Why "grow the hobby"?

[jomama]

I don't get it. Why grow OUR hobby? OUR hobby being a group of old farts collecting old cans.
Serious question!
(I am a facebooker but do very little on face book regarding cans)

[jinsequa]

Being younger than a lot of can collectors (50’s) I am all for NOT growing the hobby until I am done cherry picking some of the high end collections for the cans I need and until recently thought I would never see nor be able to afford. But with the aging of the hobby I am finally starting to see them and I can afford them now too.

When I am done cherry picking, I am all for growing the hobby. I will let you know.

Eric Palmer

(For the sake of clarity this whole post falls into the category of “sarcasm”)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[idigrust]

Because we used to not be old farts and hopefully a bunch of young folks will catch the bug and inherit all our stuff ! I used to look up to the old time collectors, now that's us. Talk to every younger person you see at the can shows, they really want to learn !

[jomama]

Dan,
If a young person is at a can show, he or she or he-she is already in the hobby. (I give away stuff to the kids too)
I've always been an old fart. When I was a younger old fart , the only "old time collectors" that would trade with me were rusty bunchers. The old time collector-dealers only wanted to trade for money. Nowadays there are pricetags on everything.... every person any can show is a dealer.
It's more like a flea market than a trade-show.

[pinnacle-project]

I think it is human nature to want other people to like what you like. First, it helps to provide affirmation that you are not crazy for liking something. Second, if other people like the same thing, it gives you somebody to talk to that shares your interest. Third, it provides you with people to pass your collection on to when the time comes.

Regarding the last one, my Dad knows he is not getting any younger. Over the years he has been to many auctions and seen many people's stuff get liquidated after they die. While he is not adverse to having his stuff auctioned off when the time comes, I think he would rather pass it on as a collection to somebody that would appreciate it than see it split up. I have been honest with him. He has a lock collection. Some, I really like and will keep. Others don't mean anything to me and will be sold on ebay. I tried to explain to him that someplace out there is somebody who would give their left arm to have some of his locks. Why not share with them? He also has a lot of tools. Some I will keep, some I will pass on. At some point, all of us was that newly married guy trying to build up this tool collection so he can impress his young bride with his ability to fix things and remodel their home. Why not pass on the tools to a guy like that?

[jomama]

I think it is human nature to want other people to like what you like. First, it helps to provide affirmation that you are not crazy for liking something. Second, if other people like the same thing, it gives you somebody to talk to that shares your interest. Third, it provides you with people to pass your collection on to when the time comes.

Regarding the last one, my Dad knows he is not getting any younger. Over the years he has been to many auctions and seen many people's stuff get liquidated after they die. While he is not adverse to having his stuff auctioned off when the time comes, I think he would rather pass it on as a collection to somebody that would appreciate it than see it split up. I have been honest with him. He has a lock collection. Some, I really like and will keep. Others don't mean anything to me and will be sold on ebay. I tried to explain to him that someplace out there is somebody who would give their left arm to have some of his locks. Why not share with them? He also has a lot of tools. Some I will keep, some I will pass on. At some point, all of us was that newly married guy trying to build up this tool collection so he can impress his young bride with his ability to fix things and remodel their home. Why not pass on the tools to a guy like that?

Great! I like that answer the best so far. But my kids have no interest. My mom + dad thought it was a stupid hobby. (they threw out my comic books + baseball cards or I'd been a millionaire a couple times by now) My wife is the same way. But they all like the friends I have made through my 40 years of collecting cans. This is my favorite part of the hobby... the friends made through the years and getting to see them again at shows.

[barfly]

Let's see; Why grow your family?, Your bank account?, Your education?, Your local fire company?, The boy scouts?, The highways we drive on?, shall we go on???????

[Mark (expired)]

Personally I find enjoyment in putting the collection together - fighting the losing battle to entropy or something like that? I am not sure that it is really fair to hand a collection assembled over 42 years (with 42 being the answer to life the universe and everything) and expect my children to appreciate anything close to how I feel when I walk through the collection and reminiscence about how the cans came to the collection? How some can started a collecting thread or completed a clump ... or memory of a the time when a good friend brought a can back for me from some far away place. I do have a few cans that came from friend's collections after they passed away - and those cans are special ones - for, while the cans are empty of their golden elixir, they often remain full with memories.

[jomama]

Let's see; Why grow your family?, Your bank account?, Your education?, Your local fire company?, The boy scouts?, The highways we drive on?, shall we go on???????

No please do not go on.
I am asking why grow OUR hobby. OLD collectors of OLD cans.
When I have more time, I will be more specific.
Right now, I must go to work. Thanks

[JAL]

I am asking why grow OUR hobby. OLD collectors of OLD cans.
When I have more time, I will be more specific.
Right now, I must go to work. Thanks

We will need, or our spouses and family will need, someone to sell the collection to once we are no more, or when we find something else to do in our old age. Otherwise, the collection will be scrapped and no more.

[jomama]

Let's see; Why grow your family?, Your bank account?, Your education?, Your local fire company?, The boy scouts?, The highways we drive on?, shall we go on???????

No please do not go on.
I am asking why grow OUR hobby. OLD collectors of OLD cans.
When I have more time, I will be more specific.
Right now, I must go to work. Thanks

OUR hobby is not the BCCA ... BCCA is brewery collectibles
Our hobby is OLD beer cans with emphasis on rusty treasures.
If you add OUR hobby + the BCCA = 1% to maybe 2% of the beer can collectors worldwide.

[jomama]

My reason to grow our hobby would be to increase the number of people having fun. (Camaraderie) Creating Mo Friends!

[Wrestling Nut]

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. - Albert Einstein

We grow the hobby to find a certain truth. It lies in our friendships with each another. Also, it is in the honor we display by sending cash/cans back and forth without hesitation.

The beauty is in the cans themselves. We desire them and work hard to obtain each masterpiece so that may beautify our shelves.

In this hobby we remain a younger, happier version of ourselves. It is usually ones desire to share such happiness with others. Thus, we attempt to grow the hobby in order share our joy.

Sure it makes the value of the cans increase as well, which is nice, but I don't believe that is why we participate. Certainly there are better investments for monetary gain than beer cans.

[golf_lover44]

Because we used to not be old farts and hopefully a bunch of young folks will catch the bug and inherit all our stuff !

Because we used to not be old farts and hopefully a bunch of young folks will catch the bug and inherit BUY all our stuff !

FIFY

[Jim Romine]

Speaking as the fool who got jomama into this hobby , it didn't happen on purpose. John saw my stuff, thought it was cool, and wanted his own stuff. It's that simple. The attraction was the beer stuff itself. What's not to like? It's a contagion. All we have to do is expose people, and the hobby will grow! We're all infected, why not spread it?
Jim

[jomama]

Speaking as the fool who got jomama into this hobby , it didn't happen on purpose. John saw my stuff, thought it was cool, and wanted his own stuff. It's that simple. The attraction was the beer stuff itself. What's not to like? It's a contagion. All we have to do is expose people, and the hobby will grow! We're all infected, why not spread it?
Jim

I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING THAT Rominowski said except I don't think he is too much of a fool.

[YooperAho]

eh!yooperaho here.Give a man a BEER.He has a BEER CAN.Teach Him To Dumping.Hell have MANY BEER CANS.

It's Like A Seed Thing. Plant A Seed GET

[jomama]

eh!yooperaho here.Give a man a BEER.He has a BEER CAN.Teach Him To Dumping.Hell have MANY BEER CANS. :smt023001.JPGIt's Like A Seed Thing. Plant A Seed GET

I hope heaven have many beer cans too!

[MI-Cans]

Interesting Topic!

In April of this year, I played with the BCCA Roster because I was curious as to how many members were in my age group. The BCCA still includes just the birth year in the Roster. So I took all that info, sorted it and came up with this unscientific analysis. Maybe it can provide some additional insight into the state of the Hobby or this discussion.

(MI-Cans)

Click to enlarge.

[jomama]

Interesting Topic!

In April of this year, I played with the BCCA Roster because I was curious as to how many members were in my age group. The BCCA still includes just the birth year in the Roster. So I took all that info, sorted it and came up with this unscientific analysis. Maybe it can provide some additional insight into the state of the Hobby or this discussion.

(MI-Cans)

Click to enlarge.

Cool! ... It would be interesting to compare this data to the year 1980 data (I'd guess reverse).
relating to this topic, I don't consider the BCCA part of our hobby (our hobby is rusty can collectors). The BCCA is beer signs + stuff.

[MI-Cans]

John,
Find a 1980 Roster that's been digitized and I'd be glad to crunch the numbers for ya.

Yes, this chapter's primary focus and the reason it exists is the art of "Dumping". That niche of collecting has long been recognized and supported by the BCCA and many of it's Chapters, especially in magazine articles as I found in a search of Mr. Karasek's BMV program. The search yielded 300+ articles. Yes, the majority are Rustlings issues but that's as it should be.

When I joined, it was Beer Can Collectors of America. Yes, they spread into Breweriana as a whole but so did the other national organizations. If you look at my Collecting Niche post ( viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42341 ) you'll see that many of the members collect more than rust or just cans. I think the BCCA does have a place in our hobby.

(MI-Cans)

Click to enlarge.

[Leon]

Interesting, big drop between the 50's & 40's. LEON.

[ANDY MILLER]

Why grow the hobby? Cause the more people the more fun.

[MI-Cans]

Looking at the numbers, I would say that a little more than 1/3 of the BCCA membership was between the age of 60 and 99.

The 50 to 59 age group comprised another little more than a third of the membership.

And the final group is between the age of 49 all the way down to the undeclared ages.

(A third of the total is actually 1,029)

(MI-Cans)

Click to enlarge.

[Senator Seebs]

As a former rush chairman for a fraternity I can say first hand that anything that atrophies dies. In college you must recruit because you manpower churns every year. If you miss a year it can tailspin into low numbers and less fun.

Each month it seems we lose a major contributor to the hobby and certainly 10's more that we do not know about. The High profile collectors pass on and their cans are neatly distributed throughout the community. The collectors that pass on we do not know about have kids that do not want their old ugly beer cans and trash them.

In either case who is taking their place? The answer is nobody. So the hobby will die for the most part when those in their 50's at present die.

Thankfully many on their 40's and 50's are coming back after life changes. Divorce, in my case, or empty nesting in others. It is good to see,

The Craft boom should improve the 20's numbers if those college kids collecting those cans know that collecting is a thing. That should be the charge of the BCCA first and foremost.

The BCCA like any aging group is bereft of many technologically savvy people. If Bora gets hit by a bus the sites go down for a looong time. Does BCCA have an instagram or whatever venue the 20 something's use? Seems stupid to me as well but its what we need to do.

So why grow the hobby? So short-sighted old men don't kill the hobby because of a lack of vision and fundamental understanding of how organizations stay afloat. Bring em in and give them a reason to stay.

[jomama]

As a former rush chairman for a fraternity I can say first hand that anything that atrophies dies. In college you must recruit because you manpower churns every year. If you miss a year it can tailspin into low numbers and less fun.

Each month it seems we lose a major contributor to the hobby and certainly 10's more that we do not know about. The High profile collectors pass on and their cans are neatly distributed throughout the community. The collectors that pass on we do not know about have kids that do not want their old ugly beer cans and trash them.

In either case who is taking their place? The answer is nobody. So the hobby will die for the most part when those in their 50's at present die.

Thankfully many on their 40's and 50's are coming back after life changes. Divorce, in my case, or empty nesting in others. It is good to see,

The Craft boom should improve the 20's numbers if those college kids collecting those cans know that collecting is a thing. That should be the charge of the BCCA first and foremost.

The BCCA like any aging group is bereft of many technologically savvy people. If Bora gets hit by a bus the sites go down for a looong time. Does BCCA have an instagram or whatever venue the 20 something's use? Seems stupid to me as well but its what we need to do.

So why grow the hobby? So short-sighted old men don't kill the hobby because of a lack of vision and fundamental understanding of how organizations stay afloat. Bring em in and give them a reason to stay.

SS,
When someone from the BCCA says 'grow the hobby'.. He or she is meaning 'grow the BCCA. That is not what this topic is about. The BCCA is a mostly different hobby than the micro collectors and other newer can collectors. The beer can collecting majority could care less about the BCCA. Most beer can collectors do not want steel cans because they rust. My answer on how to grow the BCCA was laughed at (about 5 years ago). Now, 5 years later, there are a couple hundred thousand new beer can collectors that have never heard of the BCCA.

[gorrister]

As a former rush chairman for a fraternity I can say first hand that anything that atrophies dies. In college you must recruit because you manpower churns every year. If you miss a year it can tailspin into low numbers and less fun.

Each month it seems we lose a major contributor to the hobby and certainly 10's more that we do not know about. The High profile collectors pass on and their cans are neatly distributed throughout the community. The collectors that pass on we do not know about have kids that do not want their old ugly beer cans and trash them.

In either case who is taking their place? The answer is nobody. So the hobby will die for the most part when those in their 50's at present die.

Thankfully many on their 40's and 50's are coming back after life changes. Divorce, in my case, or empty nesting in others. It is good to see,

The Craft boom should improve the 20's numbers if those college kids collecting those cans know that collecting is a thing. That should be the charge of the BCCA first and foremost.

The BCCA like any aging group is bereft of many technologically savvy people. If Bora gets hit by a bus the sites go down for a looong time. Does BCCA have an instagram or whatever venue the 20 something's use? Seems stupid to me as well but its what we need to do.

So why grow the hobby? So short-sighted old men don't kill the hobby because of a lack of vision and fundamental understanding of how organizations stay afloat. Bring em in and give them a reason to stay.

SS,
When someone from the BCCA says 'grow the hobby'.. He or she is meaning 'grow the BCCA. That is not what this topic is about. The BCCA is a mostly different hobby than the micro collectors and other newer can collectors. The beer can collecting majority could care less about the BCCA. Most beer can collectors do not want steel cans because they rust. My answer on how to grow the BCCA was laughed at (about 5 years ago). Now, 5 years later, there are a couple hundred thousand new beer can collectors that have never heard of the BCCA.

I disagree. Just see the number of tables at Canvention selling shiny craft beer cans. The BCCA is interested in growing any part of the hobby that helps the hobby as a whole. I’m not understanding the several threads currently active bashing or belittling the BCCA. Am I missing something?

[jomama]

I disagree. Just see the number of tables at Canvention selling shiny craft beer cans. The BCCA is interested in growing any part of the hobby that helps the hobby as a whole. I’m not understanding the several threads currently active bashing or belittling the BCCA. Am I missing something?

I'm not bashing the BCCA. But there is certainly a disconnection to reality. Not sure what you could be missing? I could give you a number to call ... A person that might give you some reasons for the bashing.
By the way, I don't even consider buying a modern aluminum can if it is in a can-tote. (that can is ruined).

[Jeffboyrd]

I've never heard anyone say they don't want steel cans because they rust.

[Leon]

I've never heard anyone say they don't want steel cans because they rust.

Yeah, That's why they call us the Rusty Bunch, we like Rusty Cans. Don't we