4 Reasons Why Stamp Collecting Will Survive

Some time ago I came across a posted topic by another member in this Forum who asked simply, "Will Stamp Collecting Survive?".

Many members chimed in and it became a very vigorous thread.

Since then, I have become ever more certain that the answer will be, "YES!" I list my own observations below.

4 Top Reasons Why Stamp Collecting Will Survive:

1. There are still many millions of stamp collectors globally. Despite having a multitude of other choices for relaxation and entertainment. Yes, our hobby is no longer every kid's dream. Stamp Collecting is more concentrated in a smaller percentage of hobbyists. But it remains a very vigorous hobby that many adults return to when time and resources allow.

2. As postage mail, letter writing, and gummed stamps decrease, traditional postal items will become increasingly rare -- and more collectible. Look at the Classics and older MNHOG issues which continue in many cases to increase in value. Why? Because their numbers are finite. And there is a demand for better material.

3. Thanks to the Internet it is easier today than ever before to engage in stamp buying, selling or hobby research. The global online stamp market is flourishing with auctions being held daily. No need to receive disappointing mailed "On Approval" packets! Just go online to access tens of thousands of stamp lots, singles, albums, and specialties.

4. Stamp buying appears robust. There are dozens of stamp dealers, auction houses, and consignment liquidators advertising to buy and resell collections. One must assume that stamp sales remains a profitable business.

What do YOU think?

For those who are interested in the background, here's the link to the earlier discussion:
https://goscf.com/t/42254&SearchTer...ting,survive

My two thoughts (reducing them to 1c each):

1) What would happen to baseball card collecting if they stopped playing baseball?

Yeah, sure, there are still people who collect ashtrays & lighters, but how often do they meet on a train?

2) Tangible is the new black.

In support of the optimistic #2, NPR tells me that eBook sales have leveled-off, and dead-tree-book sales have risen.

Used book stores have adapted to both the digital storm and Amazon's 1c+shipping by ratcheting their prices upwards, recognizing that their market from now on will be only those folks who want to hold a book in their hands before they buy it.

My vote is for smaller-but-vigorous. Kinda like those counter-insurgency wars. Hmm.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Edited to add: Funny that you did not mention the number of companies still publishing albums as yet another Sign Of Life, as you've just been shopping. And, speaking of 'just', its 10AM EST ... did the wife just leave for work?

I have very little doubt stamp collecting will survive, although I really don't know if it will increase or decline in popularity compared to today. People have been collecting stamps since probably the 1840's, with collecting being an "established" hobby with worldwide adherents since probably the 1860's or 1870's. That world had no computers or internet, no airplanes, automobiles, telephones or (for the most part) electricity. It was a *very* different world than the one we live in today. Between then and now, there have also been multiple wars, revolutions and many various political and economic upheavals. Stamp collecting has survived and thrived through all of that. Long story short, stamp collecting appeals to something basic in a certain slice of the population, and I see no reason whatsoever that it won't continue to have that appeal for the foreseeable future.




Vinyl record sales are also through the roof in terms of overall sales growth. As much as I love the digital world we live in, I also cherish "disconnected" activities like working on my collection. A lot of people apparently feel the same way, whether they're stamp collectors or not.

I certainly agree with this statement.

A lot of people will say that once the current generation of stamp collectors passes on, there will be no one left to collect. However, I think what we see is that there is a whole other cohort of people who are in there 40s and 50s (and 60s?) who have fond memories of stamp collecting as a kid and now return to the hobby after their lives have stabilized. I certainly fall into this category as I began collecting around the age of 8 or 9 (back in the early 1970s) when my parents gave me a "starter kit" as a gift. Then I returned to the hobby more seriously about 5 years ago when I was in my late 40s. Perhaps many of you can recognize a similar path? However, at some point, we will run out of people who collected as a kid and will not "return" to the hobby later in life.

All that being say, I will continue to enjoy the hobby for the rest of my life and (try) not to spend too much money on it and not take it too seriously and not worry too much about the state of the hobby after I'm gone.

I am not so sure that vinyl records or books are good analogies. Both of these, whether in fashion or not, are still able to be used. Lace making does not currently have a big following, modern manufacturing technics have supplanted people hand making lace. The decline in the number of stamping hobbyists is currently reflected in less demand.

I think that hobbies are a mirror of the times. Anyone heard of bear baiting? This was a huge hobby decades ago. At the time, this was not consider cruel, enthusiasts included Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. These events drew huge crowds and had many followers.

I ask myself will letter mail service still be around long into the future? I doubt it but feel that package delivery will remain a bit longer. (At least until 3D printing enables us to communicate and 'ship' physical things over a network.)

I do agree that stamp collecting will always have some hobbyists, but I fear that it will be a shadow of its former self. Fifty to a hundred years in the future the current generation will have little idea of this thing we call mail service. I hope I am wrong but time will ultimately reveal how well our hobby will fare.
Don

Only ikeyPikey can respond to this question and make me think of blood-thirsty terrorists

What I am seeing first-hand is the selling of an entire generation of old-timer stamp albums and collections. And thanks to online auctions, I have purchased a number of US and British Commonwealth collections as the foundations for my two collections.

One reason for my optimistic projection of our hobby's future is a simple fact: the vast majority of stamp materials up for auction do get sold. I win some. I lose some. But this is proof of a continued and rather active marketplace.

May I add that I am currently estimating a purchase price for my neighbor's Canada collection, album and all. The gent is 85 and has no kids who show an interest. It's not an expensive or rare collection, and I won't use the album, but I figure making a reasonable offer will help both of us.

And like Chris2015, I am also a returnee to stamping. I collected prior to high school; then did nothing with stamps until age 60. Over the past 5 years I have invested a great deal of time and resources because my collection is now a passion. Judging by how frequently another bidder beats me out on ebay, I'd say there's still a strong number of active collectors.

It there is an item, there is a collector, I heard of curry toothpaste via a collector of toothpaste.

I think the question as to whether stamp collecting will survive is too general. From my vantage point it depends on wha you mean by survival. If you mean whether there will likely always be collectors of stamps somewhere in the world for the reasons most of us at heart collect, which is that we are fascinated by the art work, methods of production, cataloging, completing sets, and the wealth of knowledge in history, geography, and culture they impart--- the answer is yes.

If on the other hand your definition of survival includes a monetary or investment component such that investing significant sums into a collection even to achieve the objectives in the first paragraph represents a wise expenditure then I would say the answer is probably no.

It is always advised that you should collect for the love of the hobby and assume no investment potential. That means that stamps, which are a wonderful hobby, should only be per sued with expendable income. As the boomers pass on and life gets more expensive, my guess is that the number of people with both the interest and expendable income will decline. The common stamps may continue to be collected but the number of collectors of more expensive stamps, which although a smaller percentage of the overall collector universe but whose presence I think strengthens the hobby, will dwindle, and the hobby with it.

I think overall the hobby has a lot of positives working for it moving forward. It may never be as popular in the West as it was in the period between say 1920 and 1950, but consider the following....

- the rise of philately outside the West...especially in South and East Asia, but also Latin America and also to a lesser extent sub-Saharan Africa and the Islamic world. Include in this the diaspora communities from these regions who live in the West, and for whom philately is one form of connection back to "the old country". Many in the diaspora have done well economically in the West, and as the first of the postwar generation of migrants approaches retirement age, they will be looking for activities that reconnect them to their homelands that are not perhaps as physically demanding as some others. Philately is a perfect tie-in there.

- The Baby Boomer generation was the last one for whom philately was often a rite of passage during childhood. The first of the Baby Boomers are now on the verge of retirement, many enjoy stable incomes and are or will be looking for activities to occupy their free time and perhaps even bring back happy childhood memories. Many will rediscover stamps (as the anecdotal evidence from many on here can attest!) and will now have the resources to pursue that interest more intensely and systematically. Add in the easy of use of the internet to find material and you have the perfect setup for the continued growth, or perhaps better to say, evolution, of the hobby.

-Gen Xers are coming towards the peak years of their career paths. While perhaps not as financially stable as their Baby Boomer predecessors, GenXers are starting to reach an age where some of them are rediscovering hobbies from their childhood that were abandoned in their teenage years or early adult years in University or starting a career and/or family. We have seen more than a few 30-50 year olds participate in this forum, which I think is a good sign that there is interest among people my age (I'm 44) for the hobby. And given the internet savvyness of the GenX and later generations, the infrastructure currently being created in the philately marketplace makes it very easy for this younger group to start collecting and find the items that they wish for their collection.

Yes, I agree with Dan, the hobby has a lot of strengths, some of which may not seem apparent on the surface, but are definitely making their impact be felt within the hobby as a whole. Philately in say 2040 will probably look much different than it does now, but I sincerely believe it most certainly will not be relegated to the same status as antique ashtrays as a collectible.

This is where hopefully the Baby Boomers and GenXer who do rediscover their own collecting intersts will also share that interest with grandchildren, children, neices/nephews etc, even if just on a casual basis. Sometimes all it takes is for a child to see a family member working on their collection and asking "what'cha doing" to set the hook that reels a new potential collector for the future.

Asians (Chinese, Koreans, etc) just might save the hobby in the longer term. I went to an auction last weekend - lots of Asian buyers. Prices were higher than I expected, perhaps because of their interest.

My 3 sons (20, 38, 40) do not collect anything. I'm sure they are out they but I dont personally know any younger people with a collecting habit

My best guess is that it will survive but on a much smaller scale than what it is now. The last stamp show I went to looked like an AARP meeting. I also think the postal service will go away. There will be a few people who'll hold on like any outdated items that people swear by such as cassette tapes, VHS tapes, 78 records etc. The vinyl lp's is just a fad and the sales are miniscule compared to downloads.
Tom

I am confident that philately will survive. We are already experiencing the transition that comes with the decline of first class mail and the decline of the use of stamps on mail of any kind. I think one of the main reasons that it's harder to get kids started is that the raw material isn't readily available and stamps aren't the everyday presence that they used to be. The future of collecting lies with people who are interested in art, are interested in history, are interested in heritage, etc. and who approach from that perspective (perhaps later in life) rather than because they are everyday objects that can be collected at no cost from the daily mail.

Interesting subject and I look forward to reading additional thoughts.....[I'm the APS membership committee chair, so the future of the hobby is a topic of considerable interest and relevance to me!]

I am not concerned about having a younger generation to succeed the older one in the hobby. I believe the hobby will persist because of fundamental psychological needs that many of us have. As long as there are people who need a way to cope with loss by introducing something new to their lives, or need to form a sense of control in a chaotic world where one feels always controlled by others by collecting and ordering controllable things, or who are curious about places they will never visit or things they will never see, there will be stamp collectors. These needs are in many of us.

I attended a local show on Saturday. At a dealer table seated next to me was a retired Ph.D. who had come to the show just to try something different, new and free, while his wife was working unexpectedly all day across town, and because a friend recently gave him three big boxes of stamps and covers. He knew nothing about stamps but was bright and conversational. I explained how to use a catalog, evaluate condition and choose ways to organize a collection, all while looking through counter books. We spent about thirty minutes together and then exchanged business cards. Today I mailed him 3 back issues of philatelic journals, because it was a nice thing to do. We exchanged emails and I told him to keep collecting. This is how we build the hobby. People with time at whatever stage. People educating others.