Popular Hobbies Are Dying

Heard a similar thing about coins and even stamps a couple of years ago and same thing a couple of years before that. If one considers brick and mortar coin stores they are probably right as the internet has made thing so much more accessible. The old coin stores of the past one had rent, heating/cooling, insurances, etc . In my own area South Florida the tri-county area has over 8 million people and there are probably less than 10 true coin stores left-Not places that deal primarily in bullion and sell some coins.
With the advent of high pixel cell phones one can take pictures that are of excellent quality that use to be for the big boys in coin magazines in past decades.

 

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I might buy some track pieces and building kits on line, but I always buy my new train sets (passenger) from the train store. Yes, it does cost more (sometimes very notably) but the owner is a great resource who gives out a lot of free knowledge. Can’t get that on line.

 

Add collector plates to your list. Popular with old ladies. Except nowadays it's not a dying hobby -- it's dead.

I inherited 100's of the dang things from my Mom. Tried to sell 'em at pennies on the dollar. No buyers. At my yard sale, I couldn't even give 'em away with purchase.

Finally donated to Goodwill.

 

I’ve got some of those somewhere. Maybe spin them off the back of a pickup and count how many times they bounce on the pavement before shattering?

 

I think I would get rid of what's under the mattress.

 

They might work for Skeet shooting too

 

Yea, i learned my lesson on that one.
I polished the rest of the bottle off already.
Wont be making that mistake again, you ARE allowed to drink in a truck. Key has to be out of ignition, and you obviously cant drive until the next day. You have to throw all the bottles away before you leave out again too. I lazily tucked the bottle of cap'n under the mattress and passed out, and forgot to throw it away the next morning.

 

Target practice was my first thought. But then, there's the broken pieces to clean-up.

And with the lead-based paint, you can't even use collector plates for food.

 

Plus the banter back and forth can be fun too.

 

When I started attending auctions about 15 years ago there were a lot of collectors of Hummel figurines. An auction with decent selection would draw 15 or 20 collectors exclusive figurine collectors all with their price guides and clipboards at the ready, scribbling notes on desirability and condition. Now not so much, saw some recently sell for $20 each, back in the day those would easily break into the $100-150 range.

Longaberger baskets, Fenton art glass, Precious Moments & collector plates were similar all with devoted collectors snapping them up for high prices. Now much of that demographic is either gone or downsized.

 

LOL at collector plates! This reminds me of a funny story. Part of the fun is in the setting up of the situation, so bear with my long-windedness:

I’m in advertising. A number of years ago we landed a new client who had a fairly major (at the time) female country music star under contract to be their spokesperson.

In the interest of privacy I won’t name names, but you’d definitely recognize hers, and if you’re in your mid-30s or older, you’ve likely seen her on TV. I’ll call her Ms. L.

Anyway, in preparation for filming our first commercials for this new client, my art director partner and I flew into Nashville to record Ms. L’s voiceovers. When the session was done, Ms. L asked if we planned to stay the night. We said yes and mentioned the name of our hotel, to which she replied, “Nonsense. You’re our guest here, so you’re staying at my house!”

This was just the second time anyone from our ad agency had met Ms. L, so not wanting to offend, we agreed and cancelled our reservations. Ms. L’s assistant then drove us to her home, a sprawling estate-sized affair in a Nashville suburb that’s popular with the country stars.

As one would expect, the home was nicely appointed and obviously professionally decorated. Shortly after arrival, we were led into a spacious, high-ceilinged modern kitchen that could’ve been ripped from the pages of Architectural Digest.

What caught my attention, however, was something that was completely out of character with the rest of the house: one long wall of the kitchen was almost entirely filled with collector plates! I didn’t count them, but there had to be at least 50.

It was the usual dreck one would associate with collector plates, commemorating cities, states, national parks and other landmarks, dead presidents, holidays, and various snippets of Americana.

Worried that I might say the wrong thing, I chose to not steer the discussion in that direction. But the next morning after breakfast, Ms. L caught me staring again at the plates, and so proceeded to explain the origin of her collection.

It seems that a dear friend gave her a plate as a gift and, not wanting to offend the dear friend, Ms. L felt obliged to keep and display it. Well, this opened the floodgates: more friends saw the plate, assumed Ms. L was an enthusiast, and began gifting her with more collector plates. The process fed on itself, until the entire wall was covered.

As I spent more time with Ms. L, I came to realize that she wasn’t at all the diva one might expect of someone in her position. On the contrary, she was a sweet lady whose hospitality was genuine, as was her deep commitment to her friends — no matter how much she might have disliked those plates, there was no way she was going to dishonor her friends by not displaying them.

 

75 hobbies

https://www.artofmanliness.com/arti...-hobbies-for-men-75-ideas-for-your-free-time/

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https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/22-more-hobbies-for-men/

Top 45 "manly"
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/45-manly-hobbies/

 

Uh huh

Taylor Swift was my gf before she became famous. Now were just friends with benefits,
& since im an astronaut we only hook up 2-3 times a year

 

Fashions come and go, right? That series of coins everyone wanted a decade ago is now so much dreck. I went to an antique mall yesterday and picked up a couple of Morgans, but was surprised to learn that what were once very desirable Hallmark Christmas ornaments are now going for very little.

 

Believe me, before Numismatics has died out, this planet will have collided with another one in the Milky Way !!!

 

Lol on collector plates and hummels. God I hate both especially hummels. I call them Hitlers children. There’s something really creepy about them. Both make good target practice but not much else

 

Had a very well to do friend who collected the most expensive Hummel pieces.

In his new custom built house, he had huge custom display cases built onto the walls...his Hummel room.

This was 15 years ago. I wonder how big a hit he took.

 

There are still a few dedicated collectors, there just aren't as many of them. At an auction I was at 6 months ago there was a reseller that purchased all (30 or so) of the undamaged Hummel figurines they had for $20-40 each. He was from out of state and said that he was going to list them online.

There was an auction here in Southern Ohio a few years back that was the estate of a Hummel book author. There were some figurines the size of children, several feet tall. I think the rare pieces still do fine but the common stuff has taken a huge hit as the boomers stop collecting and disperse their collections.

The market for furniture and fine china is so oversaturated that some of the prices are crazy low.

 

Still have about 20 Norman Rockwell plates in original box.
Forgot I had them till this post.