Astute Commentary From London Coin Shop Owner

Very interesting commentary.

Greed from the mints running up premiums has certainly been and issue for a while. They're trying to have their cake and eat it too with high mintages and crazy premiums. Their products would be much more popular if they left some meat on the bone

I think in this case greed is fitting considering that the mints have monopolies on the coinage of their country. If they had competition their products wouldn't have the insane markups that a lot of them do.

No matter how pure of a collector someone is, it gets old when a year later everything you bought from the mint is now only worth half price or less. They don't need to gain value or even necessarily hold all of its value, but when things are losing half or more they were over priced from the mint.

I guess I'm naive. If the markups are insane, why does anyone buy them?

Buying something because you expect it to appreciate sounds like investing, not collecting. Whether the seller is a monopoly doesn't seem terribly relevant.
Investors should understand the products and markets in which they are investing, and the risks.
I have little sympathy for investors (or buyers of anything that's likely to be re-sold in the future) who don't do their due diligence. I was in that boat once with some real estate. I didn't blame anyone but me when I took a loss.

I have a copy of
Coincraft's 1998 Standard Catalogue of English & UK Coins 1066 to Date (717 pages, the Krause telephone book equivalent for English and UK coins.
An absolute mine of detailed information on the subject.

A joint publication of Coincraft and Krause Publications.
I bought my copy on the 'secondary market' for AU$ 4:00 - about $3 U.S.

absolutely with Richard Lobel's comments regarding new Mint issued collector coins.
The experience I have seen with collectors that start off in this area, is that they wind up being very disappointed in their investment performance, in almost all cases.

I sometimes I do collect NCLT coins, but always in the secondary market, at prices wayyy below their new issue prices. I can understand why Coincraft reluctantly buy NCLT at or below melt prices. I get mine at coin shows at 'steal' prices.

That is a pity, because the minting and packaging standards can be exceptionally high, and the subjects for which they were issued can be very interesting. None worth slabbing, because all of the graded population is in very high grades.

One of the main problems for NCLT issues is the aggressive marketing that has to be paid for, and (what I think), is the question that Mints have to ask themselves:
"What is the maximum mintage that can be produced to sell all of the issue, without being forced to melt unsold coins?"

Cynically, I have heard NCLT referred to by marketing gurus as "Mint Product". That is also a pity.

Of little to know interest to people like me that are only into coins as a hobby. Yesterdays prices, to days prices and tomorrows prices and almost anything else about coins is just something for those that are into this all for money. For me it's just a hobby and I could care less about so many things that irritate, bother, worry, etc. others. I constantly hear about how right after you buy a coin, it's value drops. So what. Same when you buy a new car, boat, plane, etc. Think about all the hobbies that have come and gone and the values of those items. With coins this hobby has been around for even longer than me and that is a long time. I'd said this many times now. To me this is a hobby and values of stuff really has little space for concern.

Is this any different from taking something you bought new at Nordstrom's and shopping it a year later at Craigslist or ebay?

Disagree.

We are talking about a secondary market. That means used.

If you sell an item of clothing on ebay "new with tags," you won't get the full retail price either.

When the original retailer sells the item, they are targeting a specific type of customer. The same item, new, in the secondary market involves different types of buyers and sellers, and different dynamics.
Which results in a different price.

Perhaps the real difference is in the number of gullible customers for these types of products? Buyers of most other types of products expect them to decrease in value when they leave the showroom.
If we argue that the "collectibles" market is different, then I will argue that there is always high risk in identifying what is a collectible upon release, and anyone playing that game should be aware of those risks.

To me, what Mr. Lobel's comment misses is the third party involved here (the first two being the mints, and dealers): the naive buyers looking for someone on whom to vent their frustrations ...
In my opinion, rather than whining about either the mints or the dealers, perhaps they should look in the mirror (or better yet, pick up a book on managing financial risk).

Sure, I get it that he doesn't want to alienate potential customers by calling them out for their naivete.
So, I'll do it.