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Message:: [QUOTE="V. Kurt Bellman, post: 3004598, member: 71723"]Yup, this is the eternal problem. The hobby is afflicted with a version of the 90/10 problem, but in our case, it's the 99/1 problem. 99% of most collections is pure unadulterated garbage, and only 1% of it makes the whole deal interesting to a dealer. What is the 1%? That's easy - the stuff nearly no one has, that everyone wants, probably including the seller to keep for himself. That is precisely why my region of the country is so awash in public auctions full of coins of dead people - dealers' buy/sell spread theoretically gets stripped out of the pricing. The prices get set by the remaining alive buying collectors, and NOT the need to pay for a dealer's overhead - a percentage that seems to do nothing but grow over the decades. Auction house's "vig" is still FAAAAR below the spread that coin dealers feel they need.[/QUOTE]