Stamp Collecting's Defiant Last Stand

In the June issue of STAMP MAGAZINE, John Crace muses on the staying power of the Machin definitives of the United Kingdom. This is the 50th anniversary of the definitive series which is still going strong and will continue until QEII dies. He says that the Machin series is "both in time and out of time". "A symbol of a bygone age. It could almost be a metaphor for stamp collecting itself: a defiant last stand agains the dying of the light." (page 33)

Interesting. But this assumes that because mail systems are going away then stamp collecting will meet the same fate. There are examples that do not support this. For example, automobiles replaced horses in our transportation system but that paradigm shift did not spell the end horseback riding.
Don

Nobody who was at the WESTPEX sale for the firm Schuyler Rumsey Philatelic Auction on April 27-30 2017 believes there is any slump in the buying section for quality material .
I was bidding for a few collections during that auction on line and from the opening bid to final sale price many lots doubled in price and I ended up with one lot after many losing bids .
Stuff is selling on ebay but we are seeing the downward drag in prices in average and low grade material . ebay is full of common material and a lot of average stuff is still being put up for sale . The days were a ebay seller could attend and buy huge lots and break them down for a nice profit are a thing of the past. What I am starting to see at stamp auctions are boxes and boxes of ebay lots all ready made up but didn't sell now coming up for a new ebay seller to try his hand on listing it .

If prices fall and people who sell stamps adopt new practices, more people may be attracted to collecting. Some seem to equate a viable market as ever increasing prices but it is really about velocity (sales not matter what the price is). This includes those more formally (like dealers, ebay) or collector to collector (forum sales, etc).

I would wonder how many people inherit a collection and this ignites the collecting interest.

WESTPEX may not be the best example. I've been told by locals that a lot of outside-the-country buyers hit WESTPEX and bid the prices up. I have the 2013 Rumsey catalog and good collections typically there went for double the estimate, or more.

I stopped in the auction area when attending this year's WESTPEX. Not many people there in-person. I did not bid on anything as I had already spent my budget with three dealers, all of them known to me from prior purchases.

I have no doubt that Stamp Collecting is dying out.
It was a specific hobby which flourished and waned in the 20th century.
As if to underscore that it is already part of History, BBC screened an hour long documentary last week. It was part of the Timeshift series which looks at fads and trends which blossomed and waned....eg Greyhound Racing, Trad Jazz, SAturday Night TV variety. Professional wrestling.
All of which and many more had a "golden age".
I watched the documentary...taped it ...and will watch it again for Blogging purposes and a shorter report on this forum.
But to take one example from the programme....footage of the lines of people waiting for the issue of the 1966 World Cup stamps contrasting with the presenter standing outside Trafalgar Square post office in London waiting for the post office to open up for the issue of a set of stamps for Pink Floyd.
Only one other person in line...a young Japanese woman was there to buy Pink Floyd stamps...and she was not a stamp collector. She is just a fan of Pink Floyd.
That really sums it up.

I don't think there is any "last stand" here, more that the old model of the organization of the hobby based on 'generealist' dealers who stocked just about anything and organized regional stamp clubs is dying out with the Baby Boomer generation and new models of how the hobby will be organized are being developed.

The interaction of collectors under 50 on fora such as this, stampboards and others, and the increasing globalization of the collector pool would suggest that the hobby is not "one foot in the grave" but rather is attracting new people all the time. They only difference is that instead of going to dealers' stores, they get their material on the internet, and instead of joining local clubs, participate in the global philatelic online communities.

And while the decline in stamp values for common and easily-obtainable medium value items is clearly dropping, that is a boon for the new generation of collectors who can now use the power of the global marketplace to comparison shop for the best value for the items they want. (To be fair though, this new marketplace is a bust for collectors who formed their collections in the pre-internet era when the market place was dominated by a dealer oligopoly and thus paid ever increasing prices for some items that really did not deserve to be so highly valued given the glut of supply that actually existed in collector hands), while the fact that the "gem" type of material still increases in value indicates there is definitely a good deal of interest and demand for material, and that material in limited supply will increase in value so long as there is greater demand for it.

I think the hobby has a bright future moving forward, it just will be structured very differently from the way it looked in the 1950s and 1960s because of the changes in technology that allow collectors to interact and exchange information with each other around the globe rather than be limited to interaction with other local collectors and participate in new marketplaces to obtain the material they would like for their collections that bypass the traditional dealer-based system that had dominated previously.

Wise words from a wise man!
Don

I consider these an apples and oranges comparison. Your examples are spectator activities. Collecting (stamp, coins, clocks, knives, whatever, etc) is something you do without needing much assistance so not the same infrastructure limitations. Golf is one where you would be limited if golf courses disappeared.

Stamps do not go away. There may not be as many buyers of new ones but the old ones are still here.

The idea that stamp collecting is fading comes up in these forums all the time. No doubt the hobby has transformed tremendously but it isn't dying. There were 36 million dollars worth of stamps sold last quarter on ebay. At this point I think it is safe to say stamp collecting isn't going anywhere.

Wait until the Queen dies and then watch the stamp market for early Liz material and Machins have a fresh growth interest in the stamp market .

Angore, nothing ever really goes away. But there is a Golden Age in most things. And I may not have chosen good examples from previous programmes. I daresay that there are outposts of Vaudeville and internet sites devoted to TV westerns like Bonanza, Rawhide and Gunsmoke. While still enjoyable to people ofa certain age, they were about a time and OF a time. They will always exist in DVD form but they are forever gone.

FLoorTrader....Royalty has been good for Stamp Collecting or rather for Dealers. Longevity and a compliant Commonwealth has ensured maybe 70 plus territories celebrating births, deaths, marriages and birthdays have been a mixed blessing. A ready made market but progressively from 1950 (?) a way of life that fewer and fewer people can identify with.
It puts Stamp Collecting in a box rather than expanding it.
Yes...we might have the current consort of the British monarch reaching 100 (he is I believe 96 this year). And the current British monarcch is 91. And might also reach 100 or 70 years on the throne.
Throw in an abdication and the younger Prince getting married and its a good safe market....up to and including their inevitable passing.
But while these events might stir interest in the short term, I cannot see the same affection for the next monarch and consort.
The current reign was arguably the Last Fairy Tale.

Here's one.



https://www.stampcommunity.org/topi...54239#472875

Littleriverphil, this is why I mentioned it. I know there are those that do but curious in the grand scheme.

Maybe should have said at least one, I think this board is a good indication of the vitality of the hobby.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the death of stamp collecting have been grossly exaggerated.