sent me the PDF with the missing information AND has posted the missing pages on Amazon for all to see. I'll be curious to see if I get an independent email as a purchaser.

In any case, I have yet to find any other errors and I have yet to hear of anyone else (in my limited social circle online) either, but I have to say that once a real person was involved, the response was excellent and public.

Kudos to Krause for stepping up this way.

Cathy

olmanjon · August 8, 2014 2:22AM

Kathy-any way to post a link to the amazon site for us? Thanks.
olmanjon

Stork · August 8, 2014 2:40AM

Sure!

I ended up giving a new rating because the information was made so public...and I do err on the side of cheerful (I'd probably give 4.5 stars, but oh well, Ammy doesn't do that, and as far as I know, other than pricing issues, I'd say that's pretty good).

Amazon

Click on the images section right under the picture of the cover. I'm having issues with it in Safari, but Firefox works well. I think I missed a Safari update.

Cathy

Library addition

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