Philately Dies??

What's happening to philately, increasingly meeting these titles, the value of stamps are more low .. we collect it for decades, we have collected the ordinary papers. please comments and yours experience

http://www.theguardian.com/money/20...lately-clubs

Hi, and welcome to the Forum.
Like other hobbies I know, philately has had much better days. Is it dying? No, I don't think so at all.

Quoting from the article: "We are told that postage stamps are a good investment, and this may well be true for very old rare stamps,".

I wonder who said that? Certainly none of the writers and pundits that I have read over the past 50 years.

I guess stamp collecting is not nearly as big as it was, but still big enough to make it count. Especially since the internet has brought entirely new options to develop to the hobby.

When it comes to the value of stamps I would go with another quote from the article: 'People collect for the pleasure of collecting, and their collections then also have a residual value.'.

Probably Stanley Gibbons, flogging their own investment scam..., err "investment portfolio".

I think the key to being a happy stamp collector is to not think of it as an investment anymore than one would think of spending money to play golf or go to the movies as an investment. I think of it as an enjoyable and educational pasttime.

Many former collectors are rediscovering and returning to stamp collecting, especially retirees. Although I am not retired, I stopped collecting and gave it up around the year 2000 only to return back to it around 2010 with a renewed interest in the intaglio printing and line perforating of Canadian and U.S. stamps. In the last 5 years after returning back, I feel that I have contributed more to the hobby than I did in the previous 25 years of collecting (with a 10 year gap in between). If I didn't return to stamp collecting, I feel that I would have missed much.

..I remember the late 80's and filling up my Chev Blazer with boxes and boxes after the stamp auctions around Chicago for $300.00 or $400.00. Then in the 90's going to New Jersey to a few Greg Manning Auctions and sitting at home waiting for 25 huge boxes which filled up a brown UPS truck to deliver my purchases for a few thousand dollars .
I remember going to RICHARD DREWS ,U.S. STAMP AUCTIONS and being the only floor bidder for most of the junk boxes at the end of the auction .Then picking up the lots at his office after the auction and him throwing in a few extra boxes of worldwide because it wasn't worth having around the store until the next auction .
Yes stamps do go down in price and yes they go out of favor.
PLEASE REMEMBER ONE THING AND ONLY THIS ONE THING ....as stamps ,gold and silver has been falling over the last few years , every country in the world has been running their money printing machines on overtime .....printing and printing .....there is 10 X the amount of cash floating around as there was 15 years ago ......so your worried about the stamp market .

Good, balanced article. By the way, for UK readers, Dauwalders, mentioned here, is my choice for buying accessories - excellent service. They also sell a wide range of stamps, which I haven't sampled.

I look at it this way: If you are truly in the hobby for the enjoyment; the thrill of the hunt; the education and camaraderie with other collectors; even flipping collections; this is a good thing! More and more material will be coming on the market, including scarce and desirable items lost and tucked away.

For those of you who did not read far enough:

"... And I love this club, it's a lovely social. But don't let them all tell you they have been pushed out by their wives. They never let their wives know how much they spend on their hobby. I'd say they typically spend £1,000-£1,500 a year."

Who invited her?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I always enjoy your perspective, floortrader.

And, then, at the bottom of the page, there was a link to:

Stanley Gibbons plans Hong Kong investment office

http://www.theguardian.com/business...china-office

That word, again!

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Hopefully there's a special place in hell for people who hawk run-of-the-mill stamps as investments. Of all the possible ways available for people to invest their money, stamps have to be among the absolute worst, ranking even lower than stuffing your money in a mattress. Great hobby, love it to death. But it's a godawful investment vehicle, with of course the notable (and highly visible) exception being the very high end of the market.

Baby Boomers, most of whom were exposed to stamps and collecting in their youth, have begun retiring by the millions and will continue to do so over the next decade. Boomers are a very large generational group. Although philately has had better days, I think better days are ahead as this group returns to the hobby. Philately brings a lot of benefit to rest and relaxation and intellectual pursuit.

Dying? No. Morphing. In transition as it has in the past. Stamp collecting needs to learn how to meld with the GEN-X and gain interest with a group addicted to an LED screen.