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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;beef1020, post: 2932375, member: 24544&quot;]In addition to the current decade long price slide indicating a decrease in new (younger) collectors, I believe the hobby will be in for a continued long term decline for two main reasons.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>First, cash in general, and coins specifically, do not circulate anymore. The genius behind the Whitman coin folders, and the persistent high cost of an 09 S VDB, was the ability to get young children looking through loose change and filling holes.&nbsp; The natural progression is for those young children to search change, then move into other numismatic areas for a couple years.&nbsp; Then enter a dark ages of collecting in their teens/twenties/thirties, a period where time and money are not available to collect. At some point later in life many come back to the hobby, often for reasons associated with nostalgia, again those high 09 S VBD prices, and then with additional time and resources branch out into other, more advanced areas.&nbsp; There was a period where I collected large cents and got every major auction catalog for 5 years, and I am confident that 75% of the collectors bios in those catalogs followed that pattern.&nbsp; Now if you give a child a Whitman folder for cents, many will not have access to loose change to even start.&nbsp; Good luck getting the next generation of collectors started down the path if you don&#039;t have the first step.</p><p><br /></p><p>Second, and much more of an issue in my mind, is the change in how people interact and approach hobbies.&nbsp; The past was a time where people where involved in hobbies in a broad and shallow pattern.&nbsp; So many different activities in a more recreational way.&nbsp; Maybe bowled, took some line dancing, collected coins, and went to the local social club.&nbsp; But they weren&#039;t bowling 300, or putting together a top 100 VAM set, or traveling the competitive dance tournaments....&nbsp; Now, for many different reasons mostly related to technology, people are becoming narrow and deep in their interests.&nbsp; People are involved in fewer hobbies, but the hobbies they are involved in are very, very involved.&nbsp; Think about the threads we have around here on grading Mint State Morgan dollars as the perfect embodiment of this narrow and deep style.&nbsp; Even to the majority of coin collectors who don&#039;t specialize in Morgan&#039;s, the threads just have no interest, they are too into the weeds to be relevant, and that&#039;s on a coin forum among coin people.&nbsp; And it&#039;s not just coins, take any hobby and it&#039;s the same pattern.&nbsp; Watch collecting is now focused on minutiae and is highly specialized, cars are no different, folk dancing is the same.&nbsp; This trend will degrade the general coin collector base, and likely lower the pool of collectors that eventually specialize in one area.&nbsp; Combine this with young people under 10 not having much access to coins and collecting, and I think the long term health of this hobby is pretty bad.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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