The Changing Trend In Stamp Collecting

Hi timbres667,

Yes indeed, I am not denying the experts' knowledge or skills, but from the outsider's view the emphasis of the programmes is on the money.

Terry

Terence
Collectibles it's like that. You spend money on them but after many want to forget how much they paid. Most of the people when they have visitors at home they don't like to tell how much they paid. But they enjoy everyday the painting or else. But that's the side of the buyer. Drew is a businessman and the emphasis of the tv show is about him. You know how people are curious about the value of collectibles. They ask us all the time "How much it worth?" The show is made to attract a large audience and money is appealing. Thanks for your post. Daniel

Yeah, I must agree with floortrader and others. Philately is not in the public eye as much anymore. I personally think that exhibiting is still a valuable learning tool as much for the exhibitor as for the audience. That being said . . . while every hobby has it's high-end players, I think there are always areas for specialization that folks on regular budgets can really delve into, especially in areas of modern philately that I am only in the last few years seeing exhibits on.

In addition, the rules regarding exhibits are starting to loosen up in recognition that not all exhibits are going to fit one of the prescribed number of frames sized exhibits there used to be. Also, as I witnessed personally at the latest expo here in Minnesota, variety in the size of pages used is tremendous. One exhibitor used an entire map as part of his exhibit.

I don't agree with you. These are RECENT stories about stamps from the media:

Flying Jenny

http://www.sonorannews.com/archives...m-jenny.html

Unsafe Activities

http://edition.cnn.com/video/standa...homepage=yes





I agree 100%!

My approach to collecting has changed significantly over the years. I am pursuing interesting items that are in the $1 to $5 range. I don't have check lists for items I "need". My collection is always "complete".

lorddenning: Your third link is dead. A few news stories doesn't make up for the fact that the vast majority of stamp stores are gone on the physical landscape, shows and clubs are dwindling in numbers and sizes and its actually getting harder to buy stamps at the post office. My local post office is pulling a lot of the stamps, because they are putting in a meter machine.

I don't see commercials on T.V. about stamp collecting anymore. The newspaper don't announce new stamp issues like they use to aside from the oddities like in the links above. Media will be quick to point out when the USPS makes an error, but remember the days of a regular philatelic column in larger papers like the Washington Post? Ads to entice stmap collectors with offers in the public media is down to Mystic with infrequent ads in the Sundays coupon clippers. Are there ads anymore in National Geographic, Boy's Life, Matchbook covers(okay..poeple smoke less thus no reason for those ads to exist anymore)? The internet is the saving grace for philately. Time after time, when I tell people I'm a philatelist - first I have to define it for them and second I usually hear, "People still collect stamps?".

In the public media it would be more encouraging to see articles or reports on recent stamp events (shows, new issues, etc.) and club activities. It would even be nice if stamp shows would even advertise in the local newspapers as well.

Battlestamps

Yes, times have changed. Stamp stores are a thing of the past. Have they been replaced? You bet. By something thousands of times better - ebay and Delcampe and the entire World Wide Web.

The internet is bulging with stamp news and opportunities to purchase stamps and covers.

The old model of "stamp" collecting has been replaced but it would appear that I will not be able to convince anyone that philately is a thriving hobby. As far as "investing" goes, well frankly who cares?

Interesting discussion. I have only a few comments:

1. Agree that the internet is a positive aspect, without which this hobby/investment might be dead.
2. It strikes me that throughout the centuries, people have a propensity to collect or they don't. I doubt this changes much, its just stamps are one choice among many. so there is some hope for future collectors. my view is that we all had one person who got us interested, so maybe we should each find one young person to pay it forward.
3. The only trend that looms large to me is that we face a significant generational phase, whereby a huge percentage of us collectors will be dead in say the next 30 years. it occurs to me that this turnover might be a huge chasm whereby collections are lost like dust in the wind; or an huge opportunity to pass the baton to another generation. I don't know how to get young people interested. not sure about media exposure or technology.
4. My belief is that because of these forces/trends, I am more focused then ever on organizing/categorizing my collection so that whomever finds it will have the easiest path to carry it forward. versus just a bunch of index cards and plastine envelopes in a bunch of boxes and tins, which could end up in the trash.

a fork in the road ahead, and remember what Yogi Berra (famous baseball player said): "When you come to the fork of the road....Take it!"

Lorddenning: Yes, I would agree with you that the Internet has largely replaced traditional venues of philately and has a mass wealth of philatelic resources and access to material via ebay, Delcampe, bidStart, etc. I need it myself to thrive, but it's still not the same as having a physical presence.

Millions to billions of people can comb through the Internet looking at a mass array of information, but may never, ever see anything about philately. This can hold true for any subject. A computer user would have to actively search for something philatelic in order to find it. In those cases the user is probably already a collector or came into a collection via inheritance or other means. In summary, unless a computer user already has an interest in philately, how would they come across it on the Internet?

How would the Internet attract new people to the hobby? Also how can older collectors and dealers continue who do not have access to the Internet or understanding of computers? The latter definitely exists as I have had a well known dealer recently ask me to help him with placing material online since his knowledge of computers stopped with the Apple IIe.

I honestly did know any stamp collectors my age when I began. They were all old and most likely dead today. I think whay I gathered an interest in collecting stamps was that I did like to collect other things. It didn't matter if it was stamp covers, sports cars, match cars what ever I liked to collect.

Not everyone like to collect, I think you have to have that type of interest. Stamps were easy, of course I wanted that merit badge but basically stamps were easy to collect. They cam in the mail every day.

If a person doesn't have a passion to collect then they certainly are not going to collect stamps.

It is true you can spend money on getting the top shelf of stamps or spend none just collecting any stamps. Specializing is hardly something that will bring a new collector into stamp collecting. Generally you figure this out after you start collecting.

The internet isn't going to bring in new stamp collectors, it is just a change in the ways of getting information and buying stamps. Granted it is faster and more convenient but not any different than those of us that worked from catalogs and price lists. In other words if we were new collectors it would not matter one bit how or where we bought our stamps. We would learn how to do it.

You have to stop thinking as a veteran stamp collector. You have to think like a new collector, what would bring you into this hobby?

Shows will not help one bit. How o why would a child want to attend. Unless they have an interest they certainly are not going to ask their parents to take them to one.

Internet - while a plus for us veterans unless a child has an interest they are not going to search for stamps.

Specialization - while a big part of the fun again if they don't collect why would they care.

Costs - less of a problem since you can have a great collection far under the price of a PS system and buying games.

Teacher - this may be a key and when I say teacher I mean an older person who can bring the hobby to a young person.

In the end the collectors will survive but I think many dealers might not. Stamps will continue to be tossed in the trash when some collectors die. That is a fact and I once found a nice collection in a dump by accident back in the 1970's.

The problem is that you have to stop looking for answers as a current avid collector and look at it through the eyes of someone new. My daughters interest came through modern stamps such as Star Wars,and some cats and dig stamps that I don't recall what they were at this time.

I forgot to add just tossing free tamps to kids is not the answer. There was an organization that tried that. At one time they were sending out a lot of stamps. Today they get very few requests for free stamps.

http://www.iswsc.org/iswsc_free.shtml

mkfarm: I think you have one of the MAJOR reasons why people started collecting stamps - "They came in the mail every day."

We all know it's very hard to find stamps in today's mail unless it's from another collector, Christmas and other holiday/celebration cards and the odd piece of junk mail with a bulk rate or non-profit stamp. The only solution is for use to continue to use stamps for everything we mail and mail more often. It's clearly counter to modern technology trends, but how many of us started because of the vast array of little colorful labels that came from the daily mail?

And you have the other major means of cultural transmission - teaching. Anyone can be a teacher - you just have to sit, show and tell someone else about the hobby. A lot of us start because a friend or relative was a collector. It is harder these days since many of live further apart on average and don't spend as much time with each other. We have to make the time to do so.

Philately began in the 19th century as rich-man's hobby. The wealthy have been dominant forces in the hobby and continue to be so to this day. We don't hear them worry about attracting young people to stamp collecting.

I wonder why some of you care so much about attracting "young" people to the hobby? I have no trouble putting myself in their shoes. What is the point of buying an album and covering the pictures with stamps? Where is the creativity? I stopped collecting stamps that way forty years ago.

I cringe when I see a youngster being indoctrinated into traditional philately. Fortunately most of them don't listen. I appreciate that H.E. Harris and the Garcelon approval racketeers are no longer with us.

I believe it is possible to enter the hobby as adults without enduring the childish phase of collecting. It happens in a lot of other collecting spheres. Just check out the collectibles on ebay. Post cards are a great example.

The reality is that there are many older collectors who have placed far too much emphasis on how much money they spent on their "hobby" and are worried that there won't be anyone standing who cares about buying their stamps.

The forces of natural selection are in motion. The hobby is evolving as it should.

lorddenning,
While I certainly do not like what you wrote, I can't say that I totally disagree with it. I'm 69 with four adult children and several grandchildren. None of them have any real interest in pursuing the hobbies of my youth - that are still with me today. Stamp collecting, coin collecting, model railroading, auto mechanics, and firearms hold no real interest for them. Sure, they all seem to appreciate the collections and the fact that I can fix mechanical stuff (I'm a retired business analyst), but that's as far as it goes.

Today's youth have lives on fast forward, geared around electronic gadgets and systems, and want to have everything - new and immediately.

In my opinion, that is their loss, and hopefully the trend will turn at some point.

Of course there are the exceptions (thank goodness), but I don't know of any personally.

I would like to echo the comments of mobilman44. I too am back into collecting after a 35+ year break. When I got back to collecting several months ago, I still had a "young" collector mind set and it took a little while to shift my perspective.

It would be great if there were more places to go purchase stamps - A majority of my beginning collection came from Woolworth, TG&Y and a guy who had a stamp shop in the mall, that was neat and tidy. Now most of my stamp purchases are from ebay and Estate Sales. I have visited a few stamp dealers since returning to the hobby - I felt like I was pressured into buying or not buying something without any clear information. The dealers were set up with boxes and old albums cluttering up an area and trying to present as professional.

It would be nice if more of my friends picked up the hobby so we could get together with our albums and fill them up together and trade stamps, like I did when I was younger. Now, there are forums like this where I can collect with others and never get to see them or their stamps.

IMO The future of collecting will be online trading/selling. Collectors will specialize and create albums and fill stockbooks dependent on taste than a preprinted album,

This generation is growing up with ubiquitous computing; they expect that the information they desire be delivered in real-time and on demand. The information model that philately has traditional embraced is that of 'we charge you for information'. This applies whether you want to determine the value of a stamp (buy a catalog) or join a club/organization (pay membership fees).

The internet, with entities like ebay (for values) and this forum (for almost real-time feedback to questions) show that this trend is reversing. Publishers such as Amos (Scott) and SG have also lagged behind the curve and are only now just trying to catch up with their online offerings.

Obviously it makes little sense to publish a paper catalog with static price that does not really reflect the true current value of a stamp or cover. What makes more sense is to establish an online catalog (which can be printed out for those that desire a hard copy) that reflects a real-time average sale price for a stamp paid over this last week, month, or year. The same trend will drive album pages; more and more folks will print their own albums.

I think that the more that philately figures out how to take advantage of the internet the better the chance it has to capture new hobbyists. But this will require that we continue to push change to the traditional ways we think about it or wait until enough of us old farts pass on so that new thinking can predominate.