Have You Ever Made A Stamp Convert?

Trying to get the kids in my life to be interested in stamp collecting! I'm sending interesting mail and my cool duplicates to my nieces and nephews in hopes of making a convert I can geek out with (haha)!

Apparently, my mom had a collection when she was growing up but she's never shown me.
I became a collector by chance. I started collecting old postcards and the people I bought from often decked out the package in cool old stamps and I couldn't help but be interested! I started saving them and then before I knew it I had a small pile of about 200 stamps.

Wanting to know if anyone here has made any "Philatelic converts"?
How are you helping to grow and share the hobby?

I'm working on one of my granddaughters. Its too early to tell how successful I'll be.

Jack Kelley

I am hopeful that my two sons will want to take over my collections. One is very interested in Geography and the 11 year old does ask me a lot of great questions regarding my collecting and process. Hopefully I will help keep the hobby Alive! I fell into Stamp collecting through an Aunt. Also my Father collected, but he assumed my Twin brother would be the one to carry on - that did not happen :)

NO.....that is why my master plan is to sell it, not leave it. I have two teenagers and hate to think of what they'd do to my stuff.

@Mrita75

That's so cool! I watch Exploring stamps on youtube with my youngest. I'm hoping the interest will grow and continue with age but its too soon to tell.

I feel the 'lowest hanging fruit' for new hobbyists is the 45 to 60 year-old demographic.

In my opinion, it is fine to introduce younger folks to the hobby but I do not expect them to join the hobby and stay active as they start their families and professional lives. I think that philately is hobby that is most attractive to 45+ year olds because that is the time that that are more likely to reflect upon history and our place in it; it is similar to digging through your family's heritage and genealogy, it simply is not something that younger folks naturally gravitate towards.

So while I have invested time/money in developing online philatelic games and videos for younger people, I invest far more in the hobby in general. This includes spending 15-20 hours per week volunteering in this community for the last seven years. I have also invested 1500+ hours per year and significant amounts of money in developing the Stamp Smarter website that promotes philately.

I have also digitized thousands of philatelic books at no cost for public domain books and for authors at no cost. I do this because I believe having digital resources promotes the hobby moving forward. Lastly, I have donated my time assisting various philatelic clubs and organizations with various IT assistance. This includes developing website sites for them and designing and implementing online SQL databases features. For example, there are now a large number of local clubs who are using the online auction tool that I wrote and host for them at no charge.
Don

I am an uncle to 4, between 8 and 27. There is no hope for the 2 eldest, but I need to plant the right seed with the younger ones. Still trying to figure out what the right seed is. Give them an album? Send a glassine of random stuff? Simply use old stamps on a letter? I know they are looking at coins right now. I wonder if I can sneak a bunch of stamps under their noses and see if they bite??

I must admit, I have tried to get others interested. The best I have ever done is to get a few people to have a passing interest - maybe just to get me to shut up and go away. For the GREAT majority of my attempts, though, all I have gotten is crickets.

When I was very young, a family friend gave me a plate block of one of the Champions of Liberty series. I knew it was old (it was about 10 years old when this happened) and I was fascinated by this strange looking guy on a US stamp. I liked how this neat block of 4 had a 'registration' number in the corner - I knew that had to make it important. I looked up and learned about the strange guy. Then I learned there was an entire SERIES of stamps commemorating a bunch of equally strange guys. I HAD to get the rest of the series AND learn about each of the new strange guys. For me, stamp collecting has always been a segue into learning about some topic/person/thing that I did not know much about beforehand. Having the stamp would be a reminder to me about the neat things that I had learned. I credit stamp collecting for the pile of semi-useless knowledge that I carry around with me. Every once in a while, I will spout a tidbit of that to a friend, and I usually get, "How the **** would you know that???". Stamp collecting. The other white meat.

I love that mootermutt. I agree with: "stamp collecting has always been a segue into learning about some topic/person/thing that I did not know much about beforehand. Having the stamp would be a reminder to me about the neat things that I had learned."

I am a curious person by nature - I want to know things. It is just the way that I am. Once I got that "carton" of stamps, I had to keep going..and going

To Don: You have done so much for this hobby - personally you helped me learn so much through stamp smarter and the work you do on this forum. I was just stepping into that "low hanging fruit" age range when I joined the forum. :)

@51studebaker
I have to agree about the age group you mentioned. Though I feel if I'd been introduced to the hobby as a kid I would have loved it! I just literally didn't know there were such cool stamps out there! I only ever saw the boring ones they carried behind the counter at the grocery store. I think the key is you have to be kind of a natural collector, to begin with. Some people just aren't. I think websites and forums are a fantastic resource for growing and encouraging the hobby! It's really awesome all that you contribute! As a person under 35, it is a little lonesome feeling like you're the only person you know who is even remotely into philately (or who even knows what philately means). But having people to discuss the hobby with makes it much more exciting and makes me feel less like a weirdo.

45 might be a little young. I started stamp collecting at 8 and lost interest at 10. I had no real interest to get back in. At 62, my mother presented me with my collection (very small) my sisters collection (very small), hers (hundreds), my grandmothers (thousand), my great aunts (thousands), and my great grandmothers (hundred thousands), and I was hooked. I had more time on my hands to focus, as researching, even a single stamp, can take hours to days. I learned more researching stamps than I ever did in all those school years of history.

None of my kids have any interest YET, but they don't have the time or attention span right now to get involved, so I wait. My great grandmother was into volume and not so much value, which is fine by me as she collected anything with a picture on paper with glue. A majority are cancelled and I am currently focused on cancellations.

As you know I am fresh in this realm as well. I think LadyGrace said it best a collector of anything will enjoy collecting stamps. Like lady I also feel odd at times. I'm slightly older with 2 months to go before I hit the big 40. But we are here. And I'm sure there is others. I also know I'm not being quite about my philatelic excitement to my friends and family and hopefully that will spur some excitement in others. I just joined The Pottstown stamp club here in PA. What was once an amazing club starting in the 30s has now dwindled down to about 15 members. All legends of course. Brilliant people. But the next youngest person is mid 60s. That will change though. Stamps are for everyone, they just don't know it yet.

I have roped my son (20 years) into philately by having him help me with organizing and listing stamps for online sales for the past year plus. He has a natural talent for it - very meticulous and detail oriented - he's been a great help, and even found some nice varieties in the process. He's a history buff, so he particularly likes investigating the history behind them and even better if he can make a personal connection - for example, he loves the French set with the Vimy Canadian war memorial near Arras, France which we visited several years ago.

So I feel pretty good he'll appreciate - and not just tolerate! - my collection when it gets passed onto him. Then he can take it in whatever direction he wants.

~Greg

Not so far, but I have tried. There dosn't seem to be many school based clubs anymore either. It is such a shame. I would like to see post offices and postal services doing more to encourage collecting which would lead to more mail being posted with actual stamps.

Over about a 10 year period I recommended stamp collecting as a way for Cub Scouts (age 8 to 10 1/20 to get their collectors badge. I must have shown about 60 boys the basics of stamp collecting giving them hinges, printed instructions and advice and packets of stamps either on a theme or mixed. Possibly one collected stamps for longer than the period needed to pass the badge. soaking stamps off, and aimlessly rooting through kiloware to look at pictures and find swaps were the activity that aroused most interest. some of the parents were more interested studying one of my albums and remembering what they had once collected.

I look at it from the standpoint that my dad introduced me to stamps and coins when I was 9 years old. Over the years many other things rightly so (church, family work, cars and golf) took precedence over the stamp hobby. I still over the years occasionally bought lots full well knowing that when at the stage of life when I was no longer able to go physically for 12-14 hours a day I would get back to it. If it had not been for that introduction at 9 I would not be in it today. With that in mind anytime children, grandchildren and great grandkids visit we always spend a little time in my stamp room. So far out of 3 kids, 10 grandkids and 2 greats, one daughter and two grand daughters show promise. I do not mention the value of my collection as I am sure that would generate unwanted enthusiasm.

@Bubbachismo

I haven't researched my area yet to see if there are any local clubs. What do you do at a stamp club? If there isn't one near me maybe I can start one :) I hope your enthusiasm will draw in some of the younger crowd!