• Introduction
• Need Help?
• Want to Help?
• Program
• Discussion Forums
• Program Advisory Group
• Reference Archive
• Resources

Reference Archive

• Coin Collectors World Apart. Editorial
• How One Organization Assists New Collectors
• 200 Million Collectors in America. Part 1 of a series.
• 200 Million Collectors in America. Part 2 of a series.
• Kennedy Collecting and the Aging Process
• Getting Younger People to Collect
• Memories Made in Adolescence Fuel Collecting

Kennedy Collecting and the Aging Process

Few can dispute that collecting Kennedy memorabilia--particularly campaign items relating to JFK and RFK--has been one of the strongest areas in our hobby for as long as most of us have been collecting. There is good reason for this.

The Kennedys caught the imagine of the country, capturing at least a couple of generations along the way. The assassinations of both John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, although tragically unfortunate, added to this mystique. Perhaps not so much with Bobby, but certainly with the President, we all remember what we were doing at that exact time on the fateful day in November of 1963 when the president was assassinated. Or, do we? Next year will mean we're talking 40 years ago! It's doubtful that anyone under the age of 45 remembers anything about the Kennedy assassination and certainly nothing of JFK's administration or the 1960 campaign.

Having said this, one must wonder how long it might take for one of the hobby's most popular collecting areas to be somewhat diminished due to the vast number of political collectors having absolutely no personal recollection of the "Kennedy years."

It is certainly a fact that the vast majority of the younger, new collectors in general (all hobby areas), those in their 20s and 30s, prefer collecting things they remember from their childhoods. We're not talking here about the 1960s and 1970s--but the 1980s and 1990s! This certainly holds true with toy collecting...possibly sports collecting...and definitely militaria. The collecting of World War II memorabilia is going down rapidly as the aging collectors who experienced the war are getting older and selling their collections, or are dying. Vietnam collectibles are on the rise...even a stronger interest in Desert Storm...all attributed to collectors collecting in areas where they have memories.

So how does this "play" in the political arena? Granted, some of the most sought after presidential campaign artifacts relate to presidents long before Kennedy, such as Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Abe Lincoln. Perhaps the aging phenomenon is not a factor in political collecting. We would be interested in hearing your comments on this issue...particularly from those who are relatively new to the hobby.. Write: info@apic.ws 200205