So They Tell Me The Stamp Market Is Crashing?

Hi, I understand I think

I am concerned they could still be taken more than one way, positive or negative. I know their meaning are listed on the list, but does one have to look at the list to see if the smiles are used to show negative or positive meaning? Or are they just ignored?

Stampmaster

Smilies/emoticons/emojis or whatever else you want to call them are a way to add context to a written remark, in order to specifically AVOID people taking comments in a manner other than which they were intended. It's a shorthand way of saying "I'm joking", "Hey, this is great", "I'm saying this sarcastically", "I'm confused" or any number of other emotions without having to explicitly state them.

Rgstamps - You feed a horse money and it poops out work.

OK, I guess I'll chime in on this discussion.

Like you RGSTAMP I am an avid golfer and a stamp collecting enthusiast. I sell stamps only occasionally and that for the purpose of buying other stamps. It is a hobby that I find most satisfying and have been involved in it since the late 1950's. I don't collect to sell but I try to buy wisely as if I were. I buy at times to fill an obvious void in a stamp series. Other times it's just the thrill of the hunt...like finding a misclassified Sc #25A for a song and dance or a group of Smiling Georges (634 var.) sold as plain old 634 plate blocks. It is however, a hobby that is difficult to share to non-collectors which is part of why I love this forum!

Lastly, I have been laid-up off and on over the last dozen years getting treated for a non-curable disease and this hobby of ours has gotten me through some long winters of my life. It is a non-stressful, organized, somewhat sedate activity that fills the time applied to it with great satisfaction and a renewed interest every time I read a new post here about something I never knew. Thanks to all...

Paul

Crash all it wants - but whatever I want to buy is always getting more expensive.

Who doesn't get smilies? I mean people were using them in chat rooms over 20 years ago. :) ;) :O :*(

Now it is much easier. I guess if you just got on the internet you might be behind the times.

Hi mkfarm, this is the only place where smiles I've ever encountered. So naturally I did not understand them, took a long time for me to accept their use.

And I still a little bit worried that in some cases the use of a smile could be taken the wrong way!

I'm just saying.

Stampmaster

Those who were confused or critical of my prior post don't understand that I also am a member of category 3 and agree with everything Caper 123 said. I have been involved with stamps initially since 1962 but more seriously since 1990. I am a collector in the broader sense of the term having also diverted into coins, historical American medical memorabilia, early American college diplomas, fossils, vintage sports, and historical manuscripts and documents. Each of these, with the exception of some sports and medical items which were collected for personal reasons, was collected for interest and enjoyment only but of course when acquiring items of a certain level it is hard not to appreciate how much monetarily you have invested in a hobby and naturally if you don't have heirs interested in this stuff it should be your responsibility to divest while still alive. In that context only you would like to see some return when you sell. But, if not, I agree wholeheartedly with those who say that you cannot put a monetary value on things you have enjoyed or the thrill of the hunt.

There is a related thread on the main forum wherein people who have returned to collecting describe why they did so-- it rings true to Caper123 later paragraph. A hobby can be a godsend with advancing age, infirmity, convalescence, etc.

Exactly. ASCII-based emoticons were around back on usenet in the 1980s (pre-Internet). They've effectively been around my entire adult life, so I'm used to them. Some of our older and/or "less connected" members may be encountering them for the first time... digital culture shock.

Hard to believe that there is anyone on this board that doesn't know what a smilie is.

But I bet he knows what a PUP is. ;+{}

BTW, he is calling them "smiles" not "smilies."

Although I am not a techie, I do have some reasonable idea of my way around the net. That means that I know how to google things I do not understand in an attempt to increase my knowledge.

I do the same, so as to not let on that I don't know it all.

The only reason why I asked about the hobby's health is I was at a show last weekend and one of the vendors{Large vendor) said the "when you die there will be no one to replace you in the hobby", meaning the millennials have no interest in the hobby, there more concerned about their Latte and their facebook account.

Millennials also serve in the military.