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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 1031605, member: 57463&quot;]Thank you for the voice of reason.&nbsp; It is true that the price increase in precious metals pushes some collectibles upward, but that increase only marks the loss of purchasing power of the cash.&nbsp; Therefore, there can be no net gain.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Moreover, collectors who claim that they have more &quot;value&quot; now than they paid are not actually selling.&nbsp;&nbsp; One of the purposes of price guides is to allow you to show your wife what good deals you got and how much these are &quot;really&quot; worth, but the real reality is different from that.</p><p><br /></p><p>I grant fully that searching rolls and looking at circs is profitable.&nbsp; However, I collected ancients.&nbsp; My experience in that aspect of the hobby is what got me <b>out of collecting.</b>&nbsp; Now, I only buy material that I need to support the research for the articles I write.&nbsp; I sell the articles; and that&#039;s where I make my profit.&nbsp; I don&#039;t care what I sell the stuff for now.</p><p><br /></p><p>Not one of the dozen or so dealers who sold me ancient coins would offer me even half what I paid -- and <b>Classical Numismatic Group</b> was one of several who refused to make any offer.&nbsp; <b>David Vagi </b>gave the best advice: <b>buy the most commonly sought coins in the higest grades.&nbsp; </b>&nbsp; Fine.&nbsp; But that is not what we collect -- nor is it what we are encouraged to collect.&nbsp; Nero, Tiberius, Caligula, Alexander, Owls and such are for the ignorant.&nbsp; True collectors pursue the rare, the unusual, the arcane, the special.... which then become difficult for the dealer to sell, and yes, they are so sorry but, no, they cannot make an offer.&nbsp; And sometimes, they are not even sorry.</p><p><br /></p><p>Arnie Saslow and CNG&#039;s Victor England have a game they play on collectors.&nbsp; When someone offers them a coin they do not want, they say that the other guy might be interested in that and they watch the collector cross the bourse floor.&nbsp; Saslow admitted this in his Celator column -- and I read it there after I was a victim of it.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you love histiory, if you enjoy cultures and times and places and people, then yes, numismatics is a rewarding hobby.&nbsp; It is axiomatic in economics.that if you want to make money, then you need to buy and sell the stuff other people want.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If you look at the world famous collections and auctions, such as Eliasberg and Manley, you see expensive passions that were financial losses.&nbsp; Those men would have made more money sticking to their desks.&nbsp; The zillion dollar gold coins did not earn the income that the same money put into oil drilling equipment would have.&nbsp; But that is not the motive for collecting.&nbsp; We pay for our passions.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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