Classic Vs. Modern?

What type of stamps are you most fond of collecting? Classic or modern?

Even though I am an enthusiast of any and all U.S. and World-Wide stamps, I tend to gravitate more toward toward the classic end.
This is mostly because I am much more interested in the regional history and culture that the earlier stamps represent. The older stamps tell the stories of each country's national heritage, landmarks, Kings, Queens, Presidents, Wars, Occupations, Natural disasters (in the form of surtax overprints), Shifting Geographic borders, Territorial claims, and many other interesting aspects. Also,stamps of this era were made for one main purpose: to pay for movement of mail. There was very little in the way of catering to a collector market by printing endless sheets of stamps that had little to do with that country's history or mail movement, like we have nowadays.

I suppose if I were strictly a topical collector, I would tend to like CTOs and 'packet-market' types of modern stamps better.

And the older stamps, as a whole, just plain look nicer. There's just something intriguing about that whole hand-engraved, ornate border thing....

Personally, I think stamp topics and appearances started going south in the mid 1960s. One starts seeing a shift from historical subjects on commemoratives to endless topical themes. As I look through my collection of recent U.S. stamps, I see how much the stamp topics have shifted toward the entertainment and sports industries, art, various holidays, and just a lot of 'feel-good' stuff. This is fine....I still gladly fill the album spaces. But, I am still cogent of the fact that fewer and fewer stamps are ambassadors of real U.S. history and heritage. A good case in point: I recently purchased a large WW packet of stamps from a local dealer. This lot had a bit of everything in it: Old classics, WWII era, modern. I happened to run across a complete set of recent U.S. 'Simpsons' cartoon stamps. I was highly amused at the set as I cheerfully mounted the stamps in my album, but at the same time I was thinking...OK, what is the historical significance of these stamps? Get my drift? I realize that this is all a reflection of our shifting emphasis on things that ENTERTAIN us as a society.

Oh, and one other thing before I get off the soapbox....I hate SA's!

Anyhew....What do y'all think?