True or false - A nice collection is not assembled by looking for good deals.

I would say that the way that Mike worded his question is perfectly fine. And I would say that his statement is true.

But people tend to get hung up on such questions, sidetracked if you will, because they can't help but think that it is a comparison between expensive and inexpensive.

It isn't that at all. How much the coin cost has nothing to do with it. It's not a comparison of $5 coins vs $5000 coins. The cost of any coin, regardless of the whether the amount is small or large, can be considered a good deal or a bad deal. If you pay $8 for a coin that typically only sells for $5 - then it's pretty easy to say that you did not get a good deal. And if you pay $6000 for a coin that typically sells for $5000 then that is not a good deal either.

What Mike is saying here, and he can correct me if I am wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm not - is that you will not end up with a nice collection by bargain hunting. Always looking for the cheapest example of a given coin in a given grade in other words.

Don't get hung up on thinking that a nice collection can only have coins worth a lot of money. You can have a nice collection where every coin in it grades Good - and you can have a nice collection where every coin in it grades MS66. One is not better than the other - both can equally be nice collections.

But if you go about looking for $5 coins that you can buy for $3 - or if you go about looking for $5000 coins that you can buy for $3000 - then you are not going to have a nice collection in the end.

To me, that is what Mike is saying; and never have truer words been spoken.