I Guess Our 'Hobby' Is Worthless-Article On Explorer Main Page

Now I'm pissed-or is this just click bait?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/per...ndhp#image=3

I love the writers name-

MARY SHUSTACK

Thanks!

Fake news.

It's extremely generalized, but largely it's not wrong. I looked at the other collectibles and yes the market is near dead or largely out of favor for most of them. Beanie Babies are thrift store fodder these days. Same goes for most of the other items. As noted for most of those items - condition is key. There's always exceptions of course to the generalizations, but what it all comes down to is simple economics - supply exceeds demand.

I generally agree with battlestamps and the article which is making a distinction between true rarities and the run of the mill stuff that makes up the bulk of the average collection. We all knew this. This doesn't make the hobby or any hobby worthless, it just forces us to be realistic as to why we got into the hobby to begin with —it usually was not to make a buck. Even the rarer items may be taking somewhat of a hit—they still are rare, but the buyer base may be contracting as the younger generation may have other interests and appear more interested in the here and now and the future as opposed to the past.

I must have been in an alternate reality in the past year watching auction after auction on SAN attract lots of bidders and strong prices for everything from rarities to intact collections and bulk lots. Silly me.

Brown furniture! Has become almost worthless here in France;even some 19th century stuff.

I find the information in this article about stamps to be spot on:



It talks about variables, condition, and casual collectors of common items. I just wish the article went a bit further to explain that there is money being spent on specialized items, and that values have gone up consistently on those.

What the author describes is a tiny inconsequential part of stamp collecting and in no way represents the vast majority of collectors. To utilize that description to flesh out the conclusion that stamps are worthless is preposterous. Does anyone reading these comments feel that the description accurately represents their collecting efforts?

Don't be even remotely pissed off.

It's an uninformed author, writing about a subject they know very little about...

No, it does not represent MY collecting efforts. However, it does represent the collecting efforts of the vast majority of people that show me what they have in their "collection" once we talk about stamps. I find so many collections that are just torn corners from recent (last 50-70 years) covers that were collected by their parents or friends and sent to them. Kind of like the coin collection in "Throw Mama from the Train".

I certainly wouldn't be rich if I was to sell my collection but then what would I have left if I was a smoker or drinking alcohol for that matter? Health problems would probably the only thing left from those.

Meanwhile I learn about events, people, geography, etc so I wouldn't say stamp collecting is worthless.

+1

Rogdcam: I'm not quite sure why this generic article has upset you so much. The writer of the article was not referring to someone like yourself. In my opinion, the type of collector that the writer was referring to would probably participate in an on line forum like this, would know little to nothing about Stamp Smarter, would probably not know about SAN and probably not participate in stamp auctions outside of eBay and probably does not buy stamps for which a cert is either obtained or required

Trust me I am not upset.

Does anyone else think "SLEESTAK" when they see this name? Maybe I watched too much TV as a kid in the '70s.

...not participate in stamp auctions outside of eBay and probably does not buy stamps for which a cert is either obtained or required...

This just means the collector is apt to lose more money in the long run, not less...