Kids & Stamp Collecting

Another viewpoint.https://paloalbums.com/blog/kids-an...p-collecting

I volunteer every month with a group of kids who like to play with stamps. There are fewer then I wish, but they are out there if one is willing to make an effort.

We do not have to choose to target only one demographic.

Let the APS - for whom twenty years of dues comes to U$D 8,000 800 - go after the Boomer-Beamers & Returning Retirees

With that sort of nut at stake, they can spend some money to make some money, and need no urging or guidance from me.

Those of us who want active outreach to kids, OTOH, need to lobby for the specific projects that make sense to us.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The linked article is right - kids have so many options for their free time today as compared to yesteryear, and getting them to collect stamps is an uphill battle. It might actually be better to target those over, say, 30 years old who might be looking for an "unplugged" hobby. I'm 46 and fit the profile perfectly of the "younger" collector that he deals with frequently, but I did collect as a child. I really don't know how receptive a 40 or 50-year old would be to collecting if they've never collected before.

I would agree IF there had been significant efforts to capture young collector interests using ways that would attract today's kids.

But can anyone really argue that this has been the case? Yes, the world has undergone sweeping changes and kids have their attention drawn in many new directions. Traditional, proven approaches may certainly no longer work. Simply publishing a FaceBook page (filled with images of elderly collectors) isn't the same as making a substantial investment in social media for example. We have continued to hold on tightly onto the legacy 'pay for knowledge' while young people are walking around with more computing and informational power in their pockets then NASA had when we went to the moon.

But it seems to me to be folly if there remains little or no substantial efforts to capture younger hobbyists where they 'currently live'. Resigning ourselves to be an 'old, white man's hobby' may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I feel that the demographic 'bucket' needs to be refilled as our population ages and the best investment is younger people.

We seem to always be late to the party. We missed early adoption of the technology and to this day seem to be lagging behind. Sure, there are now many online resources but the majority of younger people aren't sitting in front of computer monitors; they are using mobile smart devices. (Even this forum hasn't moved to supporting mobile devices and doesn't appear will in the future.)

The job is hard and expensive, we will have to invest in the new ways that must be used to capture these younger folks. But until this is done and either works or fails I am not ready to give up.
Don

I think the key ingredient is you have to collect WITH the children and let them control their collection.

I have 3 kids - 7 year-old twins and a 5-year old. All three have their stamp collections.

They use Vario pages for ease of inserting and removing stamps. Here's where some collectors cringe, but I think to an extent, you have to let go - sometimes they use their stamps, paper, and glue sticks to create crafts with portions of their collection. This is part of the idea that it is THEIR collection.

Another thing that helps is when they go to a show or to the club's auction night with me, they are taken seriously as collectors by other dealers and/or members. They aren't just ushered to the kids' table.

I take THEIR collection seriously and we collect together. And all 3, and one in particular, are known to get their albums down with no prodding and spend time on their collections. I never tell them what to collect or how to display, unless they ask.

In our home, stamp collecting is something they control and it is an area where we really are equals.

I THINK (hope?) I'm making some lifelong collectors.

Very much Don's premise: they need to be exposed when they are young if we hope for them to come back.




I think that ecmorgan has identified a core principle: we need to feed stamps into what kids already do.

In the old days, for example, that meant a Boy Scout Merit Badge. Nobody became a Scout for the stamp collecting, but many Scouts liked the stamps enough to stay with it, or come back later.

So what do kids do today into which we could feed stamps?

Well, for one thing, kids like to shoot video with their smart phones. This is why I have suggested that we (collectively) throw a few bucks towards awards for amateur videos about stamps & collecting, to be judged (ONLY!) by the contributor-competitors.

They also (must be human nature) will avidly pursue a curiosity about things that they cannot see, be they ghosts, dinosaurs, pirates ... so thrusting small single-topic packets (NO TONGS!) into their hands, with QR code links to online resources, might get them moving our way.

Lastly, kids (must be compulsory) will go to school, and on school trips ... So how about "each one, adopt one"? Each motivated collector adopts a local historical society/museum - which need not be all that local - and creates a local postal history exhibit that the poor kids will be dragged to see at least once during their school years in that own. Hint: make sure that the exhibit includes QR codes that the kids can shoot with their smart phones.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

My 6 year old girl actually loves her tongs. As well as the lighted magnifying glass and our new usb microscope. As ecmorgan said, there just aren't any rules about how to use them. She will rummage through her bin of stamps with her hands until something strikes her fancy, then use her tongs to take it out and put it in a vario or old stockbook. She organizes by color, content, or whatever. She also loves to use my blacklight flashlight to see how they "glow".

ikey,
While I agree in having pieces such as 2D bar codes on printed media, I hope that no one thinks this is the whole solution. Putting 2D bar codes on a flyer that takes a younger person to social media site that displays images like this…



…is not going to entice younger people to take up stamp collecting. Nor do I think that taking them to a web site where the primary message is 'please buy a membership to get access to the information you are looking for' is going to capture many new hobbyists (of any age).

The 2010 APS long term vision and plan "Into the Future " (http://stamps.org/userfiles/file/re..._Report.pdf) gets it right. Under the section titled "Assumptions used for the APS in year 2030" it states; "Much of what APS does now in the physical world will move to the virtual world…". It goes on to recognized that by 2030, "100% of APS membership will have access to information technology in whatever form it will be delivered."

But while this long term vision seems to include an understanding of the importance of information technology there was not much covered pertaining to the impact to the traditional ways of generating income. It is too easy to think that implementing part of this puzzle will get the job done. I do not think this is the case, I think that this puzzle requires us to first understand the picture of the puzzle on the box cover before we start trying to put the pieces in place.

And that picture is that this generation, and all future ones, will expect to be able to find and access information when and where they want it.

Having a 'placeholder' type web site or social media page is not enough. We have to design and support online resources which supply basic information instantly and without cost. You capture the traffic by offering this type of resources and THEN tie in value added services at a price. The older model of charging for information access has to be downplayed, a new model which seeks to generate large amount of traffic and charges only for advanced services has to be embraced.

This forum is an example of this approach. We all come here because we can get real-time access to information without cost and they are parlaying this traffic into income. If they offered enhanced features, like better search capabilities, as a paid service I am sure some folks would sign up for it. And when they added in linked key words (i.e. ebay) and other ebay tie ins, they added new sources of income for themselves. This epitomizes how it should be done and organizations which want to grow and thrive should be have already adopted this model. There are multi-million dollar companies and organizations which have successfully used this model.

But it is a scary step for an existing organizations and a strong backbone has to be in place to step away from traditional profit centers. But my opinion is that to capture this generation (and future ones) we need more than just a simple 'web presence' or 2D bar codes, we need to change the existing informational approach and mentality. If the 2010 APS vision and plan is correct, then full resources should be applied to IT. But the 'sneaking up' up on the solution rather than driving hard towards it is not going to cut it. The window of opportunity is closing and competition for online traffic already difficult; I hope we aren't too late.
Don

Lets not forget that most social media websites (FaceBook, Twitter etc) has got age limits between 13-16 years. Of course many kids/youth sneak in before that, but not to seek out information but to hang out with their friends. So the 'philosophy' of lets go into Facebook and provide information simply doesn't work for the youth. Every parent can tell you that.

On the other give/show them stamps every now and then, and you might see something happening.




Having been on this road with my stamp website I can say both ups and downs with it.

My stamp website reached over 750.000 collectors (excluding bots and other 'crap traffic' out there) in past seven years. That is an amazing number for single guy effort, and having free content was main reason for the success. Of the 750K unique visitors accessing website majority were 'drive-by-traffic' seeking some tidbit (mostly about how to cash inherited collection, or what their new-found stamps might be worth). About 3K were regular readers (checking new content at least every few weeks) and about 1,5K subscribed the free newsletter. So it was a nice 'small community' very similar to most stamp forums.

But when talking about 'value adding services' such as downloadable ebooks, premium content, and ad free services it failed miserably. Either I did a poor job in marketing the features, or the interest was not in there. For about two years I tried to make that model work and get people to realize the importance of it (for maintaining everything, and keeping bills paid). But only about 60 folks found it worth the 10+$ annual fee. I would have made much better money flipping burgers in McDonalds instead of all those hours tweaking the code.

Now that I've got all the content behind the 'wall' (you can get a limited free trial, but after that everything requires paid subscription), my stamp website has gone from 60 to 80 paying subscribers in two weeks. The 33% increase in paid memberships says a lot about how differently these two models appeal and perform. I'm not saying that 'pay for extra features'-model would not work with sites like SCF or organizations such as APS.... But I'm highly skeptical (especially when considering the costs associated in creating something worth the price).

(Just sharing my experience so that others can learn from it. )

-k-

Don: When I suggested that QR codes on the packets of ghosts/dinosaurs/pirates lead to other content, I was thinking of 3-toed dinosaurs.

In other words, content ... not membership applications, not monetization ... but stuff that would augment the stamps that the kid had in their hand.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/per...an-dinosaurs ... example of augmenting content

The QR codes can be used to quietly count the hits, without hitting on the kids.

The kid thing is an investment in exposure; lets count the exposures, and be happy.

Cheers,