ebay has clearly expanded collecting opportunities. My question is, who does it favor: dealers or buyers?
It's easier to comparison shop various sellers from the comfort of your home. This should increase competition between sellers and tend to drive prices down as sellers look to undercut their competition. On the other hand however it opens up buying to more people and in turn and should drive demand up.
New collectors will find
ebay to be a easy place to shop and as the economy picks up people will have more disposable income and will spend more on their collections. Also, as Baby Boomers retire they will have more time on their hands and many of them may pull out their old coin collections (every kid in the 60s collected Lincoln cents, didn't they?) and find they have a renewed interest in coins.
Ultimately this give and take between buyers and sellers will move prices to they should be which will be very healthy for the hobby.
My guess is that we are at the beginning of a new Golden Age of coin collecting.