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I'd say people are unsure of whether to hold on to their bitcoin or invest in physical coins since the value has gone up so much lately. It's pretty much going from a very liquid investment into a static investment that may not rise as much. There do seem to be a pretty constant supply of sellers, but few people are willing to invest such high amounts for such a small object and I can imagine most people would still think of the USD amount when buying such items.
Understandable...especially regarding liquidity and exchange valuations. If we step beyond the idea of numismatics and look at Casascius from an asset diversification standpoint...having some amount of physical
BTC would seem to hedge risk...for anyone wanting to invest (hodl) in Bitcoin really. Of course there are countless offline wallet solutions that serve a similar purpose, but Casascius has a well-earned spot at the top of the list in terms of potential appreciative value, in addition to its proven cold storage risk management attributes. A 1
BTC silver Casascius actually holds ~2-3
BTC of value in one coin, at the current market rates...there are not many other cold storage solutions that can claim that kind of premium value store. And as an aside, regardless of what one thinks of grading standards, having an early graded/dated and slabbed coin may provide some additional measure of security, if and when counterfeits become a major concern and enter the market en-masse...as is the case now with mainstream coin and card collecting.
With so few actual Casascius in existence overall, it would make sense that as more players enter the space, we may see increased demand for Casascius as a diversified
BTC holding method...keep some liquid and some physical. This demand driver alone may move premiums back up, without even considering collectability.