What Will Stamp Collecting Be Like In 15 Years?

dcaraz, very well put. I'm younger than average I guess at 33 and been called the baby of the group at times when I was still living back east. I'd love to invest in older, classical collections but I don't have the money right now and more importantly the knowledge. Seems it's hard to get information because so much is in private collections and attics, plus the fact that collecting isn't as widespread as it used to be. Here in Montana I've heard whispers of former clubs and study groups that all dried up by the early 90's. For someone like me, and really your average new to intermediate collector, online is the the most important and possibly only exposure to philatelic things they'll get.

ikeyPikey, I have seen you numerous times post thoughtful analytical observations, and in this case I agree with you. Stampers need to look to the broader world of collectibles, as well as other interests that attract segments of the population. If we identify drivers that engage younger folks in alternative hobbies or interests, we can develop a strategy to shore up our stamp activities.

Examples of recently "hot" collectibles (at least in the USA):

> Sports memorabilia (appeal: fans of every every age and every sport can customize their interests; flexible level of investing from small budgets to millions of dollars; you may not be able to afford Mickey Mantle's World Series uniform, but you can buy this season's Yankee cap; plus strong emotional tie to teams and stars; increased valuations for the serious collector)

> Coins (appeal: not as certain what drivers are, but coin stores are widespread and advertise on local TV yet few handle stamps as well; maybe increases in gold and silver? portable / liquid wealth?)

> Comic Books & Graphic Novels (kids and young adults get hooked on fantasy literature and as they have matured recent generations have sought "classics" that are now rare since most older "pulp fiction" was discarded to the trash; then Hollywood creates a super-hero genre film to push popularity to all-time highs; and prices have been driven up, up, up)

> American Native Indian art and crafts (historic and graphic like stamps, but wider popularity in recent decades; likely pushed by more recent awareness of the injustices and cultural diversity of these peoples; wide appeal for all tastes and pocket books from simple jewelry to museum-quality artifacts)

> Antique Automobiles (if you can afford them, or restore them, old cars are everywhere)

Then, we can look at what's out of favor:

> Hummel's, Yadros (spelling???), and the like (what were costly and prized 30 years ago are now thought of as old-fashioned and useless dust-collectors)

> Sterling silver for entertaining and serving (if you inherit a set, the silver value will pay for something that is needed or wanted because no one wants these tarnished items)

Stampers who wish to act on ways to engage future collectors will do well to examine what makes the "hot" collectibles grow in popularity; and how that popularity is connected to the base target audience.

Star Wars enthusiasts can vacation at a sci-fi festival.
Coin dealers outnumbered stamp dealers 4 to 1 at a recent collectibles show, because more coin buyers attend the show.

All collectibles can benefit from the Internet market place. I believe online stamp auctions and "clubs" like this forum are sustaining stamps right now. But what "drives" a teenager to learn about stamps?

If we are pragmatic stamps appeal to folks interested in:
1. History & Events (national or international)
2. Cultures (theirs or others)
3. Graphics (images, artwork, illustrations, photography, engraving)
4. Topics (you name it, some countries have put it on stamps)

BIG QUESTION:
Is there a national or international organization that exists today that can mount a serious and
sustained marketing and awareness campaign to educate non-stampers about what we are passionate about?
Is there any alliance where collectors, dealers, and manufacturers can band together, combine resources (such as a membership dues?) and mount the equivalent to the "Got Milk?" ad campaign developed by the US Dairy Association?

Dan Carazo
Syosset, New York

BettyAnn, welcome to this discussion. So nice to see a youngster like yourself involved! You are spot on...Where would we find connections to stamps in 2015 without the Internet market?

Not a single friend of mine collects. But I have purchased and sold some 3 dozen stamp lots on ebay.
I got interested in stamps as a kid who back then couldn't afford much. But unfortunately I dropped away from stamps until 2011 when I sought out another hobby interest I could sink my teeth into.

BIG QUESTION:
Would any of us pay an annual fee to join a stamp industry association if those funds helped support a
national awareness/educational campaign that reached schools, libraries and civic groups with online webinars about stamp collecting? Does any organization now provide a streaming "live" video feed from any of the remaining large stamp shows for folks who can't travel to it? Just thinking creative ways to put our quiet hobby in front of younger eyeballs.

Dan

Unlike most other collectibles, coins (particularly gold and silver ones) have intrinsic value in the metal contained in them. A lot (most?) coin collectors collect coins for their own sake. However, there is a very sizable contingent of coin buyers who are buying strictly for their metal content only, typically for investment purposes and/or because they think that someday paper money will be worthless and precious metals will become the de facto currency. Stamps and most other collectibles generally don't attract that type of buyer. That type of coin "collector" often has a small hoard of (usually common) gold and silver coins, well above and beyond what a typical date/mintmark collector would have and they're a significant part of the coin market.

dcaraz1949, Greetings:

Thank you for the kind words. ASCII black'n'white can be murder, so please fill-in the warm, collegial tone that sometimes does not make it past the server.

Part of our task is to identify what the collectibles have in common with philately; part of our task is to find things that they do, that have contributed to their success, that we could copy.

Sports memorabilia: As I wrote elsewhere: "what would happen to baseball card collecting if they stopped playing baseball?" Back in the 60s, we were lamenting the dearth of stamps on daily mail and, here we are, lamenting the withering of our ranks.

More to our point, I cannot think of anything that the sports memorabilia industry-hobby does to promote itself, per se. Trade shows, magazines, etc, are all reactive - they serve the needs created by the collecting interest seeded by the giant river of sports - and we do all of those things, too - and we do less of them as our rivers thins out.

Sports is a money volcanoe spewing billions which, in turn, funds whole cable channels; printed onesy-twosy stamped mail, not so much.

Coins: the vast majority of 'coin' shops that I see are there to melt-down coins & jewelry, not to serve collectors. When someone figures-out a way to cure cancer with Original Gum ...

Comic Books & Graphic Novels: A friend who published these with his son, and an adult daughter who prowls the stores & buys & collects, have exposed me to what I'll call CBGN. (Probably ought to be CBGNX, just to add that requisite note of extensibility.) I recently purchased Vader's Little Princess, so count me in.

My local CBGNX store also stocks action figures, and this leads me to see CBGNX as a Hollywood merchandising tie-in that is taking on a life of its own. Good for them, but what does the CBGNX industry-hobby do to promote itself? The conventions are principally reactive - no audience, no trade show - and I don't see us dressing-up as our favorite stamp.

American Native Indian art and crafts: Happily gaining in popularity, but has the American Tourquoise Jewerly Dealers Association been out front 'promoting' the hobby? With giveaways to scout troops? With iPhone apps to identify tribal styles? With websites to 'out' forgers & over-chargers & mis-describers?

Sterling Silver: Where would stamp collecting be if you had to re-hinge every stamp, every six months? No live-in maids plus the acceptibility of serving take-out to guests ==> bye, bye, silver.

Folks who trade commodity futures & options talk about 'the underlying'; we've lost ours. I don't know how hobbies thrive without an underlying (beyond the occasional fashion swing).

I think the question is still open: What are the new things that are happening to other collectibles that we could make happen to us?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The collection of sports memorabilia allows a person to "touch" celebrity - people who are heroes, idols, etc. You can have something of theirs.

We simply don't have that in stamp collecting.

If you think back, one of the biggest surges was when President Roosevelt collected. We don't have that in stamp collecting. I mean, I've heard Mark Cuban talk about it on Shark Tank a few times, but there are no vocal celebrity stamp collectors.

I suspect that the Postal History collectors would (violently) disagree.

My granddaughter learned about the British Royal Family in school (I cannot imagine 'why', but that's me), and she wrote a congratulatory note to the then-recently post-partum princess, and she got a lovely extravaganza of a note in return.

You've correctly identified one reason that so many folks branch-out from stamp-only stamp collecting.

For anyone who gets a thrill from holding one of A-Rod's sweat-stained jerseys: may I suggest buying a piece of POW mail?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey