Recommendations Of Stamp Auctions - For Smaller Budgets

It seems like constant attrition in the stamp world and no real backfilling. Experts, dealers, auctioneers, every month there is more of the same news.

Rasdale was a real gem IMO. The best large lots by multiples I ever purchased came from them. Nothing was over described. They didn't engage in puffery. They helped me out when Regency screwed me over with a consignment. Pretty sad news.

It is a shame Rasdale is closing, would of like some kind of "good-bye event " sort of a get together .Maybe three nights out for food and drinks . Like we use to have at Gregg Manning in New Jersey .
A night out for Chicago style hot dogs , then a meet up for a Chicago beef sandwhich ,then the night out before the stamp auction for a Chicago deep dish pizza .
Get to meet up outside the auction floor and meet who was stealing all MY good lots from me .Sometimes you want to know .who beat you and what was the reason

Is any of this really surprising?

The hobby has been indifferent at best—and actively hostile at worst—to change, modernization, and younger collectors for decades. Then everyone acts shocked when there aren't enough people coming up behind the dealers, experts, and auctioneers who are retiring.

Look at numerical grading. Sports cards, TCGs, comics, etc. embraced standardized grading and turned condition into something accessible, understandable, and marketable to a massive new audience. Stamps largely decided it wasn't necessary or wasn't worth the trouble. That's a missed opportunity.

Then look at the infrastructure. Platforms like SAN feel antiquated and unnecessarily difficult to navigate. Shows are frequently held in bleak, out-of-the-way locations that aren't exactly going to make a 25-year-old think, "This looks like a fun way to spend my Saturday." The hobby still seems to assume that the next generation will discover it through the same channels and in the same way that previous generations did.

And what exactly is the pitch to a young person today? Video games, Pokémon cards, comics, sneakers, etc. have enormous online communities, social-media ecosystems, influencers, spectacular auction results, and the possibility of making serious money. There is a whole culture surrounding those hobbies.

What does stamp collecting offer by comparison? In many cases, little financial upside, almost no social-media visibility, very little mainstream cultural cachet, and an infrastructure that can feel designed specifically for the people who were already collecting 40 or 50 years ago.

At some point we have to stop treating the disappearance of dealers, experts, collectors, and auctioneers as an unavoidable fact of aging and ask whether the hobby itself helped create the conditions for it.

You can't spend decades resisting change and then blame younger generations for not showing up.

The hobby has largely created this problem for itself.

You can't blame the state SAN on the hobby. That is strictly on the owner.

Smaller shows are held where they are because of cost. If they were held at fancier places, they would be more expensive, but would attendance rise enough to cover that?

Sports has always been culturally important and Hollywood decided to put comics in the spotlight. Video games are the biggest problem.

"spectacular auction results" & "little financial upside"

You can chase the mighty buck as much as you like, but the average collector is not in it for that.

This is for the OPs eyes only. Emerald Venture Auctions out of VA and Golden Valley Stamps in MN. Golden Valley has monthly auctions and EV is every Sunday. Don't tell anyone else please.

Frankly I agree with most of what you say. But I do have one question regarding


Exactly or approximately, what changes have been avoided? What changes need to be done?

The other collectibles you mentioned being chased and the related possible quick money, is not something with which philately can compete. Quick money and philately have never gone hand in hand.

Special cards (or fill in the blank items) in very limited quantity including a quantity of one, cannot be done in philately successfully or sustainably. Likewise philately often requires much study and learning to understand stamps and what separates cheap (read worthless) and valuable (read cash value over $500, not a price in a catalogue or an auction held last year.)

Lastly most valuable or interesting philately to a far majority of collectors is pre 1945. Modern issues, "new issues" are collected like redheaded step children. Only topical collectors seem to be interested in new or modern issues. additionally the total volume of Pokemon cards produced does not rank as a rounding error for the total stamp production. Sports cards died te came back when getting the valuable cards was possible but like winning the lottery. Folks, especially kids like lotteries and unlike the government run lotteries, kids get to play the sport card, Pokemon, shoe and other lotteries.

As to grading, that does happen to some extent on early issues or modern high cost examples. When grading cost multiple of the value of the item once graded, grading is pointless.