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Sadly, old pianos today are basically worthless (unless they're special "Grand" concert models such as Steinway or Bosendorfer). Generally you have to pay to have old pianos hauled away. If they're old enough to have genuine ivory keys, these can be removed and used for jewelry or artistic creations.
Very true. I had to give my FIL's old piano away to get rid of it. As well, I had to help load it, use my own trailer and deliver it across town.
It is sad. Many times, he and I played a lot of old tunes late into the night on that old upright.
Anybody remember the gas-powered plane on a string? You would just go around in circles until it crashed (or "pilot" got dizzy).
Yes. I had one of those. I think mine had two strings one for each aileron so it was all up or down. I remember flying it once after getting my fingers "whacked" in the prop.
My coin club has a respectable Young Numismatist contingent, which we sensibly do our very best to encourage. In fact, the club's last year's VP was a YN. I myself had no interest in the state quarters, but considering what they did to spark young collectors' interest, this is me keeping that mostly to myself.
As for baseball cards, I agree. They stopped being toys around 1980 and became commodities and investments. Now anyone who wants them can pick up ten thousand of them for $50 on CL.
I was one of the youngest coin collectors around when I started the hobby when I was a kid. I then inherited all of my relatives collections. Fortunately, they were wise and had accumulated a large variety of silver and gold. I prefer the Morgan Silver dollars, though.
Even "Comic Cons" these days are more about people cosplaying/dressing up as comic book characters they usually know little to nothing about than actual comics.
They would be the 'media fans' that also show up at science fiction cons who only know about star wars and don't read any science fiction. This doesn't mean that collecting isn't still quite active. There are fewer stores, but like a friend of mine who sold his stores and move to the hills where he wanted to live, collecters still buy the actual thing, often by subscription to a dealer, and know the difference between mint and near mint. Comic collectors are still supporting the business.
Comicon is a whole different animal. I was on the comittee back when it was small, one hotel, a few pros and presentations, and you actually could stand in line to buy your membership. We left just before it got really crazy. I remember when it was at the old Hotel San Diego, and it held the activities. It was nice and personal and you got to know people who came every year. It was when movies started to be made of the characters and the powers that be realized that a fan base could be useful that the media explosion hit.
It's like science fiction cons. There is still the reading based fandom who have been there since the 30's. There are the media based fans, and there are the people who just like to walk around with a star wars knock off. Or spend the whole weekend gaming. And conventions are also and always have been about parties where everyone meets regardless of why they're there. Its just more people than there used to be. The reading fandom hasn't dissapeared, and book dealers sell just as good, but there's a lot more stuff to do.
The media fans have made a huge difference in how much can be charged, and since its escaped one location to be at multiple ones, its drawing people who just want to come or party. But they still have to buy a membership. It's gotten to be a very profitable celebration, but the reason is it was deliberatly pitched to a wider audience.
Comics still sell well, and the deep collectors are a base that keep the dealers going when there's a dry spell.
Some hobbies are fading into oblivion that ought not to. Orienteering with map and compass is a valuable skill, now more and more being replaced with smartphone GPS app's or even dedicated GPS devices. Good as long as the battery lasts or it falls in a stream, then you might be out of luck. And if you are hiding from a Bear or Mountain Lion and forget to put the phone on silent mode when you get a call, it might be your last...
Hopefully collecting paper maps will remain viable, although you might need to be on in years to be able to actually read them.
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