How Bad Really Is To Buy The New Released Stamps?

Hello!

I'm starting this thread because I've heard many times that buying the new released stamps is just throwing your money out of the window. As I had some interests I've just follow a bit the market on ebay.at for complete year sets. I'm referring on the stamps after 2000, the 1970-1980 you can buy them on pennies, and on some extend 199x).

What I observed:
- for Austria since 2000 all year sets are selling on almost the same price as nominal value (but never less than 90%). Some even better than nominal value (and that I don't understand as all last years you can buy still from the post at nominal value)
- France since 2000 are selling also almost to the nominal value
- Gibraltar was selling at maximal 50% of the nominal value
- Norway 2008 NV = 62 EUR, sold to 43 EUR (70%)
I'm speaking about MNH, for used after 2000 sky is the limit.

Note that those were sold on ebay.at, maybe the norway had performed better on other places and maybe also Gibraltar on ebay.com
Now, I've bought stamps more than 100 years old with the sum of money that maybe were less than the money spend 100 years ago on buying them and I'm not thinking about 100 year storing, inflation...
And just another example that came in my mind: I bought one Nikon camera 3 years ago for 250 EUR. One year ago I've manage to sell it for 80 EUR and it was still in great shape, almost like new.

What I want to say: from the dealer side I'm sure the last years stamps are bad investment. For all of us the stamps are bad investment. For some countries also is maybe not a good idea on buying new stamps (in my example Gibraltar).

But for the pleasure of having them and keeping in mind that maybe in the future you won't be much more interested in this area and want to sell it.. I just don't see it so bad. As long as we are speaking about respectable countries.
Or, put it this way, other options of spending my extra money (except in playing investment lottery) doesn't perform better than stamps.
Just because there are not many people buying the last years sets I have the feeling that there will always be a market to sell them.

How is with other countries new stamps? What's your feeling about?

Honest and simple - new issue stamps should only be purchased out of ones spending, pub, cigarettes or weekly allowance money. If you have extra money - invest in another house for rent.

Really it's your collection. If you are collecting for investment, don't bother with new stamps. But if it's just for the pleasure, collect what ever makes you happy.

^^^



James is spot on when he says that. I collect for pleasure, so I do buy the Canadian ones as they come out (or I should say, I have a standing order with Canada Post, so they just arrive quarterly).

I think that some people will buy the newly released stamps because they want to have a complete collection, they enjoy buying them, are curious about what is happening and coming up next, like examining things, and hope that they will not lose too much money while having some fun.

There is an exciting sense of trying to guess which stamps might be popular and hold their value more than others.

There is the lure of the new and shiny thing, the call of the marketing and advertising of the Post Offices, the knowledge that others are buying and talking about these stamps and you want to join in.

There is a sense of history. I think that stamps that harken back to previous events in time and also have quality in their design and production will always be in demand.

As to why some countries are more popular than others, the country one lives in or is from is usually the first country that someone collects. If one lived in Gibraltar one would more than likely collect Gibraltar, or in Great Britain one likes to collect British colonies and possessions.

I think that where one person's ethnic background comes from originally, even though hundreds of years have passed, is also an interesting area to collect for people.

I think a lot of people think that modern stamps will hold their value and be rare even perhaps in the future, but I am not so sure. Quality will win out of course, but just because a stamp is rare does not mean that it is valued more. The tendency is to think this as it does hold true for some percentage of most everything but the factor of condition and quality is generally the most important.

There is also the over-production of stamps and related items by post offices worldwide that does not help in any way to make stamps investing easy. Case in point, first day covers used to be an interesting side line to collect as you knew because they were produced in limited quantities that they would , if a quality item, hold their value. But over production undoes the quality.

It is hard to undo the training of someone who has been taught that selling is the important thing, the more you sell the better off everyone will be, and change it to the appreciation of what you have now.

And finally, a lot of the hype and marketing done by dealers is to blame for the popularity of stamps. Right now there is no H.E.Harris pumping stamps out to the masses and making it seem the thing to do. There are lots of people trying to do this but not succeeding like Harris did.

Some have collected stamps and some will always collect stamps.

James, completely agree. New stamps has nothing to do with investment.
But if it ties to one's collection, just my feeling, it's not entirely waste money.
Finches, you are also right, investing a lot of money in new releases it really doesn't make a sense.

Right now I enjoy buying new issues from the US because, like Puzzler said, I want to have a complete collection. Also, my US collection is my only collection that is exclusively mint. I know most of my stamps have minimal value, but that doesn't bother me much because I want them all!

It all comes down to "collect what you enjoy" (and can afford). If you like new issues, go and buy them, study them, insert them into your album or stockbook, etc. Don't look at it from the perspective of making a profit later on (it's not going to happen) as the modern stamps are all produced in the millions or billions, meaning that there is unlikely to be many examples that will become valuable in one's lifetime.

Still, I admit to buying most new US issues. I keep a few for my collection and use the remainders for general postage throughout the year. No real loss, as most new stamps in the US are all "Forever" stamps that will be good for as long as the post office exists (but that's another story).

What I think is getting by most people's radar is that it's not the new issues that are going to become collectible, but the USED ones! According to recent news articles in the US, first class mail has dropped 25%, but the use of stamps on first class mail has dropped 36%! Given those percentages, if one can get past the ugly looking spray-on cancels that collectors keep complaining about today, a used stamp (especially a commemorative stamp) on a legitimate piece of mail that has seen postal use has the potential to become a future collectible.

As Puzzler said in an earlier post, there are few dealers left out there that "pump out stamps to the masses" and as a result there will be a much lower supply of modern used stamps than there were in past years, meaning that they could become highly sought after in the future, as demand will exceed the supply.

It is just a hobby afterall, and a great one at that.

I would be lying if I said that I didn't buy a particular stamp because it wasn't valuable. I have bought in the past because they are attractive and that is what makes up this hobby of ours.

Hobbie by their very nature 'attract' us.

You collect whatever makes you happy and that is the main point. I once heard of a hobby, can't think of its official name, that has people buying 4 inch strands of barbed wire. Apparently ecvery company that produced barbed wire had their own knots and some companies were in existance longer than other. While it may not be appealing to me, I can understand the 'attraction' for other.

If it wasn't for a friend of mine showing me his collection when I was a kid, who knows, I may not have even started the hobby and possibly would have been in to something else.

The key word, in my view anyway, is 'attraction' and that is what sparks research into whetever hobby you want to persue.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Collect what you like.

I am not interested in new issues for most countries, but for one in particular, I will always collect new issues.

Wow, lots of great replies,
I think we have purged the dogmas. :)
Philately the ultimate democracy.
Collect what you want, how you want.

I tend to buy new issues by the sheet, save a single for my collection, and use the rest on my regular mailings. A very affordable way to collect new issues, promote the use of usps commemoratives, as well as a way to send out eye catching envelopes.

I think that word "complete" should be thrown out the window. I have
many sets in my collection with 1 or 2 stamps missing that I can`t afford.
The sets still look beautiful!

When going to the Post Office and buying stamps we don't actually buy stamps. What we do buy is a receipt for a service, and that service is shipping. If seen as such, it is very easy to grasp that an unused prepaid service is nothing but a bad investment.
Stamps are unique in that sense. I don't any other area of commerce in which the receipt worth anything (exception might be cash notes which represent a value of goods which retains some of its value along the years). So if you compare stamps to other receipt you get they might be considered as good investment.

Otherwise it's an expensive hobby and should be regarded as such.
I could write more about that, but I really need to go now to the PO and buy the new series of stamps issued lately and put it in my album

Great replies from all of you and I like especially the ones from Seahorse and Puzzler.
Yes, stamps are an expensive hobby but I'm always curious to know just how good the latest issues perform. And that just because the stamps before 2000 in many countries are selling for just a fraction. Here the Austrian/German stamps after 2000 generate interest but the ones between 1950-2000 almost not at all.

Puzzler had underlined good points that I also somehow observed:
- the number of people buying stamps after 2000 decreased therefore now there is a shortage of offer.
If that will generate in future also a big demand and therefore an increase in value is questionable. But because of that maybe the material after 2000 is not so easy to find for some countries and when it is, generate interest (in a bigger or smaller amount)

- the tendencies for used after 2000 is to go and perform better that the MNH.
Just because those are not easy to find. I'm living in Austria and, except the letters from collectors, I have received this year just one letter with a stamp attached. For example a search for Great Britain high values used stamps reveal almost nothing or prices bigger than MNH.

panda.bear, How do you mount the single stamp you take from the sheetlet? Since it is a self adhesive, do you stick it to a backing paper before you mount it? Or do you carefully cut the stamp out including its backing?

km41566---you said it, " I want them all"