The Value Of Postage Stamps In The Time Period

I am interested, in general whether the value of postage stamps eventually rising or falling? I do not mean on some postal rarities, but in general. Stamps from which countries have the greatest tendency to long term increase value? I would love to hear your opinions

While China has probably been doing better, I know that the catalogue value of my Indian States have has been rising by a steady 7% or so a year over the last ten catalogue years. I know, because I track the prices.

My collection does include some high-priced (for the Indian States, that is) rarities, but it also includes cheaper items. Cochin SG 76, for example,



has gone from £4 in the 2005 Gibbons to £12 in the 2014 catalogue. Cochin SG 94



has gone from £3.25 to £12 over the same time.

At the higher end, Jammu & Kashmir SG 5a



(The 1866 4 Anna ultramarine watercolour on native paper)

has gone from £750 to £1800 over the same period.

I definitely would not recommend investing in the Indian States, though, unless you have a very good idea of what you're doing.

Like anything that is bought and sold for money, prices rise and fall according to supply and demand. Lately China and other Asian areas have been rising lately because there is a large new middle class there taking up collecting stamps of their home countries. Other areas go out of fashion and drop in price. It all boils down to how many of stamp x are in the marketplace vs. how many people are looking to buy that stamp. Supply of older issues is fairly constant, but many factors impact demand, such as current economic conditions, etc. Common stamps of any area rarely move much in price. If they were common 50 or 100 years ago, they're still common today and will still be common in another 50 years.

I only know modern Australia 1990 to now.

Quality Australia kiloware from 2002 to 2010 costs about $30kg.

Same from 2010 to 2014 about $120kg

As less and less mail is used the more the stamps are being sold for used.

Large letters and parcels are having multiples of letter rate stamps put on them making used recent high denomination stamps worth double and even triple face value used.

Every bit of money that we get spare + goes to buying stamps from very recent times. We have a huge amount of very recent stock.

The returns are so good that...............!