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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 2936466, member: 112&quot;]On another matter - the charts themselves. I&#039;ve been posting and or linking to the PCGS index charts for as long as I have been a member of this forum - before that even in other forums. Why ? Because they are the only such charts that exist, at least that I know of, and because they show a snapshot of what is going in the coin market, price wise, over a period of time. That&#039;s what charts do. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now over the years whenever I would post these charts there have always been those who, disparage them I guess would be as good of a way of saying it as any. And it has never mattered whether the charts showed prices increasing or decreasing, there has always been somebody, usually several somebodies, who would claim the charts mean nothing - that they are totally inaccurate as indicators of what is happening in the market price wise.</p><p><br /></p><p>Why do you suppose that is ? Well, my answer to that is because the charts do not show what that particular person either believes or wants to believe. Isn&#039;t that what people do when you show them data that is contrary to their personal beliefs ? And it doesn&#039;t matter what the subject is, if the data is contrary to their personal beliefs then the data simply must be wrong or completely inaccurate. But show them something that matches what they believe and they&#039;ll be all over it claiming how accurate it is !</p><p><br /></p><p>For me however I have always been one who looks at the data first and then decide what I believe. And I don&#039;t just look at one set of data, or data from a single source. I look at every source I can find - and then I decide. So when you&#039;re talking about coin prices what can ya look at ? Well, there&#039;s the charts, and then there are auction records, and reports on sales published in coin magazines and websites. And there&#039;s listed dealer prices, and the electronic dealer markets, and even the Grey Sheets. And there are the published books that show you a paper record of what has been happening to coin prices over the years. All of this stuff provides data. And when it all shows the same thing, it&#039;s a pretty safe bet that IS what is going on.</p><p><br /></p><p>And do you know what all of this data shows and has been showing for over 20 years ? It shows that when it comes to an overall picture of the coin market that the PCGS charts are accurate and always have been ! But the only people who are ever going to believe that are the ones who look at what the data tells them and then decide - instead of just believing what they want to believe based on their own individual experiences.</p><p><br /></p><p>What experiences ? Well, if a collector has been looking for particular coins and those prices have been moving up or down, then he is likely to go with that as an indicator. Or if he sees record prices being set for this coin or that coin, that might be his indicator, or one of them. </p><p><br /></p><p>But when you are trying to judge something the size of the coin market, stuff like that doesn&#039;t matter because they are only isolated indicators, they only show you what is going on with one tiny piece of the market - not the market as a whole. To judge the market as a whole you have to look at a whole lot of coins, a whole lot of auction reports, a whole lot of dealer asking prices, and at the electronic dealer markets over a long period of time - and then make comparisons. Only then can you see the actual trend.</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, you can do all of that work, or you can simply look at the charts and they will tell you, at a glance, what is going on in the various segments of the coin market. And when all or most of them are going down, or up - that&#039;s what is actually going on in the coin market as a whole.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course in the end it&#039;s up to you as to whether you want to believe it or not.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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