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How does the hobby look to you, right now?
scotty1419
Posts: 927 ✭✭✭
I tend to duck in and out of collecting - was searching hard pre Covid and largely ignored my collection the past few years.
Hit local shops the last year to fill some holes.
How do things in the industry look to you?
Just monitoring the boards here, things seem fairly quiet - economic hangover from the booming points of COVID hobby sales?
How are Morgans looking? Type? Commems?
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Coin collecting has been doing good, but there are less young numismatists as there were in previous years from what I see. Sometimes I'm the only one at shows.
Type collector, mainly into Seated. Young Numismatist. Good BST transactions with: mirabela, OKCC, MICHAELDIXON
As a Gen-Xer, sometimes I'm the youngest one at a show.
I dabble in a few other hobbies that are predominantly an older demographic and I've watched a new YOUNG crowd absolutely take off via social media over the past several years. I think it's a lot harder to get that same boost with coins for multiple reasons.
The attendance on these boards has been really low lately. If you see the "who's online in this category" at the bottom right of your screen, it often shows only a handful of few members, even on weekends.
He who knows he has enough is rich.
I noticed that. I commented about that as a few years ago, daily volumes were crazy - far higher.
Right now there are only 7 people on the US Coins board. These low numbers seem to be ordinary for today and far lower than in the past. Some threads seem to stick around forever.
Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place.
My Ebay Store
Or maybe the number now only refers to a particular thread and not to the whole US Coins area?
I think the demise of the forums can be attributed more to the rise of Facebook and Instagram rather than a decrease in collectors. With that said, I always feel like the hobby doesn’t get enough attention in comparison to other hobbies like sneakers or comic books. The top promoters of actual numismatic content on social media ( Witter, US coins) might get 150 likes on their content, yet sneaker videos will have 10k likes. Conversely, the neckbeards making the videos about finding a million dollar penny have 50k likes, go figure lol.
Type Collector of U.S. Pre-33 Gold https://instagram.com/deplorable_dan Successful transactions with- @drfish, @Cladiator, @johnny010, @Pedzola, @PerryHall, @2windy2fish, @Ike1964, @JohnThePainter, @rpmsrpms, @REALGATOR
"Look at this amazing coin I found that's worth $5,000!?!!!!" - 100k likes
"Lets analyze the grade of this $1m coin" 10 likes
LOL
The demise of the forums?? That's rich.
Ok so "demise" might be too strong of a word but who are we kidding here? 20 years ago a thread could get posted and be on the 3rd page in an hour. I'm not saying that people aren't talking about coins still, but they're just not doing it here. I moderate a pre33 gold group on facebook with close to 5,000 members and you know how many of them I've seen participate here? Maybe 5 or 6, and half of them were here first and invited to the group by me. I love this forum and spend the majority of my online time here but let's call a spade a spade, I know you can't be that obtuse.
Type Collector of U.S. Pre-33 Gold https://instagram.com/deplorable_dan Successful transactions with- @drfish, @Cladiator, @johnny010, @Pedzola, @PerryHall, @2windy2fish, @Ike1964, @JohnThePainter, @rpmsrpms, @REALGATOR
DeplorableDan's insight is on point. The forum medium, which enjoyed popularity a couple of decades ago, now appears somewhat antiquated. It's likely that a significant portion of individuals have shifted their discussions off to different platforms. The modern desire for immediate responses and engagement is well met by platforms like FB, IG, and Discord. As a result, gauging the state of the coin hobby based soley on current active forum users would be a skewed perspective
I wish I could always be "positive" and even pollyannish, however I have a lot of critical thinking faculties and don't accept things at face value. The higher end seems to be doing well, the lower and mid-range collectibles, not so much. Ebay has slowed down a lot recently.
I've been collecting for over 60 years, and when I started, I always found it fun to get rolls and find the penny or nickel i need to fill that spot in my Whitman folder. As years went on, I added dimes then quarters and so on. To this day i enjoy finding that new coin for the year to keep my (now) Dansco albums up to date. I just wonder does anybody just like to collect coins for what they are anymore. it seems a lot of collectors are looking for that coin they can make X amount of profit rather than just enjoying the hobby. To add interest to my collecting I started making custom albums (Proof albums, W mint mark albums) to name a few. I still enjoy the hobby, and more so now being retired.
Many still buying, but quietly, and not on the boards as much, that's probably in a nut shell.
I miss the late '90's-early 00's as this board was on fire back then.
P.S. Even Mark @MFeld abandoned us for greener pastures.
@WALLE you sound like you're doing your collecting just as I like to do -- collecting for enjoyment and hoping for occasional profits/value increases, but not trying to earn a living out of it. Customizing albums to your liking sounds terrific! Retirement for me is like 20 years away, but hope to do what you're doing once there.
It looks strong to me and there are tons of coins I want but going to need to put on the brakes for a bit. Inflation taking a bite out of my disposable income and Christmas is coming, so need some funds for that.
My Jefferson Registry:
https://pcgs.com/setregistry/alltimeset/191115
I agree and I believe you may be speaking for a lot of people.
Everyone needs to relax the vault box series will rejuvenate the hobby and it will explode.
So you’re saying all those kids who jumped on the coin bandwagon during covid have already disappeared? Is this the definition of weak hands, or boredom with the hobby, or something else?
I'd call that segment more of 'intro/starting collector'. It's the same in multiple hobbies. If anything, it planted a great seed for stronger collecting down the road.
A lot of kids don’t do it anymore because it’s a complicated hobby. It’s not like Pokémon cards where everything is relatively simple. Most kids now like to just mindlessly scroll Tik-Tok, I have friends who do it for 5+ hours a day, and I don’t even want to talk about their attention spans. It’s so sad.
Type collector, mainly into Seated. Young Numismatist. Good BST transactions with: mirabela, OKCC, MICHAELDIXON
I assumed he was talking about local/regional shows, because the crop of yn coin dealers seem to be pretty active still and I see a lot of them at the large national shows.
Type Collector of U.S. Pre-33 Gold https://instagram.com/deplorable_dan Successful transactions with- @drfish, @Cladiator, @johnny010, @Pedzola, @PerryHall, @2windy2fish, @Ike1964, @JohnThePainter, @rpmsrpms, @REALGATOR
I do a lot more lurking than posting on the forums lately. Partly because I have less free time, partly because I am also interacting on other platforms.
My casual observations...
1) There is still plenty of competition out there for great coins.
2) It seems like there is a good sized group of serious collectors and newer dealers in their 30's and 40's.
3) The pandemic years spurred a new audience for bullion. I would expect some of this cohort to expand into rare coins.
4) I wonder how much of coin commerce is serving collectors vs dealer-to-dealer.
My Gold Type Set
I went from my local dealer to the internet for a short while as my dealer was only getting bullion for a few years but lately he has gotten a few nice collections which makes me go buy from him, he said lately more sales than buying but he does good on eBay. So the market is still good. I guess as long as it’s good, I’m good.
My current registry sets:
20th Century Type Set
Virtual DANSCO 7070
Slabbed IHC set - Missing the Anacs Slabbed coins
Forums are dying as users transition to other mediums. Really just that simple. My discord server is booming, 1000-1500 messages a day.
Professional Numismatist. "It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
I bid on 9 coins on Ebay yesterday, a true auction. The starting bids seemed to be doable so I went ahead and placed them in my watchlist
Long story short, I won 8 of the 9 coins, only two of them received more than 2 bids. These are TPG coins and I won them at very good price.
Maybe I just got lucky, which doesn't happen very offten.
I'm happy as a pig in mud to add these 8 coins to my inventory.
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
How do you do at GC?
I did win 2 coins last sunday on GC at, I thought very good prices on both coins
But these 8 on Ebay just was suprise wins
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
a coin discord server?
Lots of price dislocation right now.
Lack of demand IMO.
I personally dislike most "social media", TikTok, Twitter, and especially Facebook. What else is there besides "old -school" forums ?
I know nothing about discord and Deldoons post intrigued me. Here's a listing I found of the coin related servers but I don't know which one is best:
https://disboard.org/servers/tag/coin
The market has been slow for sometime. My take many areas over valued.
However - A CACG 1885-O $ tracking realized at auc yesterday: 1.75 x CDN bid for CAC, 1.34 x CAC CPG. Bidding was aggressive. Is the winner the end user? He’s so underwater on it lol (common date) he might as well take up free diving.
Certainly not a deal for me but if the money burning a hole in your pocket lol…
Was it colored?
This forum is basically a club for PCGS memebers. its> @DelawareDoons said:
Got a link?
The substantial truth doctrine is an important defense in defamation law that allows individuals to avoid liability if the gist of their statement was true.
I think FB is a social media dinosaur now.
Its Discord, TikTok, Instagram IMO.
The substantial truth doctrine is an important defense in defamation law that allows individuals to avoid liability if the gist of their statement was true.
I bid on 9 auctions on GC when they are just posted at 9 days out. I won 7 of them at my opening bids. Granted they were PCGS modern coins in MS65 but they were nice coins at very inexpensive prices.
Prices continue to be way too high IMO. (Doesn't keep me from buying them, though
)
Bring back the 1970's. Better prices and MUCH better music.
Inflation and my upcoming tax bill have slowed me to a stop recently. Also, I purchased a 32-D and 32-S quarter off the forums and had 3 local coin shop guys tell me they were counterfeit. They weren't graded and i sent them back to the seller for a refund, but that got me thinking "what else in my collection is fake?".
Successful transactions with: robkool, Walkerguy21D, JimW, Bruce7789, massscrew, Jinx86, jonasdenenbergllc, Yorkshireman, bobsr, tommyrusty7, markelman1125, Kliao, DBSTrader2, SurfinxHI, ChrisH821, CoinHoarder, Bolo, MICHAELDIXON, bigtime36, JWP, 1960NYGiants
I am on discord for my Fantasy football and baseball dynasty teams. Essentially group chat
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
From my less than super active perspective, I’m thinking the market is fairly healthy. Sure, we’re off the highs for many common pieces, but the really superb materials appear to continue to be very strong.
Early on, after initially embracing social media, I have taken a hard turn away from it. My reasons are numerous, but having my entire IG photo content pages/portfolio ripped off, posted and claimed as their own by some imposter- didn’t thrill me and contributed to my dismay.
As for ‘other social media platforms, I’m with @dcarr on this one!
This forum is my happy place as far as social media goes.
Reading posts here, I stay connected with different viewpoints and observations of the coin market, interesting developments, pieces of note, and happily, an absence of political friction.
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
I see continued bifurcation. CAC approved coins in popular series and early type (especially gold) is doing very well. The rest seems to have come off a bit from last year. The less desirable it is (ugly or extremely common), the more it has to be discounted from 2022 levels. YMMV.
It seems to me that the New Morgan/Peace offerings constitute the 800 pound gorilla in the US coins playhouse. Do they add interest and bring in new collectors or merely take away from other lines, such as the silver eagles and traditional US mint offerings?
Biggest changes I have noticed other than that:
Bullion stackers now dominate rather than “collectors”
In person events and old school auction houses starting to regain traction as people get over Covid and sour on the Wild West aspects of the internet.
It’s actually insane how many bullion stackers are out there. The fb groups are dominated by them, they spend their money on junk silver or cleaned pre33 gold as opposed to normal bullion coins. If we could convert just 5% of them into numismatic collectors the hobby would flourish beyond our wildest dreams.
Type Collector of U.S. Pre-33 Gold https://instagram.com/deplorable_dan Successful transactions with- @drfish, @Cladiator, @johnny010, @Pedzola, @PerryHall, @2windy2fish, @Ike1964, @JohnThePainter, @rpmsrpms, @REALGATOR
There’s nothing wrong in stacking bullion (highly recommend, good investment) - it’s fun and a super deal these days. Especially with current world tensions. Picked up an Anacs MS 69 ASE for $33 recently. CPG $60. Beautiful coin, super deal. More silver than a Morgan $.
No it was not a toner - a brilliant rather nice coin. CDN bid $112, it went for around $197. Bid on it but it passed by my high bid of $102. Let them rest in peace buried in it.
My reverse question would be. Which coin market? Moderns, Classic, over $500 under $500,
under $10,000, over $10,000? I could list a couple dozen more and you would get a couple dozen different answers.
MY coin market is the under $500 Seated Coin market.
Attractive coins and better dates sell quickly or for strong money.
Common coins, because this is a very stable market, remain unchanged year in year out.
It was a common date MS 64 Morgan Dollar. When it surpassed my 10 pct behind wholesale bid I knew I would not be winning it. Unless a deal for me not a buyer lol.