Return to the Darkside and some Ebay purchases

coinpictures

I've been away from collecting darkside coins for a bit over 2 years, and for the last few weeks I've been watching Ebay...

The world coin category has changed since I did my purchasing back then. Decent "classic" (pre-WWII) world coins seem to be more expensive than I remember, especially if slabbed. I'm seeing a lot of sellers attempting to sell pieces at 100-150% of Krause, which in my mind, being the notirious cheapskate that I am, is just ludicrous. It used to be that you could find nice XF or better slabbed pieces for 50-75% of Krause fairly regularly. Not so much any more.

I see a lot more auctions for garbage modern pieces, or low-grade classic pieces at stupid asking prices. It's depressing... especially given the lack of local coin shopping options.

That being said, I did happen to snag a few nice AU+ German pieces this morning for about half Krause. I'm not an UNC snob. Although I certainly love high grade pieces, I don't mind nice attractive XF or AU pieces.

Pics below (I especially like the first and last pieces). It's good to be back.

-Dan

Cladiator

VERY nice pickups!

Danegeld

Indeed, very nice

cosmicdebris

I love the Eagles on these pieces.

1jester

I love the eagles too!!

Welcome back (home), sir!!

Preussen

Nice coins, especially the Breslau...it looks very nice for an MS60

Many nice German coins have increased in value considerably in the past few years. In many cases, Krause values are way behind (but I still consider it a valuable reference). For more current values on German coins since 1871, I use "money trend," a monthly guide published in Austria, but even that respected publication isn't current on some.

An interesting example of a Prussian "sleeper" is the 1914 3 Mark, KM #538. The 2005 KM catalog list this one at $90 in Unc. (an increase over the $35 listed in the last Krause German catalog) and only $75 in Proof. "Money trend" has it for only 80 Euros in stempelglanz....but try to find a nice one! The 1913 commemoratives are everywhere, but not the 1914 regular issue. After losing a Gem BU 1914 specimen that realized well over 300 Euros in a recent Kuenker (German) auction, I was thrilled to find mine for just under $300 at this year's FUN show in Ft. Lauderdale. As for the Proofs, I'd gladly pay $300 to upgrade from my Proof-65. - Preussen

GOLDSAINT

You are certainly right about the certified market being WAY up. I stopped my World purchases for about one year building my Bust Half set and just got back in a few weeks ago. I was very surprised to see how slab prices have move up.

I just renewed all of my Krause books also and they are not giving those away yet.

One of the problems I have had with Krause and all of their fellow writers is this XF business. It is almost like they don’t want to include prices for MS material. I guess in the old days it was hard to find older MS material but not anymore, the Internet changed all of that and these guys are still living in the dark ages.

I bid on a nice MS 63 PCGS yesterday and the highest grade in their book was XF. I could see this on coins with low mintages but gees they mint 5, 300,000 of these. I was totally in the dark when it came to pricing this puppy, and so was the dealer, all his description gave was the XF price.

The Krause people, or someone else needs to wake up and produce us some good books with REAL prices,

I guess they have not heard that the estimate is that China is expected to add 13 million collectors over the next decade and about the same is estimated for India, and guess what they have no reason in particular to buy U.S. coins.