Interesting Conversation With A Local Coin Shop Owner!!

I agree with this statement. It sounds to me like the local coin shop guy may just be a bit sour because brick and mortar shops are losing out to the internet now and probably for good reason. Personally I don't think rare coins collecting is loosing steam at all. Just take a look at how much is being sold via Heritage Auctions, Great Collections, Stack's Bowers, and certainly ebay. It's just changing the way it gets to the collector. And if per chance that shop owner is right and rare coin collecting is going to die then yippy for me because I'll be buying up all those coins that everyone doesn't want anymore

Most of the brick and mortar coin dealers in my area have very little for the collector and when they have something nice it is usually overpriced compared to similar coins online or at shows. Most of their business comes from a). buying collections, that they flip quickly online or to wholesalers OR b). buying/selling bullion to investors. The B&M coin shop as a hub for the collecting community is largely dead. I'm very bearish in brick and mortar retail in general, there are a lot of empty commercial real estate out there currently and with once proud brands shuttering stores constantly I don't think that is going to change.

Interesting share there and I have to agree with that coin shop owner and am in the camp of those who are of the belief that the younger generations are just not into coins.

I am not saying there are ZERO young people coming into the hobby, its just that there is not enough young people to replace those who are aging.

Its interesting that what that coin shop owner mentions about bullion collectors over any other category fits me. I started out with Mercury dimes and some Buffalo nickels but once I saw the silver eagles, that was IT. I never ever got back into anything but bullion after the eagles. It went from silver eagles to gold eagles then I was out of collecting, then I got back and ran with the ball with world bullion coins.

I see it this way-

1- Yes, we have young collectors coming in, but again, not enough and no where near what was in previous generations.

2- This trend of an older aging collector group versus newer younger collectors has gathered steam and momentum and isn't changing. Look at what the US Mint said recently, their biggest core, strongest base of customers are NOT younger people but a very older group.

3- It takes bucks to collect coins. As much as I dont want to be negative about the economy, the fact is younger generations are making a whole lot LESS than ever before. Heck, you cant even go out in Wall Street anymore and expect to get a job in financial services and make huge bucks. EVERY WHERE there are job cuts and jobs are not coming back. Younger folks are going to really be limited where their money goes.

4- There are LOTS of other things to get into besides coins. Coins arent cool enough. You have to have some sort of connection to coins, a strong interest in some subject that connects you to coins. There are a lot of things vying for ones attention besides coins. The internet is a big distraction, sure it can be a path to getting folks into coins but something else will pop up quickly.


Things look bleak. I dont think coin collecting dies off but going forward a lot of less people will be involved. I have observed other hobbies where this happens- there is atrophy in the core demographic paired with an expensive hobby and usually what happens is not that the hobby goes extinct but rather it just limps along, the hobby becomes even more expensive and never ever grows again or gets back to where it was.

So coin collecting will always be around. But its going to be a very small finite group of collectors around a hobby that continues to get expensive.

BTW- I think this problem is centralized to those living here in the USA.

Great post Adam. Times are changing for all retailers. The internet is replacing the old brick and mortar stores. eBay/eCrater and other sites are the new source for what you use to only get by walking into a coin shop.
Kids these days have the attention span of a nat so collecting is something they just don't get into anymore. Electronic games and smart phones are where their interests lie and their money goes. Maybe as they grow older and have more money, an interest in coins will take hold, even if only as a form of investment. But the numbers will be far smaller than it was for us "boomers" and something will have to spark that desire. There will always be collectors, just not the numbers that there once was.

Internet sales actually have return privileges for the vast majority now. The majority of coin business is internet base now and almost all of next generation collection is from the internet. Antiquated way of thinking in all honesty

I tend to agree with basebal21.

You can gain that experience online. You still get the coin in hand. The major change is you make your final "in hand" decision after you pay, not before you pay. You return and you learn, at times.

If the only way to become adept and understand coin collecting in depth does not include the internet, then I do not see a bright future for coin collecting outside of mint sets, TGP slabbed coins and OGP. The future will only become more and more online.

I think you mean transitional period.

Yes. I corrected the auto-correct.