Investor Profit Source?

From whom does a coin investor make his/her profit? Collectors? Other investors? Dealers? Yeah, ya gotta flip a coin to profit from it, but from whom and to whom do investors flip coins?

In equity markets, investors generally make money based on buying equities from and selling equities to other investors (ignoring IPOs, direct bond purchases, etc.). The actual underlying entity (e.g., issuing company) doesn't get involved.

In our Coin World, the last couple of decades have seen an influx of "investors." And there has been collector moaning and groaning about the demise of the hobby because of the investor, uh, "interest." But the collectors are still the underlying entity. Or are they?

So do investors make money off the collectors, or just off of other investors? Yeppers, there are some coins priced higher because of investor demand, interest, whatever. So these coins cost more for the hobby persons.

Investors don't bother with $20 coins; they are interested in coins costing several hundreds (or more) dollars. Or is this premise incorrect?

How much collector interest really was/is there for these "investor" coins? Most collectors only need one of whatever coin, right?** And most collectors don't have lots of several-hundred-dollar coins (some do, but "most"). So the turnover necessary for an investor to "score" or make a sustainable profit must come from other investors also looking to "score."

Investors have brought money, attention, and demand into the coin industry. Is that a bad thing? Or just "different" from 30 years ago? Yep, it *is* and we have to accommodate that reality, but isn't that infusion a good thing, overall? Doesn't that dynamic help sustain many of the dealers from whom collectors buy coins?

Just some random musings as I try to figure out more about the coin universe investing angle to support my habit.

**Okay, some of my collections overlap so I need more than one of the same/similar coin to fit into slots--ships, OFEC, "franc" from each country, "penny/cent" from each country, country type sets, etc.