When was the last time you heard about somebody cashing out of the rare modern Chinese coin market? There are lots of nice coins available on the market right now, but as far as I know, every one of those sellers is actually a buyer just trying to raise money for more purchases. Prices are cheap, so it is not a good time to be a seller, unless you're really just a buyer disguised as a seller.

I frequently hear people saying things like "I wish I still had that coin" or "I wish I had bought more", but never "I wish I had sold" - not even during the slowdown! That's important - think about it. People had a good chance to sell before the slowdown started early in 2011. I even warned everyone in advance that a slowdown was coming. But still, you never hear anyone complaining that they wish they had sold when prices were higher. Instead, if they're selling at all, they don't care that they're selling cheaply because they just want cash so they can keep buying.

r3globe summarized some of my comments by saying that I was describing a consolidation phase. A consolidation phase is when lots of inventory changes hands, but prices don't move up or down very much due to the plentiful supply. It's also called a "sideways" or "flat" movement, because that's what it would look like if you charted it.

People are reluctant to drop prices, AND buyers will aggressively buy anything that's just a little cheaper than normal. The overall effect of this is to cause the supply to dry up very quickly. The new buyers know they've got something good, and they won't sell until they feel they've earned a good profit, if they ever sell at all.

That means that the next phase is up, strongly.

You can find the current investment list article in badon's blog.

Great little article  
I wish the slowdown continues since I'm not selling. If the slowdown is slowing down, then I'm not buying.  I'm consolidating my buying and selling so that I ended up doing neither.  I only wish I had more cash

That pretty much describes what I have been doing.  Selling coins I don't want as a collection or investment to buy coins that I do want for those reasons.

That's the exact kind of sentiment I noted when I said "they don't care that they're selling cheaply because they just want cash so they can keep buying". It's very exciting. I know dealers that are just sitting on coins instead of selling because they know the supply is about to vaporize.

While you're doing the work, maybe think about writing it up in an article style. If it's good, instead of letting it get lost in the forum traffic, we might promote it to a full article on LBC.