How Many Have Stopped Collecting New Mint Issues From Countries They Collect And Why?

Hi John,
Thank you for your post.

I was trying to relate that my joy of our hobby has little to do with 'new issues', 'wallpaper', of the monetary value of modern 'labels'. In the US during 1869 most people hated the new Pictorial Issues, in 1893 there was lot of complaining about the higher value Columbians and many went unsold for a long time.

Is not the intrinsic value of our hobby more about the memories? If we sit down with a child and the child builds a memory with us over a new issue 'label;', does it matter if the 'label' will be worth very little in 50 years?

I also love our hobby because I can hold a small piece of history in my hand. I enjoy owning a Penny Black, thinking about who might have used it and for what reason. They printed millions of Penny Blacks, they are as common as many modern issues but that doesn't change how I feel when I hold one in my hand 174 years later.
Don

Hi

Stopped all collecting of mint new issues due to the ridiculous prices, especially Ecuador and Venezuela.

Colombia - Still collecting but no material available.
Ecuador, Venezuela - Stopped in entirety. Ridiculous prices and no available material,mint or used

Jerry B.

I stopped collecting mint when I got back into the hobby a few years ago. I just like postally used much better and my collection reflects that. Plus, as others have stated, the USPS issues way too many stamps each year to even make me think of buying each one.

Stopped my Polish mint issues in 2000, feels like a nice round figure, too much wallpaper being issued, but hey, Poland & the other Iron Curtain countries were the masters of Wallpaper. We were churning out this stuff in the 50's & 60's, everyone else is just catching up.

Concentrating now on Polish Postal History, specifically pre-war single stamp useage.

I have not bought a single stamp since the 90s when I acquired my father's many collections (USA and CANADA). As for the world collections, have never bought any since the late 60s when we bought many Countries - Inventory is my passion. But passing through a Post Office in St Kitts some years back during cruise, I did buy a few stamps just for the occasion as well as while I visited the Vatican.

I collect mainly US and Germany and I stopped collecting mint issues with the switch to self-adhesives. Just felt awkward trying to fit a sticker & backing into the classic stamp collection. Since then, especially for the US stamps, my decision has been enforced with the sheer volume of "pop" themed stamps that have no appeal to me.

In my British Commonwealth collection, I stopped when they switched to decimal currency. It was a convenient cut-off, primarily after the first Queen Elizabeth II issues. The reason was simple, you only need to look at the catalogue to see the vast number of stamps issued after the sixties for sale to collectors without any postal purpose.

I have thought about stopping collecting new issues, but have yet to pull the trigger. I keep finding new reasons to continue.

I stopped collecting GB in about 1980 as even then the new issues were getting stupid.
Canada definitives up to about 1995 but definitely NO self adhesives. I have no interest in Canadian commemoratives after KG VI with a couple of exceptions such as the perforation changes 1962. I now prefer "dead" countries or topics. 1914 - 18 WAR TAX for example.

Tricky when the dead rise from their graves, a la Slovakia, Serbia and the Baltic states!

Haven't stopped, just not actively purchasing them except for USA. Overall I think the quality of design in stamps today in 2016 is so much better than what was issued by many nations in the 1960s and 1970s that I can't help but want to add them to my collection. And at least for me, the cost per stamp really isn't that great an issue (no stamps are not the cheap bargains they were in earlier decades, but for the average of less that US$5.00/week I can keep my USA collection up to date with the latest issues, which for me is no great financial drain and a good deal cheaper than dinner once a week at a restaurant).

When I restarted my childhood collection for a 3rd time a couple years ago, I (for the 2nd time) worked to get my US collection up to date. Wanted to collect world, but given my finances, wanted a cutoff, so my birthyear of 1964 made sense. 1940 is great, but I like to see how the world changed during and after WWII, and things like the birth of Israel, the African revolution as colonization started dying off in 1960, and the rise of the Iron Curtain. So world has been 1964 since I started.

US killed my in 2014, though. Die-hard as I was to get every &*$% new issue, I was 90% done with the 'oh, we did 100 Jenny sheets right side up, join the lottery' stunt.. but I relented when Scott decided not to list the 'error' (ie, publicity stunt)... but then one year later, we got the Circus Wagon which was only available If you bought the $60 annual. That was the final stray. My US collection now concludes with the final 'non-circus wagon' issues of 2014. I just pulled that sheet out of my album, and that's it. Over a year later, no remorse and I feel great about it. Now to work on getting those pre-2014 pages complete....

As for new issues, I collect USA and UN continuously, as I have since 1974. I see no reason to stop and continue to enjoy new stamps. The rest of my collection has been purchased overwhelmingly from many ebay lots, worldwide and grows exponentially. It will be 49 years since I received my first stamps as a gift at Christmas time, 1967.

I am not really a fan of the self adhesive stamps. I primarily collect used stamps, but am contemplating a topical mint collection of some of my areas of interest, like some of the sci-fi stamps that have been released.

My USA collection dates back to 1900 to 2015. I plan to purchase 2016 once the MYSTIC pages come available sometime in early 2017. Much as I hate the stamps of today, I am unable to stop!

Jack Kelley