Will Stamp Collecting Survive?

To lithograving --

It was your heartfelt question that has propelled 10 pages of discussion.
So, this is for YOU, and all others on this thread who have concerns for the continuation of stamp collecting.

I am not new to stamp collecting. But until very recently my experience had been limited to reading the Scott catalog and participating in online auctions. But in the past couple weeks I have attended my first two stamp events. First was a small monthly local gathering of 5 or 6 dealers in Long Island, NY, and this week the ASDA Spring NY City Stamp Bourse, my first major stamp show where I rubbed shoulders with dozens of stamp dealers and many other collectors.

My report is this:
Stamp collecting is healthy and sound and there is no need for short-term concern of the demise of collecting.

While stamp collecting has undergone changes in the digital age (name me a business or industry that hasn't!), collecting appears vigorous, dealers are buying and selling, their prices are higher than many items offered in ebay auctions. But dealers stand behind the authenticity of their sales.

I spoke with one dealer who after 40+ years still loves what he does; coming across country from the West Coast twice yearly to meet new and old customers in NYC. I bought some nice items from several dealers. I also had an appraisal by a skilled dealer of what I hoped was a MOG US #124 2 cent Pictorial.
It turned out to be an ironed, bleached, re-gummed #113 which had been part of one of my ebay album buys.

Summary:
The online auction marketplace is easier and less costly for buyers and sellers. It will continue to grow as an overall percentage of low to moderate cost stamps, albums, and volume collections.

But stamp shows and bourse take place every month across multiple cities, towns and states. I plan to visit some out-of-town events. But I need the time and money to travel, hotel, eat out, etc.

I expect to continue to make online purchases -- and sales of my dupes. But now that I appreciate the valuable knowledge good dealers offer, I'm sure I will seek certain items from established dealers. But I have to be convinced that those purchases are worth the additional cost.

Popular culture is good for present and future stamps. Attend stamp shows and see what's popular. Encourage young people to take part in the stamp hobby we all enjoy.

This may sound crazy but I think there is an urge to collect in certain people,

As a kid I collected stamps, beer mats ( my dad use to bring them back from the pub for me and a had quit a collection )
match boxes, coins, damn even stickers off the fruit !!

Out of all these things it was stamps that gave me the biggest buzz and need to complete.

I could never spend the sort of money that I have spent on stamps on any other hobby, but if stamps weren't here I would be collecting something else and i'm guessing every other stamp collector would.

If stamps didn't exist collect something else
i believe its like an instinct in certain people to collect just like hoarders hoard.

Kids today may have their facebook/twitter ect
but if its in them to collect at some point they'll start "collecting"

Hopefully I am making sense here, maybe its just wishful thinking but as long as i'm alive there will be atleast one stamp collector

I agree with you 100%. I've always called it the "collector's gene," whether or not it's actually a genetically motivated trait. Whatever it is, I certainly have it, and it's most assuredly not limited to stamps. You should see my obsessive-compulsive checklists for Japanese pop music.



"Virtual" collecting seems to satisfy that urge to some extent, at least in some people. Remember the huge popularity of Pokémon Go a couple of years ago? "Gotta catch 'em all!"

Kids today like kids of yesterday do collect...comic books, graphic novels, pin back buttons, records, t-shirts, figurines etc...stamps sadly not high on the list of desireable collectibles. Walk into any teenagers room...look around...do you see stamp albums, tongs and an open copy of Scotts?....i doubt it.
Why worry about the future of stamp collecting?....it's what you are getting out of it today that matters.

The collecting gene. This is an interesting angle to the overall topic.

Most of us here have this genetic makeup. I started with Butterflies, coins, records and various books. I moved into stamps, and found a permanent home. These are tangible things.

For younger people today, much of what they engage with from day to day is no longer physically tangible. It is digital. Books and records, which would be obvious things to encourage the collecting instinct in some younger people, are no longer tangible for many younger people. Music is on iTunes and books are often digitally downloaded. My point being that there is less stuff today, to encourage that collecting gene. I'm not sure if the collecting instinct fully translates to a digital experience as much.

Stamp collecting is inherently a tangible experience. Many are doing good work in integrating this hobby with the digital experience by digitizing stamps and literature, but in the end, this is still a hobby of tangibles. So I wonder, if the younger generation overall has less interaction with tangible things, that's probably not a good thing for stamp collecting.

I should point out that the 'retro' movement is very real. Records are making a comeback, and Barnes and Noble seems to have come back from the brink of extinction ... so maybe there is hope for humanity.

"The collecting gene"...hmmm. At least for myself I thought this was called OCD!
Don

" COLLECTING GENE" ????? When your 7 years old and live in Public Housing ,share a bed with your brothers ,sharing your clothes with them and know you will never own your own toys . Then someone gives you a handful of stamps and all your brothers and sisters don't care about them ------Bang !!! your hit with the collecting gene --- not really it is the only thing that's YOURS at that age ----yes it was mine and didn't share with them . Maybe that is why I got so many ?

floortrader - I think you understand yourself well. That's a good thing. Your example is also quite good. My wife grew up with little money, and, in spite of her interest in fashion, she grew up wearing mostly hand-me-down clothes and shoes. As a result, we probably won't have to downsize into a 1-story house from our current 2-story, as the 2nd floor will soon implode on its own from the weight of her clothing+shoe accumulation. [I am happy I've been able to accommodate her there]

"Gene" in this discussion, is, of course, a metaphor for 'how one develops'. I wonder what your life would be like if you were given baseball cards instead of stamps? I wonder if I would have the use of the 2nd floor of my house, if my wife had grown up with a bit more than she had?

Our brains are soft clay at a young age, and who we become as adults is very much shaped by our experiences as a child, in addition to our innate genetic code. If 'things', like baseball cards, records, stamps ..., so to speak, become more and more digital than physical, what effect does that have in shaping our heads for the future?

Tangible is the new black.

My wife and I have the collector's disease/gene. We have a running joke that once we have 3 of anything it's a collection. So stamps, coins, postcards, dolls, fish carvings, elephant carvings, books (too many), pins, Coca-Cola, salts, southwestern art, and more I'm forgetting at the moment.

I like the Coke can airplane. Very cool.

I have the "gene". No question. Interestingly, I was addicted to baseball card collecting up to age 40. Last 5 years I have not looked at my card collection and have immersed myself in stamps. Perhaps I am not alone in my opinion but I have found the scientific analysis, history, intellectual challenge of philately to be far more brain stimulating than baseball cards. My baseball card collection turned into cartons and shoe boxes of slabbed cards. No album, no education, no analysis. I was bored.

I like the Hebrew Coke bottle. (I have a vintage Japanese one with "Koka-Kôra" printed in katakana on it.)

You can't see it in the reduced picture but all the cans and bottles on the second shelf are in foreign languages. Some I got myself and some people brought me from their travels. I bought the airplane from a guy who lives in Woodstock and told us this was his primary way of earning a living. It's a fun collection.