I'm sure you're just playing devil's advocate, Kirk, but this very thing has been addressed before.
1) Philatelists ought to be good stewards and preserve postal history to the best of their ability for future generations
2) Cephus nailed it -
Quote:
This isn't about investment and it's not about saving money. Heck, if you want to save money, just lick the stamps and stick them on the page. No need to buy hinges or mounts.
3) History has proven that with time, your "worthless" modern stamps can and will have value.
I'll use one of philately's most popular set of commemoratives as an example ... The Columbian Exposition stamps.
Not only did the Columbians not increase in value for decades, they were selling well below face value and speculators were urged to sell their stock of Columbian stamps before their value decreased even more.
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Fifteen of the stamps went on sale Monday, January 2, 1893. They were available nationwide, and were not restricted to the Exposition in any way. This was a larger number of stamps than the United States Post Office had ever offered in a definitive series, thanks to the unprecedented inclusion of stamps denominated $1, $2, $3, $4 and $5: no U. S. postage stamp previously issued had cost more than 90¢. As a result, the face value of the complete set was $16.34, a substantial sum of money in 1893. In approximate 2009 dollars,[1] the set would cost almost $390. As a result, only a small number of the most expensive stamps, especially the dollar values, were sold. Unsold stamps were destroyed after the Columbian Issue was removed from sale on April 12, 1894. Over 2 billion stamps, whose total face value exceeded $40 million, were printed by the American Bank Note Company.
Opinion regarding the Columbian Issue at the time was mixed. The set sold well and did not face the sort of criticism that led to the withdrawal of the 1869 Pictorial Issue. However, approval was not universal. An organization called the Society for the Suppression of Spurious Stamps was created in protest over the creation of this set, deeming the Exposition in Chicago insufficiently important to be honored on postage, while some collectors balked at the Post Office Department's willingness to profit from the growing hobby of philately. Ridiculing the $5 stamp, the Chicago Tribune pointed out that it could used for only one purpose: mailing a 62½-pound package of books at the book rate.[2] The Columbians did not immediately increase in value after being removed from sale, in part due to substantial speculation resulting in a glut of stamps on the secondary market.
I remind everyone that no one is forcing you to do anything you don't want to do. Nor is anyone suggesting you be persecuted, prosecuted, denounced, or censured
My goal, and I trust the goal of my fellow hingeless zealots is, to encourage other collectors to stop using hinges for the sake of preservation.
Would you nail a painting to the wall just because it was cheap or has little monetary value?
Brian
Posted 07/15/2011 9:38 pm
