Coinbuf

I thought for sure that Covid would cause the coin hobby to slide into a slight reversal, but instead it has gone into hyper warp for just the reasons that you both noted.   The disposable money supply grew exponentially from stimulus funds.   Additionally lots of people used the low home interest rates to refi homes and pull large amounts of monies from the equity in those homes.   That money was funneled into many areas but much of it was used for discretionary spending like hobbies, RV's, and other large ticket items.
@Mr.Bill347 Actually the 09-SVDB has been falling of late, not that long ago I could have sold my MS64RB for $2600 or more, that has dropped to more like $2200 currently.   Morgan and Peace dollars are the hot tickets right now, and it seriously has me thinking of sending my Morgan dollars to auction.
But back to the issue, where does the market go from here?   Can it continue this rapid rise with the for sure coming hyper inflation, will it find a top soon or just keep on trucking.   I wish my crystal ball was more accurate on these things.    My concern is that if it keeps rising as it has over the past year I will be forced to the side at least until it peaks out and descends back down. 

"winning by default"    I can totally relate to this.  While I did not win any financial awards I have 4 best in category awards for a set that had (still has) one coin in the set but to my surprise nobody else had or put together a set for several years.   It was a very cheap win and fun in its own way for the time it lasted.  

And then you have people like me, Submitting a group of Zimbabwean coins, not because I have any dream of making money, but because I have a grading credit and I simply want to do it to make a coin counterpart to my note set.

I think that its a bit of everything that has been mentioned plus one thing that I have not seen talked about yet, a large number of change searchers.   Both here and on the PCGS forums I have seen a big increase in people that are asking about pocket change and "dad's" or "granpa's" coins and how to get those coins; most of which are usually not valuable enough to warrant grading; submitted for grading.  A perfect example from the newbie board here is the guy that goes by modwritter, if you have read some of his posts he has sent in a number of coins that were not valuable or worth the cost of submission.   Just tonight on the PCGS forum there are two threads asking if and how to submit the "fantastic" (which = AU or worse) condition Morgan dollars they recently came across in dad's collection.   As a side note it does make you wonder if these are "hot" or truly a relatives coins, but that is a different discussion.   So I think that the number of pocket change or low grade coins that are being sent in by unknowledgeable folks be they the youtube get rich quick type or the clueless to coins inheritance types has been one of many significant factors in clogging up the grading pipeline.

Better save some money, catching that 1945 set will cost you a ton in upgrades.

I'll be cheering for the usurper! 
Good job, Both of you. 

Your welcome sir, and I look forward to sparing with you again this year. 

@Revenant has it correct, at the 2020 registry cutoff I had the most total points all coins combined, you had the most points NGC certified coins only.  Ergo you won the NGC best in category award and I won the best in category award.   There have been some recent changes to the registry system; specifically to the old collectors society system; as now if you attempt to access the sets using that system it automatically redirects you to the new registry format where you cannot toggle from all coins and only NGC graded coins as you could in the old system.  Or at least I have been unable to find that function in the new registry system so far, so when you view the new system it just shows my set as number one.
Another change to the registry system last week was the addition of CAC bonus points, and that is why I now hold the top spot for both the overall combined score and the NGC graded only coins.  If you totally eliminate the three PCGS coins in my set my new score after the CAC bonus points were added is 13,371 to your 13,182, so at this moment my set has the best score for both combined and NGC only coins.
For what its worth I do agree with you on the scoring of PCGS coins in the NGC registry.  I have said many times here on the forum that I very much enjoy being able to display both my NGC and PCGS coins in my registry sets.  But when it comes to scoring those PCGS coins should be given scores of 0 and only one best of category award should be given for the set that scores the highest NGC graded only.   However I don't make the rules, so I play the game the way its setup.

My set is the 2020 NGC Best in Category; Coinbuf's set is the 2020 Best in Category.
My problems are that the web page defaults to 'Best in Category'; I also can't access the NGC Best in Category rankings. 
 
IMHO, it rather defeats the purpose of a NGC registry by allowing PCGS-certified coins to be added.
 

Well, two sets can have the same ranking if they have the same point total, number of images, number of comments and number of NGC coins. This usually happens with sets of MS70/PF70 NCLT and moderns.
Us sets / categories get a "Best in Category" and an "NGC Best in Category" each year. Maybe each of you won one of these in 2020?
It's also possible that you're seeing yourself as #1 when only NGC coins are considered and him as #1 when all coins are considered (including PCGS). Or vice versa.
This is all me guessing.

Congratulations on the #1 set. Any #1 set is a big accomplishment. Nice work!

Congrats again on your award, those plaques are very nice and the Morgan is a nice award addition.  

I would also think twice about spending extra for insurance on something with such a small value, I would likely just use priority mail as that comes with $50 worth of insurance and call it done.

Great set and a nice award, congrats.

Mine might be currently ranked as #2, but it is the most complete with all NGC coins at 58% so far.  :-)  Little things matter.

Even though this set doesn't include varieties, you still have to compete with the scores of those varieties if they are used in the set.

Saved for posterity:
 

Congratulations on a #1 set!  And congratulations on getting NGC to create a basic set that does NOT include unintended varieties.  It has irritated me for a long time that a “basic” Morgan dollar set includes such unintended errors as the 1882-O/S, 1887/6, 1887/6-O and 1900-O/CC.  Basic sets should include only those coins that were intentionally released as designed from the Mint.  

Thanks!😹. Now I'm #2😹. The set with varieties I'm all the way back at 58😹

Congratulations - I have several #1 sets but for most of them mine is the only set!Quite easy to do in the 'World coins' - move to the dark side the possibilties are endless

Oh boy....... the gauntlet has been thrown!!!!!! Just wait..... OH..... Just wait... until I submit my Lincoln Set Coinbuf!!!! (If only I had one.....). COMPLETE CONGRATS on your accomplishment Coinbuf!!  I know you are a devout and long time Lincoln Collector and I am sure it will take some serious doing to "unseat" you.  Great Job!!

You never know! There's someone on the PMG side that beats me in Zimbabwe notes now but I still have some #1 sets because they don't compete / list in every category. Of course, PMG doesn't do certs or ribbons, so there is that major difference.
 

Yeah. I'm seriously thinking I'm going to get a 5-8 coin glass top case and put some 100-140 year old European gold in there.

I  adhere to dollar cost averaging to help me decide on a purchase. I have bought gold coins ranging from $400 to $1800 an ounce both going up and going down. For the most part I try to find the best price available and then buy. Sometimes tho, I bite the bullet because it is a rarer coin or one that doesn't show up very often. Or, it will complete a set:)  The hardest thing for me tho is finding coins in NGC coffins  because completing a set with a pcgs coin will not complete the set on my records here   I hate that, but it is part of an OCD thing I guess.  I have been finding more coins on Great Collections that have been cheaper plus there is no sales tax and with a higher price coin that adds up quick.  Happy hunting

There are some really nice display cases out in the market, I really enjoy woodworking also and have thought about building one or two myself once I'm retired and have the free time (free time who am I kidding).   I bought a case to hold my #1 1930 and 1940 year sets together, I use some lower grade duplicate coins for the copper coins in here as the ones in the set are stored in Intercept shield holders in the SDB for protection.   Every now that then I get them out and put the full sets together for display at special occasions or just because I want to.