The State of Coin collecting amongst youngsters?

As ya'll know I'm also a "Youngeter".
I don't see many guys my age (and all that I do see are guys....I've seen many 3 lady collectors in 5 years) at shows or shops.....I don't know if there will be more on down the road or if the hobby will slow down and coins will be easyer to find....I mean if there are only 5,000 people looking for a coin and not 30,000 it might mean that coins will be easier to find and buy.

As for kids here having a hard time at banks and such.....you need to get in more and more and get to know the people.
I wanted to make friends so I made sure that for about a year I went to the bank at least 1 time a week and if they had Half Dollars (since that is what I was looking for) I bought them...even if I had the dates.
They will learn that you aren't the bad type and that you will honest....I've gone to have the one guy give me a stack of $2 bills to look though and pull out the ones I wanted....he didn't mind that I hadn't given him money....he knew that I wasn't going to run off.

I also think that is something you need to work on with a dealer....me and my dad go in about ever week....if he has a coin I need he knows he can hold it back.....if there is a coin I want but don't have the money all at one time he lets me put down maybe $5-$10 bucks and take the coin with me and pay some more the next week.....

I think alot of people don't know how to take a kid that is honest and willing to work.....I don't mean this wrong but alot of kids now days aren't what they should be or could be----and people have to get to know you before they trust you.....no matter how hard that might sound it is worth it to show someone that you, even as a younger people can be trusted and if you do that....you will have a friend.

Speedy

 

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I worry about the future of the hobby as well for similar reasons. When the states coins first
came out I'd see a ten year old at the coin shop get the bum's rush when he'd come in to ask
about or buy the latest coin. Dealers accustomed to putting together thousand dollar deals
just didn't have time for a 50c sale. This seems to have improved a lot and dealers are stock-
ing more of the cheaper coins.

Coins are fascinating and people are naturally inquisitive and acquisitive so the future of coin
collecting will always be safe in some form but the question is what form. The hobby is still do-
ing a poor job of bringing the casual collector into the fold. Millions and millions of people are
collecting the states coins and other circulating issues but they get little support or encourage-
ment. Only in the last year has someone finally made an album only for the '65 to '98 quarters!
This series has been obsolete for nearly a decade and only now are folders available.

You often see references to casual collectors not being real collectors. There is a prevalent at-
titude in many places that coins costing less than $1,000 are swill and moderns costing more
than a $1000 are a fool's paradise.

Things are changing and there are a lot of serious younger collectors. They will take over the
hobby in twenty years. There may have never been a better time to get into coin collecting
and it will be interesting to see if times will be as good for those who have to get out.

 

You just have to try going to a bank without a gun in your belt and don't wear that hood. The getaway car with the engine running in front don't help either.

 

Location, location, location. And as to things are changing, they are, that's for sure. By location I mean if you live in a big city where crime is prevelant, coin stores are vanishing due to theft. At open flea markets, coin dealers are vanishing due to theft. In suburbs near a big city the same is basically true but not quite as much yet. I've known several dealers that used to sell at flea markets and even had counters in stores for coins. They have stopped due to theft. Just lost one more last weekend. I was standing right there at a table with coins on it at a local flea market, with many other people, and poof, some coins just vanished. After noticing this the dealer put away everything and left. I know him and asked if he would come back and he said not in this lifetime. Recently caught at a flea market here was a lady that had trined her kids to steel stuff while she distracted the seller. Wonder where kids learn theft?
In a large city like the one I live near, there is so much crime that most of it just isn't worth reporting. Estimates go about 50,000 cars are stollen per year in the city limits. Having a coin shop would be like saying I want to die. Unfortunately a great amount of the criminals that are caught are younger individuals. This dose not indicate that they are the main cause of crime, it just is an indication that they are inexperienced at crime and get caught whereas the more seasoned criminals know how to beat the system. Also, you must remember that at a certain age, running from the law is just to tiresome.
With things like this in mind, yes, young people are always suspicious. In other words they are guilty until proven innocent.
It always amazed me when I would go to places like upper Wisconsin and noticed people leaving thier keys in their cars and their house doors unlocked and even open. This compared to the inner city of Chicago where you see bars on store windows, bars on doors, steel doors, watch dogs, burglar alarms and people sleeping with a loaded gun in a knight stand.
Someone on this forum not long ago stated some of us are paranoid about this theft situation. That is the words of someone that has not sat in a hospital with a friend stabbed for his coins.
Again, location, location, location.

 

If you value your life and the others around you, protection is a must. Whether it be a gun or alarm system (the gun stops them dead in their tracks). In my town a pizza man was robbed at SWORD point. Yes......robbed with a sword. If criminals are prepared to rob a house and injure someone in the process they better be good with God because they are on their way to meet him.

Back to the kid with the state quarters. Maybe dealers don't realize this but that kid could one day be your best customer. Sure it might start out with less than $5 sales but over time that adds up and you build a relationship with the customer. These 50+ year old collectors that drop hundreds at a time won't be around forever (no offense). The future is in those who maybe haven't even reached high school.

 

Hey I am 25 too, and have rapidly and recently been buying coins. how did it start? I saw a morgan dollar on ebay and thought it was cool. As a business major the thing that attracts me is simple economics: a finite supply and a growing demand.

 

Did you happen to buy said Morgan?

The one on your avatar sure is nice.

 

21 and counting

 

Boy, talk about identy theft! It even happens here on the forum, as someone has posted in my spot!

It' probably that old dude in Utah!:whistle:

 

I think this is why I got really lucky when I started collecting coins in about the 7th or 8th grade (so, I was 12 or 13 or something). I found a little coin shop that was owned by an older guy who was getting close to retirement. I would go in and look around for a while and chat with the folks who hung out there (they were all older and just liked to tell crazy stories). So, I became fast friends with this group.

I was never watched closely or anything because they trusted me, they trusted me from the beginning even though I was just a kid. After I had been going there for 6 months or so (I went there each weekend to look for new coins and talk) I one day asked if I could see one of the coins in the case. The owner looked at me and told me to go behind and grab it (I guess he didn't want to get up or something). So, from then on I was able to just open the case and look at something.

I was completely trusted in this store and it was one of the reasons I got into the hobby so quickly. Unfortunately, his health began to fail and he sold the store. Not long after that I went to college and didn't have the money or time to collect anymore. I'm just now getting back into it (stil young at the age of 20) and the stores here in town are very up tight and its not the same.

So, when I was a very young collector is was easy for me. It was all about enjoying the hobby and the people who I met that were apart of it. It was really a neat experience.