Hi Cody,
Thanks for the interesting post on bead collecting...

I'd like to address your main question and probably have more questions than remarks -

You ask "Has the golden age of bead collecting passed"? My first question is - are you referring to just the US, and are you thinking about the cost and availability of glass beads, or interest in the history of glass beads? Or all of the above?

Demographics is certainly playing a part. There are a lot of Baby Boomers, so right now the boomers are over-represented in the bead collector world, and the boomers are an aging group, with arguably more disposable income that the smaller generations coming after us. So as the Boomers and their collections have matured, yes, I see a decline in purchases in this age group (since the collections have grown large with time), but not a decline in their INTEREST in beads. So if the Golden Age of Beads means lots of cheap antique and older beads, yes it seems that the golden age has passed. Prices are softer than a few years ago but still high enough to be a barrier to new collectors of modest means.

New collectors also have the hurdle of learning how to tell certain beads from their more modern copies. But, I think it's always been the case that bead collecting requires a lot of study. New information surfaces continuously and is more available than ever before with the internet. I have been able to access German journals from the late 19th century, for example - something that would have required a trip to Germany 25 years ago. New work on the history of beads is mostly available on the internet, too. There of course are gaps in what can be accessed online, but that's true of any scientific or technical discipline. I still make trips to libraries and request book loans.

As sellers have moved online it would make sense that fewer "important" beads are to be found in the venues familiar to the collectors of yore - flea markets, yard sales, antique shops, bead shows, etc. From my perspective, the internet has ushered in a Golden Age of bead collecting!

My perspective is that of a late-comer - I've only been collecting old glass beads for 8 years now. To me, the global bead collector community is vibrant. Also, there are museums with notable bead collections in Europe so I'm not too concerned that the ones in the US, which were fairly recent developments, have closed. Private holdings such as the Picards' are still extant. I have heard of one other long-time collector that may be opening a private museum for his collection.

So the "bead" goes on!