APS Releases Boston 2026 Survey

Survey Link

https://stamps.org/Portals/0/Boston...20REPORT.pdf



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75% were 55 or older with largest group 65-74

72% male

93% of attendees at the WORLD Stamp Show were from the US

3.7% visited the APS booth to join or renew APS




The report is very USPS centric with the highest word count relating to the USPS. The USPS received high marks from respondents in all demographics. The APS seems like an afterthought. Perhaps USPS should sponsor and run future World Stamp Shows if there aren't any conflicts to prevent such.

However, 47.1 percent of respondents were younger than 65, which I think is a good sign!

It shows that:

1) Younger people were more willing to participate
2) The results are skewed

This is the most important line.......
3,947 successfully delivered invitations, 936 responses (23.7% response rate).
This is too small a percentage to take any concrete analysis from. It's a very small percentage of the total visitors.

I believe this is right in line for standard response rates to a survey - usually from 10 to 30 percent.

That's why so many are not accurate.

Which mean only 22.1% are under 55. And, it does not give ANY clue as to the age distribution of the remainder.

Without further information, "which I think is a good sign," has no rational basis in fact. Great wishful thinking...and I hope you are correct.

What remains unknown is the response rate stated as it reflects actual age distribution of attendants of the show. 74, 73 and 83 responses were from 18-34, 35-44 and 45-55 respective of the total 936 responses.

Methodology completely leaves out how they chose the 3947.

"Use Boston 2026 as a benchmark for evaluating future World Stamp Expos and tracking
changes in attendee mix, satisfaction, engagement, and purchasing behavior."

Do they understand these things are only held once every 10 years in the US?

1.3% from Canada is tiny.

So they figured out the USPS is the big draw, just like Pacific '97 where it was so popular for the attendees, the dealers complained the USPS success was keeping potential customers away from the dealer tables.

While the USPS can show items from their, or government, archives, the main draw are the current US stamps being sold. The NEW ISSUES, which are considered somewhere between dirt and redheaded step children by too many stamp collectors or philatelists. But I believe those new issues (of the time) drew in the collectors in their entry to the hobby.

That is a huge divide for the APS to bridge between groups, not to mention the most important sub-group, philatelic exhibitors. Scott has the same balancing challenge where new collectors need the current issue information while others, think any pages past 1940 are a waste of ink and paper plus needed detail in the listings is lacking.

A little understanding and mutual cooperation between collector factions seems not just warranted, but necessary as well as an understanding that the hobby is changing focus.

AND LASTLY THE APS REPORT HAS ZERO INFORMATION ABOUT THE SATISFACTION OF THE COMPETITIVE EXHIBITORS ABOUT THAT ASPECT OF THE EXPO.

USPS pays quite a bit for the large space they take at the Internationals (ad at GASS). Without them, dealers' booth fees would be significantly higher.

It would be interesting to know where people spent their money and not just visit counts. I am sure dealers total revenue was good since reports from most dealers has been positive.