Will Stamp Collecting Survive?

Bujutsu, I'm not 100% sure but I believe that was the last
CAPEX held in Toronto.

I didn't attend that one, how was it?


According to this article by SCF forum member Glenn Morgan
who was there, attendance was way below expectations.

http://www.stampprinters.info/SPI_Capex.htm

I have collected all types of items over the last 6 decades (from stamps, coins, arrowheads, bottles, guns, rocks, cannonballs, tokens, glass, knives, baseball cards, books, militaria, helmets, etc) and have seen a steady decline in numbers of collectors of most items, due to youthful disinterest over the years.

I hope that young people may find stamps interesting and informative as a hobby, but if my life experience is any guide, generally one must be introduced early to collecting (whatever) and then one may or may not continue off and on throughout life.

I do hope stamp collecting survives, despite the Post offices best efforts to turn out real uncollectable junk today. (and I might add the lack of reliable fast service today compared to yesteryear)

I don't think that Stamp show attendance is an accurate barometer of active collectors. Before e-commerce you had to attend the local stamp shows to source new material that your local brick and mortar dealers did not have.

Today I can buy a stamp from a dealer in Belgium and have it in my collection in under 2 weeks. I think that the stamp show attendance is partly due to fewer collectors but is also a victim of on-line auction sites such as ebay, Delcampe, and SAN.

This song keeps playing through my mind when I read the title of this thread.

In the year 2525 if stamp collectors are still alive, they will post pictures of perfs. and they may find collections on ebay in large size....(ok bad make up your own lyrics lol)



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I use Palo for my Israel collection. Pricey, yes. But beautiful and well done.

I do agree that youth outreach is key to the long-term health and survival of the hobby. Everything else being equal, I would have to guess that people who collected as kids are far more likely to collect as adults. Is there anyone here (or does anyone know anyone) who started collecting as an adult, never having collected as a kid? I'm sure they're out there, but I'd guess a lot more of us started as kids than picked it up for the very first time at age 50.

I think this is generally true of those of us who have been collecting for a generation or two, but I think that the future will be a different story. There is plenty of interest in geography and culture and history among young people, but in this day and age that interest is not going to be fed by stamps, not with real-time visual media being what it is. I think the allure of stamps in the future will be as historical artifacts or objects of nostalgia, and that this allure will attract new collectors who are older as a cohort than was the case in decades past.

Thought experiment: what would happen to baseball card collecting if they stopped playing baseball?




I think that asset bubbles are disastrous for any hobby, unless you are just looking for one last chance to unload.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Good point.

How many teens today know what a VCR is, or a station wagon
or a drive-in movie. A telegram ? How many even know what
a typewriter is/was? And how could they and why should they?
Plus most young ones don't care about anything old and
outdated.
It aint cool.

Next generation after postal services stop issuing stamps
asks "Stamps, what are stamps?" "Wow you're gonna tell me
they licked them?"

If you don't use it you loose it.

Once they stop issuing stamps that's the end of any new blood
coming into the hobby.

All that will remain is a few old lunatics wasting their time
and money on some itty-bitty bits of paper.
Then again that's what the majority (including some of our wives) thinks about us now anyway.

My senior year of high school almost a decade ago now I spent $800 on a coin....most of my classmates thought I was nuts for spending that much for a penny.

While I have never spent that much on a stamp or stamp related material (yet) I think it's hard for non collectors to comprehend why we, as collectors, do what we do.

Great discourse on a subject of real importance to all stamp collectors.
Looks like ArtfulHinger and I see the target audience for stamps clearly to be those folks of any age who
are interested in other cultures, other peoples, and other times. Some terrific concepts expressed here for "promoting"
stamps to a broader audience. Where can you or I plug in and make a difference by sharing our enthusiasm?

I agree with Puzzler...it IS exciting to be a dealer -- or a buyer. I've done both on ebay. I have grown my collection online and end up with duplicates that I offer for sale. This has been a real experience in supply and demand economics. If your auction is seen by too few folks you are likely to be offered very little vs. SCV of your stamps. I have not purchased from dealers other than online auctions. I'm a bargain hunter. And I actually wonder what the average collection sale price is as a percentage of CV. At age 65, I'm not collecting so that I'll see great appreciation in the value of my collection. However, I see an active global market for stamp investing. So enjoy, Litho! You shouldn't get pessimistic because kids today have endless activities besides collecting bits of paper. Instead think of a way your collecting might be introduced to some unsuspecting youngsters. Maybe a school history teacher would like to have a stamp collector share their own WW view to their class?

ikeyPikey submits both pros & cons (gotta love a balanced viewpoint!). So let's just accept a fact of 2015 living: today kids and adults have more choices than ever before for their 24-hours of life. It's no great sadness that stamps have fewer fans than in the 1940's. Look how many interests are available today...24/7 foodie/cooking shows, constant flow of sports, movies, music, documentaries, news, politics, pop culture, and PBS' Antiques Roadshow (our Canadian friends may not receive this iconic TV series that focuses on collectibles). Sure, I have never seen a stamp collection reviewed by the appraisers from auction houses. I suggest that this is not because no one collects. We go on ebay and see that's not true. It's more that a stamp "collection" tends to be a large and complex accumulation of very specific items -- too complex for a TV interview of 4 minutes.

Graphis reminds us that collectors differ greatly. He collects "images" (I recall the Graphis magazine from my graphic design days). I collect older US classics and BOB because the newer issues don't appeal as much to my visual artistic eye. I love the old engravings of the presidents, Columbus and the American West more that an offset image of Mariyln or the Three Stooges. Sure, I thought it was great that we dedicated a stamp to Jimmy Hendrix. But I am focused on the classics for now.

Stamps on mail weren't what first drew me to the hobby. My first purchase was a stamp packet in a craft store about 40 years ago. There was a sense of wonder that I felt when holding onto a 100 year old stamp or something with foreign writing on it, perhaps picturing something far away and exotic. However, I knew what stamps were when I bought that packet. Eventually it will get to the point when people won't know what what a stamp was. But that day will be long after I'm dead and gone. Stamps are likely to be around for a good couple decades yet for postal reasons, and longer still for collectors.

dcaraz1949. I enjoyed reading your take on this and your
positive attidute.

I'm neither a pessimist nor an optimist.

I'm no Cassandra either.

I'm just a realist.

BTW I believe that most Canadians have the option to receive
the PBS Antiques Roadshow series via
cable, satellite or internet.
When I was on cable the PBS channel was Buffalo but now I have
satellite its from Boston for some reason.
We also used to get on CBC the UK version of Antiques Roadshow
which as you might know is the original on which the American
is based on.

I like this comment from Ikey Pikey - great idea (obvviously, I am techno stymied .. I don;t know how to do the thing with the shaded box):

If you want to get a young person interested in your hobby, ask (entice) (bribe) them to help you put some bit of your collection onto social media (photo-sharing site, blog, whatever). They will enjoy helping (human nature) and they might even get hooked by your 'content'. You will get a little mini-museum, all your own, but one that is open to the public 24/7.

That ^?

Type this...[ QUOTE ] but without spaces or any colors then paste what you what to quote..followed by [ /QUOTE ] again with out spaces or colors.