Stamp Collecting - The Hobby Is Dying

I am a newbie at 49.

Billw2 I used to attend the Mega Shows at the Javits and Madison Sq. Garden..i have not attended the shows at the hotel..but I can see from the ads that there are more like 50 or 60 dealers than the 120 or so they used to advertise ...its 2 1/2 hours by car and train from where I am to Manhatten..i used to enjoy the Big shows as a day out...but I don't know if its worth it to attend now !!

It's nice to see youngsters joining the family.

Everyone gets put into categories - none of it was meant negatively here. I think the poll, and my experience, shows that there is definitely NOT a decline in the number of stamp collectors over the last decade. They are just a differently wired collector (no pun intended). They would rather use the Internet to pursue their hobby. They probably feel like they can pay a lower price for their stamps on the Internet when compared to the price a storefront operation is able to offer. They are more likely to bounce around from interest to interest than us geezers and super-geezers.

My whole point in starting this thread was to say that I am enthusiastic about the future of the hobby, like someone said, for the next several decades at a minimum. After that . . . I'm not going to have to worry about it!

:) LOL

Who said that?


No, I don't think philately is in a no future situation.

I've worked with young boys for a number of years within the confines of the Boy Scouts of America. I tried with very little success to get boys interested in either stamp or coin collecting. Many were in the 'card' collecting, or 'toy collecting' mode but very few saw stamps as being interesting. So from a early age perspective I do think the hobby has stalled at least.

One of the first things everyone seems to ask is about how much things will be worth. The problem with new collectors that are also young, their finances aren't such (generally speaking) to afford anything that will be of value in the future. So locking up $20 a week on postage stamps that they may or may not get face value for back in 20 years doesn't seem to attract too many folks. I've recently used a chunk of my US Plate block collection for postage. I couldn't find any interested in any of it. I'm meeting with a guy who is trying to get Scouts interested in stamp collecting, I'm going to give him the rest of my plate blocks, a bunch of FDCs and cards. Hopefully he can find someone to get interested in them

Here's my 2 cents. What I have read in the past is that there aren't as many collectors out there like there were before....BUT.....The collectors now spend 50 times as much on their collections as before. Not as many collectors but who do collect are bigger collectors. The internet is a HUGE part of that. Can you imagine if the only place you could buy stamps was at a shop? You would pay too much for the stamps. Like me I'm sure, other collectors might not have the same access to stamp shops. There is only 1 shop near me. It's in Carmel where everything is overpriced. I don't think I would collect if that was the only place to buy stamps.

As a collector for over 50 years, I am one of 3 in my village that the post office knows as a stamp colector. Other local post offices have told me that there may be one or two under 20's as collectors, but otherwise generally seniors. Canada Post Philatelic won't sell singles, only complete booklets, or blocks of 4, etc. Local post offices generally won't sell non-pane individual stamps as the booklets are UPC coded and their inventory system can't handle a single stamp from a booklet. In my opinion, Canada Post has ensured that children will not be collectors unless they can afford to buy a minimum quantity of stamps, even though they may only want to buy one.

Puzzler - check out this Canada Post site for Her Majesty's stamp collection.
http://search.3web.com/?q=canadianp...BLW:190%3BL:http://www.my3web.com/brands/3web/i...ore.gif%3BS:http://%3BFORID:11&hl=en

Wow ! That's some web site address. Although I've copied in the complete address, only a very small portion of it appears on this screen after the "post reply" button is pushed.

short form = Canadian Postal Museum - online collections

BlackJag:

It's normal for the SCF Forum to shorten URLs, but yours is indeed broken. I think this is the site you were aiming for ....

http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhi...ndex-e.shtml

It's a good one, by the way.

Thanks,
KirkS

I'm not sure It may have been this?
you were trying to find it same time as me...

http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhi...ostal-museum

EDIT
Ah, NM... we got the same address, just one page different...

Thanks all for the links. I had never visited the site to peruse the collection.

Phil,

The show last weekend was worth it for me for a few reasons.. well, also I live in Bergen County NJ so it's only 13 miles from where I live... granted the drive home Friday night was close to 90 minutes and parking was $36...hmmm...

It was worth ti for me for a few reasons, a few dealers were there that handled the kind of stuff that I collect (It's RARE for a worthwhile cover to show up on ebay for my main collection) and I got to see the exhibits, there was a great 1869 exhibit. I also got to reconnect with Bill Crowe who knew my father and I remember my dad doing business with him when I was a kid.

BlackJag, do you have a Black Jag?

...not if we get more people interested in promoting it like this:

http://register-news.com/local/x847...p-collecting