How's everyone doing with collecting lately?

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How is everyone doing with their collecting recently? I see Dean is still putting in the groundwork to make his bank rounds and continuing to find some diamonds in the rough. Walktothewater's fantastic website has been focusing almost exclusively on world notes since last fall. Michael's ArchAngel site was down for a rebuild and seems to have since disappeared.

It's impossible to ignore the effects of global political and economic events on our hobby. It's hard to say that the last year+ has been especially favourable for collecting. As walktothewater has pointed out in the past, times like this are a good opportunity for introspection and for re-examining our goals.

Where are we at as currency collectors? For me the last year has been one big lull. Living in the US, buying Canadian or world currency online (eBay, auctions, etc.) has become cost-prohibitive with tariffs. Climbing fuel prices may cause some to forego big purchases and focus more on saving.

Over the last year, about all I've managed to add to the collection has been a few new polymer prefixes. We're spending our vacation dollars in BC next week and I am really looking forward to making the rounds at my favourite local stores, where I hope to make some good finds without the added costs of tariffs.

I'd be interested to hear how others have been approaching the hobby lately.

I have slowed down in the past 6 months, really just focusing on finding upgrades and I've avoided starting any new collections. This applies to both coins and banknotes.

I was at the coin show in Cambridge, Ontario on Saturday and it was quite busy. I was surprised at how many kids were there, which is a good sign for the future of collecting.

Lots of stuff but nothing caught my eye.

Living in the US, buying Canadian or world currency online (eBay, auctions, etc.) has become cost-prohibitive with tariffs.

I am living in Germany. Buying coins (or banknotes) from dealers outside the European Union has become very expensive and cumbersome. I used to buy my Canadian coins on ebay from dealers in Canada. I was usually pretty happy with this. However, I have stopped this a few years ago. For me, tariffs are not the problem. It's VAT*. First of all, ebay slaps 19% VAT on any purchase, including postage (!), I make from dealers ouitside the EU even though most items' VAT should be 7%. But ebay doesn't care. It's 19%. This has made Canadian circulation coins quite expensive, especially in regard to their face value.
Secondly, postage from Canada to Germany has become pretty expensive, too.
Consequently, I have slowed down considerably even though I still won't give up on my Canadians yet. But yeah, I am very selective now.

*: Value Added Tax. It's 19% here in Germany. There is a reduced rate for certain items which is 7%.
I had a nasty VAT surprise when I bought the new banknotes from the Falkland Islands from a dealer there.

I'm reluctant to travel too far to go to coin shows these days.

It's harder to justify the cost of a tank of gas plus admission fees to a show when most dealers do not bring much raw paper money to sell.  Often, when I go to a coin show, I end up buying nothing and going home disappointed.

Everyone at the shows is obsessed with silver and gold.  If you are like me--a paper money collector who doesn't like third party graded notes, there isn't much reason to go to an in-person show these days.

For me, it's often cheaper to buy items online; even with taxes and shipping if you consider the cost of gas and admission fees.

Dean

Thanks for the responses so far. Rising shipping costs are definitely another factor impacting buying and selling. Since the pandemic, USPS has raised rates a whopping 10 times. Not counting peak-season surcharges, Canada Post has raised rates 5 times during the same period.

While the US does not have a VAT-style tax, some online marketplaces (eBay, Etsy, Mercari, Discogs, and others) now calculate their fees not only on the item price, but also on the shipping amount, which in turn gets passed along to buyers.

Coin shows must be great for those who live near the venues where they are held. The closest ones to me are usually about 3 hours each away, so I haven't attended one in many years. If I ever make it to Toronto, I'll try to time my trip to coincide with a show.

I really balk at the fees charged by auction houses, but when I stop and think about it, I suppose there are acquisition costs no matter how one obtains collectible coins or currency, aside from those rare occasions where something valuable turns up in circulation or comes your way in an ordinary transaction.

Walktothewater's fantastic website has been focusing almost exclusively on world notes since last fall.

-Thanks for the compliments @rxcory! I will try to get "back on track" & put some work on the CAD side of things soon.

I was surprised at how many kids were there, which is a good sign for the future of collecting.

-Great to hear @q60driver!
Besides my 1935 Ten (which I picked up last spring) I have only added a 1937 Ozzy Five which @q60driver was nice enough to provide me! 

I'm reluctant to travel too far to go to coin shows these days....It's harder to justify the cost of a tank of gas plus admission fees to a show when most dealers do not bring much raw paper money to sell.  Often, when I go to a coin show, I end up buying nothing and going home disappointed.

-Makes sense @Dean. Last show I went to (in Dec 2024) I saw nothing interesting. All I ended up doing was picking up a Charlton (priced so high but w/o tax) & I'm so glad I didn't open it up & see how their tables looked the same (or worst) than my 4 y.o. version.

*: Value Added Tax. It's 19% here in Germany.

Sorry to hear about the steep VAT tax @Redlock. No wonder you've curbed your appetite that way.

Personally, I think there's always good times to sit back, relax & take stock in what we have. Everything goes in cycles. The current situation since the Tariff King started keeping the market guessing on fluctuating policies, has created such complete & utter day-to-day uncertainty, that few hazard to take chances so I expect market swings to continue. This situation in the Middle east doesn't help as well & I have NOT seen any quality offerings at any of the auction houses. Some sanity has to return before the hobby will look up again at decent offerings (IMO).