Not sure where to go from here in this hobby

I see one big problem for you that I can relate too as well:

The world is far too big of a place for one to indulge an obsession for building complete date sets. IMHO, trying to do so will inevitably produce budget constraints that lead to frustration...

Doubt and indecision...

So many coins that it becomes impossible to enjoy any of them...

...and then collecting stops being fun.

What's great about getting off the "complete series" crazy train is that then your world collection can become whatever you want it to be, as well as a higher quality collection.

Not a lot of interest in Finland and Belgium? Then how about limiting yourself to one high quality example of whichever Finnish or Belgian coin you find most interesting?

More interest in Mexico, or Great Britain, or Canada? Then perhaps consider a type set of one high quality example of each denomination from that country, or each denomination within a certain historical or numismatic period.

Compiling a complete set of a single denomination is fine if we're talking Franklin halves. But world coins demand a different mindset. Unless you focus on a single country, if you give in to the obsession for assembling complete date sets, then the collection is controlling you, rather than vice versa. And that can take the fun out of collecting.

If it were me, I'd take a giant step back, look at my entire collection, and start to think of ways I could reshape it into something that's smaller, higher quality and ultimately more enjoyable.

And don't worry for now about the closet full of extras that will result from this process. Store them away, forget you have them, and tell yourself you'll deal with them later.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

This is great advice as well.

I'm been collecting since adolescence. During my college years and throughout my 20s as I was building a career, I took long periods off from my coins — sometimes years, in fact.

Now in my 50s, I still need a break from time to time, although usually a few weeks will do it.

Nothing is better for recharging your batteries than getting some time away from the hobby.

 

Just another thought - get off the auction treadmill! As you have discovered it gets frustrating and unfulfilling as you get to the higher value and scarcer coins.
How about getting out to the flea-markets and antiques fairs. (In the UK the Car boot sales.) You can pick up bucket loads of foreign stuff for very little money and have the fun of identifying, sorting and cataloguing what you find - and maybe selling the surplus. If you can, travel to some of the countries that interest you most - you will find coins cheaper in most countries than in the USA as the focus on collecting is much lower.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but that's a point of view I've heard express a number of times before. Why is that? Is coin collecting a less popular hobby worldwide than it is in the U.S.?

 

Focus on quality over quantity which is a natural progression as a collector. Sell (which takes effort/time) and put the funds back selectively.

 

The US is probably the biggest coin collecting market in the world. Most of the next tier are Western or European nations including the UK, Germany and Australia and similar.

I am sure many people will have views on why this is and I believe there is no single reason. Some of the factors:

1. Wealth. Coin collecting requires disposable income, which for many parts of the world is restricted to only the most wealthy. I think many of us in the West do not begin to appreciate how poor much of the world is. (I am writing this watching a documentary on Bangladesh, which is probably why I have put this first!) Many people in this world cannot afford even to set aside the smallest coins.

2. Longevity of the currency. In many parts of the world the whole basis of the currency has changed radically over the years for political or inflationary reasons. This leads to a lack of "loyalty" to the coinage. Even in the UK, which is one of the better coin collecting countries of the world, it is noticeable that the younger generations are mostly interested only in the decimal coinage (since 1971) and have little interest in the pre-decimal system.

3. A sense of history. Coins and history are heavily intertwined - if the majority of the population have no interest or pride in their history they are less likely to be interested in their coins.

4. Education. Closely linked to poverty and history - it takes a level of education to understand, identify and categorise coins.

5. Culture. Coin collecting is in some ways a "worship" of the power of money, which is a typical aspect of western culture. In many other parts of the world religion or health and wellbeing take a higher priority.

6. Design. The coinage of a country needs to be well designed to attract the interest of collectors. I believe it needs to be varied enough to be interesting but also to have sufficient consistency to be recognisably from the country it represents.

There are probably more but I am distracted by the documentary!

 

Good luck on your quest to find the next level of your collecting or the mothballing of it for the time being.

I recently started into world coins over the last year and find it very stimulating, but I am into it from a type collector perspective and accumulating interesting junk silver too. I may buy individual quality world coins as I come across ones I'm interested like Cuban pesos.

Have fun!

 

Thanks for the thoughtful response, Paddy. I suspect all the reasons you cite are valid.

 

I don't know about flea markets, but I do enjoy going to the local coin shop and digging through the bargain bin. That's cheap and you never know what you're going to get. That's how I got started with world coins to begin with. I'm going to the shop tomorrow on my day off to do that and see how it goes. I think I'm probably done with auctions for awhile.

 

Flea markets are OK, but coin shows are way better. Should be plenty of them in the Chicago area, and you'll usually find dealers with binders full of world coins eager to unload them. And you're likely to find far better specimens than your coin shop bargain bin has to offer.

 

I've been to a few shows and had mixed luck. In my experience most of the dealers have high prices for common coins. The same coins I get for 25 cents at my local dealer they're asking $8 for at the coin show.

 

I would concur that shows are usually not the best place for inexpensive coins. Most of them have sizable fees for setting up, so dealers tend to bring more medium to expensive coins (or just charge higher prices)...although your experience may vary based on how big the show is/how willing the dealer is to unload inventory.

Local store bargain bins are likely your best option.

The flea market idea is a good one as well...you might just discover someone with a big accumulation and a decent price.

 

Flea/antique markets are wonderful, since you know what you're doing. Sure, there are some sellers here that prey on ignorant people and overcharge them, but you can bypass them and find hidden stocks of coins from time to time. It's largely about the hunt for me at these places, then taking it home and relishing it, organizing and occasionally selling at a nice profit. I have a limited budget as well, around 100-200 a month if I'm lucky but it goes far! My hobby pays for itself a lot of time. The problem as I see it, is not money or family commitments, but psychological. You are running into a dead end as far as taking in new coins or experiences related to them. I used to have more or less money to spend, but regardless I find ways to make myself happy with the hobby, whether that entails reading about them, doing Coin Talk, anticipating or attending a weekend flea market, etc. It also helps tremendously to have a few other hobbies - I like to read and used to draw somewhat. Numismatics could just be another hobby for you among others, and you can switch more to other ones when needed.

I also got a large number of binders I heave around sometimes but I'm okay with these low value coins. There was a time where I wanted to create these huge things, currently though I'm adding little to them and just upgrading holders, re-organizing etc. Maybe sell one or two binders, or sell off some silver coins for melt at a loss. I do it all the time - collecting interests change and what you do is fine as long as you're okay with it mentally. It's easy to succumb to the desire of wanting more, to stay in that mode of thinking. I always reflect on how I'm forever waiting for something, or wanting just one more coin that I think I need but don't. But I also try to look at everything I have and remind myself that there's stuff here that is still intriguing to me or at least to someone else out there I can sell it to. Either way, I'm staying active and happy with the hobby by moving stuff around. Coin collecting and life are like a game to me where you win and lose but the most significant thing to me is that I keep playing.

 

Yesterday I went to my favorite coin shop. It is about 30 miles away so I only go a few times a year, but I like digging through their value bins because that's where you can still be surprised, and everything is cheap. It was a lot of fun and I bought a lot of coins. I'm going to resell most of them but it's fun just finding them. And I may have found a gold coin (see my other thread) which would be amazing and would pay for the whole trip itself. I think for now I'll probably try to stick to this sort of buying instead of eBay auctions. It's more of what attracted me to begin with.

I do have other hobbies and especially in the summer I have a lot to do, so it's not like I was obsessed with coins to the exclusion of other things.

 

No reason to sell anything. Just put it aside for some future looksie at it.
I've been in an out of coin collecting for large amounts of time. I'm glad I never sold much though a few years ago I did for the $$. Wish I had back what I sold - if you don't *need* to sell anything then why would one?

 

I remember my "feathering the nest" period quite well. It eventually passes and hopefully an increase in income comes along with the change.

When I was about 14 years old, an old coin dealer told me something that I never forgot. Common coins will always be common and rare coins almost always stay rare.

I was about to buy a key date US coin and was trying to justify my buying all the cheapest, most common ones first and then searching for the keys.

I had it completely backwards.

 

Hiddendragon, your thread has generated a lot of great replies. I can add one -- spend some time working on improving your coin photographs (and I mean that in general because everyone who's not a professional can improve). Many coin forums have photography threads that cover the basics up to pro level. There are plenty of options to improve photos without spending a lot on equipment. You may feel differently about the coins you have collected when you discover the tricks to improve their visual presentation. It will also help you sell.

 

Try a collection of One per Year or One per Country. You
should be able to finnish 1750 forward on O/Y for less than
$50 per coin, many of these would be silver. The O/C could
be done for a lot less per coin. There is even a thread that
lets collectors post an O/Y coin and see how far back they go.

 

I am thinking myself of paring down significant portions of my collection tying up a lot of dosh to going to say a "box of 20" that are my favourites of my favourites. My interests will probably never change, but the necessity to free up capital for paying for higher education for my three in college now.

It is natural to have to pare off coins, have had to do it a few times especially with kids being a factor.

 

I can relate to the OP wrt child care and eBay sales not getting much traction. I completely stopped spending money on coins when my daughter was born 2 1/2 years ago. Between two toddlers I depend close to $550 for day care. I had about 200 world silver crown back then and ever since I only spend money on new coins if and only if I was sell off my coins on eBay to fund the new coins. It was gut wrenching to sell some of the coins but I got used to it and now my collection is around 50 coins. Selling on eBay is not fun , I could hardly break even with fees and free shipping. But it was fun when I sold coins , save money and finally buy a coin I really want to. This is more applicable now as I am in between jobs now. I had to not bid on a coin I really like just this week on pre long beach auctions and it was not fun.