Silver Stackers

All that it takes is a couple of folks with unlimited funds in an auction setting ,that simply just want something... I have seen it here ,rare cars, rare art ,and coins too........

Hahah... I'm glad you mentioned the Silk Road set that sold for $11K.

This set was a perfect NGC PF70 set.

I don't think you'll find a BIN set for anywhere near half this price

What was the lot number?

and prudent buyers IMHO doing a price appraisal on a coin , should in fact follow the same tact that certified real estate appraisers do in this country, I use this formula my self ...........Take as many verifiable sales as possible on a coin ,And here is the important part that many buyers and sellers leave out for convieniance sake:)  make sure they are apples to apples comparisons , ie graded ,raw or omp ,now take out the high price sale and discard it, take out the low price sale and discard it also ,now do your average ...if it is more than 10 samples lets say 20 samples than take 2 off top and 2 off bottom etc..............

The original item in question was also a PF69 UC.

Yep, that was a PF70 set... very nice

Occams Razor

Why the high prices?

a) Bribes and money laundering
b) Pump and dump
c) High quality coins combined with high demand.

All I can say is yes, the mainland Chinese have a lot of money and are willing to spend. $$$
But they are willing to splash big $$$ on Coach, LV etc in N America because
a) Prices and selection here are better than in Asia. They are not paying double or triple the price for comparable product here  when compared tp China /HKG/Asia.

Brand names are incredibly cheap in N America compared to Asia.

I will give you an simple example of Levis Dockers.

Asian Price around CAD$80.00 with no sales.

Canadian price, just wait for Sears to have their routine weekend sale... CAD$35 - $40.00 So there is no doubt they will splash on items which are cheaper here than in China.

This does not mean that they are willing to pay double or triple price for MCC which can be gotten for cheaper outside of China. This may only be the case if this coins cannot be brought into China.

If the Chinese market had such huge demand we wouldn't see Xu Hong, Naomi, Thincat etc hawking their wares on ebay...

The bottom line is these folks don't trust the paper RMB, remember it was not too long ago..............., their grandparents can tell them stories of the cultural revolution ,people being stripped of there wealth  ,people hungry etc etc.................I think that is part of the allure of hard assets ,plus Chinese have been metal bugs for a 1000 of years

+1

I can't comment on the MCC, but I did see some of the most amazing, simply unbelievable, absolutely crazy price paid for some of the most commonly available, ungraded (by TPG), AU/UNC (according to Hosane) 1912 Szechuan silver $1.

I wish the result is real, even if it means I have to sell them through Hosane. There are a ton of them available, both graded and raw, and they are insanely cheap compared to Hosane.

I have a lot of experience with clients from China. There is a local Chinese Mall called Crystal Mall in Burnaby. There are people down there who can handle transfers of up to CAD$500,000 within 12 hours without a problem. You deposit $500,000 in RMB/CNY into their account in China and they will transfer that equivalent in CAD$ into your Canadian Account within 12 hours. There is a handling fee of course. I work for a local property development company and from what I hear this transactions are routine. It is very easy for the wealthy to skirt Currency control laws in China. I have a client who bought NINETY apartments from us in the last 5 years. According to him, this is his exact words, buying property is his "hobby". Just like the majority of us here who collect coins... and this guy is very shrewd with his $$$ . I don't see him just throwing his $ around paying double or triple for items which are readily available for much cheaper in other markets.