Did you stop buying for nieces/nephews at a certain age?

I think an end date or ageing out of family gifts is very reasonable. But then, in my family that happened at high school graduation.
For the unhappy nieces perhaps suggest they will stay on the gift list BUT there is an expectation they will now each be giving you a gift as well now that they are adults. Then once they send you a gift you can send a reciprocal one of similar type back to them.

I stopped buying for everyone this year. I sent out a Christmas card in July and let everyone know of my intentions. In the letter I reminded them that I have always wanted to travel extensively, and so I was saving my money from now on to fund my trips, with my first this next July when I'm going to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu as a 50th birthday gift to myself. We are all adults now and buy ourselves everything we want anyway. The letter met with a bit of resistance from a few, but I don't really care. I promised I'd send postcards from my exotic locations!

We stopped when we no longer received any "thank yous" or other forms of acknowledgement from the nieces/nephews. It was about the times that they graduated high school. What irks me, though, is that our child is much younger than those cousins. Although we sent gifts to all seven of those nieces/nephews for 17 or 18 years for birthdays and Christmases....as soon as those kids became adults for whatever reason everyone stopped sending our child any gifts any more...even though she was still young.

Our cutoff is 21 and the last gift is college graduation - until then weddings start

My sister and I decided it was 21. My youngest is going to miss it (she loves presents!) but it's right for us.

Nope. I don't think age limits for gifts make sense and I don't see why a person should be "punished" for becoming an adult. I purchase for all the nieces, nephews and cousins. I think gifting is fun and should include everyone... not just little kids. I'd be pretty sad if my family implemented a rule like that.

I don't buy for cousins (with one exception), but other than that, I completely agree. I only have 2 nephews and one niece, and as long as I get a "thank you" I will continue to buy them gifts.

ours is also at 18...then they join the adults. Which is no birthday gift (unless you find that something that is special)(and usually a small something), and Christmas when there is a relationship.

It may not have been that way, as some have mentioned...all the years there were no 'thank yous' or acknowledgement ...so we did start feeling like an 'atm machine'.

I think you need to do what you are comfortable with. The mere fact that a gift appears to be expected would make that decision even easier for me. Gifts should be given from the heart and definitely only if you can afford them. The grandparents on both sides of our family have decided to cutoff birthday gifts and one set has cut off Christmas too. The first set simply cut off birthdays totally one year. Yes, seems rather unfair to the youngest grandkids but on the other hand, no one should simply expect a gift. My dad and his wife decided no gifts past 21 for any of us and told us AND you know, I am totally fine with that. They are on a fixed income and what extra monies they have should be spent on them traveling an denying life.

I stopped gifts to nieces and nephews several years ago (they are all adults now) because we were very tight for money with our own four kids and I decided I would rather gift our children knowing that I could pick something I knew they wanted. Gift giving became such a hassle and so many duplicate or unusable gifts given and received, not to mention the added stress of shopping for all the extra gifts. Just being honest. The holidays are meant to be enjoyed, not anticipated with the stress of needing to go on shopping marathons. It also seemed wasteful on all sides of the family so I stepped up and said no more. I think we get caught up in the materialistic side of things and miss what is really important. This doesn't diminish how we care for our relatives, just not throwing gifts at them. I would prefer the gift or time or gifting them when I find something that I know is perfect or I have made a personalized gift like an afghan. Unexpected gifts are the best kind.

I think your idea is very reasonable. Once implemented, it will be easier than you expect.

This happened in our family as well. DH is the baby and is 10 years younger than his siblings. When the older siblings' kids graduated HS, the in laws decided we were all done with gift giving because the kids were too old now. But the thing was, my kids were 8 & 10. We gave gifts through college for some of the nieces and nephews, but our kids were still in elementary school (and believing in Santa) when their gifts stopped. It still chaps my hide. 

I don't have any nieces or nephews on my side of the family, but DH has 27 so it has always been the rule that names are drawn at Christmas, nothing for birthdays, and whatever is desired at wedding/graduations (but nothing is expected). Most of the nieces/nephews do have an aunt or uncle that is a Godparent so they usually do something a little extra for birthdays, etc. With such a large family, they have always tried to take the emphasis off of gifts for/from everyone.

We haven't stopped. We have 12 nieces and nephews between age 10 and 34. The older ones now are married, have houses, children. I've enjoyed being able to help them out with gifts as they set up houses, start families, etc.

Of course you should continue to give gifts if that's what makes you happy.  I only stopped giving my niece a gift for her birthday and Christmas when she was in college and I never received a thank you - ever.  Heck in this day and age send a simple text message.  Niece is just a different type of person.