Now I Am Getting Worried.... The Future Of Our Hobby

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This statement absolutely floors me. When I was in high school the world revolved around me. The absolute last thing on my mind was investing..... Man, the last thing you can call yourself is a failure with your youngsters. Well done, pop!!

 

Some people collect. It's probably in the genetic nature of a human being.
But other people hoard. One is acceptable and one is not.
If you don't have any heirs what happens to your collection when you get old and then die?
And I don't mean coins, it can be anything. Chances are whatever happens to it would kill you if you weren't already dead.
And if you do have heirs, they aren't interested in what YOU collected, 90% of the time they are going to sell it for the money. Usually at some lowball offer, which again would kill you if you weren't already dead.
I used to collect all kinds of things. After my house burned down, it was better not to have too much stuff and have attached feelings for these inanimate things.
I'd like to sell off some coins and baseball cards, but it seems to be more trouble, time and expense than it is worth.

 

I suppose if no one in your family has an interest in your collection, one way to dispose of it is to send it to auction, a coin auction if you can manage it. That way you will know it will possibly go to someone who will appreciate it. And if you don't do it before the end, find a way to make it a part of your estate instructions.

I collect a lot of documents and information in my genealogical pursuits. I think my son will be interested in my collection, but I will be sending some of it to either a genealogy library or society.

 

Yes, I know the drumbeat of dropping cable. We thought about it, too, but decided the cost of subscription services wasn't worth it. Besides, I've seen studies showing cable is still used more than those you cite.

Of course, the problem is most people don't know or even watch the public access channels, so it isn't an effective way of spreading the word about anything.

 

One thing about doing any kind of promotion of coin collecting concerns safety. In my last job I talked to a few of my coworkers about how I collect coins, but always wondered who else they were telling. Should I be a little paranoid about mentioning my collection if they tell someone who has evil on their minds? I want to promote coin collecting, and get others interested in it, but don't want them to think that I'm sitting on a ton of money that is valuable. I know some here have safes or keep their collection elsewhere, but that probably won't stop someone from breaking into your home and then learning there's nothing there or can't get at the safe.

So do you talk to others about the joys of coin collecting and highlight your own collection, or do you keep a little quiet about it?

 

That is a good question. I don't Facebook, but have cautioned many about posting their prizes on Facebook. I keep a few "average" coins on my desk at work. And occasionally they do get noticed by a visitor and it opens up a great dialog.

Thing is, you are wise to ask that. These days there are just too many folks that are up to no good. I would feel comfortable leaving a bank envelope on my desk, but not on the dashboard of my car. I know who has access to my desk and I don't know who may walk by my car. I once had a window broken out for a cup of change in my console. I have since taken to advertising the fact that I travel heavily armed. And I do. I am old and slow these days and need an equalizer... But I digress.

Yes, I think it is OK to talk about our hobby. Two of my best friends have been made randomly talking about coin collecting. But we do have to be aware of who we are talking to. I really think it is simple as that. If I am in the hood, I am not discussing coins. If I am at a little league field, I am giving away buffalo nickels.

 

But you have to have a contract with the cable company in order to get the internet. You don't have to pay for the cable tv, but you do still pay a fee just to have the cable, plus the internet. Where I am is zoned commercial, so the monthly cable fee, without TV is $100, plus the internet cost. So I'm with a satellite company. Speeds are a little slower (so streaming doesn't work real well) but costs are a LOT less.

 

In the long run, the future of the hobby doesn't matter. The coming generations will decide for themselves what they want to do with their lives. They may decide to abandon collecting altogether. So be it. Even if the hobby goes up in a poof of dust life will go on, people will still do something, whatever it is they decide to do. The world won't end. It's just a hobby. Focus on the enjoyment you have received, and do and will receive, from the hobby, not how successfully you have foisted it upon others. Others will join or they won't. Everything will be fine.

 

More than likely, even if the number of collectors plummets, there will still be collectors and numismatists. And of course if the number of collectors plummets so will prices and the collectors will find it cheaper to build their collections. Sounds good to me.

 

Except if the trend continues, you'll be buying DEPRECIATING assets for you or your heirs.

What is more likely is that the % of the country into coin collecting declines but that the overall number stays about the same (sort of like smoking numbers).

Also, you may find more people going online to Ebay and HA and local coin shops and local coin clubs (are they still around ?) and even coin shows may come under pressure.

 

What we need is more "oldsters" to start sharing their collections with the "youngsters" before they die, not after! lol

 

But then, as the number of collectors decreases, and as they grow older, some might decide to dispose of their collections, and as we have seen, many relatives who have inherited these coins may decide to just dump them. Seems to me prices would go up due to decreased supply. Dealers will go out of business, making it harder to build a collection because it's then harder to find fellow collectors. IMHO.

 

Agreed......but....

No, the supply of coin collectibles INCREASES which leads to falling prices. In stock market terms.....supply moves from STRONG HANDS (collectors) to WEAK HANDS (inheritors).

2nd derviative forecast based on the above....but dealers and LCS will be pressured as fewer take up the hobby.

90% of baseball card dealers in the 1980's and 1990's are out of business today.

 

Seems the hobby has had a bit of a downturn. In a few years it may be back up. I personally don't see it really coming close to disappearing or becoming irrelevant to the point where most of our coins lose a huge percentage of their value and become very difficult to sell. Sure a lot of coins have been decreasing in value lately, but if you have something truly unique or rare or just plain beautiful, there's more than likely a pretty healthy market for it somewhere, even if not right in your hometown. But in the age of the Internet, does geography really even matter much anymore? It may not sell right away, but more than likely it has quite a bit of value that I don't see vanishing anytime soon. I think so long as we try to be frugal and smart about what we buy, we'll do okay and be able to retain most of the value of our coins. As for the hobby/fun side of collecting, I think that's more just a human thing, some people will always find it cool to collect things and coins seem to be a natural draw for many who are collecting-inclined. So many different countries, eras, years, designs, shapes, colors, materials -- there's always going to be something that draws people in and keeps the hobby afloat even if it's not some huge cultural phenomenon. But then, I'm not sure it ever really was. And many of those will stick with it, including kids, who often pick it back up in adulthood.

As a kid, when I got started collecting, I never really took it too seriously. I read a couple coin books and did some research on primitive '90s and early '00s websites, but I never really had the focus or allowance to put together a type set or buy silver or anything like that. I don't even remember really thinking about the precious metals aspect. I would buy bulk circulated world coin lots on eBay and I thought that was the coolest thing ever, going through and looking at all the different countries and shapes and sizes and just all the variety and the cool/interesting factor of it all, despite it all being what most of us as grown ups would now consider worthless circulated crap. Didn't cross my mind at the time that for the amount I spent on 5 pounds of random world coins, I could buy one Morgan dollar or something "valuable" and "desirable" like that. Why buy one coin when i can buy 500? Sounds boring! I was just a kid having fun, drawn to the fun factor of the hobby, but here I am a decade and a half later just now rediscovering the hobby and getting back into it. Now I'm trying to actually start building a decent collection with good coins that I think will hold their value decently and by the time I am old and have family to leave my collection to, I plan on having a really nice collection. Had I not got started just toying around with cheap crap as a kid, I probably would never have got into collecting now as an adult.

So I get it. It's a good thing for kids to be interested in early collecting behavior like this. And so many kids don't seem to have the attention span or interest anymore, which affects the adult population down the road. But still, I think there will always be enough kids interested, like I was even in the early Internet era, that there will be enough that pick it back up later in life, such as I recently have. I do what I can to try and get kids interested, I'll give out cool little coins and trinkets here and there. I think that's important to do. I don't have kids of my own, but I try to give out cool things like that when I can. The hobby will survive, but I do understand a lot of the anxiety about its future.

 

My son has the collector gene. He has been through the Pokemon craze already, and has dabbled in coins with me. He's 13 now and is more interested in his phone, but he is coming with me to work the Baltimore Expo this November. And even though the perks for him include,
1. Missing 2-3 days of school.
2. Me paying him $100.
3. The hotel and eating out.
He is still good at focusing on the work. He takes it seriously and wants to learn. I want him to be a collector, but I also kinda want to pass my career on to him, as a dealer. That's a hard line to walk (dealer/collector), but I'm hoping we can do it together. In any case, an interest in coins is where it starts, and he has that.

 

True, but so what. I buy the coins for my own enjoyment. I really don't care if they depreciate, and my heirs don't care about them so it doesn't matter if they get depreciated assets. Whatever they get is "found money" and as far as they care it is better than zero.

As the number of dealers decreases, the coins accumulate in fewer hands, and these dealers will have the collectors coming to them.

 

True, but I think if we all knew that the coins or bills we were buying would eventually head to face value for us or our heirs, we'd be pricing things differently in the here and now.

Right, but those will be WEAK HANDS and not STRONG HANDS. And with overall demand REDUCED, the remaining dealers will be dealing with less interest and activity.

It would be one thing if the supply of dealers declined because some exogenous force -- interest rates, regulations -- prevented their numbers from expanding. But this would be an internal reduction in supply, similar to what happened to baseball cards, Beanie Babies, Pet Rocks, etc.

 

Never been to the Baltimore Show, been thinking about it. How big is it ?