Some Sad Comments About US Stamps And Fdoi Ceremonies

A nice enough article about the upcoming New England Lighthouse Stamps:

http://www.theforecaster.net/news/p...abeth/165507

But some distressing comments as well:

The sub-text in those comments is that if there are few new collectors, then the market will shrink and values and prices will plummet. Are we already paying too much for our stamps?

Terry

It's also hard for stamps to compete with phones/tablets/computers/video games/etc. :(

Especially since most modern stamps are just so ugly. I'd never want any of them in my collection.

Distressing, Yes. But also true I think.




If I were collecting modern stamps I wouldn't worry about getting self adhesive stamps off letters. If collecting them, it is best to get them before they are used and leave them stuck to their original backing, cut close around the perforations. As with collecting used, leave them stuck to their envelope and cut close around the perfs.

But...it is a fact that kids these days are not as interested in stamp collecting. I read on the internet one kid calling it a "geeky hobby".

So...are we "geeks" part of a popular, but slowly dying hobby?


-IBFS

This would slowly happen logically, but would most of us be dead before any benefits could be reaped from this? How many generations of non-collectors would have to go by before stamp prices would be affected significantly?


-IBFS

I have been hearing stuff like this for a long time, especially here in the U.S. Since my main collecting are is non-U.S., I'd be interested in hearing how the hobby is fairing in other parts of the world. Are kids more involved in Europe? Great Britain?
With things like T.V., video games, and smart phones occupying young peoples minds, it's no wonder they don't like anything more stimulating.

Hi spain_1850,

Last time I went to the London Stamp Exhibition at Islington, I can't remember seeing any youngsters attending. Attendance seemed to be entirely male and middle-aged upwards. My luck I probably missed the day when all the ladies turned up. Bummer, eh?

Terry

That is a bit discouraging for some I would suppose, but I am not a trend follower and I collect simply because I enjoy both history and philately a great deal. My personal thoughts on this is simply that children are so busy with the video games and iPhones and such that I would suppose that just the notion of hand writing and mailing an "analog letter" (let alone stamp collecting)would seem rather archaic to them. WT1 I think it was had an article a while back about how kids now-a-days don't even know how to address an envelope! So my point being why in the world would they attend a stamp reveal exhibition then? I don't think that interest in the hobby will ever just completely die out but maybe just wax and wane and hopefully interest our today's youth when they are older.

Terry, I don't know, I've never known stamp collecting to be a "chick magnet" hobby, but who knows.

In a year or 2 I'm going to try my hardest to try and get my grandson at least interested in what grandpa does. He likes dinosaurs and Spiderman right now. At least one of those is a potential stamp collection. Unfortunately, my step-daughter is already caught up in the teenage lifestyle complete with a smartphone permanently attached to her hand and ear.

There's also the trend of more and more extracurricular activities for children. For some, they don't have time for anything other than text messages. :P

Let face it as a man of 25 I stopped collecting stamps for a while. Why because frankly they are boring.

Compared to my PS2, PS3 and Wii they offer little to no excitement and I have to comb through literally low values of kiloware just to collect one single country that I hope to get. It is a thankless task all the more created through snobbiness of the collectors, since they are all middle-aged anglo-saxons mostly, who have nothing to relate to the younger generations.

Lets face it the price of getting into stamps is a lot more expensive than getting a PS3 and a couple of games or even getting a couple of games. If you look at the prices of the Scott catalog why in the world would someone buy something so expensive? Sure you can borrow it out from the library but then you have to literally fight other stamp collectors for the set and then you have only 2 week to borrow it. Unless you are retired or have nothing else to do no one has that amount of time to spend every day documenting stamps. I myself only do it when I watch TV or when I'm off on holidays from my University. 9 out of 12 months a year I don't touch stamps at all.

The same could not be said of video games since they are both portable and enjoyable.

Lets also face it, who has upwords of a $1000+ to complete any country at any given section? I don't which I why I use the kiloware method. The fact is you can never collect a complete country without taking out a second mortgage on your house. This is one aspect that I feel draws them away. For a video game 40+ hours, lets say 2 hours per week, ensures that you finish the game, save the princess and played with your friends all for $50 dollars or so. Can you complete an entire country for $50? I don't think that is possible.

Stamp collecting is a dying hobby and the faster we admit it the better off we will all be in both lowering of the cost of various supplies as well as money hungry collectors.

This really depresses me.

I think I'll buy some stamps.

I'm not sure I understand the previous quote "lowering the cost of various supplies". If fewer stamp supplies are purchased (as in less collectors) then the prices of "various supplies" would typically increase. It's only when there is a large market that the volume of production typically lowers the price of any item.

After all, isn't that what doomed the Dennison stamp hinge (lack of marketability that no longer made it worthwhile to continue production)?

Aren't we are also seeing this in the Scott Catalog price increases? The story goes that because of budget concerns and fewer people with stamp collecting interests fewer libraries are stocking up on the latest multi-volume Scott Catalogs, and coupled with fewer collectors that buy them all that often on the retail level (partially due to price) production is way down and Scott Catalogs have to be sold at higher prices in order to make them financially viable to continue production.

I've often wondered about the idea that if fewer collectors stay interested in stamps, will the collectible stamp market respond by lowering prices on the secondary market because fewer have interest in them (i.e. lower demand)? Granted, most common stamps are already at rock bottom prices, but will the so-called "better" quality stamps that are presently sold at hundreds of dollars come down in price because stamp collectors are dying off and their heirs have no interest in collecting other than to attempt to get some quick money by selling off a heirs collection that may have taken a lifetime to accumulate for a quick profit?

I guess I missed the boat of instant gratification. Not that I'm too old to have enjoyed video games in my day, because I did. I just grew out of it. Something it seems that the "now" generation can't do. I watch my daughter playing video games and think to myself "How on earth can you do that?". It's something that if I were to have to choose between sticking hot needles in my eyes and playing video games, well, I'll take 2 eye patches please!

As far as value, stamp collecting at it's most basic element has gotta be one of the cheapest forms of entertainment available. Anybody can collect stamps and spend virtually nothing. You only get out of it what your willing to put into it. We spent $500+ for my daughters wii system a couple years ago. It's value today is, I'm sure, quite a bit less. Look at older game systems. You can't even give away older Nintendo systems. If I were to spend the same $500 a few years ago on a few choice stamps, I guarantee they would have held there value better than any electronic device bought in the same time period.

If stamp collecting continues to die out, I just say there will be more stamps for me to enjoy. I'll probably continue to collect until I am too old to successfully hold my tongs.

Maybe one of the problems you are having is that you never had any collectors guide you into the hobby. It sounds like you are so stressed out over trying to complete a country, that you are missing everything else about the hobby. There is no right or wrong way to collect. Whole country collecting is not for everyone. Maybe you bit off more than you could chew. Maybe take a step back, read some of the other ways to collect on here and retool your own collection so you get more enjoyment out of it. Collecting should NOT be chore.

So you think that $50 spent on a video game, that you can beat in 40 hours, is a good value? Really? I think it's a colossal waste of money to be honest. My daughter does the same thing. She begs and begs for a new game for birthdays and such, and we finally cave in. She has the game beat, usually in a couple days time. Then we go and trade the game in and get comparatively nothing for it.