Black diggers: from field description to market analysis

Abstract

Annotation: In recent years, the previously unnoticed community of diggers has grown significantly and emerged from the shadows. On YouTube alone, the popularity of digging videos has increased almost 12-fold from 2019 to 2024. However, the group remains virtually unstudied, and the existing body of work is severely limited in content and in the breadth of coverage of various aspects of the topic. The empirical base of the study consists of 5,042 parsed YouTube videos, 13 in-depth semi-structured interviews, and survey data from 192 diggers. The paper touches upon the dynamics of digging popularity and describes the socio-demographic characteristics of diggers. The practices of field trips are considered separately: what they dig, where they search for antiquities, and how often they go on field trips. In the course of the study, three main motives for digging were identified: the desire for enrichment, enthusiasm, and the desire to replenish one’s collection. Analysis of these characteristics allows us to describe the diggers community in detail and move on to more competitive studies. Thus, the focus of the work is on the analysis of market participation by diggers. Using binary logistic regression, the probability of entering antique sales markets was predicted. The interpretation of predictors was supplemented by materials from in-depth interviews. The work separately examines channels through which diggers sell their finds, depending on their market value.

For citation: Khomchenko, D. (2025). “Black diggers”: from field description to market analysis. Russia’s Directions. Vol. 3. No. 4. P. 87–121.

Additional Info

Submitted: April 8, 2025

Reviewed: September 28, 2025

Copyright: © Auhtors, 2025

Distribution: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)