How Old Are You And Whats Your Gender? Will Philately Die?

48 male - I doubt it'll ever die as a hobby.

I recently got a 25 year old coworker collecting by giving him some albums and stamps to get him started.

Petert4522

We have the same birthday, except I'm only 67.

Another of my hobbies is model railroading. Also seemed to be dying. But in the last 5-10 years, I have seen a lot of young people enter the hobby. Hopefully, the same will happen in the stamp collecting hobby. One thing I see as an impediment is how technology (email) is killing the post office.

Jack Kelley

53 this December 27th, and counting.
I haven't the slightest idea what will happen to our Hobby. It will wane, but perhaps enjoy a resurgence.

...Kirk! You certainly don't look your age.


Edit- As for whether I am a male or female, men will always give their age. For women their age is always something like "indeterminable".



-IBFS

45 year old male. Collecting since I was 12.
Am surprised at the number of collectors on this forum who are close to my age. I have been to two shows in the last four years and was easily the youngest person there.

67 male

I am a 53-year old male. At stamp events I often feel out of place for being so young.

This is an excellent point I never considered. Countries possibly not so enamored with electronic wizadries.


-IBFS

If you think you feel young, I'm 34 and often go to our local stamp library (RMPL in Denver Co) and don't feel like I've ever gone there when I wasn't half the age of everyone there!

On a side note, I have been interested in trying to join a nice stamp club in Denver but having a hard time connecting. Seems like most clubs have been more friends getting together, talking about life before my time, who has had surgeries and who has died since the last meeting. There will always be new people getting into stamps, but us younger folks have a very tough time trying to find people we can relate to more.

It's encouraging to see so many "younger" (by which I mean 50 and under) collectors posting here. There is a new APS initiative underway to hold social events for collectors under 50 at major US shows; this was done for the first time at the Hartford APS show and I'm told it was a significant success.

People collect for many different reasons, of course, and not everyone is interested in social interaction, but it seems to me that it's been a good exercise in making both philatelic and social connections among younger collectors. I suspect younger collectors are more likely not to have attended a show and are more likely to use the internet as their primary hobby interface. As a "lifer" in the hobby (without the customary departure in adolescence and return in the adult years) I've been around enough to highly value shows for the social experiences and face to face interaction with collectors, dealers, and exhibitors that is difficult to get anywhere else.

[if you are a collector and not an APS member, please consider joining. I say this with bias as the vice-chair of the APS membership committee.]

I don't think that has all that much to do with the popularity of the hobby amongst our age cohort (I'll be 45 in about 75 days). I think it has more to do with the fact that the older cohort is less comfortable buying online, and they also began their serious collecting when shows might have been the only way to find items they needed for their collections. I'd have to drive two hours to get to a show (which is really just a bourse with a dozen or so dealers), but why? I can find everything I currently want online in seconds, maybe minutes, without leaving my home. If there was one close by I'd go every time, but there's no real reason for me to go to that length to attend a show.

Add stamp shows to the list of things the internet killed, because I would bet money that's a huge contributing factor. And it's also largely responsible for the dropoff in membership in various stamp clubs and societies. You don't need to be an APS member now to stay informed, connect with reputable dealers, as a credential for an auction house, etc. These things are not necessarily good barometers of the health of our hobby because they simply are not as necessary as they were 20, 30, 40+ years ago. It would be like looking at declining mail volumes and drawing the conclusion that people just aren't communicating much anymore, and furthermore, if the trend continues, soon no one will communicate at all. We all know the truth is that people are probably communicating more often and with more people than at any time in history, they're just doing it through other ways. I'd venture to guess that it's the same thing with stamp collectors.

55f I hope stamp collecting isn't dieing out. I just recently started to collect stamps after my grandmother gave me her album when I was about 19. I just put it away and took it out not long ago. I have never been to a stamp show as I have never lived in an area where there has been one and I would love to go to one.

I'll be 52 November 11th, white male, and NO! Stamp collecting will never die. The USPS may quit adding new things to collect, but they have printed enough material for philately to be here fro many many years. BTW started when I was 16.

How old are You and whats your gender? Will philately die?

70 going on 123!

Male

Philately die? Probably.

1. Society today lacks commitment. Take one Club out of all the clubs you knew about, say the Elks...can you find one today? Maybe, and Square Dancing? Mostly gone. These things and their like took commitment!

2. The production numbers of nearly any collectable has risen to the point where the average Joe can't keep pace. So goes most collecting fields: an arena for Speculators & investors, driving out the little guy.

3. Here is an article that really explains a lot of what I feel: Please read it.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/3072...-collecting/

4. Figures of how many stamp collectors there are in the USA and the world, to show increasing or decreasing number of philatelists:

Wikipedia 2005?

...In the U.S. there are roughly two million active stamp collectors.

Linns : Fairly recent,

4,000,000 stamp savers

1,450,000 casual collectors

230,000 serious collectors.

Same time period, different sources:

....worldwide to 20 million; worldwide estimated 22 million stamp collectors; an estimated 30 million stamp collectors world-wide.

2012
worldwide the estimated numbers of stamp collectors is around 200 million. 25 million in the USA.

Wall Street Journal, global estimated numbers of stamp collectors is around 60 million.

Latest figure I noted: ... estimated about 25 million people in the stamp hobby in the USA. ?

SOoooo, just how many stamp collectors are there in the USA & the World? Way back when? A few decades ago? 1970' boom & bust? 1990's ? last year? yesterday? today? Who can tell with all the different numbers of stamp collectors being reported by different organizations? I'd put my money on Linns.

Anyone have/can find, a record of the number of philatelists per past years? Say back to 1862 (within 20 years) when John Edward Gray said..." he started collecting stamps as soon as the system was established and prior to it becoming a rage." See full article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edward_Gray

I personally feel when us old fa..ah, Timers, say 50 years old and older, more or less, go to stamp collecting heaven, all that'll be left of philately will be in the hands of the rich investors. Average stamps will most likely go the way of all those thousands and thousands of plate blocks collected in the the 1940's and 50's.

BUT, like most of you, I hope it never dies! I will do my part to keep it afloat. I have one son, 45, and one grand daughter10, hooked, and still trying.

Now let's all do as CBS Sunday and get those kids involved, hooked!

Please remember that these are MY opinions and mine alone; not the Community's, not this person's, not that person's, just mine.

Have a great time Stamp Collecting!

Hi,
I'm 70, male, and as mentioned earlier, the internet (esp. ebay) brought the hobby back into my life in a big way after a 45 year hiatus.

While my wife and I have 5 adult kids, none have any interest in the hobby - or for that matter any of our pastimes or hobbies.

I agree with a few posters on here in terms of stamp shows and hobby society participation population declines. I don't think this signals a death spiral for the hobby. I think it just reflects society in general in the fact that younger generations don't feel the need to utilize older social/business models of clubs and physical shows. There are infinite learning and networking possibilities with the internet at most people's finger tips. I think the APS is starting to realize this and I know they appear to be doing more on-line courses and the Young Friends of the APS informal group. This board is a great example of this theory in practice. It is a place where people can come to gather information and network all without the usual physical and membership barriers of entry. A lot might be member of actual societies (APS for example), but it is not a requirement for enjoyment or participation. This place seems to be a thriving and engaged community.