collecting has lost its thrill

hey guys , i am totally bogged down. with me going back to college and everything I haven't had time to pay attention to my hobby or past time. numismatics has lost its thrill don't get me wrong though. i still love coin collecting and set building.. but,,, it's become a bit of a chore for me... i don't want to be drabb although I may still collect from the mints..

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I have a full time job. 40 hours per week.
I have a wife a 4 kids.
I take care of 50+ Orchids and other miscellaneous plants.
My wife and I have a YouTube channel that we update at least once a week which entails recording videos and editing.
I do Metal Detecting trips every Saturday.
I partake in different events and ministries at church 3, sometimes 4 days a week.
I'm away from home three days a week to stay with my widowed mother.

Even with all that I do I still find time for Numismatics!

There's no excuse buddy

 

James H. Schmitz, "Where the Time Went". Thanks to the Internet Archive, you can read it now! It's only about eight pages.

Bottom line, it's @paddyman98's fault -- if he claims to get the same 24 hours in the day as everybody else, but gets so much more done, he must be stealing time from people like @kaosleeroy108! (And me.)

 

I think that's something completely natural. I think every hobby goes through a phase (or even several) where you lose interest and ‘run out of steam’.

Sometimes it's due to a partnership that takes over - or the children - or building a house - or the job. But sometimes you just need a break.

I think it's very important in a phase like this that you don't force yourself to do anything! You won't miss out on anything! Put your coins to one side. Do other things. Clear your head.

Sometimes you make the mistake of forcing things. You make yourself feel guilty ‘but I HAVE to like collecting coins!’. Compulsion usually only leads to more frustration and rejection.

Just take a break. The coins won't be angry with you. At some point, you'll get a new impetus on your own and enjoy devoting yourself to your hobby again.

 

I agree with @YOTHR. I have several hobbies that all seem to come alive or go dormant at random times. I usually find that after some time away, the interest kicks in again.

 

Well said YOTHR!

 

I have been an active collector for 76 years now. I admit that there were times when I felt burn-out. I had to take a deep breath and refocus.

 

You may be here now......





But ya do get it back.

 

Absolutely this..... Been there... More than once.... I had a collection stolen from me when I was a poor collector. My Franklin half book meant everything to me. I had worked for years filling that book with the best pieces I could afford. It was stolen from me in the early 1990's and completely broke my coin collecting will..... But I did get my groove back!

 

you got to learn how to balance life and collecting, once you find that balance things will be easier to manage

 

Yes, I was going to give very similar advice. Or, perhaps that's something telling you to move on to a different aspect of the hobby, like ancients, medieval, or early moderns.

My college was blessed with a world-class coin library and also a world-class expert.

Take for example, one can get an old restrike of a Louis XIV huge medal for the low 100's. They're really impressive coins.

I never lost interest in coins but I had a 5 year period where I made little to no purchases.

I also changed gears with my old time radio hobby. I still love the shows, but I quit collecting the transcription 'records'. They just took up too much space, people asked me to do never-ending projects, and I had met 99% of my goals.

 

Oh I remember those days. Study, (no sleep), work, (no sleep), school project deadlines, (no sleep), college events, (no sleep), repeat. Many times I would go 24-36 hours straight without sleep. I didn't have time for anything but school and work. No big deal, put your collection away for a couple of years, complete school, then pick-up where you left off. I often get busy with life, stop collecting for a couple or 10 years then start back again.

 

All of us have had periods when we got away from collecting. My period was in the late 1970s when I went back to grad school for an MBA. Money was really tight, and I was taking 23 to 24 credits a semester to finish as quickly as possible. It was the only time in almost 50 years that I let my subscription "The Coindealer Newsletter" expire.

 

From personal experience, I can tell you that I've walked away and returned to the hobby more times than I can count; interests and passions ebb and flow. I find that often as the seasons change, I'm drawn to shuffle between my hobbies. Some months it's coins, other months in Lego, and sometimes just video games to clear my head. My unsolicited advice is don't beat yourself up; chances are, you'll circle back to the hobby. As somebody with a full time job, a mortgage, and two little dudes, there are days when I just want to sit quietly for five minutes instead of reading about numismatics, but other days, rotating a lustrous coin in hand is a perfect respite between real life responsibilities.

 

It happens to most of us (myself excepted for some reason) and usually the reason is one word...GIRLS!

 

But now, some decades later, chasing GIRLS would only get me in trouble*... so, back to coins!

* Unless and until granddaughters appear on the scene, I assume.

 

Catching them is what causes MORE trouble...

 

Just let it flow...keep reading CT from time to time...Hey @GDJMSP how long has it been since you bought a coin?

 

I find doing things connected to coins and collecting but not necessarily adding to the collection has helped me. I have an access database that I have built, rebuilt, and rebuilt that lets me work with coins without actually adding new coins to my collection. I stay active with what I have, I still have to keep up with new stuff, but the pressure of finding the next piece isn’t there. Might be worth trying something like that?

 

Oh no no, at my age, just chasing them would cause plenty of trouble.