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POLL: ANA - Are you a member?
Scioto
Posts: 955 ✭
Are you a member of the ANA?
GO AHEAD! I DOUBLE-DOG DARE YOU TO RATE ME A 1!
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I'm typically a Kool Aid™ drinker if it has to be in Tupperware™
Practice makes perfect & nobody is perfect. So, practice being nobody.
I believe in the mission of the ANA and the membership of the ANA. It's important the organization stays healthy and relevant, and I'll stick around to help make sure that happens.
<< <i>I paid the dues. I think I still have complimentary submissions that I don't plan on using.
I'm typically a Kool Aid™ drinker if it has to be in Tupperware™
Somehow I think you are mistaking membership in the PCGS Collectors Club with membership in the American Numismatic Association.
Steve
My Complete PROOF Lincoln Cent with Major Varieties(1909-2015)Set Registry
<< <i>Yes, I have been since the age of 10 (almost 20 years now) and will be come hell or high water.
I believe in the mission of the ANA and the membership of the ANA. It's important the organization stays healthy and relevant, and I'll stick around to help make sure that happens. >>
I didn't join as young as Pistareen did, but I've been a member for 25 years and completely agree with his statement.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
The ANA has many problems, not the least of which are some of the people in charge.
<< <i>
<< <i>I paid the dues. I think I still have complimentary submissions that I don't plan on using.
I'm typically a Kool Aid™ drinker if it has to be in Tupperware™
Somehow I think you are mistaking membership in the PCGS Collectors Club with membership in the American Numismatic Association.
Steve
Plastic surrounds the whole thing, Steve. I paid the dues, they sent me some forms and some FREEBIE certificates to have coins housed in plastic. NOW WHO DID THAT ? was it the ANA or NGC or NCS or the PNG ?
I think you are mistaking my point
edit to add:
But, I wear it proudly
Joe
Practice makes perfect & nobody is perfect. So, practice being nobody.
Jerry
NSDR - Life Member
SSDC - Life Member
ANA - Pay As I Go Member
And for you naysayers ... any ANA is better than no ANA.
Drunner
Really? ............... Why? I am serious. Why would you consider any ANA, no matter how it is run, or what benefits it provides to its members, to be better than no ANA at all?
For me the greatest benefit to membership in the ANA had always been the superlative and educational 'Numismatist' magazine (they even dropped the article 'The' as part of the dumbing down process), but that has been replaced by the present comic-book-style periodical geared to the short attention span of a younger generation. Let's take a look at some of the other so-called benefits:
Free admission to the ANA Summer and Mid-Winter Conventions, but that is available to non-members, so that's a non starter.
Presumably cheap insurance rates on your collection. However, with annual premiums averaging 10% of the appraised value of your collection, no one with any significant collection could justify paying such premiums, especially in light of the security concerns about keeping your collection at home.
Access to the ANA Library, one of the most significant numismatic literature resources in existence. This is, indeed, a great benefit, but any collector who has specialized in a series for an extended period of time has likely assembled his or her own library on that series, so that benefit becomes minimized over time.
Access to a special travel agent who presumably can provide less expensive travel arrangements to ANA conventions. However, in my own experience, using a side-by-side comparison, I have never realized any savings over conventional, non-affiliated travel agents.
And all this for just $33 per year.
I am presently a member of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club, who publishes an award winning and scholarly quarterly journal (The Gobrecht Journal) on a subject directly related to my specific collecting interests, and provides the camaraderie and fellowship of like minded collectors, plus a medium of exchange for sharing of ideas and information, for just $15 per year. I also belong to the John Reich Collectors Society, who publishes an equally scholarly and informative quarterly journal (The John Reich Journal), plus the fellowship of serious collectors of similar interest, and for just $20 per year.
I get no satisfaction in bashing the American Numismatic Association, nor do I relish the idea of discontinuing my membership in an organization that I once enjoyed. But in recent years they have given me fewer and fewer reasons to remain a member, and have provided me with less input for my concerns during that same period of time. I make these comments merely to make the powers that be aware of the serious and growing discontent within the membership. They seem to be more concerned about marketing the organization to the masses of new and casual collectors, and less concerned about serving the serious numismatists who have been loyal, long term members.
UncleWiggly has suggested joining the American Numismatic Society (ANS), an idea that seems more and more attractive with each new day.
Also been a member of SPMC for 25 years - that's a great organization for paper money collectors - what's the problem, Jerry?
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA
"Bongo hurtles along the rain soaked highway of life on underinflated bald retread tires."
~Wayne
TorinoCobra71
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I quit years ago when I realized (the hard way) that the mediation services of the ANA had no teeth, and that even with my victory in mediation, the dealer (also then a board member) not only did nothing, but continued to serve on the board. It was not until several years later that the dealer in question went out of business in scandal did the ANA then expel him.
they have been off target for a long time imo.
You can't do anything my quitting. You have no reason to gripe if you don't join, either.
RJ
Toward that end, I am participating in a team effort to write serious articles on Ikes (along with SBAs my area of expertise (well, maybe)).
The ANA has a long history and is not only viable and valuable to our hobby, it has the potential to lead with the collective wisdom of our brightest and most experienced.
We have the choice of abondoning the ANA or working within it to strengthen and shape it. Quitting is rarely the answer to anything of importance. Quitting is expedient, the easy way out.
JMHO, Rob
Questions about Ikes? Go to The IKE GROUP WEB SITE
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
OK here's one. When they sent me an official membership certificate with my name on it I got that warm & fuzzy feeling inside but that soon passed. Other than that they never did anything for me. I don’t use NGC as my grading company so the free submission vouchers were of no use to me. The magazine was nothing more than a dealer advertisement.
Some dealer guy that was running for prez or board of directors did acknowledge this small but influential group here on these boards years ago by coming here and flaming, bashing and insulting us by telling us we were morons & had a locker room mentality. A week later he was back begging for $$ to finish the museum. Only wanted a million dollars. I feel like they are just a dealer clique, they don’t enforce their ethics or investigate complaints against other dealers. Then they spit on us all by jumping in bed with you-know-who grading company. That’s why I’m not giving them any more of my $$ to waste.
<< <i>Yes, but that may change after the next election. >>
<< <i>should i be? >>
Yes Leap, it is worthy of consideration. Not all of it is bad. There is a huge amount of LEARNING that comes with being a member of the AMERICAN NUMISMATIC ASSOCIATION. A lot of people are turned off by many things that ruffled numismatic feathers, but the overall organization was built to protect the industry, not destroy it.
Practice makes perfect & nobody is perfect. So, practice being nobody.
Joined in 1981 and Frank Katen was my sponsor.
The ANA is an important organization that promotes the hobby and information regarding numismatics. And with any organization it needs to be held responsible for how it functions related to its mission.
Garrow
<< <i>Are you a member of the ANA? >>
Member since 1991 (at the Centennial Convention in Chicago - the first really big coin show that I ever went to and still the most fun one that I have ever been) and became a life member (#5290) in 2000!
--Thomas Jefferson
My Registry Sets
But I am considering dropping my membership due to all the BS that the Board is handing out.
Other than the magazine, (which isn't that great IMHO), I don't get much out of being a member.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
<< <i>
<< <i>Yes, but that may change after the next election. >>
I agree as well. Unfortunately, I think the time has come to withhold a vote for every incumbent who is running while voting for every new person. That way, if the majority did the same thing, the powers that be would, immediately, see that they do not have the backing of the membership for those who were reelected would be the lowest vote getters.