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

People used to join societies and clubs partly because it was the only way they could get educated on the finer points of the hobby, and it may have been the only (or at least the best) way to find certain items for their collections. While clubs and societies still serve a valuable purpose, there are other means to accomplish most of the same things now. Specialty items that may have taken months or years to track down now can be found in seconds or minutes. For better or worse, there's not as much need to be part of a formal network to build one's collection.

A good, reliable figure on the number of stamp collectors would be very difficult to come by, but the figure (for the US) of about a quarter million serious collectors and a million or two more casual collectors seems about right to me.

In response to the question "Will philately die?" I don't think so. Historically, people have collected everything that has even a perceived value -- and some things that have no value at all. The idea of creating a collection of virtually anything has stood the test of time.

Sure, there may be declining interest in stamps by some standards, but the collections that are still out there -- even if they've been relegated to a closet or basement -- are still there for someone to uncover in the future and perhaps spark an interest by someone even in the next generation.

Although some consider the modernization of postal methods as a problem, such as replacing stamps with labels or meters, I consider it just a new sphere of collecting, as those who may dismiss these items from a collection are not looking at the full picture and the fact that it is a valid piece of postal history that may become even more collectible in the future, especially if few bother to collect them today, the scarcity factor alone will almost certainly make them a potential collectible in the future.

It's quite amazing what people collect these days and, in my opinion, stamps are an integral part of those desiring to find something meaningful to collect.

41 Male. I think stamp collecting may decline a little more, but I don't think it'll ever die out even though the hobbyists are graying. It's relatively affordable to pick up a lot of nice stamps.

This has turned into a nice thread to read. I think the hobby will one day have the fate of any hobby that becomes old. Very few will collect and the stuff will be very price after a time period. For two factors: 1:a lot will get dumbed into garbage bins because everyone views it as worthless and 2: lets face it some of the stuff will just deteriorate because of the element of paper breaking down the glues decomposing, the inks fading, and those bad collectors who touch it with there hands not knowing that they leave their skin oils on them which will have an effect too.

So it will kinda be like collecting very old middle evil books. (Its the best comparison I could come up with.) So I see in another 100 years give or take this being something a museum curator has or some wealthy collector who loves this little piece of history.

In the near future when postal service shut down I look for the hobby to pickup for a time as a fad. Cause people will be like stamps are no longer made so hoard them, but that will pass with time and the two effects I mentioned above will cause them to be rare. No worries for me I'm 34 and well I don't think the good Lord will let me live to 134 year old. If he does then I will truly be blessed.

These are just my crazy predictions.

54 and male. I don't think the hobby will ever die. I am involved with several local and national clubs. It looks like some shows are going by the side but with the internet I find lots of material in my collecting interests.

Vince

61 and male. Just getting back into collecting after a long hiatus. No idea whether the hobby will continue, but my guess would be that the U.S. will see a gradual decline-while some other countries ( Far East?) will become more active. All this will have no effect on my interest.

What does a "casual collector" do?

Then what happens at the next level up?


-IBFS

And I think the internet has more to do with the declining show attendance from both sellers and buyers. For the most part Stamp collectors tend to be more on the socially awkward side (Not meaning to offend anyone) but now instead of travelling outside to browse through boxes of material one can sit at their computer and filter out the areas that they do not collect.

Are Stamp collectors declining ? or are they just less visible due to internet sales ? The majority of collectors that collect in what most refer to as "serious" will usually be lifelong collectors which means that it should continue on for at least another 20 years, there will be declining numbers over the next 20 years just as there has been over the last 10 years.

Everything has a shelf life.

"there's not as much need to be part of a formal network to build one's collection"

dort of depends on how general or specialized you want your collection to be - the more specialized, the more you benefit from being part of a network.

Also the less expert one is, the more there is benefit from a network; there are almost always going to be people more knowledgeable than you to learn from.

Boy Rev, you hit that one right on the head!

62, male. I do not think the hobby will die, but I do expect that collecting will become much more specialized and topical.

60
Male
Definitely not.

In the broadest sense of the word, nearly all stamp collecting is topical in nature, if not in the usual specific philatelic sense. And that movement towards more collectors in the philatelic meaning of topical will have certain unintended consequences. The biggest one will be genuine expertise in some collecting area. There is nothing wrong with collecting birds on stamps, space stamps, (fill in the topical here), etc. But if the only criterion is that it picture a bird, than studying things like perfs, gum, printing methods, and even how to really examine a stamp will disappear. That last is very important, and I would estimate that not one collector in ten actually knows how to properly examine a stamp now, so in the future.................

Yes, but will the knowledge of how to split properly an infinitive live on?? That might be the greatest threat of all