The Changing Trend In Stamp Collecting

I suspect some retailers are just packrats who will only begrudgingly part with their wares.

I had two stamp shops in my local area. One is really a coin shop that deals almost exclusively in precious metals, with a few stamps on display that never sell and the other one, which was almost across the street from work, was a dark, dirty place with rude employees that absolutely did not want anyone in the store. It was piled high with junk everywhere, you couldn't find anything and I think it was designed to be so frustrating that people just left. The doors were opened irregularly, they were there when they wanted to be and not when they didn't. I'm still convinced that the stamp shop was a front for something illegal they were doing in the back of the store.

I can't tell you the last time I was actually in a stamp shop that was actually pleasant, welcoming and focused on stamps. It has to have been at least 25-30 years.

JR1960 and Cephus -------like any type of retail business ,there has to be some stamp dealers who overpaid for their stock and or they have material that is out of fashion .They want to make a profit and will hold their inventory until a bigger sucker comes along and they are bitter about the experience and not ready to let it go .I have gone to stamp shows and bourses where the stock they are displaying and trying to sell is the same inventory they had at the show five years ago . Your average stamp dealers most likely has 50% of his money and selling inventory in stuff that he can't sell or has little interest from people looking for material. Dealers have a hard time selling stuff to get rid of it ,they don't refresh their inventory as often as you think .

There are two stamp stores near Albany, New York which are fairly close to me. The owners of each are very pleasant, knowledgeable, helpful, price items very fairly and are both active in the local stamp community through stamp shows, clubs and publications - George McGowan and AZUSA Stamps.

When I lived in Maryland, David and Herman Most of Maryland Stamps & Coins in Bethesda, Maryland were instrumental in helping me with my early collections. Also a very nice stamp store experience.

There are good ones out there.

Very well said scanstamps

Dianne

I have also been collecting since age 6 [coming up on 60 consecutive years]. I have about 30 different stamp collection interests so I can find something almost every week - if I look hard enough, and often disregard condition. All the full time stamp storefronts in my city have quit the business, so I do 75% online, 20% with specialist contacts, and 5% at shows [which are usually very disappointing]. I hope the hobby lasts long enough to keep my interest, but the long-term prospects are pretty dim.

CHASA-----Have no fear ,the future of stamp collecting is very bright . Every government in the world seems like they are running their money printing presses overtime and as you read the financial newspapers the banks are issuing more worthless paper .All collectibles will surge as the presses keep printing and our government issues 60 or 80 billion dollars a month in I.O.U.'s.

Ok. Christmas 2013 was my first Christmas home in about 8 years. My brother is in a psyops unit attached to a Special Forces Unit. It was also his first Christmas home in ages. As he's serving in a headquarters unit now and no longer deploying for awhile he's got an office. For his gift, I acquired 2 of those OSS hitler-skull "Futsches Reich" forgeries on cover and the original hitler heads on cover side by side and had them framed in museum glass. They're quite the conversation piece in his office.

ebay has had a significant impact on the smaller stamp shows. No overhead equals lower prices which is the driving force in the making of most purchases. I'd love to have a shop in my neighborhood which I would support but there just isn't enough interest and sales to make it fly.
Tom

We are not alone.

I recently read an article about the difficulties facing 'mittelstand' book publishers & authors. The big publishers only have advance & promotional money for the proven money-makers (even those long dead, like Mr Ludlum), and new authors struggle to get anyone to read their work, let alone publish it.

So I asked myself: "Self, what if book publishing simply stopped, and there were no new books, ever? Would I run-out of things to read?" There are certainly more books out there that I would like to read, of every type, than I shall ever have the time to read or, if the necessity arose, the money to buy.

Sounds like stamps, model railroading, and a zillion other idle pursuits.

Do we need new issues for the hobby to survive?

Do we need brick'n'mortar stores for the hobby to survive?

Do we need book review or stamp review columns in the newspapers for the hobby to survive?

I suggest that most hobbies thrive/survive by the efforts of the hobbyists.

Here, then, is a modest proposal:

There are a zillion little community museums across America (for example); surely, every one of them already has one display case of local postal history ... r-i-g-h-t? For those that do not:

It has never been easier to find these museums, to contact these museums, to adopt these museums, and then to assemble material for a small display in these museums.

(I say 'assemble' because the adoptor would have every right to ask) for donations, from far & wide.)

You do not have to live in a given community - or even in its country - to create a small postal history display for the local historical society to place in some corner of their museum.

It has also never been easier for someone to create the framework in which to organize the adoptors & adoptees.

And since the local schools invariably drag the poor kids thru these museums, there would be new exposure to the old hobby.

And since yours would be the only philatelic display, you could win the blue ribbon without losing a ton of money.

Just remember to include QR codes in every display for the kids to shoot with their smart phones.

Cheers,

PS: I do not have the, uh, requisite standing to begin a new forum topic; if you do, and are so inclined, may I suggest "Adopt An Historical Society Museum"?

/s/ ikeyPikey

Step right up. Might I suggest placing it right here in the Main forum?

sdtom, we have the best store in Minnesota; Bel Aire Stamp and coin in Roseville. It is still a brick and mortar store with coins upstairs and stamps downstairs. There's shelves of albums for sale and they have the usual red boxes. We also have the best stamp supply store in probably the Midwest with Golden Valley Collectables. You can browse the shelves and if you are a worldwide collector like me drool over the brand new Scott Internationals through the current supplement. The best thing about buying in person is no smelly surprises.

I was speaking about the small business in general. We're lucky to have what we have in this area.
Tom

I agree Tom, I do miss seeing more locations with stamps. When I was a kid I got my start at Woolworths at Maplewood Mall. You can't find even a Harris bag of stamps at a hobby shop anymore. There are also some good dealers still in the state too, but you see them mostly at shows.