Investing Vs Collecting Stamps

"How many disillusioned US investors are there out there, finding that their carefully hoarded sheets of commemoratives are only good for discount postage?"

As a child, I found a number of USA 3 cent commemoratives, carefully stored between the pages of a book by my father. To me, they were just colorful stickers, and I proceeded to stick them all over the place. My father was furious. He was convinced that I had cost him a fourtan. I still take special pleasure in mailing him letters using stamps of those vintage. Because, as we all know, lot frequently sell on ebay for LESS than face! Even though they are 70 years old by now.

Joe: I don't think there are many delusional collectors of US stamps that think that sheets from the 1930's to the present are going to fund their retirement, although there may be casual collectors, accumulators, or inheritors of stamp collections that might think so. I was focussing more on more vintage stamps, that may have intrinsic collector interest due to their age, but if not the absolute best that is available or with various qualifications such as faults, poor centering, and the like, I think are going to go wanting as well as the collector population declines. I was thinking of stamps as shown by Darryl that are vintage (Trans-Mississippi issue) and maybe with NH gum, but whose centering is going to probably not put them at the top of the heap of collector interest as exemplified by Darryl's finding that his used #72 had no bidders at the end of the auction. Although we all occasionally find sleepers that no one else saw, winning an auction that went to its conclusion without any other bidders I think is a snapshot of collector interest for the future.

Darryl: I would be cautious in assuming that your son will have an interest in stamps because you do, he has an interest in you, and you will teach him. I hope for your sake you are right because
sharing anything with a loved one is better than just enjoying it yourself. I'm speaking from personal experience here.

I think that all such a thing shows is the current state of collector interest, and that in itself is influenced by the economic conditions of the time,

I enjoyed your original post, well written, nicely stated. Could you perhaps please edit the post to include some breaks in the long string of text? That would make it much easier to read. Long trails of words tend to get confusing when read on a computer screen for most people. To edit a post click on the icon that looks like a pen and paper.

I know investing involves risk..am still recovering from the dot com days,,,its not fun for me....i am retired..everyday is Saturday..i just want to have FUN !

Really? I must have missed that auction as I would have bid on it! Darn.

I find it odd that people would invest in collectibles...i can see being a dealer and buying and selling..but investing ????