Raising Him Right!

My kids haven't totally dove into the coin world yet...but my youngest seems to be getting more interested. Today I was photographing some of my quarters when he walked into my home office with all his coin folders (see the pile on the bean bag in the background). Suddenly he wanted to "do coin stuff too" and wanted to know which we should work on.

Before long, I had dug out a roll of wheaties and he was going through them.

Generally, this means he raids my childhood collection (and today was no different)...but it is bringing him the same joy it brought me as a kid so I can't complain. I even threw a 1909 cent into the roll when he wasn't looking...that created quite the moment when he found it.

This is Oliver, he is 7.

 

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I remember those days……great memories. Collecting coins never got better than this.

 

Awesome man! Brings back memories of the old days. I didn't have folders though. I had a small bank bag I threw them into (I was 10. what did I know ).
I also had a "Coin mentor" to help encourage me along.

 

This is my 7 y/o grandson, Colin. He seems to be working on the same Whitman Oliver is

 

Another Vote for Grandpa of the Year!
Get that little one a chair?

 

It is fun to pass the hobby on. I have a couple of great grandkids that are interested. I send then some coins occasionally.

 

That’s just so danged cool!!!

 

Slipping in a 1909 cent into the roll is worthy of "Dad of the Year" honors.

 

How many of you still have your first magnifying glass?

My brother wasn't into coins, more trading cards.
He found a Styrofoam cooler at a park and swap when he was about 12 for $50.
He ask my parents to get it for his birthday in a few months.
They were reluctant, but being as he was really interested they bought it.
He had to wait 2 months to open it and that was killing him that was the deal and they made him stick with it.
10 Years later that styphrom cooler was worth over 100k.

I have yet to find my cooler of coins, they were probably too heavy to bring out to the park and swap.

 

I too collect trading cards...I enjoy them but the modern stuff is so volatile in value I tend to shy away. Something could be worth $10K today and $50 tomorrow...or the other way around. It's nuts.

 

Guess I should have put a time line in.
The styphrom cooler was bought in around 1975, weighed 50 pounds and had older black cards from the 60ies and cards into early 70ies.
Might have even had some 50ies cards in the lot.
My brother sorted everything thing out and organized them and that took a couple weeks.
I don't remember how many cards, a few thousand for sure but some really valuable stuff in the box for $50.

 

Could be...it also depends on when he sold them. The market bottom out really bad in the mid-2000s. For example, I have a mid-grade Joe Montana rookie that was worth $200 at the time. It has only recently gotten back to that range.

That said, thanks to COVID and people being stuck at home...it suddenly boomed again in 2020-22 but has since started to cool. As an example I picked up a PSA 4 (PSA is the card arm of Collector's Universe...the parent company of PCGS and they grade cards on a scale of 1-10) 1965 Joe Namath rookie. I paid $1300 for it in 2020. In the ensuing year or two it soared to over $4K. There are currently 4 examples listed on eBay with asking prices of $3500-$5400 but they have been selling for closer to $3K.

Cards are highly volatile. As for the Namath rookie, I'm glad I got it when I did. It's probably the most iconic football card ever made (on par with the 1952 Topps Mantle baseball card) so I don't think it will ever seen $1300 again. I would never pay $4K for one so I'm glad I got it when I did.

Who knows...maybe it will pay for Oliver's college.

 

Good looking kids!

I suppose that's probably going to apply to most kids interested in coins.

 

Good Lord Ritchie, they grow (and time goes by) so fast. It only seems like yesterday when you were working in that bank, and now look at you (the professional).......and your son. God Bless.

 

Hard to believe...but that bank job was 15 years ago.

 

Incredible!!!

 

Great examples of passing it on. When my 9 year old great nephew comes to visit I sometimes salt a few cent rolls with some wheaties for him to search. The excitement on his face is priceless.

 

My 6-year-old son was really into roll searching for awhile to fill his folders, but eventually he got all the ones he was likely to find and then it stopped being fun for him.

 

When all of you started to collect coins around 7 or 8 I was into baseball cards and comic books. My best friends parents owned a chain of used book stores and they sold all that stuff back in the 70's. I had almost a complete collection of nearly all the super hero comics and all the star baseball, football and basket ball players from the late 60's-90's. I sold it all, probably way to cheap, and used the money to start my coin collection. I kept a few cards that really meant a lot to me. The protective cases really yellowed over the years, but the cards all have sharp corners, vivid colors, and bright whites. Real men, playing real sports. Not like all the primadonna athletes of today:

 

It’s great to see and hear of young ones collecting. It brings back memories.