Future of the hobby

As some of you know, I used to be a sports card collector, after about five years into the hobby, I became a very serious collector in cards. Two years later ( or about six month ago). the hoby basically died. Basically because, there is too much overproducing and is way to hard to give anything away moreless trying to get yor money back.

So, I ask you, what do you think the future of this coin hobby is. It has survived for around 500 years now (or so I read). Do you still think it will be alivein the next 100 years or so, or will it die out like all the other hobbies?

stainless

 

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I think it will last. If all commercial transactions are processed electronically at some point in the future, the coins will grow in value. Coins were money and are money, and are an important part of our culture. I also disagree that all the other hobbies die out. Even sports cards are likely to revive at some point, after enough of them have been destroyed.

 

I think our hobby will live on and prosper. But just like stamps and cards I think the mint will get greedy and over produce mint products to the point where collectors will shy away from the mint products. As we become more globalized you may see more collectors turning to world coins and notes.

Lou

 

I take exception to your comment about Sports Cards. I only own 1950's and 1960's cards and they are doing very well, thank you very much.

Yes, if you own a bunch of the post 1975 over-produced cards, than you weren't really collecting but rather buying cardboard money the companies were spewing out.

In Sports Cards (and every other collectible area) - buy the BEST you can afford and it will probably keep its value.

Are coins going to go down in price? You bet. Sure as the sun is setting tomorrow. We'll probably get a spike with the tax rebate thingy and then down in the tubes.

That's life. I hope you're not ACTUALLY investing in coins or the like.....

 

The reason sports cards died (and I used to collect until the hobby collapsed 15 years ago) is because the companies that produced them got greedy and forgot who the largest portion of their collectors were....young people. Packs used to be 25 and 50 cents for ten to fifteen cards. Gradually, prices rose and counts decreased, until it cost people ten dollars for two cards. The bulk of young people ceased to be able to afford them and the hobby took a dive.

Coins can be bought cheap. Everyone gets pocket change. In the broad sence of the hobby, pocket change is all we collect. Some may be old, some rare, but at one time or another, it was the same stuff we find under the couch cushions today. So, with such a readily available supply and a broad range of purchasing options, I don't see coin collecting going the way of sports cards.
Guy~

 

for me, collecting coins is a personal thing, not necessarily for future profit. as long as people have an interest and enjoy the hobby it will live on. i also believe it should be encouraged, especially to younger generations. my grandfather was a collector of coins and so is my father

 

more than that
Julius Caesar used to collect coins of all countries.

 

We will always collect coins for many years to come although like the card industry some things are being over produced and these items will never really go up in value. It seems like every year there are more and more coins being sent in to be graded just for the MS 70 or PR 70 grade. This is an over saturation to the market as there just are not that many people buying 2007 and 2008 MS 70 Cents and so on. The demand for pre 1964 coins will stay strong and go up I think but all of the modern issue coins being slabbed as of late will loose interest I feel.

 

The tax rebate is way too small to have an impact this extreme. There are mega-forces at play far larger than any short-term tax rebate... the same mega-forces which drive the coin bull market in the first place.

Interesting thread, stainless. I'm convinced coin collecting will always be a popular hobby for all the same reasons it's popular now.

Money has a certain mystique !

 

Two general observations:

1. Modern material, particularly modern commemoratives (1982 and newer), are going to go the way of sports cards.
There is overproduction, much of which is out of range of the average collector.
Since there are only a few customers, this area of the market will collapse.
The bummer is, it is mostly people new to collecting who are trying to buy this stuff and they'll quit when the bottom falls out.
Thus we lose collectors who might have turned to more classical collecting if they were able to hang around for 10-20 years.

2. Watch the overall market, both coins and bullion.
If it takes off like a rocket, stop buying.
The market tends to price out the collectors in this case, and you end up with dealers and a few investors trading amongst themselves.
The classic case is 1980, with a similar but smaller event about 1990.
Everything blew through the roof, then crashed even faster.
Find the chart and look at what happened (I think Coin World's chart goes back that far.)
I think one of the best happenings recently was the decline in precious metals prices.
Some people got hurt by that, but not like in 1980.

 

the desire to collect will always exist, and collecting coins will only continue as long as people find something of interest in their pockets to ignite the spark. if we become a mostly cashless economy, coins will start to become less handled by the public and will become a very small niche. i do not foresee the hobby going away in my son's lifetime.

-Steve

 

IMHO this has becomemore of a investment tool than a hobby i know of many collectors who feel the same again this is just my opinion

 

there have always been investors in the hobby. a coin collector knows the true value of a coin, not just the current market price. there are many excellent coins out there that represent incredible value for the market price - many unpopular coins are much more rare than many of the so-called rarities - some of which eclipse the unpopular coins with mintage figures several times as many.

if you collect "unpopular" coins, you can buy very rare coins for little money. be prepared to dig and dig for high grade examples, but they exist. there are more 1909 S VDB cents then there are of the Iceland 1926 1 eyrir, but the price does not reflect that rarity. sure the 1909 S VDB is rare when compared to other Lincoln cents, but it is not rare when compared to other coins.

supply and demand drives the market, the more popular a lower mintage coin is, the greater it's market value. and that's what attracts the investors. nothing new here, same as it ever was, and so it goes.

-Steve

 

OTher than the hall of famers, there isn't much of a market for these when you go to sell them unless you can find someone who doesn't know any better.

 

i believe coins will remain a popular collecting hobby, despite the occassional foray into it by speculators. ancients and earlier u.s are true antiquities and often reflect societal and cultural aspects, which have a broader appeal than a specific item related to a narrowerfield/person (in this example , sports cards). this, as in everything is demand= money. the sports card fad was hurt by speculators and overproduction.....plus lots of companies offerring "special" cards. a lot of people got burned and left as well. w/ regard to coins... there are not any more 1794 dollars being minted ( well, real ones, at least) nor restrikes available from the mint. an item such as this has much more broad appeal and signifigant u.s historical value, hence, more apt to retain value and interest among u.s history fans. only my own opinions from my perception.........steve

 

Oooh.... sports cards. I loved collecting baseball cards when I was a kid, I heard stories of the cards my dad had (until they were lost through no fault of his) and I thought I had some good ones that I'd make sure I kept until later to avoid that kind of story, thinking they might be worth something later. A dozen+ years later I dig them up again and find out that they're worth less than they were when I was collecting them, not counting inflation. What a disappointment.

 

on a side note...i "collected " upper deck cards in early 90's but used them to send into players w/ a note and s.a.s.e.
wound up getting nearly 100 autographed cards as well as letters on team stationary and several large autographed pics the player would return to me. among those sending these items were troy aikman, marcus allen (raiders..wrote me a post it note with card as well), steve young, john elway, warren moon, ect...many are hof or are bound to go there. the cards aren't particularly worth anything other than as a great memory and collectible for myself. i still think they are very cool.

 

I doubt many here have been burned on sports memorabilia and cards more than I have. If I had only stuck with coin collecting...

I grew up in the late 80s, early 90s. To me, I thought baseball cards were still going pretty strong. The companies hadn't ruined everything yet. We actually had a card shop spring up in our small town. I loved riding my bike there with friends and looking and dreaming about owning some of the cards they had. I made a 'big trade' with them one time and got a Roger Clemens and Cal Ripken 91 Topps Desert Shield cards from them, that were priced pretty high at the time. I was on top of the world after that one! lol Got them graded and still have them.

Those days were great. It's too bad my kids will never be able to experience those days. The card industry just exploded too fast where every set had to have inserts to make people feel good. Grab a recent Beckett and it will tell you the whole story. Early cards have several years on two pages. Now one year takes up several pages. It's chaos now.

Around '02, '03, a friend of mine got me back into it a little. The cubs just acquired Mark Prior and were doing great. We loved Prior so we bought a bunch of Prior stuff. I think he got several autographed balls at the peak of his popularity. I got one. Cards. He got an auto'd jersey.

Then he got injured and never came back. Value all gone. Then I bought 3 highly graded Bonds rookies in a scramble to get them before he broke the record. Paid big bucks for them. Couldn't sell all 3 for 50 bucks now.

Paid 160 for a Roger Clemens autographed baseball. Couldn't give it away now. Paid 300.00 for a Kurt Warner autographed football, UDA, right before the '01 Superbowl. Probably couldn't sell it for what the NFL ball is worth now. Oh yeah, another good one. 80 bucks for a BGS mint 9 Sammy Sosa rookie. LOL! Got that a couple months before the broken bat ordeal. Now worthless.

Not only have the card companies ruined card collecting but the players have as well. You can't trust anybody anymore to not ruin their reputation and/or careers, and tank the worth of any of their stuff. It sucks. So I'm done with that hobby.

I think coin collecting will survive. It's a little more dignified. They are what they are. Pieces of history, mainly produced by governments and many also have bullion values. Coins are a lot more special IMO.

 

I believe that coin collecting will last forever. But, as you said Stainless, the sports card industry overproduced which died down the demand and eventually collectors lost interest. Its the same as the U.S. Mint does today also, overproducing coins, well into the billions. But the same as some card collectors only buy and sell vintage cards some coin collectors only collect pre-64 coins. I believe its where the strongest market is and will remain. I used to collect Nellie Fox (a local baseball star) cards and memorabilia and prices for his cards (pre-1960) have always been strong.

 

I worry about how many commemoratives and other Non Circulating Legal Tender items are produced-- it seems they're increasing at an increasing rate-- but overall I think the future of coin collecting looks pretty good especially in comparison to other hobbies.

In terms of sports cards and other memorabilia, I frequently observe in sports collectible stores (including the high end "Field of Dreams" chain) that there are far higher prices on some items signed by some current or immediate past athletes vs. some well known veterans... and that bothers me. I suppose people have to "monetize" themselves while the gettin's good, but is a current star's signature really worth more than a hall of famer of the more distant past? As with coins, the market speaks...