Re-Subscribed to the ANA (Mistake or Not)

It is Apples and Oranges, but to turn the tables back at you, how many of those ANA members just pay their dues and nothing more? Isn't that somewhat the equivalent of a person who joins up here and never posts anything?

By the way, there are some numbers available for how many people are visiting Coin Talk. It's in the information about the advertising banner at the top of the page (link).

 

Troodon - you are of course entitled to your own preferences about how you wish to learn about this hobby. And rather obviously, I have chosen to make use of modern technology as a method of not only learning for myself, but also hopefully teaching others.

However, there is only so much one can learn via the internet and/or books. A great deal of this hobby, especially many of the finer points like learning to grade properly, how to detect counterfeits & problem coins needs to be learned in person. In other words, an educated person needs to teach an uneducated person face to face and hands on. Without that face to face interaction a collector will never, ever be able to learn what he needs to learn.

And to date, the ANA is the single organization offering organized face to face teaching. So yes, they are a very important and necessary organization for the future of this hobby.