Seriously Considering Giving Up The Hobby For Good

Sorry to hear. A hobby is supposed to be something a person enjoys doing, not something burdonsome one resents doing. It's not the COINS that have changed, it's all the outside influences. Are you a member of a coin club, or do you have anyone in the hobby that you enjoy being around. It's amazing what a positive influence would do for your spirits.

I agree with Fat Freddy on this.
Not only with hobbies, but also with most pursuits.
Say you've been on a beef kick: steak every day for a week or more. At some point you'll never want to look at a steak again.
So you switch to chicken or fish for a while. When you get the urge for steak again, you'll
no doubt give it a try. Perhaps not with the same fervor, but you will enjoy it.

It is the same with coins.

Do they seem to mock you like the Chinese silver pandas do me? If so, I can't blame you a bit for how you feel.

Follow your gut and you'll be happy. I went through the same feeling and quit then re-started twenty years later.

But if you just hate coins, looky here for like minded people.

http://www.phobia-fear-release.com/...omments.html

Thanks all. I have collected on and off since I was 13 (now 36). Often I'd sell then rebuy when I got back into it but at a higher cost and a lesser intensity. Cash flow is low for me now anyways. My gut says if I sell I really don't wanna go through the rebuying process again. I just don't have it in me anymore. It's mainly Canadian coins I collected and preferred over US coins for some reason. I just don't have that *spark* anymore. :/

I have been there and back on several occasions. When I first started collecting, it was all about building the collection now.... now ...... now. One can become obsessive , searching, buying, agonizing over " did I pay too much " , agonizing over not following every auction and missing the " deal of a lifetime. " Trying to budget the money, to the detriment of any appreciable social life, to acquire more. It can very quickly become " no fun " anymore.

I love football, played it, coached it, watched it my whole life. I remember when I started playing football betting cards, I thought it would enhance my love for thee game. Instead I parked myself in front of the TV every Sunday and tensely agonized over every score, every missed points every mistake. It became an exercise in stress, not an enhancement of my love for the game. I stepped away, now I love Sundays again.

I have stepped away from this hobby many...many times in the last forty years, packed up my collections and refocused on many other things, but my collections are now out and serve as a visual scrap book of my life. The places I was when collecting this, the people I was with when I collected that. Each coin holds a memory. That is what has changed in the hobby. After all these years, I still love standing in my " coin closet " , pulling out collections, albums , proof sets and individual coins and just look at them, take a trip down memory lane.

I love coins, I love the look, the feel , the history, the thoughts that go through one's head when gazing at a 200 year old coin. " What was the world like ? " " Who was the very first person to hold this coin " " Where has this coin been and with who. " I haven't always liked this hobby. Seems like too many accumulators, not enough collectors sometimes. Too many members with 1 or 2 posts showing their latest find with a " so what is it worth " and not enough stories about how their first find has sparked a life long fascination.

I don't know what it is that has got you feeling this way, but I suspect that it is much the same as I have felt numerous times that I have stepped away. Even though in the past I have stepped away from collecting, I never stepped away from my collections. ( I am no longer having more kids, but I would never through away their baby pictures, for like my coins each one holds a memory.) Don't let the unappreciative, the value first , uninformed over bidders who have no appreciation for the true " value " of the coin to a collector taint decision. Step away, take a breath, funny thing about this hobby it is always there to take you back with a fresh new look.

If you don't mind me asking.

What do you mean by "The hobby has changed for the worse"?

Didn't think to mention it above, but... We're now at the end of February, so the start of spring is just around the corner.
Might be a good time to do an outdoor 6 or 9 months -- bicycling, fishing, golf, tennis, whatever...

Get some fresh air and sun. See how the coins look/feel/seem in 9 (or maybe 18) months.

- make silver stacking not only a hobby; but a necessity.