Hobby stores, what happened to them.

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49er12

49er12

Bronze Member
Aug 22, 2013
1,238
1,627
Rolling Rock, Pennsylvania
Detector(s) used
Minelab xterra, Whites DFX, Notka Makro Simplex. Folks the price donā€™t mean everything, the question is are you willing to put in the time to learn the machine, experience will pay off I guarantee it.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting

chub

Bronze Member
Apr 23, 2017
1,503
2,242
Detector(s) used
Fisher F75, Minelab Soveriegn XS 2
Nokta pinpointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hobby King killed RC back a decade or 15 years ago...killed the local RC shops....Now hobby King is crappy....

chub
 

ArfieBoy

Silver Member
Aug 11, 2011
3,415
5,677
N.E. Oregon
Detector(s) used
Compass X-70, Compass X-80, Compass X-90, Compass Judge 2, Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Maybe my town is really backward with only 14,000 population, but we have a fairly large hobby store here in town and the owner seems to be doing a booming business. He has sections for many different hobbies like model planes and cars, electric railroads, race cars, crafts... about anything you can think of. Also saw some metal detectors in a small chain variety store in town recently. I know there are a lot of metal detector users around the area but we have never had a detector store in town.
 

No gold in NY

Bronze Member
Mar 22, 2015
1,688
2,921
Detector(s) used
Whites Coin Master,
Whites Gold Master GMT, Whites MXSport
High banker/dredge,
DIY hand trommel,
DIY Miller table,
DIY fluidbed gold trap sluice,
Keene A-52 A-52s
2186 Wheaties
Primary Interest:
Other
I recently got back into CB radio. Best Buy, WM, none of the local stores carry even a common coax connector. Has to go to Amazon for everything.

CB raido still going? Use to be into that in the 70's. KPQ6719. Had a Lafayette HB115A with a 5 element beam. Started to get too many foul mouths. I was gone!
 

fistfulladirt

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
12,204
4,918
Great Lakes State
šŸ† Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
dirtfishing
Primary Interest:
Other
CB raido still going? Use to be into that in the 70's. KPQ6719. Had a Lafayette HB115A with a 5 element beam. Started to get too many foul mouths. I was gone!
KAXU3822 here. I put up a set of beams on my parents roof when I was 14 about 1976. I just bought a nice digital President McKinley SSB with scanner, power supply and swr meter. Built my own dipole for about $15 and saved over $100 on a commercial antenna. Iā€™m getting out about 20 miles on 2 pieces of speaker wire. Thereā€™s 4 or 5 guys on channel 20 every nite, and other random traffic but not much on the trucker channel and Iā€™m 3 miles from the highway.

Canā€™t hear much at all until you get your aerials up about 30 feet. Thought about getting into ham but itā€™s just too damn proper for my likes.
 

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,458
54,901
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Who wants to?

Personally I wish people would stop moving to Florida, they already screwed up the state with all the people from NE moving here.
 

bigscoop

Gold Member
Jun 4, 2010
13,373
8,689
Wherever there be treasure!
Detector(s) used
Older blue Excal with full mods, Equinox 800.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Today, if a guy wants to open a hobby store he can do it online for little next to nothing, even use drop shipping if he wants to, etc. The cost of running an actual store front is just too much, way too much overhead in face of all the online ease and competition. It's sad but it's just the way it is these days.
 

fistfulladirt

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
12,204
4,918
Great Lakes State
šŸ† Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
dirtfishing
Primary Interest:
Other
quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by 49er12
Dam fellas we all canā€™t live in Florida or can we, lol



ā€˜Who wants to?ā€™

Iā€™ve nothing against Florida but the heat. Last time I was there I stayed inside most of the time. I canā€™t even deal with Michiganā€™s scorching summers, Iā€™m miserable! I sweat like a hog without doing a thing.

I could work outside all day in the cold when temps are single digit, no hat, no gloves, and work up a sweat - Michigan.
 

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Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,458
54,901
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by 49er12
Dam fellas we all canā€™t live in Florida or can we, lol



ā€˜Who wants to?ā€™

Iā€™ve nothing against Florida but the heat. Last time I was there I stayed inside most of the time. I canā€™t even deal with Michiganā€™s scorching summers, Iā€™m miserable! I sweat like a hog without doing a thing.

I could work outside all day in the cold when temps are single digit, no hat, no gloves, and work up a sweat - Michigan.

The way Floridians handle the heat is we use AC :laughing7:..... I lived in several northern states for over 20 years before moving back to Florida, born and raised in Florida, left when joined military at 18, returned at 22, left again 2 years later when working telcom, I got tired of shoveling snow and scraping ice. I worked outside in 20 below weather too, also slept in my van for 6 weeks in dead of winter in Minnesota when there was no housing in small town I was working in I could afford, I was driving back to Nebraska on weekends and paying rent on home where my wife was, after 6 weeks a room became available I could afford, was in Mankato Mn then for 9 months, 2nd time I worked there. Lived in Minot ND too for a year, as well as Ne, Il, Ia and Mo, seen my share of ice, snow and sub zero weather.
 

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Escape

Bronze Member
Apr 4, 2009
1,643
1,881
Hobbies are always changing in society. At one time whittling wood was popular. A lot of people use to collect stamps. Now smoking marihuana seems to be a popular hobby with many people. Maybe a hobby store that sells marihuana might work. You can smoke a big one and work on models, or whittle wood or do nothing and think that you did something. Just a thought.
 

Clad2Silver

Bronze Member
Jul 17, 2018
2,052
5,648
Eastern Connecticut
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Max/ Garrett AT Pro/ Garrett Ace 400/ Garrett Pro Pointer 2 / Garrett Z-Lynk AT Propointer
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Back in the late 1980's I owned and operated a hobby store that sold sport cards, coins, precious metals, and metal detectors. When the card market hit the skids the sales and profit from the coins, precious metals, and detectors wasn't enough to make it worthwhile to stay open. I did sell some detectors and various accessories so it wasn't like they collected dust BUT a lot of people would come in, ask questions, have me give them a demo and even though I was discounting the detectors they'd go home and order one from the "K" guys. This was even before people had computers. In this day and age I wouldn't even think about opening a hobby store.
 

fistfulladirt

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
12,204
4,918
Great Lakes State
šŸ† Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
dirtfishing
Primary Interest:
Other
Hobbies are always changing in society. At one time whittling wood was popular. A lot of people use to collect stamps. Now smoking marihuana seems to be a popular hobby with many people. Maybe a hobby store that sells marihuana might work. You can smoke a big one and work on models, or whittle wood or do nothing and think that you did something. Just a thought.
Nah, smoking weed has always been a big hobby in America for decades.
 

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