James Lee Article In Linn's On The Hobby

The hobby does not need new issues in order to survive. In fact many, many collectors cut their collecting efforts off at points which are decades old. I do not see a real connection beetween philately as a whole and what the USPS currently does. In fact the vast majority of material at auction on SAN is "old" with new issue lots being thrown in at the end in box lots and selling for pennies on the dollar of cost.

I started with new issues. No new issues and I probably never would have started.

I inherited a collection from my grandfather (around 1970 to 1975 - it was sitting in a closet for many years) that died in 1964. I was hooked on sight. After the USPS started making PB's that were the entire side of a sheet, I stopped collecting new issues and limited my collection to pre-1964. I was a kid, and could not afford to buy all those stamps. A PB of 4 plus a single was doable, but a strip of 20 plus a single, at a time when their # of issues was going up each year (well, it SEEMED that way, I don't know if it was actually true), and at a time when they were coming up with 50-design issues (2 full sheets - one for the PB collection, and one for the singles collection), a new issue collection was simply not feasible. The USPS killed the Golden Goose in Mootermutt.

I have since given up these collections and have specialized in a few different fields: 1847's, 3c 1851's, and Xmas Seals. Lots of people start out collecting generally, then focus their energies and budgets. The trick is to get them started AND have the interest level at least compete with all the other pastimes that are available to kids these days. I was hooked before video games were invented. I play video games, but I ALWAYS go back to my stamps! If one is hooked on video games first (or so many of the other newfangled things available these days), one will probably NOT see stamps as their primary hobby.

I think that what you think about the hobby depends on whether you place more emphasis on the stamps themselves or people. This forum is an example of the importance of people with a general common interest comparing life stories methods of approaching the hobby etc. it would be the same with any other hobby or interest: sports, literature, art, fishing, or even one's profession. My profession is medicine. There has been a literal explosion in the science over the last 4 decades that I have been practicing; that in itself is intellectually stimulating and challenging. But it is carried to a whole different level when you bring patients into the equation. I guess what I am trying to say that I have always enjoyed stamps for their beauty, artistry and what they have told me about history, geography and culture, but that interest is magnified and enhanced by the human touch and the trading of shared experiences on forums such as this.