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An Elderly Couples coin collection of 30 years gone is ripe with expectation! Could go both ways...looking forward to it!

I think ebay may have opened up the collectors market for a few years now but I think they peaked a while ago and are now on the slippery slope. Once you can no longer get a bargain interest will wane. I concur with both posts. The interest in ebay listings is definitely on the wane. The wife had 4 sales and 89 unsolds go off at the weekend despite a broad mix of things starting at a quid, some higher and BINs, some also with best offer. The only best offer was a generous (not) offer of less than melt for a sovereign which was just plain stupid. Maybe 10-15% had watchers, but I'm sure that was only to monitor the item to see if it sells because most items get only one or two views irrespective of price. It is and always has been difficult to wean people off ebay and get them to look at a dealer's list or site. For some reason a £5 washer from a dealer is deemed a rip-off whereas a £50 eBay washer isn't. There is very little crossover between the two populations considering the tools are identical to access both, which implies the ebay market is in serious decline. At the fairs, the 50p/£1 bins do quite well, but that is a market which is unaffected by prices in general - people just want to feel like they have a bargain. For better quality, Gibbons have been the major buyer in the market for months now but the individual purchaser is quite elusive. The market has definitely moved away from rare varieties unless in top grade, though that is denomination dependent. This can't be down to a lack of liquidity as money isn't exactly restricted by government edict. Maybe people need to realign their perspective of what constitutes value for money? Anybody who has collected for a reasonable length of time is in danger of always relating to the good old days when everything was affordable, but I would surmise, failed to appraise whether this base cost was reasonable at the time.

The big difference between the market now and the market when I started collecting is that the internet has made it a worldwide one. Thus I can bid by email at London Coins (who are a bit behind the times) or online at Heritage or DNW. Most dealers have web sites and I can go online and view their coins. The advent of digital photography has allowed me to see what I am buying rather than taking the dealer's or auctioneer's word for it (other than the few cases where they invested in a photo). Location is much less of a barrier to the collector or investor than it once was. I cannot believe that this has not expanded the market and that it has not had some influence over price levels.

While interest rates stay low, 'alternative investments' will remain attractive.