Did today's specialist dealers start out as specialists, or did they start first as generalists?

Longacre

Does anyone know if the current crop of specialist dealers started out that way, or did they all start as generalists? For example, when someone like Doug Winter started out, did he hawk Lincoln cents and circulated Ikes, or did he immediately specialize in southern gold? When mrearlygold started out, did he hawk Jeffs and Kennedys, or did he immediately become the preeminent authority on early gold? Does anyone know how this usually happens?

Pistareen

Doug used to be a pretty high profile YN, and for awhile was rather interested (and knowledgeable) in Bust dollars. I dare say most specialists have pretty much always had that specialized interest, after all, you study most what you like best.

Julian

Most dealers started as generalists and then specialized. Those of us that have stores will always be generalists, but with certain series that we enjoy the most. For me it is US patterns.