Soon....very Soon...."Collectors" Will Be Back In The Market

All I worry about is the prices that we realize and as stated we are pretty happy with our current bottom line. Price guides and comparisons with prices realized will drive one nuts. Trouble is price guides do not sell coins people do. There is still lots happening out there at auctions and coin shows. Attend a few and try buying some rarities and in the grade pieces. Guess what they are still going to cost real money. We just ignore the doom and gloom and carry on! The coin business is far from being dead, in fact it is far from being even sick.

I was watching coins during the live auction on Heritage the other night. A run of Jeffersons was going for way below all the guides listed in the auction - PCGS, Numismedia, Greysheet, etc. Like greyshet would be $185 and these were going for $50. But then the bust Half Dimes came next and those were going for right at the guide price. So I think it depends. Older classic coins seem to be holding value pretty well; more modern stuff not so much.

I go to about 2 to 4 coin shows a Month. There the prices are sort of always either the same or up. Just remember what you see on the internet may not be real. And also remember on the internet you pay stuff like insurances, postage, handling, etc. Lost in mail, wrong coins sent, not what you saw in their photos, etc. Just can't trust the coins on the internet.

I have to disagree with you GoldenIsles... collectors do leave the market.. unfortunately people die. And this hobby has a very large following by some people that are a lot older than myself.

At my local coin club meeting I don't think there was anyone under the age of 40 with the exception of myself and the mean age of the group would've been closer to 65-68 yrs old.

I love how governement mints to commemorative pieces... as I believe that draws in people to coin collecting that wouldn't normally find interest. But I think if you were to look at the statistics of population based on age for coin collecting.. the graph would probably look like a diagram of a comet (but going up) with the long tail of the comet being collectors in their early years that majority of collectors being quite a bit older...

I wonder, do more people get into this hobby as they get older, or are the numbers of collectors going to shrink because not as many young people are getting into the hobby? I wonder.

I never left the market, nor do I intend to. I buy and sell frequently. Some would say because I sell, I am not a true collector. Yet, I'll buy an MS to upgrade, and sell mu AU. I've upgraded some slots from MS 63, to MS 66, one step at a time. It could be equally argued that if you don't upgrade, you aren't a true collector. There is a philosophy for everyone.
When prices go up or down 20%, I am not fully affected by the change, only by 20% of the differential in the upgrade.
I am certainly not a dealer, as I generally show a loss after expenses. And if I considered time spent, I'd be better off walking the highway for aluminum cans.

That means that more dealers may go out of business OR prices will stay the same. I don't think that dealers would just lower the price of all of their stock just because a collector says a book says so. Why take a hit like that? Everyone has a bottom line and it's the collectors who have the responsibility to pay the price - too much haggling is not good. A little bit of competition is okay but not to the point that an already dying business goes kaput over it. Good for collectors in the short term but how many dealers will put up with it before they close shop?