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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Pilkenton, post: 839182, member: 23961&quot;]I think coin collecting is dying, but at the same time it&#039;s being reborn as a new hobby.</p><p>The first thing that is killing it is US coins stopped using silver.&nbsp; That was 46 years ago.&nbsp; Young collectors have no memory of using them in circulation.&nbsp; In another 45 years, silver coins will be ancient history.&nbsp; Kids collect what they like, and what they relate to.&nbsp; Comic books, Pokemon cards, Beanie Babies, state quarters.&nbsp; Trouble is, state quarters will go the way of sports cards, the interest will be gone, and the quarters will be worth a quarter a piece. It&#039;s scary what the mint is doing.&nbsp; State quarters, presidential dollars,&nbsp; the new cents and nickels.&nbsp; It reminds me when comic books and sports cards were hot 20 years ago.&nbsp; Holographic cards--comic books with multiple covers.&nbsp; Companies pumping out &quot;collector&#039;s items&quot; by the boatload.&nbsp; That&#039;s what killed them.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think another reason why the hobby is hurting is the professional grading.&nbsp; The grading services started with coins, now comics and sports cards are graded.&nbsp; I was the happiest person in the world when I opened my pack of Fleer basketball cards and got a Michael Jordan rookie card, and I was an adult.&nbsp; Now my Jordan card is sitting in a plastic holder somewhere in my junk drawer because no one wants it.&nbsp; They want the 9.9 mint state graded card on ebay.&nbsp; Kids don&#039;t appreciate the gradings the way us old-timers do, but they are taught, just like the comics and cards, that quality is best.&nbsp; What kid can afford a graded anything.&nbsp; To kids it&#039;s quantity, not quality.&nbsp; If the interest is there, they will learn at their own pace, not at the pace we try to teach them.&nbsp; The grading services turned the comic and card collecting hobby to an adult&#039;s hobby</p><p><br /></p><p>Ebay is the real killer of coin collecting.&nbsp; Now it&#039;s coin buying, not collecting.&nbsp; I read an article from Newsweek years ago when ebay first came on the scene.&nbsp; This writer was a lunchbox collector.&nbsp; His goal was finding a certain lunchbox that he had been looking for.&nbsp; He looked on ebay, and he had a choice of a half dozen or so of the lunchbox he had been searching years for.&nbsp; That depressed him.&nbsp; The thrill of the hunt was gone.&nbsp; Ebay has taken the thrill of finding that elusive rare item to complete your collection.&nbsp; Now all you have to worry about is which one you want from the list to choose from.&nbsp; That&#039;s not fun.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think us old timers are also killing the hobby.&nbsp; I was an adult when comics and cards were hot.&nbsp; That&#039;s what killed the hobbies.&nbsp; I&#039;d go to the comic book store, and the place would be packed, with adults.&nbsp; What kid wants to collect what their parents collect.&nbsp; Here&#039;s a sad story.&nbsp; I had lost interest in coins.&nbsp; My nine year old daughter came home from Grandpa&#039;s house with a stack of old coins.&nbsp; That peaked my interest again.&nbsp; We got out my collection.&nbsp; My daughter was in coin collecting heaven.&nbsp; We would go to the coin stores, we discovered ebay.&nbsp; We were buying a lot of coins for a while, then the interest died for her.&nbsp; Then I realized why.&nbsp; Her interest had turned into my obsession.&nbsp; The stuff I was buying was mine in her eyes.&nbsp; She was more excited coming home from Grandma&#039;s with a 1990 Canadian quarter than she was about us getting a Morgan in the mail.&nbsp; I almost killed the hobby for her.&nbsp; Kids are smart.&nbsp; They want, and usually get whatever they want.&nbsp; But they also know that the &quot;earned&quot; things mean more than anything you can spoil them with.&nbsp; I think my daughter will always collect coins, maybe not full time, but it will always be in her life.&nbsp; I think that coin collecting will always be here.&nbsp; Maybe not as open as it was, that&#039;s already happened, but the hobby won&#039;t die.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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