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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ewomack, post: 8071808, member: 15588&quot;]I&#039;m not saying that I necessarily agree or disagree with any of the following, but I&#039;ve read or heard in a few places that some dealers consider the (rough) cutoff for &quot;investment grade&quot; coins as minimally MS 65 with a value of more than $1,000 to $1,500. Obviously, exceptions will exist for rare coins in lower grades and cutoffs will vary based on certain circumstances, but some dealers don&#039;t want to even touch anything below such a line, since they don&#039;t consider such coins real &quot;investments&quot; that will rise enough in value to warrant consideration. </p><p><br /></p><p>This makes sense to some degree, since dealers who sell mostly $30,000 coins would probably consider a $50 XF sample of some type a complete waste of their time. Not <i>all</i> such dealers, of course, but a line, arguably a class line, definitely seems to exist in the hobby between such &quot;investment grade&quot; coins and coins that &quot;everyone else&quot; collects within their smaller budgets. The &quot;real money&quot; in the hobby (the dreams of which that likely attract the &quot;get rich quick&quot; types looking for errors or rare anomalies in pocket change) really exists at the &quot;higher level,&quot; though anyone can technically make profits off of any coin, but the odds of accomplishing any kind of life-changing success don&#039;t seem more favorable than most lotteries.</p><p><br /></p><p>After a number of years as a member of the ANA (I am no longer a member), I feel that they appear to cater more to the high end &quot;investment grade&quot; side of the hobby. Again, <i>not</i> exclusively, but paging through &quot;The Numismatist&quot; reveals ads for numerous auction houses dealing in 5 and 6 figure coins, all of which remain far, far, far out of my reach. Regardless of what anyone thinks of this situation, it serves as a warning to the masses of &quot;lower grade&quot; collectors that the vast majority of what they collect will likely not escalate in value to any substantial degree. As people say over and over again on this very board, &quot;don&#039;t buy coins for the money.&quot; This statement rings true more in this &quot;lower realm&quot; because <i>no one</i> should ever buy a $5,000 or a $50,000 coin without first <i>heavily</i> considering its investment potential. I would make the same argument for a $250 coin for others with lesser means. <i>Never</i> throw your money away, no matter how much you enjoy something.</p><p><br /></p><p>This dividing line, probably annoying to some, simply exists and only wealth can really allow one to jump from one realm to another. After all, you can either afford a $30,000 coin or you cannot. This forum deals mostly with the &quot;lower realm&quot; (I don&#039;t mean &quot;lower&quot; in a derogatory sense at all, because I definitely deal there as well) and it does a more than decent job of doing so. But all collectors should remain aware of these different and nearly mutually exclusive realms and ruminate over what the situation implies for the money and time put into collecting so-called &quot;non-investment grade&quot; items. Such thinking can at least allow anyone to learn something about the hobby and collecting in general. </p><p><br /></p><p>Ultimately, it all leads to the existence of some dealers who want nothing to do with lower priced items. How such preferences get communicated, either diplomatically or condescendingly, also plays into the game. A number of years ago, before coins really entered the Internet age, I called nearly all of the local coin dealers that I could find. A woman answered one of the numbers and I asked if the dealer had a store or a catalog and she told me to &quot;hold on&quot; for a moment. After about 30 seconds she returned and said &quot;Mr. [whatever his name was] deals only in <i>really rare</i> coins.&quot; I said &quot;thank you&quot; and hung up and felt a little put off. Wow. He wouldn&#039;t even <i>talk</i> to me. But, after getting to know the hobby better, I know now that talking to me would only have wasted his time. Still, even a 10 second chat would have sat better. I could have, after all, become one of his future customers. In any case, I have accepted this dichotomy in the hobby and knowledge of both &quot;worlds&quot; has, I hope, made me into a more savvy and informed collector. I have also accepted that reality often doesn&#039;t conform to our desires. Some may not want this division to exist in the hobby, but wanting something doesn&#039;t make it so.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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