Join Our Team To Promote Kids Stamping

the point of my last comment has nothing to do with which audience to pursue. It was only meant to suggest that this group should consider historical trends and why stamp collecting was BIG, and possibly why the hobby has fallen out of favor. Scarcity and acquisition of "stuff" certainly had something to do with stamp collecting's popularity in the past, and I whole heartily agree with sdtom that the other benefits of stamp collecting: discovery, knowledge and social connections need to be emphasized whichever demo is catered to. All these points will be addressed through a product spec doc that Don refers to.

Dan,

What can be done to generate more interest in our hobby?

This is a different question from...

What can be done to get younger people interested in our hobby?

I thought it had been identified that the effort was to fill a void were philately would better appeal to younger people. But somehow this has now changed to the first question instead? What about solving the issues in the Middle East? Or perhaps we should expand the effort to include solving hunger across the world?

My point is, do not let the effort expand or be derailed by others who don't think it is a good idea. There will always be detractors, this doesn't mean it isn't a good idea.

It could well be that the hobby may be better served by targeting a different demographic. But wouldn't be bad if we just gave up without ever trying to improve capturing younger hobbyists? Even if we try, but fail, at least we learned something.

It is possible that having broad public input of all kinds can cause this effort to lose focus. If folks want to target other demographics then they can certainly pursue those independently from this effort. But good management of brainstorming is that everyone agrees with the underlying problem that is to be solved.
Don

Edit; This is not to say that any effort might generate 'cross-value' to other demographics. Applying whatever features are used to capture younger hobbyists to other demographics might indeed be possible, but in my opinion is a different project.

Unless, of course, someone has a few hundred thousand to invest in a much broader project that supports a massive team.

This should be the focus. The older generation is another issue. If they start young it will stay with them a lot more than a retired baby boomer.

I am not confused about the possible focus. It is just apparent that both audiences -- kids and boomers -- should be educated about stamping, each for a different reason.

Keep in mind that I am in marketing research mode. Presenting stamping in an exciting way to kids is an idea that some support. But we need to also understand what folks like APS are doing now, or plan in the near future.

I had a very informative conversation with Michael Bloom who is the key APS decision maker who is directing the organization's broad educational efforts. Michael has offered to remain allied with our efforts and willing to provide input as we develop our ideas.

Michael sees what we are discussing in our Forum in a very similar way. Michael is involved with introducing stamping to both young and older audiences. Michael agrees that kids need an effort to interest them. And he also sees that older adults have both the time and resources to take up collecting. And, the older folks can introduce the hobby to the young kids who might be their grand kids.

I am very happy to include some of my time and effort to two plans -- one that promotes stamping to kids; another that speaks to boomer adults.

Either effort will require support from one or more financially capable marketing sponsors.

This discussion is the beginning (I hope) of a concerted effort to address the aging of stamp collecting.

This discussion should lead to development of a smart creative marketing strategy, formation of synergistic partnerships to help make tactical actions possible, and implementation of the final strategy. Ideally, we can create a two-pronged approach: to young kids and to their grandparents. This could become the ideal link.

Fairly clear that 51studebaker and sdtom are interested in the kids effort. Which is great!
Let's see if we can create a proposal that might interest an entity to sponsor that effort.
I have already indicated I would be happy coordinating our effort.

I think others will want to focus efforts on a promotional plan to reach boomers.
I am happy to be involved in that effort as well.

Of course, to date only 16 persons in this Forum have joined either of the 2 threads.
We'll see if any others will plug in. But for now, let's separate the two projects.
Those interested can continue to help form the kid's approach.
Folks sold on the boomers program can split off into a second team.

The reason I proposed forming a "Project Team" is this:

To be effective, we need to "meet" live time and talk with each other as we plan actions and steps to be taken. A chat board does not lend itself to quick immediate team communication.
If we are serious, I propose we use an online work group meeting tool that supports live conference calling and even shared online documents and PowerPoint slides.

I do want to say that the majority of boomers that I know because I'm one along with my friends aren't really retired. There in that category of still working full time at something therefore there answer to me when I mention the stamps is too busy no interest.

I see 2 target audiences for consideration.....the youth group.... 9 to 14 year olds. Isn't that when most of us got started collecting stamps for some reason? Second target is the retirement age generation.... isn't that when we rediscovered our hobby and had time and $ to spend?

Youth target... entry points (figure out how to engage these points)

1. Home Schoolers: http://www.home-school.com/groups/
2. Boy Scout Merit Badge: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource...mb-STAM.aspx
3. APS Stamps Teach: http://stamps.org/stamps-teach

Retirement Generation

1. Retirement Centers/Communities --
2. VA retirement homes --
3. AARP?
4. ????

We would probably have provide resources....

1. Mini-stamp albums /pages
2. stamp assortments (remember how excited you were to get those first assorted packets of stamps)
3. How to collect info
4. Contact info email / facebook / twitter / webpage / etc.

Just some food for thought....I think it has potential.

I haven't read everything in this thread, but since I'm probably one of the youngest (if not the youngest) member on the stamp community boards (but not a child) and am exploring of stamp collecting might be a hobby for me, I thought you might like my perspective on the hobby so far. I find the hobby of stamp collecting extremely hard to get into. I'm really addicted to learning things and that's probably why I haven't abandoned the hobby yet even if I haven't actually started collecting. Here are some specifics:

1) Lack of access to postage stamps showing up in the daily mail. In the last year I have only received three postage stamps on pieces of mail - all bulk rate/non-profit stamps. It's hard to begin a collection when you don't have access.

2) It's a hobby that has a steep learning curve and the majority of the information on the hobby resides in dead tree books with hefty price tags to them. I'm more used to just looking things up online, but like I said, everything seems to be offline in books.

3) Trying to search for videos/how to videos etc on sites like youtube to learn about stamp collection is just an epic fail.

4) I watched a few stamp auction videos as I thought I could learn about the hobby like the way you can learn about cars watching Barrett-Jackson car auctions on the Speed Channel, but there is no education aspect to the stamp auctions that I saw and they were quite dry and boring to watch.

5) I actually went to a stamp show last month and I found it very quit and low energy. No one tried to engage me in conversation or anything. There was supposed to be a new collector table - never saw one. There was many frames of stampless foreign covers on display, had no idea anything about them and no one to explain what they were, so after looking at one or two frames I walked away.

Conversely, after the show I went to the beach and collected beach glass off the shore. Had many people ask me what I was doing, or ask me question about beach glass, tell me what ones they found and even had some people on the beach give me some that they had found, several women told me about beach glass jewelry they have purchased etc. I ended up with about a pound and a half of beach glass in all different colors including a red one (which is quite rare to find) and spent many hours sorting them by color etc. A huge contrast to my three stamps I gotten in a year.

I would like to offer my assistance. I had an extensive phone call with Dan covering a wide range of topics. I am the chairman of the APS Collector and Student Education Committee. This committee works directly with the APS Board, the Executive Director and the Education Director on all aspects of education including Stamps Teach, Young Stamp Collectors of America, StampBuddy, and many new initiatives. I am also on the Organizing Committee of World StampShow NY2016 and am putting together the Welcome to Stamp Collecting Pavilion. I don't have a lot of time for proactive blogging but I will do my best to react to any questions or suggestions and, when appropriate, introduce creative ideas to the APS. I'm also running for APS Director at Large so I can raise the awareness of the Board on matters of education and APS membership. Michael Bloom.

To: dsmith

Ref. your #2 point

You are right that Scott Catalogues are costly - either new or used sets.

Most local libraries carry Scott books and buy the newest year catalogues every year or two. They then either discard or sell the old books. I buy the used books from one of my local libraries. I just bought "like new", slightly used 2014 Catalogues for $1 per book - $6 for the complete set of 6 volumes. Just FYI.

dsmith -- thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts.

If I may, here are a few responses...

> Are you saying that you'd like to collect stamps if they came to you free, like finding beach glass?

> Since very few people write and mail letters these days, you can't expect to build a stamp collection based on incoming mail with current postage stamps. But there are tons of stamp companies that sell very reasonably priced stamps from nearly any country in the world. You can find these companies online, on ebay, and in stamp collecting magazines like "Linn's" which might be available at your library.

> Regarding the "steep learning curve"...you're correct that there is a great deal one can learn about stamps, but most collectors learn gradually over many years. If you buy ONE used paperback Scott Catalogue, you will have many pages of very informative info about how stamps are graded, what's important to look for regarding condition, and much of the terminology used. These catalogs include a great deal of reference info that you can learn and become comfortable with in a matter of weeks. Folks sell used stamp catalogs on Amazon.com. I've purchased catalogs for as little as $6 + $4 shipping.

> I will send you a free 2007 Scott cataloge if you check my profile and email me your name and postal address;
then you'll be on your way!

I think that dsmith post reflects what I have been yapping about; the current generation's expectation regarding information access.

Younger folks expect instant real time access to information. They do not it expect, nor will buy into, paying for access to basic information. I don't think that 'go to the library' is going to cut it with this generation. Go to the your local library and see if there are lots of kids there. If anything, they might be in the area where they get internet access, but few are walking the stacks. (Let's not digress into whether or not this is a good expectation, Yes, most of us 'old school' guys worked hard to get our costly education. I would agree that smart devices don't guarantee smart kids. But if we want to attract new, younger hobbyists we have to meet their expectations and compete with other interests which do provide free real time information to them.)

APS isn't going to help much in this situation. While the efforts of a few people have been noble, the APS culture and business model are not compatible with providing free access to information. Historically they are set up to charge for access via membership fees and library charge backs.

Here is a quick story on how clueless APS can be regarding attracting new members. I was an APS member in the 1970s and 1980s. Like many people, I dropped my membership as I began my family and career. When I re-engaged with stamping, I contacted APS to see if I could retain my membership number if I rejoined. I received a prompt reply telling me that no, I could not unless I wanted to pay for all the decades I missed; this reply caused me pause. But here is the kicker. How many emails have I received about rejoining since contacting them? None. Not a single one. If there ever was 'low hanging fruit' would it not be former members who showed interest in rejoining? We don't even rank a follow-up email or phone call? Frankly, I take this to mean that APS does not have what it takes to attract members for whatever reason(s).

In my mind, this does not bode well for APS, even if the efforts of some like Michael are impressive. It appears to me that there are a substantial number of powerful people that influence APS. Part of that influence is the old school approach of paying for information access. APS needs to offer free membership for kids. Give them only online access with this free membership and a path to turn it into a full membership when the time comes.

APS also needs to have more than an 'online presence'. Web site updates are a good reflection of the online commitment. An organization like APS should be updating and adding information on a daily basis. (This forum has daily updates, it generates good traffic. Imagine waiting for days at a time before anything changed. Social media demands frequent updates if they want to capture traffic.) This is not rocket science, it is more about changing the legacy profit center of an organization that is stuck in 1980. Anyone can quickly look up the demographics or younger people and how they spend their time.

Listen to what dsmith is saying, he/she is clearly intelligent. If the statement, "I find the hobby of stamp collecting extremely hard to get into" does not resonant with us then we have no hope of capturing and retaining younger people. Just because APS has missed the boat does not mean that independent efforts cannot be successful. Providing free, real time access to basic philatelic information now requires more than just throwing a web site out there. According to Pew Research, 98% of people the ages of 18-29 have a cell phone. (http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-she...act-sheet/). What has APS done to change the free info they do have posted on their web site to support mobile devices? Even this forum does not have a mobile version that will fit well on smart device screens.

Speaking of social media…go to APS Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/american.p...ic.society/. If you have not logged into FaceBook, FB is designed to cover up the page with a 'Join Now' nag screen as you scroll down. Yuck. But go ahead and log into FaceBook, do you see much there which is directed at younger people? Is this going to attract younger people?



I think not. Imagine a group of kids standing around, one of them calls up this page. In no way would it be considered 'cool'.

Michael and APS have their work cut out for them. This is not about simply scrounging up scare resources to get the job done. It is about changing an entrenched culture, 50+ demographic, and business model that does not want to change. It is little wonder that independent grassroots efforts are now being considered.
Don

Columbian12,

I wasn't speaking specifically about Scott catalog. A library which participates in sharing their books with my library's library system had a copy of the US Specialized Catalog which I have checked out. One book I've been dying to lay my eyes on is 'Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog.'

I have a fascination with numbers and I have been wanting to see a copy of the Durland book to see what plate numbers where used for what stamps and to see if I would find anything that would be interesting to me.

Another example of knowledge in dead tree books is the book on perfins. (those stamps with all the holes in them) I had wondered if there would be any designs or companies that I would find an interest in, but my library doesn't have a copy and I think the people who produce it wants over $50 for the book so its another part of the hobby that will always remain unaccessible and my desire for perfins have pretty much disappeared now.

There were other books, but I don't recall them now.

That's incredible you got the Scott World Book set for $6. You could look through all of them and make a dream list of wants.

dsmith,
There is a free online tool which will show you US plate numbers, it does not have pricing like Durlands. It is located at Stamp Smarter
http://www.stampsmarter.com/pnt_landing.html
There is also other good free info located under the 1847usa area on this site.
http://www.stampsmarter.com/1847usa/index.htm
Don

Edit; To see plate numbers, use the button at left. It does also have a way to quickly lookup previous sales of the plate block on ebay. There is also a new feature which is a control perfin database, this is a cool part of perfin collecting which is not quite so overwhelming as other perfins.

Dcaraz1949,

I will try to answer your questions:

> Are you saying that you'd like to collect stamps if they came to you free, like finding beach glass?

This is an interesting question, having access to free stamps would of course give me access and exposure to collecting. I really don't want to accumulate stamps just to accumulate and if I had stamps I would really like those black pages that you can put stamps in so you can view them as if it was a book. If I had stamps I didn't want in my pages I would pass them on to someone who could appreciate them - especially if I had received them for free.

I have spent many weeks thinking if I had the pages and access to stamps what would I like to collect and this is some broad ideas what I might like to collect(off the top of my head)

1) I like old things and thought it would be neat to have vintage US stamps from before 1900, but I'm not interested in watermarks or perf gauges. With that said I would like to get a few examples. I really like the bi-colored stamps (all the way through the 1920s) and also scott 36 or 36b but they got crazy catalog values. And talking about crazy values I like those early 5 cent Jeffersons. Oh and there was a post about position dots on 19th Century stamps that sparked an interest with me

2) Another US stamp I find interesting is the special delivery stamps with the motorcycle on them. I thought it would be neat to collect them unused and even examples of cancels. I've read so much on cancellations I think it would be neat to have double oval city cancellations on them - especially the yellow or orange special delivery stamps. (Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? lol I read so much about them, but I have to say I don't know what makes for a desirable cancellation)

3) I'm fascinated by numbers so I might collect some plate number combinations, but need access to a copy of Durland to explore this area.

4) The first thing I thought about collecting was these stamps I think are called the 'First Bureau' stamps from the 1920s. I think these are so cool looking and I have seen ones that were misperfed where the plate number (or a portion of it) was actually on the stamp. I thought it would be neat to collect a set of used ones with the plate number showing on them.

5) Thematic/Topical Stamps I think I might like to collect (This area I think would be great to collect if I had access to free stamps)
- Doctor Who and Doctor Who Villians (ie Daleks)
- Automobiles (recognizable ones - preferable cars that were once sold in USA)There's a Canadian Stamp with a red car I really would like to get one day
- Old Automobile Race Cars
- Motorcycles
- Motorcycle racing
- Stain Glass Windows
- Animals you would find in a Zoo
- Fish/sharks you would find in a Public Aquarium (wish I could visit a real aquarium lol)
- other minor themes: Super Heroes like Superman, snowmen and snow ladies, brain games like crosswords/mazes/rubic cubes/rebuses, prime numbers like Mersenne primes, Ships like Spanish Galleons or clipper ships, and possible waterfalls and seascapes/shorelines, and possibly domestic cats and dogs.

#6 Covers - Commercially used covers from automobile or motorcycle companies (circa 1900-1930s) I grew up in a family obsessed with old cars so I have a soft spot on them. Also vintage automobile advertising postcards.

** Next question:
> Since very few people write and mail letters these days, you can't expect to build a stamp collection based on incoming mail with current postage stamps. But there are tons of stamp companies that sell very reasonably priced stamps from nearly any country in the world.

A big part of what has drawn me to look at stamp collecting as a hobby is I've been going through a financial hardship and since most postage stamps are considered to have little if any value and there is an increasingly shrinking base of collectors I thought it would be something I could do. I also thought it might be possible to swap or trade with other collectors, maybe even trade something non-stamp related.

This is what had me think of themes I might like to collect. if I was depending on others for a source of material I should have a range of stamps I would collect in hopes that anyone might have something I could put to good use in a collection.

**Next
>collecting magazines like "Linn's" which might be available at your library.
My library doesn't carry this magazine or any collecting magazine.

**Next
> Regarding the "steep learning curve"...you're correct that there is a great deal one can learn about stamps, but most collectors learn gradually over many years. If you buy ONE used paperback Scott Catalogue, you will have many pages of very informative info about how stamps are graded, what's important to look for regarding condition, and much of the terminology used.

I was really referring to books outside of Scott. It seems like everything I want to learn about isn't accessible on line. It is incredibly frustrating as I keep running into dead ends as to exploring on what I might collect. It seems everyone is out just to make a buck - or should I say $50-$100. I just want to have a copy Durland in my hands for a few days to explore the possibilities.

> 2007 Scott cataloge
I will send you a message