Will Stamp Collecting Survive?

Put together a stamp collecting packet: Tongs, manilla (or other) stockpages, 100 different US (Canadian, Vanuatuan or whatever) stamps and a plastic perf guage. Put together 100 of them. Get permission to give them out to seniors at assisted living centers, nursing homes and the like. You will bring the joy of philately to the older generation. Then . . when they pass their collections on to the younger generations, it will pique their curiosity. This is my dream to accomplish. Some day.

Don: You are missing your own point ;)

What is required is not an old school solution, but a net-based solution, to wit:

1) drafting a product specification for the killer app <=== this might require some thought

2) recruiting a qualified individual or team that could build the killer app

3) a kickstarter-type campaign to raise the funds.

Fresh idea, fresh blood, fresh money.

The APS has a day job.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

TheArtfulHinger said:




I agree with that and most of what Don mentioned also since
from what I can see newspapers ,magazines and books are going
down the same road as stamps.

The young ones don't want a hard copy anymore, period.
Lets see, twenty years ago subway commuters were reading
newspapers, tabloids,books,paperbacks, magazines.
Last couple of times I took the subway they're all on
their smart phones, I pads, kindles and whatever.

So an online catalog database which sharp images would be great
and maybe bring some youth into the fold.

The only problem with this is that if you go virtual you
might end up virtually going too far.

Why bother getting the actual stamp when you can get
a sharp 2400dpi image?

I do that now with Canadian new issues.
I buy the odd ones I like such as the flag, hockey or Titanic SS
but after I scan them I use them for postage.

Because there isn't anyone in APS under 60 years old ? APS & Technology are headed down different paths. I agree with having to implement technology into stamps but I still think that's not enough.

You'd have to somehow turn it into a console game.

A hundred years from now, if collecting still exists, your scans not be a substitute for the real thing.

I think this discussion of the digital age is a bit of a diversion from the real issue. The real issue is that we just do not know how to predict what will appeal to people as hobbies. And despite the advanced and professional aspects of philately, it is still just a hobby. Even "art collecting" is a hobby, though an expensive one (as is collecting rare stamps). That hobbies create jobs and advertising income does not change the fact that they are hobbies. The comparison to how digital devices have replaced newsprint and hard copy books isn't really meaningful. There the activity is reading, and reading remains reading whether on a kindle or a hard bound tome.

I am also a ham radio operator, and this same discussion -- is our hobby dying? -- goes on all the time. Who knows? The original question that prompted this thread was a good one. If stamps or snail mail cease, will the hobby cease? I do not see how that alone would cause the hobby to cease. There would still be the appeal to collecting the classics, postal history, early flight covers, et. al that presently exists. Whether those interests will exist a hundred years from now is anybody's guess. But it will not be the proliferation of digital devices for communications or socialization that accounts for the demise of the hobby, per se.

Agreed. As I mentioned earlier, the environment in which stamp collecting originated was radically different than the world we live in today. Radio, TV, the automobile, airplane, telephones, air conditioning, refrigeration, etc didn't kill the hobby and I see no reason why computers, the internet and game consoles would kill it, either. It may in fact die some time in the distant future, but it won't be because of technological factors. Personally, I think "unplugged" activities will become more popular as we become more and more wired.

Future Shock in a way.

People have daily stresses and enjoy sitting still for a moment and destressing and just enjoying something that has not changed in the last 10 minutes.

There are, though, all of the personalized stamps and labels and even printed-on personlaized stamps on labels and envelopes done from home in France now; Mon Timbre Enligne.

People do like things about themselves or their interests.


Re paper versus electronic media catalogues: I use many web sites to identify stamps now but still retain paper catalogues that seem more official somehow. They do not change (so much). The internet sites seem to have different descriptions and colours and other interesting data that changes from site to site.

Nothing is so ever present but change.

Gee, I started out with no change and ended up changing.

George Lukas more/less said: a special effect without a story is a pretty dull thing.

Better digital tools are a special effect, but I do not think that they are a story.

Better digital tools will help keep the digital door open, but they will not drag anyone in.

The demise of pMail means that we are losing the everyday part of our story.

So what are the parts of our stories that might survive the digital age?

As mentioned: geography, history, culture.

Stamps are a good way to visit a place that you may never get to visit.

Stamps are a good way to visit a time in which you did not live.

Can we target people who travel? Many of them have our sort of curiosity. It sounds a little silly to say it out loud, but shall we all join travel forums, and subvert from within? ('Oh, you just came back from Denmark? Did you ever see the mermaid on stamps? I've got something called a "maxicard" ...')

Or, perhaps, we could infiltrate & exploit *any* 'TalkBack' section that allows images? ("Thank you for teaching us more about malaria. BTW, the UN issued a stamp ...")

Instead of youth, per se, perhaps we need to reach out to the sorts of people who have the sorts of interests that might extend & express themselves in stamps?

Yes, they'd begin as topical collectors (not the end of the world), but hopefully some of them would become perf-counting watermark-checking fly-specking gum-worshippers.

Stamps are tangible, and 'tangible is the new black'.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Well, I started out with no change and I'm still broke!

WE NEED TO CHANGE THE HOBBY -----First we need to shoot all the philatelic judges ,then we need to make a offer-they -can't- refuse to all the COVER collectors and POSTAL HISTORY crowd as we line them up against the wall . They need to return to stamp collecting .
Then we need to remove all stamp club meetings out of the RETIREMENT HOMES and AGED CARE CENTERS . The meeting will be at Burger King or Taco Bells on Sunday afternoons so local kids can attend .It would help to have the restaurants offer a free packet of stamps with each Sloppy Meal . Older collectors would print album pages for the young members if three stamps fit on the page .
We need to get the American Teachers Assoc . to stress to kids that stamp collecting improves grades and those kids will advance better in life .
We need close the gap between what a kid pays for his collections and what he can sell it at . People have to know if they spend $100.00 for stamps the return will be better than the present $10.00 on the resale .
Gold Medals and Silver Medals have to be awarded for levels that a regular collector can reach ,much like a award ribbon for achievement ,maybe a bronze ribbon for 500 different Italy and a silver for 80% completion and a Gold for a complete country collection .This needing $100,000 or more for a gold needs to stop ,gold is given for research and presentation not achieveing a complete collection .

"First we need to shoot all the philatelic judges ,then we need to make a offer-they -can't- refuse to all the COVER collectors and POSTAL HISTORY crowd as we line them up against the wall . They need to return to stamp collecting"

A teenie bit intollerant there (and, no, I don't have a lot of covers).

Fact is, only a small percentage of collectors exhibit, and if the judges were to be more lenient, the number of exhibitors will not go up a lot.

"Then we need to remove all stamp club meetings out of the RETIREMENT HOMES and AGED CARE CENTERS . The meeting will be at Burger King or Taco Bells on Sunday afternoons so local kids can attend "

Sorry for dipping your zeppelin in the ketchup, I thought it was a french fry.

It's the economics of the thing.

Floortrader, may be correct that we do need to change the hobby.
We need more humor in it.
I laughed all the way through his post.

as some have said, back in the 1950s and 60s stamp collecting, at least SOME of it was aimed at kids, either from motives of greed or whatever...but here are some images that may make one remember those years:





the above issue focused on a rare stamp sought by the ducks...

I remember LOTS of stamp ads aimed at kids when I was growing up in the 70's and early 80's. Comic books, Boys Life and kids magazines in general always had at least a few dealers advertising their approvals. Toy and craft stores always had stamp packets for sale, too, which is how I got started. Collecting certainly is a lot less visible today. Ads in the Sunday coupon section from Mystic or maybe Kenmore or Jamestown is about the only place you see ads like that anymore outside of philatelic publications. I wonder how may dealers today would actually want to have a bunch of kids as cusotmers, but there sure seemed to be plenty of them back then.