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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 1016152, member: 57463&quot;]I have been online longer than I have been in numismatics -- first BBS post in 1984; joined the ANA in 1993.&nbsp; However, because of precious metals, I knew about numismatics and coin stores in the early 1970s.&nbsp; Also, for the last seven years, I have been writing the &quot;Internet Connections&quot; column for the ANA Numismatist which forced me to keep expanding and extending my interactions. </p><p><br /></p><p>So, yes, I spend a lot of time online, chatting here and elsewhere and just surfing generally.&nbsp; However, I also invest many dollars of travel and hours of presence in coin shows, numismatic conventions, local clubs and other traditional social engagements.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I do not see an either-or.&nbsp; One supports the other.&nbsp; However, I also am somewhat restricted in my physical travel and the internet makes it possible for me to &quot;get out&quot; far and away more often than I could have before the WWW was invented.&nbsp; (Internet coin nets existed via FidoNet in the 1980s as &quot;store and foreward&quot; batch mode discussions with overnight transport of packets: not bad, but not the Web.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Hard to say about the pricing as buyers drive up prices as surely as suppliers bring them down.</p><p><br /></p><p>I neither buy nor sell online.&nbsp; In fact, despite being the assigned columnist for the internet, I actually recommend against online buying.&nbsp; Note, however, a huge exception.&nbsp; When I was writing about the Great Fairs of medieval Champagne, I went to VCoins and searched for appropriate examples many times over two or three years until I had a representative sampling.&nbsp; I perceived that more as &quot;mail order&quot; via the Internet, as opposed to the frenzy of sniping in an online auction of Chinese fakes.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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