Does This Bother You?

There is a New York based and named company pushing lots of "Antique" stamps on ebay.

Does the use of the word antique in that way and associated with stamps bother you?

It does me.

At least they aren't calling us antique stamp collectors!

nah all stamps are antiques if they are 100 years or older

Not really, I think they mainly use it to simply describe an older collection. I don't think they mean that stamps themselves are an antiquated hobby.

Seems to me that it is directed to non=collectors. As collectors, we can see the hype. A non-collector doesn't.

I have seen ads where old stamps (or coins) are described as not being made anymore. Well--duh.

JMHO
If you are referring to the dealer that advertises right here on SCF, I would leave it alone... He is paying for his ads here, and it is deferring some of the up-keep costs..

ok now I am confused if I put antique next to my stamps will they sell at a premium and if they did what is the harm? I am just asking so dont start flaming away

It doesn't bother me one way or the other. To me it seems like another way to attract people into looking at their stuff. The same as I've seen people putting descriptions on junk boxes, as "JUNQUE BOX OF STAMPS" as if spelling junk with a "que" is going to make the stamps more high class. It's a word.
Also it depends on the date of the stamp as well. If it's over 50 or 100 years old, it can be classified as antique.

The word antique is not generally used in the philatelic world. You would never hear a philatelist refer to a stamp as antique. Classic would be the general term for an early issue, even though technically they may be classed as antique by definition of the word. Even this forum is divided into modern and classic. There's no "antique" forum. It's just not used.

So while it doesn't really bother me, when I see a seller refer to a stamp as antique, I can't help but feel it's a bit dodgy. Either the seller knows nothing about stamps, or is fishing for non stamp collectors or perhaps investors who know little about stamps, trying to make it sound old and therefore rare and valuable. It's kind of like a used car salesman strategy It would definitely put me off buying from them. A genuine stamp should sell itself if it's described accurately, without the need for fluff.

Balf

It does sound weird but doesn't bother me

hmm to bad I dont have any century old stamps to sell otherwise I could have done a test run on ebay and let you guys know the results

Well, I have let to figure out what years 'older' cover or for that matter the years for 'modern.'