Coin Collectin Is Not Dying Despite Some Claims

I've had to type so much on this on many different forums that it is just time for it to get it's own post.

Coin collecting is not dying, all it did was change. Since probably the very first collector they've likely been claiming they're the last generation of collectors or that their generation does everything the best and future ones will mess everything up. This has been going on for thousands of years.

I'm sure the grandparents were really proud of Woodstock, or the devil music of Elvis, or how soft kids had it when they had the brand new radio of entertainment. Everything is always relative and human nature is predictable on large scales which is why every generation basically repeats the complaints of their grandparents. The difference now is that the internet allows these complaints to be widely seen instead of being confined to the local malt shop or bingo hall etc.

Now to get to coins specifically.
Coin print material is dying, this is nothing unique to coins.
Many coin clubs are dying, this is nothing unique to coins.
Many local coin stores are dying this is nothing unique to coins.
Many coin shows are dying, this again is nothing unique to coins.

What some either choose to ignore or not realize is that all of these are following the trends of society. People aren't not reading or watching the news because their paper went under, tools weren't eliminated because Sears closed, people aren't running around naked because the local strip mall is closed.

The internet has changed everything. I'll repeat that again, the internet has changed everything. I can get more accomplished in 5 minutes on my iPhone in terms of searching for coins or information than I could in a month of club meetings or several trips to a local store. It doesn't matter how big or how many local shows you have you can get a look at more inventory in an hour online than a month of shows. Now that said there are some good shops and good shows and by all means go to those if you enjoy them, but in terms of looking at the market it is necessary to understand the massive impact the internet has had.

Coin show demographics are another area that people like to reference. First and foremost collectors have always historically been older. Collecting takes money and this is something most kids do not have. It's nothing new that teens would rather party and chase partners. Young people grow up though and interest change. It's happened with every generation.

There is also another major reason why it's older people at shows. The way many treat younger people it's clear a significant portion are trying to take advantage of them. A lot of people refer to this as tuition, but the internet is the great pricing equalizer and the TPGs are the grade equalizer. If you're 15 or under people are nice because you're a kid, if you're 50+ you look like what a collector is supposed to look like, if you're mid 20's-30's there are many people that will treat you differently. This different treatment is very very real and results in different pricing/buy offers/"information" to name a few. Some of you are older than my father and I am certainly a next generation collector, however I am far from a kid. There are countless places where I would get very different treatment and pricing than some of you would. It is what it is, but there is a reason knowledgeable younger collectors have cut out a lot of the old guard.

Now as far as pricing.
Prices have to be understood as to why what has happened is happening. We can start out by throwing out the prices of the 80s, Wall Street was involved and that is such an outlier that unless they get back in it's completely irrelevant for trends. When you remove that it looks very different. Same with when you control for series and quality. Plenty of things have increased, common things have fallen though though many things have reached record prices as well.

Again the internet brought about a long over due adjustment. Previously people believed their local show/shop/club that oh this is the king oh the series is super rare such as a 1909-S VDB. Then the internet came along and you are no longer at the mercy of the local supply nor can supply chains be regulated as much as can see you can buy basically all you want if you have the money at any time. Common Morgans as one example probably should have never been as high as they were in the past.

The old myths and marketing were exposed big time in many areas and as the online market really turned into the force it is today prices adjusted accordingly. Places like ebay themselves essentially encourage driving prices down on common things especially, a bunch of people keep undercutting the each other and next thing you know the price is way down.

Than there is the issue of collecting differences. World coins and moderns and even ancients are more popular than ever. The internet and the TPGs have allowed collectors to be more diverse in their collecting than ever before. Set building isn't as popular as before rather variety is the fad.

Some people want to diminish the importance of Instagram, FB, YouTube, Reddit and others in terms of collecting and some even go as far as to diminish ebay, they are all completely relevant factors in collecting and have done a lot to expand and bring new people into the hobby as well as make it more connected world wide.

I could go on and on and on but I know this is long enough already.

The biggest threat to collecting is collectors themselves and how negative so many are. There have been so many threads on multiple forums where instead of celebrating a record price people feel the need to trash it, or people just wanting to talk something down because it's a modern or they don't understand it/not what they would do. Some can be ego driven, others can be agenda or actually wanting collecting to die for lower prices, others can mean well but just not know enough yet to really be able to give good advice in that area, but the negativity or idea that if things aren't done how I want them drives people off or to other venues especially younger people. This is something that happens all over and not something I am singling out here, but opinions do get presented as market info which in turn talks down someones excitement because that ASE is just bullion to someone despite the long track record showing otherwise as one example.

You can be sure that its not the traditional 50/60+ year old coin club person that's responsible for the massive sales occurring in moderns or world moderns or skull/superman coins just to name small sample of many places.