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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Blake Davis, post: 24584239, member: 91820&quot;]I have mentioned this before but I was lucky enough to have collected ancient coins during the glory days of the very late 90&#039;s and up to about 2008 when the market was flooded with thousands and thousands of ancient coins from Eastern Europe.&nbsp; I remember going to the New York show and seeing bags and bags of coins with dirt all over them, pick out bins in every price range, and an unbelievable assortment of coins in high grades at what today would be insane prices as well as lots and lots and lots of other coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;I recall an ebay seller called &quot;Ancient Auction House&quot; who was selling dozens of coins a week - the coins would be deemed incredible (mostly denarii) at what would be considered today insane prices.&nbsp; And another dealer - Paganecoins - doing the same for coins of all grades.&nbsp; And thousands and thousands of &quot;uncleaned coins&quot; - I recall an article indicating that about a ton and half of them came through Germany in one shipment. Unfortunately I had three young children, a wife who was home taking care of them who was dealing with lupus so the only way for me to afford coins was to sell on ebay in order to buy coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>Ebay at that time was solely an auction venue - At one point I was putting up to 25 lots a week of low to mid grade coins with a few higher grade coins -it was a lot of work but it was exciting too because there was an enormous amount of enthusiasm for the hobby - that was when we also had the much missed Celator.&nbsp; Many of the people who collected then I have not heard from in years - I do think that there are far fewer people collecting ancient coins in the United States today, which is unfortunate.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also you could warn potential buyers about fakes on ebay which you cannot do today - back then you could also complain to ebay about a seller selling fakes which you cannot do today.&nbsp; But almost all of the fakes are so obvious - plus the same advice then as now - buy from people you trust.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for prices - there is no doubt that in the early 2000&#039;s the enormous number of coins making it to market had a depressing effect on prices - and the market for ancients is now far more international as a result of the internet being not new as it was then.&nbsp; But ancients as an investment is not something I would recommend for anyone, but that is my personal opinion.&nbsp; As for prices going up - I cannot recall any large dealer ever having an auction where they were not boasting afterward about how the price of the sold coins far exceeded the estimates - and there were the same groans about it all being too much, and how insane the prices were etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>But again - there were FAR more high grade coins available - I would look at sestertii on coinarchives and see almost no mid to lower grade coins.&nbsp; I focus on sestertii - dealers today sell sestertii in far lower grades than formerly - there either are more dealers - which I doubt - or there were far more high grade coins available - which is a certainty I think.</p><p><br /></p><p>So the market for ancient coins is constantly changing - so be it - as long as it is still fun and since I have a little more time now that the children have grown up it is more fun than ever - I will keep on doing it.&nbsp; I have found a real pleasure in lots of Greek bronzes and spending hours attributing them, and learning about the cities that struck the coins.&nbsp; Plus I have two articles planned for this site....[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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