Are collectors getting old ?
 

I've raised this in another forum and my blog. The subject may be a bit sensative, however it was greeted with positive responses. (a wake up for some)

A younger collector expressed their frustration going on a forum and find that it was "mostly old guys who only reply to each othes posts".

If some of the leaders of these forums are concerned that the hobby is dying out, it might be a good idea to welcome new members (with positive responses).

My thoughts were that sometimes members get busy and maybe, just maybe wrapped up in their own collecting.

I have seen great random acts of kindness and sharing on the message boards.

I hope member will take a little time to encourage younger members - even if its a "hello" or a "welcome".

However, I can't count the numerous posts that go unanswered, thus driving the potential young collector away.

It would go a long way to prove that the board is not just a bunch of old guys looking over their old pieces of cardboard. (which is not true)

Thanks for reading. :)

I think every time a new member joins and posts his intro, they get quite a few welcomes to the board. I think there is a wide range of ages here, I would guess most 40 and over, though im 39! :D

WAZ is pretty young, not sure about any others, some just aren't as open or post as much to know or not.

Why don't we run a poll? Old is a relative term but I would guess the age on the board is over 40.

Posts
 

I agree that most new members get a nice hello. I do also know that a lot of posts get responses via PM. A lot of board members just simply like there privacy on certain matters and prefer it not public. I have corresponded with younger members with positive response via PM.

I know I have been PM'ed with regards to my wants because most of the potential sellers don't want others to know what may be available.

Just my 2 cents

good idea, I just put it up

I think it depends on the forum. This forum, yes we are a bunch of old guys. I am also a member on another card forum that most members are under 30 with a lot being under 20. WOW is that place interesting and the collecting is way different as are the attitudes about collecting.

The thing I see a lot with the younger guys is they collect prospect cards. They are very short term buyers because they will buy a Yasil Puig(sp?) card for $15,000 now and in 2 years that card will be worth $150. Then they give up collecting because they thought the prospect was going to make them rich.LOL I am in my mid 40's and we done the same thing with rookie cards 30 yrs ago. We way overpaid for them and then when the bottom fell out for the cards we had most just gave up collecting.

From Last November
 

Average age then was 43-44, but we are all two months older now.:eek::D:D:D

How many is that in dog years?:eek:

I would ask, but I don't have a dog.;)

I don't know anyone's age unless he mentions it, posts a selfie or gives some relevant info. I don't even think about such things. If someone posts he saw Syd Barrett in concert during college, I can get a good idea.

For the record, I'm a Midwestern native raised to be polite and courteous, so am for good manners no matter what the ages involved. Remove the age aspect and insert 'new people,' and I agree with the initial post.

Cliched but true: only as old as you feel. And there are many times when going through my collection I still feel like it's 1984 and I'm 14 :D

I'm going to live forever, or die trying.

-Al

Or as I say to good younger women in, "Yes, I'm older than you, but I'm immature for my age."

Old man
 

I'm of the ripe young age of 25 even though some mornings I feel wayyyyyy older than that. I actually appreciate that the majority of collectors are older/quite a bit older than me. I love the knowledge they possess and consider it a valuable resource for me. Even though I have been collecting for 20 years there is soooooo much to learn and the old folks help haha :cool:

Haze the newbie!!!!

Learn from Coins
 

Having been a numismatist since age 5, and a sports collector much later (teens), I can tell you that this is one area that coin collecting blows sports collecting out of the water on.

There is a large organization called the American Numismatic Association, set up and partially funded by Congress I believe, based in Colorado Springs. Each year they host 2 weeks of seminars, and part of that is giving out Young Numismatist scholarships for kids under 18 to attend (airfare, double rooms at the Colorado College campus, food pass, everything). I won this award at age 17 and have returned again in my 30's. But as a young numismatist, it was an amazing experience. You were treated like the most important people at the event. Your teachers took special care to make sure you were well taken care of, some of the most important coin authors and scholars in the world preferred to hang out with the YN's most of the time, like Walter Breen. This would be like Jefferson Burdick taking his 2 weeks to hang out with the young collectors at an important event.

Besides this, the ANA museum and library has a sale each year and the YN's get first shot at buying any of the thousands of reference books for sale before the adults. And finally there is the YN auction to raise money. The YN's donate their own items to be auctioned, and the proceeds go towards more scholarships for the next year. Here's what is real cool. 1) The adults bid way more than things are worth, and happily so. They get into a fun competition trying to outdo each other on what they end up giving. And 2) because the teachers and other attendees know the YNs from the classes, many times they know what they collect, and they will often bid on appropriate items and then donate the item back to a TN whom they know wants it. IT's a win-win all around, and everybody has fun.

The point is, coin collectors really go the extra mile in every way to try to welcome young collectors. I have never seen this in any way in card collecting. In fact, I have unfortunately seen so much more of the opposite, where adults take advantage of the young collectors. What would it take for this hobby to capture some of the spirit of the Numismatic way of enticing young collectors?

Mark

I cannot express how much I like that quote.

I haven't been here much the last 3-4 days, but I always try to go out of my way to welcome any new members, and age never factors into it for me.

We could try the MLB type thing where they have to carry our stuff for us, preferably in a hello kitty backpack.:D

Unfortunately someone 25 can probably outrun most of us, so that might not work all that well.

Steve B

This board always skews older
 

I will say that one of my goals in the upcoming show at my synagogue is to make sure we are reasonable for the youngsters. Our "suggested donation" is only $1 which is very reasonable and with a large amount of kids in our synagogue, I hope even 10 percent of them attend. That would be about 20 kids coming in the door, most of whome probably have never been in a card show or store.

In addition, there are boards (such as Blowout) which skew much younger.

I have also noticed an uptick in people in their mid 30's who were active in the 90's and have returned. I think our future may be better then we let on a nd some of them will find their way here :)

Meanwhile in storage today I found some old school material I bought from Pat Quinn back in the day which included a ton of the old Frank Nagy auction lists from the 60's-70's. I have a blast looking at them and Leon will be picking those up from me in the next few days --- and he'll share them with the board. So we like the young folks and we like the old folks and try to help both of them.

Rich

Could probably outrun most...depending on how heavy the Hello Kitty backpack is hahaha

The easy answer to this is every collector is getting old-can't cheat time ;) But seriously, I just wanted to add that I am always impressed by the intelligence of younger collectors to be going after pre-war cards!! Wazoo comes to mind first and foremost, and from the few emails we have exchanged I find him to be extremely smart, on the right path in life, and predict success in his future. And, he picked the best set to collect!!

I was off of the board for awhile-I used to try to greet any newcomers, and I like to welcome anyone new. If I missed you, it was not intentional. So, I will take this moment to welcome everyone and anyone I missed- WELCOME TO NET54 EVERYONE :D AND, GOOD LUCK HUNTING ;)

Sincerely, Clayton

OLD!!!!!

I prefer the term........refined.