Enthusiasm for collecting has stalled...

[Jimmyb0468]

Good evening gents. Just wondering, if it's normal what im currently experiencing, when it comes to coin collecting. Allow me to explain....

I started collecting coins approx 4 years ago. Early milled, up to George 6th... In that time I have amassed around 500 coins. Crowns, half crowns, shillings, sixpences etc....... I would spend every weekend hunting down coins at boot sales, antique fairs etc. Every night would be spent trawling auction sites, websites etc, looking to add to my collection. .......reading books. Buying magazines. Looking at forums....                   

Basically, I was mad about coins. It was all I thought about.......and then....   Nothing.     Woke up about 6 weeks ago and found I could not be bothered hunting for coins. Couldn't look at a coin. No more forum. No magazine. No fairs.    did any members on here, have a similar period, whilst building up their collection? (Don't worry I'm not depressed. Very happy. Honest!!!!!).   Just curious to know if this is normal. Thanks in advance for reading my post.

[mrbadexample]

Welcome to the forum Jimmy. I don't think it's unusual. I've been through periods of years where I've not looked at much or bought a single coin. Doesn't take much to spark it off again though - something will catch your eye and it'll all kick off again.

[Paulus]

Welcome Jimmy

I have brief periods of up to 2 weeks or so when my interest wanes, largely because I haven't the funds to upgrade or fill gaps, or the energy/time inclination/to sell some that don't fit for various reasons, in order to generate funds. I've been collecting seriously for about 8 years and find it harder and harder to find examples that 'float my boat'.

You having posted on here tonight is hopefully a good sign

[Jimmyb0468]

27 minutes ago, Paulus said:

Welcome Jimmy

I have brief periods of up to 2 weeks or so when my interest wanes, largely because I haven't the funds to upgrade or fill gaps, or the energy/time inclination/to sell some that don't fit for various reasons, in order to generate funds. I've been collecting seriously for about 8 years and find it harder and harder to find examples that 'float my boat'.

You having posted on here tonight is hopefully a good sign

Hi mate. Your probably right. Early years was all about buying as many coins as I could. Then you learn to be more choosy.

im aware that the last few fairs I drove home from, I was disappointed, that my coin purchases were not as good as I would have liked.  They were instantly put in drawers and forgot about.   I used to love getting home, put coins into holders and store them properly.  Hope it comes back to me, weekends are pretty boring now, ha ha.   

[Jimmyb0468]

42 minutes ago, mrbadexample said:

Welcome to the forum Jimmy. I don't think it's unusual. I've been through periods of years where I've not looked at much or bought a single coin. Doesn't take much to spark it off again though - something will catch your eye and it'll all kick off again.

Hopefully mate. Weekends are getting pretty boring, ha ha.    Used to love trawling the boot sales etc, looking for "treasure" 

[Rob]

Everyone who doesn't spend their life trawling eBay has periods when nothing is available. You can't buy what isn't there.

[Jimmyb0468]

2 minutes ago, Rob said:

Everyone who doesn't spend their life trawling eBay has periods when nothing is available. You can't buy what isn't there.

Your dead right. In my early days I would buy almost anything. Now I've learned more, I'm finding the quality I'm looking for isn't available. I've probably became too fussy...

[Paulus]

Filling my gaps with examples that meet my ever increasingly high criteria is getting harder and demanding more patience, upgrading existing examples slightly less so, but still requires discipline.

What are your main focus areas?

 

 

[Peter]

Take up fishing and British sports cars as well. My rods are in the lounge and I'm soon off to the river. Afterwards a little bit of work,tinker with the MG and then settle down to my coins.

[azda]

10 hours ago, Jimmyb0468 said:

Hopefully mate. Weekends are getting pretty boring, ha ha.    Used to love trawling the boot sales etc, looking for "treasure" 

Welcome Jimmy, may i make a suggestion, you said you'd bought coins from fairs only to take them home, pop them in a drawer and forget about them, you were obviously a little disappointed with what you bought. My suggestion is, go through your coins, what you want to keep and what you want to upgrade, sell those that you don't want to keep, and use the money for something a little rarer in good grade, you'll be satisfied again eventually, downsize a little and start in the higher end.

A collection does.t absolutely mean 500 or 5000 coins, 10 coins can also mean a collection, better with 10 top notch or rare other than 500 or 5000 that are low grade.

Hopefully you get mt point..

[PWA 1967]

Hi Jimmy.

I can understand as i used to buy banknotes and then just stopped about four years ago and havent bought one since.

Looking at azda comments...sounds a good idea 

[Colin G.]

I think it very rare for someone not to have peaks and troughs in interest with this hobby, you only have to look at a lot of the forum members who drift away and then resurface again as their interest drops and then returns again....there are only those select few who are severely addicted who are in it permanently ......and the dealers of course.

The addicted members know who they are ...I won't name and shame 

[davidrj]

2 hours ago, Colin G. said:

I think it very rare for someone not to have peaks and troughs in interest with this hobby, you only have to look at a lot of the forum members who drift away and then resurface again as their interest drops and then returns again....there are only those select few who are severely addicted who are in it permanently ......and the dealers of course.

The addicted members know who they are ...I won't name and shame 

I'm a foul weather collector, when the sun is out I'm in my garden, that means I've been quite busy with my coins this summer

[Jimmyb0468]

21 hours ago, Paulus said:

Filling my gaps with examples that meet my ever increasingly high criteria is getting harder and demanding more patience, upgrading existing examples slightly less so, but still requires discipline.

What are your main focus areas?

 

 

Don't look for anything in particular. Have a number of 1695 crowns. Then jumps to Victoria. Shillings, half crowns, crowns etc.   Some decent Edward vii.  A lot of George vi. Mainly half crowns.    A recent purchase was a couple of complete Whitman folders of Edward and George shillings, including a 1905 shilling. 

[Jimmyb0468]

11 hours ago, azda said:

Welcome Jimmy, may i make a suggestion, you said you'd bought coins from fairs only to take them home, pop them in a drawer and forget about them, you were obviously a little disappointed with what you bought. My suggestion is, go through your coins, what you want to keep and what you want to upgrade, sell those that you don't want to keep, and use the money for something a little rarer in good grade, you'll be satisfied again eventually, downsize a little and start in the higher end.

A collection does.t absolutely mean 500 or 5000 coins, 10 coins can also mean a collection, better with 10 top notch or rare other than 500 or 5000 that are low grade.

Hopefully you get mt point..

 

11 hours ago, azda said:

Welcome Jimmy, may i make a suggestion, you said you'd bought coins from fairs only to take them home, pop them in a drawer and forget about them, you were obviously a little disappointed with what you bought. My suggestion is, go through your coins, what you want to keep and what you want to upgrade, sell those that you don't want to keep, and use the money for something a little rarer in good grade, you'll be satisfied again eventually, downsize a little and start in the higher end.

A collection does.t absolutely mean 500 or 5000 coins, 10 coins can also mean a collection, better with 10 top notch or rare other than 500 or 5000 that are low grade.

Hopefully you get mt point..

Good idea mate. I think when I started collecting, I made the mistake of thinking it was all about quantity. Now I know better.

[Jimmyb0468]

16 hours ago, Peter said:

Take up fishing and British sports cars as well. My rods are in the lounge and I'm soon off to the river. Afterwards a little bit of work,tinker with the MG and then settle down to my coins.

 

16 hours ago, Peter said:

Take up fishing and British sports cars as well. My rods are in the lounge and I'm soon off to the river. Afterwards a little bit of work,tinker with the MG and then settle down to my coins.

 

16 hours ago, Peter said:

Take up fishing and British sports cars as well. My rods are in the lounge and I'm soon off to the river. Afterwards a little bit of work,tinker with the MG and then settle down to my coins.

Sounds like you have cracked the code. Well done mate.

[Jimmyb0468]

9 hours ago, Colin G. said:

I think it very rare for someone not to have peaks and troughs in interest with this hobby, you only have to look at a lot of the forum members who drift away and then resurface again as their interest drops and then returns again....there are only those select few who are severely addicted who are in it permanently ......and the dealers of course.

The addicted members know who they are ...I won't name and shame 

Sounds as though I'm probably a normal collector then.  Good. I was getting worried for a minute.

[PWA 1967]

Dont think any collectors can be looked at as normal Jimmy ....we must all be a bit mad 

As Colin said ...must be addicted.....although my concern is ...if i go in rehab will meet most of the forum 

[azda]

2 hours ago, Jimmyb0468 said:

 

Good idea mate. I think when I started collecting, I made the mistake of thinking it was all about quantity. Now I know better.

I think about 50% of people do, those are the ones who buy anything and everything, but take your time and work out what you want to keep, the extra cash will help towards something nice eventually......

[Nutsaboutcoins]

14 hours ago, PWA 1967 said:

Dont think any collectors can be looked at as normal Jimmy ....we must all be a bit mad 

As Colin said ...must be addicted.....although my concern is ...if i go in rehab will meet most of the forum 

Someone should start "Coin Collectors Anonymous".

But we would all relapse as soon as they start handing out those tokens for being clean for x number of days and we start comparing grades.  

[Nordle11]

genuis

[copper123]

I would actually think that maybe something in you has just switched off the off button .

Remember you can go too overboard on doing something in your spare time and your brain might have switched you off (Hey at least its not a harmfull thing like drugs or alcohol though).

I would say take a break from the coin hunting , clear your mind for a while , then set a date to open your collection again in the near future , say six months away and see is the feelings return .

Dont worry if they dont just repeat the above task , and maybe think of selling up if you are really bored or fed up with collecting.

good luck!

[Jimmyb0468]

1 hour ago, copper123 said:

I would actually think that maybe something in you has just switched off the off button .

Remember you can go too overboard on doing something in your spare time and your brain might have switched you off (Hey at least its not a harmfull thing like drugs or alcohol though).

I would say take a break from the coin hunting , clear your mind for a while , then set a date to open your collection again in the near future , say six months away and see is the feelings return .

Dont worry if they dont just repeat the above task , and maybe think of selling up if you are really bored or fed up with collecting.

good luck!

Good advice, mate. Do you know, that since I came on this forum a couple of nights ago, I've actually began to show an interest again. I think my illness may be getting better, ha ha.

[Mr T]

I've been collecting since 1999 but I think probably half of that time was spent collecting pretty passively.

[secret santa]

Please don't start "Coin Collectors Anonymous" - my collection database contains numerous source entries of "CCA" (Croydon Coin Auctions) and I can't face amending them all !!!