Stamp Collector Statistics -Fascinating

Here is the link to a fascinating article on stamp investing and an estimate of how many collectors there are around the world.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wh...t-2014-06-19

Linn's Stamp News had a recent article about this but put a different perspective on it:




http://linns.com/news/editorial-ins...n-investment

I find that article very interesting indeed. If their figures are correct , that would mean that approximately 1% of the world wide population are stamp collectors or investors. That would seem like a lot to me. According to the A.P.S. and many others , our hobby is suppose to be in decline. However , when I bid on 19th century and early 20th century U.S. stamps , I always have plenty of competition. I know that a lot of U.S. stamps are sold every day on ebay. I don't think most of that material is going to China. Also , except for very rare material, prices are down for U.S. stamps. One example. I purchased a set of Farley souvenir sheets in 1980 for $400 plus. That was 40% off of Brookman. Today you can buy those for half that amount. So who do you believe ?

From the above mentioned article:


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wh...t-2014-06-19

Neat! I like small investing myself, $5 to $10 is more my range. But then when you multiply that x10 or so . . .

"Stamp Collector" is often defined pretty loosely and can include anyone who's ever saved a stamp for whatever reason. The people who save a sheet of Elvis stamps because they're a fan sometimes get lumped in with serious collectors. I can believe 60 million casual collectors worldwide who save some stamps here and there. I'd be more interested to know how many "serious" collectors there are, who consistently and regularly devote significant time to their hobby. It would obviously be a smaller number, but I have no idea, really, how many serious collectors there might be.

I'm not an expert on investing in anything, so I'll definitely avoid stamps as an investment vehicle and will stick to enjoying them as a pastime. And even if I had the desire to invest, the only stamps that would make quote-unquote good investments are the rarities that only people like Gross can afford. All of the stamps in my collection are readily obtainable today and will be readily obtainable in the future, and that's not a recipe for much of a return on investment.

I see those stats too and I know a lot of people bemoan the death of our hobby, but I'm not so sure. The reason, I don't think anyone has a clue how many collectors there really are, in large part because of the trend of buying and selling online. That makes observing stamp shops or stamp shows an inaccurate indicator of collector population.

Plus, as the ArtfulHinger alluded to, there is the definition of stamp collector, which can change the numbers quite dramatically.

I know two kids who have "stamp collections." One is more of an accumulation, but being a Navy brat, he does acquire stamps from countries where he's lived or his dad has visited. They are in a box, not an album or stockbook, and he doesn't really view himself as a collector. But isn't he?

I know another young man who is fairly deep on the autism spectrum. He insists he has a stamp collection, though he owns no stamps. He gets a stamp, scans it, stores it in his computer, and tosses the stamp. I guess that is one way to collect, though, isn't it?

And what about those who may collect stamps but not admit it? To some, stamp collecting is a stodgy, old-fashioned past time that some people don't always want to make public. Just another "extreme" to consider.

Outstanding point wt1.

It does make me wonder. Maybe I would have been better off investing $100,000 from my no-longer available 401K (i was laid off) in stamps instead of a rollover IRA. (A $50,000 investment yielded about $500 this past quarter but the company is charging me $150 in fees ... ouch)

This is the sort of "lets go fishing for people with money who know nothing about stamps" so that they can be taken to the cleaners.
Serious collectors know articles like this are pure BS, and Bill Gross is not a "stamp investor" in any case. He builds collections and than he donates the money received from selling them to charity. However there is no guarantee that he did not lose money on all of those collections relative to what he paid for them originally. I hate articles like this, they can wind up causing fluctuations in the market because fools with money are conned into thinking that what they buy will go up significantly.

Collectors always collect. If it is stamps or boats or magazines or something else.

A stamp collector sees stamps as a worthwhile investment for his time invested, including relaxation, study, appreciation in the beauty the world has to offer as displayed on stamps, in money, when purchased wisely, and in finding friends or fellow collectors who enjoy the pasttime as much as he / she does.

And if you go back and read the article carefully, it doesn't even mention the real reason why stamps are Gross's "favorite" investment. That he's a collector. Regardless if Gross comes out ahead financially or not, I'm sure that he, like any other collector, gets great enjoyment out of collecting stamps. Stamps aren't where Gross made his fortune, but I'm sure it is indeed a favorite way of his to spend his time. If he is indeed buying with an eye toward appreciation, I can believe it's his favorite investment simply because it's also a favorite pastime of his. But I can't believe it's his favorite investment because it's more profitable than stocks or bonds. But you would have no idea of any of that from the article. They don't even mention that Gross collects stamps or that he even likes them for their own sake.

Some collectors seem to be spending an awful lot of time and money for certified "superb" stamps. Are they investment worthy?


-IBFS

Not at the prices they are paying.
IF someone knew exactly what they were doing, AND they bought better stamps in VF-S condition, AND we are talking 4 or 5 decades ago, than they have a pretty good chance of making money. For some items even 1 or 2 decades might well be enough, but they must be better grade items, and fluctuations in the market make it possible to lose money as well. It's really only the high end specialty items that might or might not make money in the shorter term.

A stamp collector will search for those philatelic items which he/she finds interesting. Collecting will almost always include the acquisition of a rather wide range of items including many which are common & mundane. An investor, on the other hand, will search out items whose value has historically increased significantly and/or whose value is anticipated to increase fairly dramatically. For this reason, an investor is more likely to accumulate fewer different items than a collector as well as multiple copies of those items.