"Coin dealers who spoke to CNBC say that new collectors keep entering the market pushing prices up. 'Every time a new coin collector enters the market, prices immediately go up five to 10 percent, and then gradually even more, because of limited availability of the items they want,' says Jain."
What a load of dubious material! One coin collector pushing up prices by between 5% and 10%? I am highly sceptical! There is a definite smell of commercial propaganda about that article, as though the Indian coin dealers are trying to drum up sales!
Yes, prices of very rare coins will go up at an incredible rate with just one more person seeking them, but to give the impression that every person who decides to collect coins raises prices by 5% or more across the board is nonsense.
Also 10,000 collectors does not seem like a whole lot in a country with a billion+ people. If coins were minted in the millions, there should not be the demand they say there is. Seems like a hastily written article.
One thing I did notice with British India coins; eBay prices are in some cases 4 to 5 times the catalog price. The British India coins I bought at local coin shows seem like great bargains (to me!) compared to eBay. Most US dealers sell at catalog prices (some of their catalogs are hopelessly outdated) and the quality of coins are very good compared to the stuff I see on eBay India. Also the non bullion coins can be bought at very low prices specially if the lettering is not in English!
