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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 3453696, member: 101855&quot;]It is hard to respond to this without knowing what the coin in question is. Some coins are “too cheap” relative to their rarity, and you can’t find them for the prices in the price guides, if you can find them at all. Some are “a drug on the market” and have come way down in price.</p><p><br /></p><p>One thing I will say is that things can be quite different when a seller is selling and he’s buying coins for inventory. Some of them will have a story about how something is undervalued when they are selling it and how “the market is dead” when they are buying it. It’s part of the game.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for the market, it’s been down for a while, but there are multiple forces at work. A few days ago I was looking at an 1873, Open 3, Type II $20 gold, in PCGS MS-63, that I have in my collection. I bought this coin a few years ago at auction from a large auction house. I looked at the Graysheet and was shocked to see that it’s down to less than half what I paid for it. Then I starting looking on Heritage site to see what the coin had brought recently.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, the prices realized were lower, but the coins for the MS-63 grade were also lower quality. Grade-flation raises its ugly head again! Now, to get my money out of my coin, I’d have to send it in for a regrade. If it comes back MS-64, I’ve won re-grade lottery. If not, I’m out a few thousand dollars. This is part of the grading game, and it’s hurting the hobby.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, it seems that a lot of hobbies are now populated with “old white guys” who are going to be leaving the scene before too long. It makes me wonder who our replacements will be.</p><p><br /></p><p>Creating “one way markets” where dealers charge high prices, but won’t pay commensurate when they are buying is hurting the hobby. Dealers need to make a living to stay in business, but it needs to be a two way street. Perhaps one of the reasons why there is so little good material at the shows is because the dealers are not paying what they used to for good material. More and more I see most of the good coins going to the big auctions.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here my 1873 double eagle. The Type II Liberty Head double (&quot;In God We Trust,&quot; value spelled out as &quot;Twenty D.&quot;) is a tough coin in strict Mint State. The cellectors could not afford to set them aside back in the day, and there have been no massive recoveries of these coins from ship wrecks as there has been for the Type I double eagle.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]918110[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]918111[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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