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

To quote Raymond Chandler:
By the way, would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split, and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax with a few sudden words of barroom vernacular, this is done with the eyes wide open and the mind relaxed but attentive.
I am not on the same planet with Chandler when it comes to stringing words together (I will never be a writer), but the attitude is something I am in complete agreement with. :-)

I agree with you Rev. I know that for my topical collections, I pay virtually no attention at all to stamp varieties, just the subject. A bird is a bird, a train is a train, I don't know of anyone who is doing plate varieties of dogs on stamps, although it wouldn't really surprise me if someone did. But then again, since most modern stamps, and most topical collecting is more modern issues, are just self-adhesive stickers with computer-designed pictures on them, there probably isn't a lot of variety in them anyhow.

56 Male. Long time collector recently returned after long hiatus. A related question I have is how much has stamp collecting changed from a "hobby" to an investment? With the publicity of Bill Gross' stamp collection I think there are a lot more stamp investors these days than there used to be. Let's face it there aren't any 12 year olds responding here but I bet a lot of us started at that age. My interest now is a lot more focused on value than it used to be.

There were always investors in philately. And there are 12 year old collectors out there, too. I saw ten in the 10-15 age set last weekend, and a few were unable to make that meeting.

Most serious collectors aren't investors and vice versa. I don't know if there's an official definition of "stamp investor", but I'd say it's someone who buys stamps with the goal of selling them for more than they paid. Most serious collectors know that this is unlikely for most stamps in their collection. Some of us might lie to ourselves about the investment potential as a way to justify our stamp expenditures, but the majority of collectors are fairly realistic, I think. However, I do think most collectors pay attention to value. That is, they don't want to overpay for stamps or sink a lot of money into an unpopular collecting area, etc. Collectors know their collections will be sold someday, either by themselves or their heirs. While most collectors don't buy stamps hoping to make money, they don't want to throw it away on something with practically no resale value, either.

I agree with both of these responses. I'm just wondering how much of the apparent resurgence in the hobby is due to the interest in investment vs. other reasons - like ebay. Personally I do think ebay had a lot of impact on me getting back into the hobby. I didn't know any other collectors and stamp shows are few and far between. To address the original question I do think there is a resurgence and I suspect there are multiple reasons. I hope it continues.

Male - just turned 40.

Hmmmmm..kirks...want to go for a drink....haha (because of your picture I mean)....haha
Hey peter...your 5 years older tham me....now watch everyone try to find your post to figure how old I am....

And "OLD FAIYHFUL" at 61....naaaaa..I am not even going to ask...haha

It's impossible to say with certainty, but I highly doubt a focus on investment is driving an increase in the number of collectors. It's possible there are more investors today - I really don't know. But this would really only affect the high end of the market - rarities and truly scarce items, items that are at the very high end of the quality spectrum, etc. Those are the types of items that increase in value the most and the most consistently. Stamps in the low and medium range of the market usually don't increase in value all that much (or at least much more than the inflation rate) and would make rather poor investments. That's not to say that some ill-informed people might think they make good investments, but I find it hard to believe that's a very big slice of the market.

If the number of active collectors is indeed increasing, my guess is that it's driven by demographics. The "typical" stamp collector is a male in middle-to-old age. The baby boom generation is now coming into what are typically the most active collecting years. The ease of finding stamps on ebay and through other online sources certainly facilitates someone starting up a collection, so that's no doubt a contributing factor.

The trouble with ebay is it is an ever growing monster and people are feeding it...Dont get me wrong, ebay has its place in this world..Just that stamp value is driven a bit by ebay and that is soooooo misleading...

Does ebay know really how valuable a stamp is...NO.
Does ebay document the overall appearance and condition of stamps...NO
Does ebay know how rare or how many stamps exist...NO

These are important factors that we as collectors want/need/request to do justice the the little stamp we admire...And ebay can not give it to us...OK..Tear me apart guys...

ebay is merely a table at a giant yard sale. Prices, descriptions, scans are all controlled by the sellers. No different if you were to walk into a brick & mortar store or go to an auction house.

What it does do is put buyers in touch with sellers that they would have never had an opportuity to have done business with before. Instead of the dozen at a local stamp show, I can search thousands.

ebay has made items available to me that would have never been possible before. I'm grateful for that!

Go to a local bourse, drop the E word, just watch the dealers cringe. They are like the Mom & Pops trying to compete with WalMart. There's still a place for them but they better be selling quality and service.

Mom and Pops are the ones that gave you everything in the world of stamps...all the literature..All the studies..All the classifications...Dont stand there and tell me ebay is God...It is NOT..

As said by kcaramat more or less, ebay is just a venue, an online bourse, as are other online trading sites, specific to stamps or not. Sure there are bad sellers and sellers of junk on ebay, but there are also good sellers and sellers of decent material.

There are lots of things I no longer shop for in brick and mortar stores and by and large stamps are one of them largely because of the costs that offline dealers pass onto their customers. When I do go to the mall to purchase something, do I blame the mall because most of the stores are really useless. Heck no! I hate mall shopping so usually its a surgical strike to go to precisely a set of stores I know are good and find exactly what I'm looking for.

The same holds for ebay. Not a great place for random browsing IMO, but if you have a handful of trusted sellers or know exactly what you want, it sure beats brick and mortar or show bourses.

I have nothing against Mom and Pops. I just wish they would get fully online (if they aren't already) and if they aren't, they must be hurting big time.

50 yr old male collecting since the age of 8. My daughter at 20 is also a collector, just not as active as I am. Collecting seems to be an activity common to most people and cultures so I see stamps having its place far into the future. My son is now collecting vinyl records, my wife collects angels. Ask any friend and I am sure they collect something! The Internet has helped bring a diverse group together and created a worldwide market. At the same time it forced most stores and dealers out of business. No different than the impact Amazon or Walmart has had in the country.