Maybe The Greatest Hobby On Earth..coin Collecting?

justcarl: I'm teasing, you know that!

Cool looking shells! That hobby is just as cool. You can research the proper names of the shells and from which part of the world they most probably came. Do those shells get a light tumbling to produce their luster - or how did they get that way?

They were once used for money. See wampum.

And if anything I think tumbling might take the luster off..but not really sure so please don't quote me : )

Yep. Put a seashell in a rock tumbler and you'll end up with chalk powder and not much else. The shells are naturally polished by the animal that grows inside them. If a cowry loses lustre you can use a liquid wax like paraffin oil to help keep it lustrous. My dad says with these kinds of shells if a crazed patch is left in the wrong environment the can get the equivalent of bronze disease, where it slowly crumbles away all by itself.

Dad says all of them but the large long one are kinds you're likely to find on beaches around Australia. That long one is more likely to be from the Philippines.


Wampum is made from altogether different kinds of chopped-up shell; white wampum beads come from whelks, black come from a species of clam.

However, cowries themselves were widely used as money, highly prized for the colours and lustre we've been talking about. In ancient China, the earliest known artefacts deliberately manufactured for use as money were artificial cowrie shells, and records indicating the shells themselves served as currency long before this, way back in the Shang Dynasty (1766-1154 BC). The Chinese character "bao", meaning "money", is a composite character comprising the characters for "jade", "cowries" and "pottery". In the Pacific islands, cowries form part of the rich tradition of "primitive money" among and between the various islands and cultures. And in West Africa, the cowrie was such a common pre-colonial currency that the post-independence currency unit of Ghana was named after them: the cedi; many cedi coins depict cowry shells.

Beanie babies might be failed but not hot wheels or sports cards. As HOBBIES they are still alive and well. It was the silly investors and speculators that got killed. If you are buying a card or a car because it fills a spot in your collection and you are just happy to have it you are participating in a hobby. If you are buying them and maybe multiples on the hope that they will go up in value and you will be able to sell them for a profit you are speculating and not playing with your hobby.

A failed hobby is one that no one participates in anymore. Now the number of people buying sportscards and hot wheels may be down, but people are still buying them otherwise why are the companies still making them?

And there are many hobbies that can and are participated in by people of all ages and economic levels

I had a speculator who had 5000+ special hot wheels. I told him I'd give him $5000, about what toy stores charged.

They sell on ebay for $5 about 40% of the time there's a buyer. Time you figure listing them multiple time and fvf/pp fees on the ones that sell, ebay would make slightly more than the seller does.

I like fishing too, but THAT's an expensive hobby, especially in the desert.


My stepmother who is from louisiana, laughs at my father and I--- we have a boat, a fishfinder, rods, tackle, etc etc etc--- and still come home skunked on occasion (IE darn near every time!)--- meanwhile in Louisiana you have have a cane pole, catch a cricket or two or maybe dig for worms and voila you can feed the whole family in an afternoon.

But, like posted above- when it's a hobby it's not about the money... or the logic...

and besides, It is the only hobby in the World that the hobbyist will definitely never get broke