Here's a coin related topic (edited) Your opinions on what has had the greatest impact on our hobby

Bikingnut

What do you think has had the greatest effect on coin collecting interest and prices in the last five years? I've heard a lot of folks say that the state quarter program generated a lot of interest. While I believe that to be true, I believe that the biggest influence has been the internet. The internet, good or bad has given us many more avenues to buy and trade coins. Am I off the mark? Let's hear your opinions.

LucyBop

I also think the internet and also the advent of the Registry set.

airplanenut

I think the SQs and the internet- the state quarters did a great job bringing people to the hobby, and the internet helped them access more and expand their knowledge/collections.

Jeremy

airplanenut

<< <i>I also think the internet and also the advent of the Registry set. >>

I think the registry set just boosted the prices/demand for plastic.

Clankeye

Bikingnut--
I don't think you are far off. I'm not sure I would be collecting again, and I definitely would not be participating in this forum without the Internet. There wouldn't be any forum.

Collecting coins used to be a much more solitary occupation to me. I read coinworld, went to the occasional small show, and talked to a few dealers on the phone. But, nothing like now. And that is one great thing this forum has done. Made collecting coins a much more interactive hobby for me. I would imagine it is the same for others.

As for my return to collecting. It happened just looking at coins on eBay. A Stone Mountain commem stirred that old calling in me, and here I am, collecting again. The Internet has changed the world of coins tremendously, and for the good, IMO. Yeah, there are the rip-offs, scam artists and usual pitfalls, but... they were always there in various forms anyway.

Clankeye

Bikingnut

I used to go to a local coin shop here in San Diego that had a bid board. Every Saturday the bidding closed at noon I think. There were always a lot of people there, a lot of nice coins. The shop is still there today, but they stopped the bid board in the early nineties. Outside of that, I would go to the occasional show, but that was about it. Then along came the internet and ebay, numerous other auction sites and dealer websites and my collection has grown by about 4 to 5 times.

BillJones

Here would be my picks:

-The registries, especially the PCGS registry.

-The Internet - sales and exchange of information in forums like this

-The State Quarter Program

The registires are a mixed blessing. They are good from the aspect that they increase interest in the hobby. They are bad because inexperienced people get the wrong impressions about what the best coins know REALLY are, and they lead to speculative prices paid those who have an overblown desire to the king of the hill.

Just because something has been listed the finest graded by a coin service does NOT mean it is the FINEST KNOWN. The finest known specimen may never have seen the inside of a slab, and the coin in the finest graded slab MAY NOT match what is IN THE SLAB.

Internet sales are also a mixed bag for reasons already covered here many times and for the same reasons that have plagued mail order sales since day 1.

I don't see any pitfalls from the State Quarter Program. That I think as been quite positive.

CLASSICS

centurys ago if you wanted a message delivered you or someone walked to the place to give it, it might have been just down the stoneage path, or on a sailing ship to the new world. anywhere from a few minutes to several years to deliver that message. today all we do is click on a button, and we can become connected to the whole world. think about it...the whole world....the computer and the internet, has become one of the greatest wonders of our time............

roadrunner

1. Internet
2. Registries
3. Stock market bubble
4. Gold re-emergence

roadrunner

rays

1. The internet and it's corellary, eBay.

barberlover

I agree it's been the internet hands down. while rich people can afford to fly to major national shows and people who already live near where those shows or major dealers are located, a poor working guy with very expensive tastes wants to spend all of his hard earned money on coins, not planes or hotel rooms. I've collected coins off an on for over 30 years and don't need anyones advice on what to look for, but since i can't afford to be away for multiple trips a year i use internet dealers and internet auctions to be my eyes instead of hopping a plane to long beach or florida and that has opened up many sources of seeing coins i never would have seen before. almost half of my current collection is made up from internet auctons or internet dealers who post images. barberlover

DCAMFranklin

I'm quite sure the State Quarter program brought lots of inexperienced, low-priced collectors to the marketplace and most importantly brought LOTS of kids to collecting. That is GREAT for the future of the hobby!

The internet and Ebay have made an immeasureable difference. I know going to my local shops was boring with very little difference in material one trip to the next. Lots of middle quality coins and nothing exciting. One high end shop is, and always has been, far too expensive for the quality. Ebay made it possible to obtain coins from all over the country and created STRONG competition for the small shop. They couldn' t count on their local boys and girls to eat what ever they placed on the table any longer! Suddenly, country-wide competition brought coin prices tumbling down!! Now, that certainly isn't so for the coins Legend & Annaconda sell, but for the vast majority of the marketplace, prices are much better.

This won't be popular here, but I will assert that the Coin Vault on Home Shopping Network has been a big promotor of the hobby. Unfortunately, the buyers paid way too much for some of their initial purchases, but that helped to reinvigorate their lost passion for coins. Now, 10's of thousands of collectors are active in the marketplace due to that television show.

DHeath

Great answers, and DcamFranklin's is quite good. I didn't consider QVC. I'm relatively certain ebay has had the biggest impact on the hobby. I say this only because it provides a venue to sell coins you upgrade or no longer desire at close to retail price, thus proving time after time that you haven't spent money, only invested it in your hobby, and that some portion if not all can be redeemed when needed.

Dog97

Yep the net & eBay. Coin rag ads reach only a small part of the collectors but everybody looks @ eBay.

Bear

After the big Doggy speaks, what is there left to say, but......... Amen.

DCAMFranklin

Wow....almost fell out of me chair, there Don. I appreciate the compliment. I guess we can agree from time to time.

Bikingnut, we're still having trouble getting comments for a coin related topic!

MrKelso

The internet, The state quarters both have had the greatest effect

Petescorner

All these answers are good, but the best one has to be the internet. Coin collectors are no longer at the mercy of the local dealer. With the click of a button they can buy from anywhere in the world, or research the last dozen sales of the exact same item. Good question!

MacCoin

(1) the gov mint come out with the state quarters have had the most impact sence the bicentenal coins or 75/76.

(2) the grading service come out with the message boards and registry set.

(3) internet auctions ebay/heritage

Fairlaneman

The Greatest impact to the hobby, I believe and discussed with a dealer today, is the return of the people that just use to collect coins out of circulation. These people who were youngsters in the 50's and 60's now have the expendable income to afford a coin without plucking it from his pocket change. I have no idea how many collectors have returned but the dealer was singing the blues about never being able to find enough coins to satisfy his customers and attritrubited this lack to the return of the old collectors. I mention the state quarter program and he said that the return of collectors and the quarter program just seemed to happen at the same time.

The before mention Internet and Ebay certainly are viable impacts on the hobby also.

BTW, I am one of the Guys that returned about 5 years ago.

Ken

Legend

ITS THE INTERNET! There is NO question. EBAY helped fuel the growth (it gave the public easier access to names and coin info).

Now a guy can sit inthe middle of Nebraska and have access to all the information-and a virtual bourse 24 hours a day. The biggest advance over the old coin rags, is with the internet you can get decent images.

I spent $50,000.00 on advertising in coin papers over 10 years and only had a few hundred customers. I spent LESS than that (about $35,000.00) and in THREE YEARS added SEVERAL THOUSAND NEW people as BUYING customers. None of them said it was the State Quarters that got them reinterested or interested. Virtually all seemed to say, hey I never knew where to look before.

The Registry program helped the market-but did not start the ball rolling by any means.

Laura Sperber
lsperber1@hotmail.com

See us at tables 809/811 at FUN!

Catch22

The Internet and Ebay certainly brought me back into the hobby. Aside from the obvious ability for the little guy to aquire coins, the ability of the little guy to have liquidity closer to retail prices has been something the hobby has always needed. No longer do I contemplate the need to sell off part of my collection at 50% of Redbook to a dealer or wait for months to consign at auction. I'm really surprised prices have remained relatively steady given the higher demand and more narrow spread the dealers are having to pay for material. I would hazard to guess it's the fact that much of the new demand is for modern coins produced in the hundreds of millions if not billions. I'm anxious to see how this plays out. Will the new hobbyists gradually gravitate to the obsolete issues as they become more experienced or simply go for the luster of the Mint State moderns?

ms71

I suppose maybe it is the state quarters that give lots of people that first little spark of interest, but it's got to be the internet that has produced sustained growth. Nothing kills a hobby faster than not being able to participate, and the internet gives anybody with a computer the ability to participate as little or as much as he/she wants, and at any hour day or night. Yes, the beneft of face-to-face interaction with knowledgable people (dealers) is lacking, but as we all know the benefits to be had from that vary widely from one dealer to the next anyway. Like a lot of others, I'm interested to see where all the interest in moderns goes, I am only an observer in that area but I have to think it's only reasonable to suppose that a fair number will eventually find their way into the classic stuff. It's going to be an interesting few years.

ARCO

internet, internet, internet. Ebay, these forums and the registry sets are byproducts of the internet. The state quarter program has brought many new collectors, and the internet will help them expand their numismatic interests beyond quarters.

90 percent of my coins have come from the ebay, the auction houses and internet dealers. Collecting would be sooooo boring waiting once a year to scour the local coin shops for new coins.

Did I say the internet?...Yeah the internet

Tyler

Baley

I'll agree that in the past 5 years, the internet and specifically eBay have had the biggest impact, far and away. I personally do almost all my buying and selling there, with maybe a coin show or 3 throughout the year. coin shops, never, because their prices are just too damned high with their storefront overhead, and their offers too low for the coins i want to sell.

5 or t 10 years from now, though, if even a small fraction of new collectors saving state quarters out of their pocket change expand into "real" coins, and here i mean pre-1936, there just won't be enough to go around, especially pre-1836 material in any condition. we will see

cladking

The internet has been around for a long time. I used to play around on it leaving
coin messages in 1990 and '91. There was very little response, but it seems the
growth of the internet is a parallel development more than a cause of the explosion
in interest in coins. While e-bay may be somewhat more a causative factor it's suc-
cess would still have been very muted had people not become more interested in
coins independently. E-bay's impact is much more in the way coins are actually bought
and sold more than in the quantity or type of coins being traded.

There has been an explosion in the amount of advertising and promotion of coins.
Much of this is coming from the mint to generate sales or use of current coin. But many
entities are spending significant amounts of money to put coins in front of(or for sale to)
the American public. Even here though the advertising couldn't be done because it
would have little impact if the public weren't interested.

The registries have spurred a great deal of interest in many people, but most of these
already had some interest and the interest is merely driven much higher by the ability to
compete, compare, and show their collections with others. No doubt some have been brought
on board on the backs of the registries, but more han anything these just keep the level of
excitement high.

The coin market bottomed out in 1995. When it started showing signs of life in the autumn
of that year, moderns started coming awake for the first time ever. After having been com-
pletely ignored since the day they went into production the demand for the finest of these
finally started bumping up against the ever diminishing supply. This segment of the market
was so tiny as to be unnoticeable even to the majority of the insiders. It was still tiny but
exploding when the states quarters program was proposed and promoted in '95-'96. It was
still small when the states issues started bringing in substantial numbers of new and return-
ing collectors in '99. But the explosion in demand for these coins which became manifest in
1995 was not and is not dependent on the new collectors. It would be more accurate to say
that the SQ program was dependent on the rise of moderns since it would not have become
reality if the conditions were not right. The primary cause of the growing interest in moderns
is largely changing opinions and demographics.

We are in the process of recruiting a new generation of coin collectors and the vitality of the
market in the last several years underscores the huge growth being seen in all sectors of
the market. Concurrently we are seeing massive changes to all of the hobby's traditions and
past ways of doing things. This metamorphosis will continue for several years yet and we will
be left with a larger, stronger and more vibrant hobby.

Trime

Impact on our hobby!
For now and for the members of this Board it is the internet. E-bay has had the greatest impact. I say this dispite never buying or selling a coin on E-bay. The wonders of the internet and its easy imaging of coins has opened inventories and information to the majority of collectors and allowed marketing of coins like never before. There will be a time when all information resources will be available on-line and we will be able to research every topic in numismatics with outstanding linked imaging. This will in time increase the interest in the die errors and the varieties.

Boards like this have had an important positive effect on many collectors including myself. I have learned a huge amount from other members and the constant flow of information has stimulated me to read and discus topics with others (mainly via internet). Nevertheless, while important to a select audience , the majority of collectors are not on this forum. Incidentally, there should be a time when all classic threads are catalogued and available easily for reference.

The State Quarters program has stimulated many new collectors; the impact of this proram will be high of the list in the next few decades as from this group will come the future true collectors.
While the origens of the impact was hardly in the past 5 yesars, the development of certified grading services and slabbing of coins were a prerequisite to internet sales of coins. E-bay would be the wild west without certification. The pioneers in this area would be certain candidates for the Numismatic equivelent of the Nobel prize.not in the past 10 years.

The registries will have only a transient impact as the rolls fill and it becomes clear to collectors that their day in the early sun has been eclipsed and best in series becomes more established. The excitement for conditional best for modern widely available coins will die down and the price bubble will burst as more and more ignored coins work their wayt into slabs. The registries will however serve as a site to view really fine collections and may become a modern on line Smithsonian.
The commodity market eg gold and silver have only transient effects on popularizing a hobby. The reason is obvious to me as commodity prices go up and down. While a few may argue that purchasing gold and related precious metals is long term investing, I see it as a means of hedging and vehicle for short term speculation.

cladking

<< <i>

The State Quarters program has stimulated many new collectors; the impact of this proram will be high of the list in the next few decades as from this group will come the future true collectors.


The excitement for conditional best for modern widely available coins will die down and the price bubble will burst as more and more ignored coins work their wayt into slabs. The registries will however serve as a site to view really fine collections and may become a modern on line Smithsonian.
>>



These ideas would certainly seem to be contradictory.

cosmicdebris

I think everyone has pretty much coverd it all the Internet and the State Quarters program.

coinkat

Statehood Quarters as well as the new currency designs

michael

a combo of

pcgs/ngc and marketing ie. registries

gold price

internet

mint programs ie. state quarters/ sac dollars etc

stock market slide

sincerely michael

Typetone

Well, here's my story. Like the whole world, I collected as a kid in the late 60s. As I got to high school, the scents of gasoline and perfume lured me away! Over the years as I gathered some funds I considered collecting again, but several factors held me back. First, I didn't know how to grade. I felt dealers overgraded what they were selling, and undergraded what they wanted to buy. I didn't feel qualified to match wits with the experts. Second, there was no good pricing mechanism. What should I pay, and what could I get if I had to sell? Third, local dealers didn't really seem helpful, and I didn't know much about shows. I was afraid to walk into coin shops. I walked into Harlan Berk's shop in Chicago with my set of BU Roosies I collected as a kid, wondering what I could sell them for. The person behind the counter told me they were all AU, and worth almost nothing. He seemed annoyed I was there. Though I liked coins, I never got back in.

Then in 1999, my kids got interested in collecting through the statehood quarter program. I took the opportunity to rekindle my interest, and started to read, mostly the Scott Travers books. I was surprised to learn that many coins were now slabbed. I also learned that the internet contained a wealth of information. Many dealers posted inventories. There were on-line auctions. There were records of auction prices, creating a reasonable price series. I can't count the hours I spent on the Teletrade pricing guide. Little by little I got back in. I bought only certified pieces, and buy almost exclusively through on-line dealers and auctions.

So, here's what got me in. 1.) The rise of third party grading, 2.) Scott Travers excellent beginners books, 3.) Internet and phone access to a national marketplace including the ultimate customer buyers and sellers, and 4.) The state quarters program. So, yes to all your answers. I feel I am a typical convert to the hobby, and those reasons are what bought me back in. While these factors worked in tandum, the acceptance of third party grading seems to be the main key.

Greg

FoundingFather

If I had to pick one answer it would definitely be the Internet. It's by-products, like Ebay, forums, the ability to show pictures, market, trade, research, and communicate so easily are all under the umbrella of Internet. We would have had this explosion with or without the State Quarter program, but of course, it helped.

dorkkarl

"internet" would not be my answer, not at all

my answer would be: huge increase in discretionary funds & avaialbility of low-interest financing over the last 5 years. sure, the internet, etc. have had an impact, but the impact would be minimal if the financial resources weren't there to drive the mkt. kind of like asking why car & home sales have skyrocketed. it hasn't been because of the internet, but because you & i have had more $ avaialble to spend, & money has been "cheaper".

what i'm saying is that 'net or no 'net, if/when recession or inflation or high-unemployment hits, coin sales will drop dramatically. the internet won' t stop that from happening.

K S

becker

Clankeye,
I'm nothing but a newby here, but even with my limited experience I'm willing to predict that this forum and perhaps others like it will change the hobby for the better--forever. I'm simply amazed if not astounded at the valuable information that is available by reading most threads. The willingness to share experiences and opinions is remarkable. Even when opinions vary they are presented in an intelligent and civil way. Like I say, I'm very new to the site. Maybe you could point me to a few flame wars that have sprung up. I'd enjoy watching a good fight!

For most of the time that I've been in the coin business self-promotion and intimidation have been prevalent in the hobby. I'm the expert and you're not. Who would question someone who wrote the book? My coin is a better coin because I say so. In my opinion, most if not all of that hype is behind us. Will we still make mistakes? For sure. If I don't make at least one a week I know I'm not trying hard enough.

Twenty years ago if someone had said that I could someday be instantly surrounded by thousands of active and excited coin people by using a computer I would have said they were nuts.

Best,

Tom

Clankeye

<< <i>I'm willing to predict that this forum and perhaps others like it will change the hobby for the better--forever. >>



I think you are right about this, Tom. Participation in the forum has been nothing but win/win for me so far. I have made new friends and connections, increased the number of resources I have to acquire coins I am looking for, and learned a lot about areas of the hobby I might not have otherwise been exposed to.

As I said earlier, it's made the hobby far less of a solitary pursuit for me. And I really appreciate that.

As far as the flame wars, just stick around, you won't need anyone to point them out to you. They will become apparent.

Clankeye

PhillyJoe

Internet and ebay, of course; and the infamous slabbing of coins. Something that wasn't mentioned that I would like to add is the digital camera/scanner effect. I remember years ago when someone first told me soon we could transmit pictures over the computer I said "cool". How would we share our knowledge and treasures here without pictures? How many coins do you bid on without wanting to see a picture? I spent $600 on a coin Sunday that was 3,000 miles away. I never held it my hand, but I bought it based on the picture and my experience with the seller. I'm not sure I would have spent that kind of money if my only guidance was "nice shiny proof 69 cameo coin; $600. Can you picture it?