Have you ever considered or tried collecting something else and then given up on it?

MrEureka

If so, what was it and what turned you off?

I've given up twice. The first time was with collectible records. I realized that it would be too much work to build a great collection without consistently paying retail guppy prices. The second time was with casino chips. In that case, I determined that the waters were completely shark infested and learning the game was going to be too painful to be enjoyable.

DUIGUY

Yes ! I attempted to collect a wife. After three very bad (emotionally and financially) breaking experiences I gave up .

Then I collected coins . Again after some very bad ( emotionally and financially) breaking experiences I did not give up.

kiyote

I dunno if this counts as something else, but I'm getting a decent collection of PCGS graded $2.00 notes. I have 1953, 1963, 1976, 1995 and 2003. I look forwards to getting earlier stuff now..

rec78

Stamps--after spending a lot of time and a getting a rather large collection together, i found it too difficult to differentiate between a lot of varieties and way too many were needed to amass a complete collection- With the PO putting out new stuff at least once a month i found it hard to keep up with. Coins were a lot easier-although the amount of new issues is becoming disturbing.

Aegis3

Ancient Roman coins. I stopped collecting them because of a small number of vocal dealers who had strong anti-academia biases backed up by an absurd hyper-libertarianism. And it seemed like the whole ancient community supported them. As a grad student at the time, I had to wonder why I couldn't find better uses for my money.

Barndog

you've heard the story from others, it is so common:

Baseball cards. Then my mom threw them away. End of collection.

Michigan

Colonial era currency - I bought three pieces years ago (which I still have) but decided they were kind of dull looking so I didn't continue it.

Fruit crate labels - very colorful and interesting, I even bought a book on them but after awhile I decided they didn't appeal to me that
much after all.

Victorian trade cards - these are mostly from the 1870s to around 1904. A colorful (usually) picture of Victorian life on one side
with an advertising message on the back, some have the message with scene on the front with the back blank.
The scrapbooking craze is nothing new as scrapbooks were popular at this time and that is the primary source of what is available today
in this field.

I recently decided to give this area another try, you can collect by city, state, topic etc. The nice thing is most of them cost in the $5 to
$10 range. Thousands of them on Ebay which helps. (the slabbers have not invaded this area yet but I suspect that might change
in the future)

jhusman

Star Wars toys. I had a nice collecton of the original figures, but I sold when the prices made a huge leap. I couldn't help myself. Too expensive now to buy back in.

McDonis

I too have given up on Baseball Cards and also Retro Video games.


On the Coin front I have stoped collecting new state quarters in rolls. I like many of you believe that in 10 plus years they will be some of the least wanted and valued coins arround.

elwood

I started working on a high grade Early Dime Set and finally gave up because I kept butting heads with a couple other collectors that were making it very expensive to complete. Also, all the best coins are already in their sets.

Then I started Capped Bust Quarters which I'm about to give up on Here the problem is lack of supply and quality. Many of the best coins are already in collections and it looks like they will stay there for decades.



Edited to say....oooops, didn't read the thread title

Preussen

I collected guns for a while, but gave it up. -Preussen

Coxe

Beer cans. Collected them avidly in the mid '70s when they were popular. Finding them was not easy and often not in the best of shape. To build a first class collection of OI flats and/or conetops, you had to buy them retail from others. That took a lot of the fun out of it. My folks sent the collection off to the dump while I was in grad school. Picked up a few on eBay for the heck of it but cannot imagine really getting back into that at all.

ricko

I have been collecting firearms, coins and marbles forever... well, as long as I have been collecting. Nothing else has intrigued me enough to build a collection - although I have many 'one or two' very unique items. Such as a deck of playing cards in perfect condition from 1865. Of course, I have had that since sixth grade. Cheers, RickO

pbfloyd

I collected mechanical cast iron ,and tin banks. Most of the cast ones were out of my reach money wise. I just lost interest when I found coins.

Veep

I worked on pocket knives for a little while. I bought the book before the knife and studied-up. It gave me something else to look for when I was at an estate auction waiting for coins to come up. Then, I stopped going to estate auctions when I decided that it was a waste of time almost every time.

kmcoin

As a kid:

Planet of the Apes Memorabilia.

I still have my Planet of the Apes Garbage Can.

Adult:

I collected Ancient Greek/Roman Coins for a while. I stopped because of the proliferation of very good
fake coins (Gorny and Mosch were auctioning a $130,000 fake tetadrachme back in Sept. until Michel van Rijn blew
the whistle; the fake meisters from Bulgaria..etc..etc.). What really did it was the lack of authentication resources and the "denial" that "fake coins" are a problem that you get from many dealers (but not all).
As one prominent ancient coin dealer put it "If you don't like it ... then find another hobby".
So I did.

291fifth

Stamps. I auctioned most of the collection in 1995 and learned just how high the markups in the field really were. I still feel ill when I think about the loss. I had also collected stamps from 1976-79 and didn't do nearly as badly when that collection was auctioned...but I still lost money.

Ancient Roman/Greek coins. My first time in, in the 1980's, I auctioned the collection and came close to breaking even, mostly because one Roman gold coin did very well. The second time, about two years ago, I found that the margins were even worse than they were the first time around. I lost badly on about 80% of the coins. My fault. Too much enthusiasm. I realized I was in trouble when I tried to sell some of my coins to dealers. They either wouldn't buy them at all (I'm overstocked) or made extremely low offers.

Souvenir Cards. I collected these avidly in the 1980's and had a virtually complete set. When I went to sell them in the early 1990's I quickly discovered that it was strictly a one-way market. The dealers had huge numbers of them in stock. They had bought them as new issues, and, in the case of show cancelled cards, had "made their own."

Obsolete notes. When the dealers with whom I had dealt (late 1980's) found out I was no longer a buyer, but was now a seller, they were suddenly "overstocked." Funny how that happens. I eventually did alright on about half of the notes, but really took a beating on the more common ones.

BigRed

Fossils...........Have a few of them..............They are very old,historic,interesting and very cheap (free in a lot of cases). I hear on the forum about 200 year old coins "if only they could talk". What do you think of a 200 million year old fossil?

Michigan

[Obsolete notes. When the dealers with whom I had dealt (late 1980's) found out I was no longer a buyer, but was now a seller, they were suddenly "overstocked." Funny how that happens. I eventually did alright on about half of the notes, but really took a beating on the more common ones. >>




I had that experience as well. Obsolete notes have really taken off in popularity since the 1980s, several books on the subject
and the advent of Ebay have really sparked the market, the "common" notes don't sell for low prices anymore. Something like
the Canal Bank notes that once sold for $10 or less now bring $45 and up

mrpaseo

What have I collected in the past and stopped now?

1. Comic books
2. Baseball cards
3. Beanie Babies
4. Magic the Gathering cards
5. Stamps

Started with coins, did all of the above inbetween and now I'm back collecting coins... Still have no focus, but I'm narrowing it down. When I move south I'll have more time (I hope).

ziggy29

Happens to me within coin collecting, actually. The "give up" point comes when I realize that I don't have the ever-increasing moon money to compete for the nicer coins I wanted for a particular collecting endeavor.

AuldFartte

Things I have collected, but no longer do:

Zippo cigarette lighters,

Official pins from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta,

Match safes,

Antique (19th century) drafting equipment,

Camaros.

Lakesammman

Sleepy eye stoneware - gave up 2 years ago but recently got back into it. Does that count?? There's a real lack of info compared to coins making it hard to know pops, prices, etc.