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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 4036286, member: 57463&quot;]I think that she meant something more personal.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you collect, say, Buffalo Nickels, and complete the collection, do you stop entirely, or do you find a new passion nearby. Many here came to ancients just by that route. </p><p><br /></p><p>I take issue with gsalexan here:</p><p><br /></p><p>First and foremost, Littleton is not in the same class as The Coin Vault. Littleton supports the hobby tangibly. I could go on but that is a new thread. </p><p><br /></p><p>On the wider point, though, regardless of who sells what the idea that cany hobby is an &quot;investment&quot; to the hobbyist is illogical and unrealistic. See below, also, about golf. We here point out that while you might not get 50% of retail for your coins, that is more than you will get for your golf card at the clubhouse. Hobbies are for fun. </p><p><br /></p><p>And, you can make money at it. People do.&nbsp; Millions of us who are amateur astronomers do not make money at it, nor do we expect to. But some do. (I paid another astronomer about $350 for two prints he shot. He sells pictures.) It is mostly a matter of your own skills, talents, and interests. Too few people learn to make money at what they love. I hear that from people who tell me that they would &quot;like to be&quot; writers. But no matter how many words they lay down, they never submit a manuscript.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ewomack struck on a truth in that post&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>But that would apply to Ed Trumpeter and Dwight Manley and John J. Pitmann as well. Not so much letting their money sit idle. That never works. But I mean that if they had invested the effort and thought and money into their primary businesses, they would have been money ahead... just not so happy, having missed out on a hobby for personal enjoyment.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I had to google COINS BIE.&nbsp; You gotta be kidding... Wow.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, at the last ANA in Chicago, there was a huge mainstream of handwringers decrying the present and the future, while just a few of us spoke of the glass half full.</p><p><br /></p><p>But I have to disagree with the impact of the Internet we all love:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It is not that the hobby is dying because only 20,000 people do this or that, but that those numbers represent core engagement. My point was exactly the same as yours, in fact. I cited the larger numbers as the outer markers of interest. And that applies to anything. Millions watch Neil Degrasse Tyson. Fewer own telescopes. Fewer still subscribe to <i>Sky &amp; Telescope.</i> How many people watch football on TV versus those who (1) go to a game and then against (2) those who play... or coach Pop Warner... or whatever.&nbsp; Football is not dying. And fantasy football is not a hobby killer. Put numismatics in that context.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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