For decades, local collectors clubs have met in church basements or living rooms to trade secrets on the objects of their affection.
But groups like the Belknap Button Collectors and the Nashua Coin Club are finding the once popular medium for collecting has become about as common as an 1878 Morgan silver dollar.
NHPR?s Kerry Grens has more on the struggle to keep the dying breed of local collectors clubs alive?
The New Hampshire Collectors Club meets each month in the back room of the Concord Community Center.
Although many in the club collect coins or stamps, most of them, like Danny Webster, go after more obscure collections as well.
Webster: My primary collection is coins. However, I do collect, stamps, guns, jim beam bottles, and number plates. So I do have a wide variety.
The club has been meeting regularly since 1947, and during its heyday of the 60s and 70s, it had several hundred members.
Now membership is down to about 50, and meetings usually bring in only a handful.
Drew: Clubs are dying out. It?s hard to get people to participate or even commit.
Gerald Drew, Secretary of the New Hampshire Collectors Club, says a primary function of the clubs?meeting up with people who have similar interests?is being replaced by the Internet.
Drew: Now with the technology is you can meet these people, you can find out somebody from out west and get their phone number or their email account and start talking to them. And the next thing you know you?re networking with someone from Texas or out west in California or down in Florida. And you don?t have to worry about a local connection.
Club vice President George Abbott adds that part of the club?s decline is that young people aren?t joining and old members are dying off.
Abbott: And you see the age of the people sitting here? We?re all old people. (in background: Excuse me! He?s only moderately old.) Well, he?s semi-old.
Even though collecting clubs seem to be going out of style, collecting is not.
The American Numismatic Association has seen about a 20 percent increase in membership over the last several years.
And it has seen a small upswing in regional coin club memberships.
That?s most likely due to the millions of people?a lot of them younger collectors?who are chasing state quarters.
But many of the next generation are relying on chat rooms, online clubs, and trade sites to expand their treasures.
New Hampshire Collectors Club member Herman Wunderlich says those people are missing out.
Wunderlich: You can?t really, I don?t think, collect on the Internet. Because this is companionship it isn?t just?it?s bragging, it?s companionship, it?s conversation pieces.
Online collectors might argue that friendships can be formed in the ether as well, but Wunderlich adds that trust and guidance are harder to come by.
Wunderlich: I could start collecting matchbook covers, but I have no expertise. I could go on the Internet and I wouldn?t have a clue what I?m doing. This is where the club comes in. You might meet somebody like Bill, or George, or Dick and they have the expertise. They can sort of steer you in the right direction.
Part of club meetings is a show and tell.
Camaraderie among the group is obvious as members ooh and aah over each other?s new finds or completed sets.
Gerald Drew hopes to recruit more members by hosting an exhibition and attracting members from smaller, more specialized clubs from around the state.
Until then, the New Hampshire Collectors Club will struggle just to keep a quorum.
Abbott: ?all those in favor. Aye. All those opposed. Okay, we have new officers.
Fortunately, this month they had the minimum of five people to vote for new officers.
Drew: ?treasurer is still Belva. I think she?s still alive.
Their biggest challenge may be to get younger members.
Convincing those raised on the boundless options of the Internet will be hard.
But at least this chat room has donuts.
For NHPR News, this is Kerry Grens.
