Worst Hobby In The History

Some people collect worthless World base metal coins over a long period of time, and in the process, end up building an interesting and varied collection.

I am one of those collectors.
My World base metal collection will never result in a profit, but has been of considerable numismatic interest to me.

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That is quite apart of spending most of a lifetime of building an also quite valuable 2nd collection of significant numismatic interest,
covering all centuries and cultures in bronze silver and gold, after my first house was paid off.

I have never considered using my numismatic interests to build a collection eventually to sell it for a profit.

However, that did in fact happen.

From my early 'teens, I built a collection, that I was forced to sell, to raise a deposit, to begin a mortgage for my first house.
That house was paid off on a single income in 7 years, and I ended up saving tens of thousands of dollars in interest payments.

The selling of my first collection was the main reason for that.

Can't argue with success!

If you want a hobby to make large sums of money, then you might be confused about the difference between a hobby and a business. Investing in anything is business, period, the end.

You fish for fun (and maybe for healthy food). You tie flies and sell a few as a little side gig for pocket cash. But if you are running a little rod-and-reel shop, then it's a business, and if you don't treat it like a business, then it will kick you to the curb. People make that mistake with restaurants all the time. Coin collecting vs. coin investing is no different.

@ Greasy Fingers:
For a real profit, the multiples of what you paid has to be above the compounded inflation rate.
The Government via the Tax Office has a calculator app that allows you to calculate the compounded inflation rate between any two specific dates to prove a real cost base.
Any value over that is real profit after selling costs and taxes have also been paid.

Over the last 50 years, numismatic values have very roughly followed the gold price.

From my point of view,
Coins certainly enriched my life .
And as a dealer I made a very nice living , thank
you very much .
Maybe the OP should try professional
tiddleywinks as a career option .

Coins are the hardware of history.

That can apply to American history, ancient history, European history, Islamic history, etc, etc.

TinyRetreat has a point. The feel, the history and so on. Not being well off there are gaps in my collection where very expensive coins would otherwise live. I'm not worried about that. I've become interested enough to actually find out more at clubs, meetings, conferences, and goodness me, actually buying books! I've even surprised myself and given a couple of talks and written magazine articles. It's a huge and rewarding hobby. The money side pales into insignificance beside that and I like to think I'm a more mature person because of it all. Those who know me well will deny that though...

I collect coins for fun, not profit. I daresay that's the reason most of us do.

I will admit that it's fun to think that I might find a rare coin someday in change or on the ground that could pay my bills forever. While extremely unlikely, it is possible.

In the meantime, I'm content with filling my coin folders with coins that are not going to make me rich. When I do fill up a folder, it's extremely satisfying. And that's good enough for me.