Moneytane
Probably cheaper to get now, than in the 80s. They were well presented and preserved well at least. Think what you will about the Franklin mint, but most of their coin products have aged well. The silver proof sets for various Caribbean and Pacific Islands had well struck coins with at least 1 or 2 silver ones and they hold up well. They also struck a lot of silver medals and medallions which are worth money now due to silver content (Silver in the early/mid 70s, was very cheap by modern standards).
Most of these sets usually had a stamp and postmark of the nation shown. However resale value was limited unless a rare date was issued. Most of the coins are now worth much less due to inflation. I think most were issued between about 1982 and 1988 and thus before the high face value coins made out of nordic gold, aluminium bronze and bimetallics came out.
Up to $30 a set for a good country and maybe $5 - $10 for an inflated or 3rd world country with many worthless denominations or over reliance on aluminium and ex communist bloc countries like all the el cheapo aluminium coins the commies put out. Most of the collectibel cards will be for countries like New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland etc, whereas cards from East Germany, Cameroon, Brazil, East Germany etc, will be worth much less.
From my experience sets for the obscure countries from the “third world” tend to be more expensive.
Definitely the most expensive is the Chinese set. Even a set of the most common years of “Great Wall” series in UNC still is around 80-100€ (maybe more now, I bought mine few years ago, not in CSAN). CSAN sets additionally include fen coins, plus may include rare years/proofs, so their value is larger. Brass coins in the Chinese sets however tend to have discolouration and dark spots, so that may detract value. (Back then, when I bought that series for myself, I've been looking at CSAN, but most had discolouration)
The next most expensive is probably Sudan 1988. Those coins are very hard to come by in UNC, and the set is worth somewhere around 60€ . It is closely followed by some Macau sets. There is a wide viriety of dates. The general (1982) set worth about 25-30€, however there are some sets that have rare dates/varieties (1983 and 1985, and maybe some have rare star varieties, I honestly don't know about that). Those can also be somewhere around 50-70€. (That increase in price comes from the value of the coins though)
Next I think would be Chad, which has a value around 35-40€. It is valued because it contains 100 and 500 franc coins, which are hard to find in UNC
Next would be Mali and South Yemen at around 25€
Hong Kong sets are valued somewhere around 20-25€. Brass 20 and 50 cents in almost all of them have fingerprints and large black spots. Those that are worse in this regard may be cheaper. I've actually bought two of them. The first time I bought one for about 10-12€ (below the combined price of individual coins), however both coins had nasty discoloration. For some reason 20 cents is very rare in UNC, so I had to search for a second set. I was able to get one around 20€ with both in perfect condition.
Notable mentions (above 10€), would also be North Korea (contains 2002 FAO coins, I've only seen it once, so I might be wrong about value), Mozambique (later issue with only aluminum coins), Mauritania and Comoros. And I suppose Switzerland, because just the face value is right around 10€, so it's reasonable to charge slightly more for them for being UNC.
I might be missing some sets, because I mostly remember the prices of those that I actively searched for my collection. (I do not consider those for collection which have such coins that are available in official mint sets)
Most other sets struggle to pass 5€ treshold. Most European sets are valued at around 4-5 at best, because the coins are readily available in any condition. Singapore set (earlier, blue) is quite often on sale for 10€, but noone is buying it for that price. I was considering it, because it has a magnetic 5 cents, which is not the easiest coin to find in uncirculated condition, but 10€ seems a bit too much. Norway realictically also worth something around 3-4€ at most? I believe I've seen it some time ago. I don't know about New Zealand, but I doubt it worth more than 5.
Examples of those valued at around 7-10€ that come to mind now: Malawi, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan (1983), El Salvador (brown), Tonga, Uruguay and Syria. West Germany might be here as well, because their 5 mark coins are quite collectable
Basically, only those worth something that have rare coins.
Otherwise, I agree with you. Franklin Mint's product indeed aged well. I like their proof sets (besides their packaging of course). The quality of their proof strikes is exceptional for the time. I read somewhere that it was them, who played a major role in setting the standards for proof coinage. Even CSAN are a great product, because they have preserved many coins that noone cared about back then, and therefore are currently not available in mint state.
