Increasing Prices For Capped Bust Half Dollars?

For what I see there is broad interest in die varieties (Overton numbers?) for the early halves.

Looking at auction archives for stabbed examples, there are so many ups and downs in the final hammer price that it seems to carry the old adage of "right auction, right day". Numismedia gathers data from so many resources at the dealer level and I'm not sure how much they factor ebay and heritage and tele and others. I see the AU ranges you're speaking of but when compared to auction results its too volatile to make any hard fastened conclusions and certainly not ones where there is an upward trend over a short period of time (one year) that trumps any downward trend. I

The increase is all my fault. I see a nice original piece and I go into a trance. After the trance has begun, my memory gets skewed. I only remember small snippets of time. The first thing I usually remember is the ATM machine and frantic number pushing with no regard for account balances. It even asks, would you like your account balance......... Uh, no! The trance ends when the bustie gets home, sometimes to discover I paid too much and don't even care. Then my evil plan begins to unfold even more when I have to........ are you ready for this .......... EXPLAIN TO THE WIFE!! (Insert horror movie music)

The good news is I pretty much have the mouth foaming issue under control now.

Seriously though, I have noticed an increase in mid grade honest examples. Mostly early as you described.