Younger collectors?

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by NCnovice, Dec 11, 2017.

  1. NCnovice

    NCnovice Active Member

    I've noticed that most dealers and collectors I see at shows are on the older side (60s-80s). I wonder if this is a hobby on a downward trend as I don't see many younger people at shows.
     
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  3. Aidan_()

    Aidan_() Numismatic Contributor

    You just hafta look! I have a feeling this will change in the near future.
     
    Curtisimo likes this.
  4. sakata

    sakata Devil's Advocate

    Right. They will all be 65-85.
     
  5. steve63

    steve63 Active Member

    My guess is that most younger collectors do all their business online, not at coins shows. So it's probably hard to gauge interest in the hobby based on coin show attendance. Generational differences skew things. It's the same phenomenon political pollsters have discovered recently because old people still use land lines but many younger people use cell phones, but most polling companies still call land line numbers which skews the results of their polls. I think the only way to know for sure that the hobby is dying would be if prices of coins start to drop...something I haven't noticed yet.
     
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  6. USCoinCollector42

    USCoinCollector42 Well-Known Member

    I’m a teenager but I have no idea if I’m the only one or not :)
     
    ma-shops and mac266 like this.
  7. spirityoda

    spirityoda Coin Junky

    most collectors are older because kids do not have the money to buy coins. When I was younger I was chasing girls and not coins. lol
     
  8. cpm9ball

    cpm9ball CANNOT RE-MEMBER

    You'll know that YN's have taken over the hobby when you go to coin shows and notice that all of the banks have tables offering boxes of rolls for CRH'ers and at the end of every aisle there is a Coin Star free of charge.

    Chris
     
  9. Jaelus

    Jaelus The Hungarian Antiquarian Supporter

    This.

    You're making unfounded assumptions. It's like saying retirement homes are in decline because you're not seeing a lot of younger people enrolling.

    Many of those 60-80 year-olds you're seeing at the shows may very well be new to the hobby. Serious collectors are much more likely to attend a show, and serious collectors tend to be older and financially secure, which is what you're seeing.
     
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  10. beef1020

    beef1020 Junior Member

    In addition to the current decade long price slide indicating a decrease in new (younger) collectors, I believe the hobby will be in for a continued long term decline for two main reasons.

    First, cash in general, and coins specifically, do not circulate anymore. The genius behind the Whitman coin folders, and the persistent high cost of an 09 S VDB, was the ability to get young children looking through loose change and filling holes. The natural progression is for those young children to search change, then move into other numismatic areas for a couple years. Then enter a dark ages of collecting in their teens/twenties/thirties, a period where time and money are not available to collect. At some point later in life many come back to the hobby, often for reasons associated with nostalgia, again those high 09 S VBD prices, and then with additional time and resources branch out into other, more advanced areas. There was a period where I collected large cents and got every major auction catalog for 5 years, and I am confident that 75% of the collectors bios in those catalogs followed that pattern. Now if you give a child a Whitman folder for cents, many will not have access to loose change to even start. Good luck getting the next generation of collectors started down the path if you don't have the first step.

    Second, and much more of an issue in my mind, is the change in how people interact and approach hobbies. The past was a time where people where involved in hobbies in a broad and shallow pattern. So many different activities in a more recreational way. Maybe bowled, took some line dancing, collected coins, and went to the local social club. But they weren't bowling 300, or putting together a top 100 VAM set, or traveling the competitive dance tournaments.... Now, for many different reasons mostly related to technology, people are becoming narrow and deep in their interests. People are involved in fewer hobbies, but the hobbies they are involved in are very, very involved. Think about the threads we have around here on grading Mint State Morgan dollars as the perfect embodiment of this narrow and deep style. Even to the majority of coin collectors who don't specialize in Morgan's, the threads just have no interest, they are too into the weeds to be relevant, and that's on a coin forum among coin people. And it's not just coins, take any hobby and it's the same pattern. Watch collecting is now focused on minutiae and is highly specialized, cars are no different, folk dancing is the same. This trend will degrade the general coin collector base, and likely lower the pool of collectors that eventually specialize in one area. Combine this with young people under 10 not having much access to coins and collecting, and I think the long term health of this hobby is pretty bad.
     
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  11. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    Coin shows are only respresentative of coin shows not collecting in general. Younger people do primarily if not exclusively buy online. It’s certainly not the coin show crowd accounting for the huge popularity in modern collectible bullion.

    Price declines in areas aren’t an indicator of a declining hobby either. What it is an indicator of is collecting is changing majorly. Set building is declining and collector money is getting spread out over many more areas than before. World coins are countless times more popular now than several decades ago as one example. The internet also put downward pressure on some prices. Most of the price declines are in common grade common date things from the glut always available. Some of the others are from are from things previously thought to be scare that just aren’t. The premium stuff for the grade can often sell above price guide, that wouldn’t happen in a dead hobby.

    The hobby has supposedly been dying since the very first person started collecting. Every generation seems to think they’re the last that will want to collect yet the hobby is still alive. Collecting has never been a hobby populated by children or teens and never will due to their lack of money. Plenty of people pick it up later in life and will continue to do so
     
  12. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    And if ya went to a coin show 20 or 30 years ago, you would have observed the same demographic........
     
  13. desertgem

    desertgem Senior Errer Collecktor

    I think that younger individuals now have more alternatives than the members had that are over 40. Not just computer games, but organized sports, theater, various charity and friendship organizations, and many families still maintain various religious and neighborhood meetings. When the club organized a winter potluck with freebies available, the turnout was small because of other Christmas and other religious holiday events. I see this as good for the young. No more shooting pool all night at the local pub or sneaking a few drinks off of older people, smoking ciggies, etc. Most schools are organizing a lot of regular events. But they always have an electronic device close at hand if possible.
     
  14. CoinCorgi

    CoinCorgi Tell your dog I said hi!

    Where do you guys find the time to write such long responses?
     
  15. NLL

    NLL Well-Known Member

    Nope your not!
     
    USCoinCollector42 likes this.
  16. sakata

    sakata Devil's Advocate

    I am exposed to "young adults" frequently in my position as a part time college teacher. Due to the instant gratification culture of social media I see the overwhelming majority as not having the attention span required to research and seek out a specific coin. I would very much doubt if many of them take it up in the future. I had one student once tell me he collected coins. When I ask him about it it was clear that he really did not in the sense that anyone here does. There are exceptions of course.
     
  17. NLL

    NLL Well-Known Member

    You might be right about time. I have asked people what they thought about coins and most people are not a fan.
     
  18. NLL

    NLL Well-Known Member

    I don't like social media. Complete waste of time and it is really stupid.
     
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  19. sakata

    sakata Devil's Advocate

    That's why you are here. Post the people I know who are you age cannot survive without it.
     
  20. NLL

    NLL Well-Known Member

    Yep. That exact reason is why I fear for the future of society. We live in a me me me and did I forget to mention me society.
     
  21. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    I'm 32. I've been actively collecting for 20+ years now. Younger collectors are out there, but you'll see less of them at the shows for 2 major reasons:

    1. Younger folk are a lot more comfortable buying online.

    2. Older folk (generally) have a lot more disposable income and free time to travel to shows (retirees don't have pesky jobs to worry about).
     
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