Where Does Contemporary Philately Go?

The clean block makes the 5c stamp stand out, then one notices it has clean perfs and nice centering. Or more to the point, the others are each somewhat obliterated and attacked except for Lincoln. The 8c is the only one that seems truly centered, but maybe I need stronger glasses.

If you really think that you have a "right" to free access to all of the information that a catalog creator assembles, from many years of meticulous research and from having spent thousands of dollars to acquire the stamps or labels that are illustrated in these catalogs, then you need to appreciate that the people that create catalogs also similarly have a "right" to make money off of their endeavors.

Or, you know, just write your own catalog(s), for free.

Jim

Ray - I can confirm that ikey Pikey's shirt was submitted. Unfortunately, cerification was declined because of a straight edge. There was also evidence of chemical cleaning and vestiges of chicken soup and fat-on salt beef, pickle and mustard on rye.

Jim,
I am unclear of the scope the OP was referring to...but basic US stamp information, (description, denimination, qty. printed, printer, perforation info, etc.) is published by the postal service and is in the public domain.

What a US catalog publisher can declare as their intellectual property are their images, any custom descriptions, values, catalog designs, logos, and trademarks. And of course any of the introduction or other authored pages are also owned by them.
Don

I think the least interesting aspect of Stamp Collecting is ...Stamps.
When I thought I was an adult as an 18 year old I spent a month in October 1970 putting together my first Gibbons springback album...Senator Medium. From Stamp magazines, the advice was to specialise. So naturally my interest was my own country Ireland.
At that point there were about 260 Irish stamps plus varieties catalogued by Gibbons. Now there are over 2,500.
From 1970, I have used at least one page for every new issue and since beginning in 1970 with a single volume, I now have 23 volumes (10 in the 20th century and 13 so far for the 21st century). It is now not unusual to use one album for one year.
So I don't envy a 18year old in 2018 who sits down to start specialising in Ireland. Or by extension any established country from the first stamp issued.
In my view a stamp album is a "Greatest Hits Album" ...the History, Culture, Spirituality, Landscapes, Literature, Fauna and Flora etc of Australia, Belgium, France wherever...it is a very pragmatic and non-lethal form of Patriotism.
23 volumes of stamp-sized Partiotism to be handed down.
I did give up for over a decade from about 2001...too many new issues.
And I started again in 2012 and the first task (now completed) was every new issue, mint and used including miniature sheets from 2001 to date.
I am not so addicted to the Catalogue.
I can reconcile myself hat as a 66 year old I MIGHT be able to obtain the Seahorses that I still need. More likely some will be out of my reach. And I think that's ok. I am not sure collections are meant to be complete.
But I approach it as a historian cos History is my thing.
History is not merely an event. It is the interpretation of the event. And interpretations change with the years....so that you may have been alive for say the 50th Anniversary of WW1 and the Centenary. Interpretaions are different.
Many of todays stamps are celebrity based. "Game of Thrones" may be filmed a few miles from me but I am not a fan but I can understand Harry Potter (USA) as a contemporary thing. I cant bear anything Disney but it is a thing. And of course just how many people.....Lucille Ball, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, Bob Hope, Ingrid Bergman, were alive in 1970 and now on stamps...Not to mention Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon. Maybe people older than me think standards have slipped.

Theres an old saying..."If I was going there, I would not start from here"
But we are where we are.

I'm not even sure you could use Scott numbers without authorization.

If the community started one on GitHub, would it be taken down infringing on Scott? I'm talking their "research" info

Amos will send you cease and desist demand letters but that is not the same as actually having a copyright on a numbering system.
Don

Rob Roy's post certainly has stimulated a lot of comment. Here's my two cents worth:

First, I collect only US stamps. This is enough to keep me busy and happy, and what follows applies mainly to US stamps, but a lot of it can apply to collectors of whatever.

Second, don't collect because you think the stamps are an investment. Unless you get into the stratosphere of rarities, errors, "postal history", auctions etc., etc., or unless you want to invest in a huge stock and become a dealer, you will not make money buying and holding anything issued after 1920, and unless your heirs are philatelically savvy, they will not get anything close to what you have spent. This is how dealers make money, buying old collections and selling to current collectors. That's perfectly OK if that rocks your boat. Collect because you enjoy it, and why you enjoy it is not important.

Second, I agree that some of the topics are trivial and seem to have been selected only to sell to collectors, don't let that spoil your fun. If stamps about Daffy Duck, popsicles, or Batman, to name just a few recent issues, offend you, as they do me, you can always choose not to collect them. I once considered doing just that, but the gaps in my collection offended me even more, so I dutifully bought them.

Third, my stamp collecting history can be instructive on this topic. I collected worldwide as a child. I learned a lot about geography, history, culture etc. I was bookish and looked up everything my stamps suggested to an inquisitive young mind. I was born in Canada, and when we moved to the US in 1977 I went to the Post Office to get some stamps and I was given US Commemoratives (Scott #1711), which I remember treasuring as a child. This led me to return to the PO and buy a whole sheet (pane) of that issue and whatever other panes they had in stock. I really got the bug to collect panes so that by 1996 I had every pane of US stamps since 1940 except the #1053 $5.00 Hamilton which cost $15,000 in a mint pane, too rich for my blood. At that time I learned that the USPS made $168 million/year on stamps sold to collectors for which they had to provide no postal service whatever. I felt they were issuing too many stamps aimed at collectors, and I felt that I was being used as a sucker, so I stopped.

Fourth and finally, I am now 84 years old. My body is worn out, but my mind is fine. I was a surgeon, used to being active and using my hands. When I retired, my leisure time was spent at golf and in my woodturning shop. My spine was so bad that I had to give up golf about 10 years ago, and this past summer I had to give up turning wood -- I was so sore that I couldn't stand at the lathe for longer than 5 minutes. This really got me down until I remembered the closetful of stamps that was sitting dormant. I picked them up again and now I spend hours rebuilding and updating my collection of mint panes. I have recently become interested in PNC's and booklet panes and am looking towards starting to collect plate blocks. I fortunately can afford to indulge the hobby, even though it will lose value after I'm gone. My family is supportive to see grandpa vibrant and happy again. I have computerized everything I have, and as I do so I pause and look up the things on my stamps about which my knowledge is deficient, just as I did as a child (in Canada we did not learn much US history, so there's a lot to learn).

So, Rob Roy, there is another way of looking at why we collect stamps. With age you look at what is fun and interesting and enjoy all the good stuff, Spend what you can afford and expect the stamps to enrich your mind, not your pocketbook. And forget about Daffy Duck!

Perfeleven!

That post really sums up why I believe most of us collect stamps. Thank you for taking the time to tell us your story!

Perfeleven

Excellent comments and much is probably similar for many of us oldies, or getting there.

Keep enjoying what you do.

Perf 11 - thanks for sharing your story

Back to the original question -Where does contemporary philately go ? --That is the question a lot of collectors are asking . Because they want to get out in front of the crowd and stock up items as prices and demand goes up .

The answer is nobody is sure where demand will go . My latest prediction was WW I material back in 2015 ,I thought the 100 years since the war was going to make for a big demand ,but that came and nothing happen ....o'well so much for me making predictions .

I'll stick my neck out and make a prediction...

Forever commemoratives and high face value stamps will become increasingly difficult to find once they are removed from sale by the USPS.

If you look at some of the commems and other stamps issued in the last dozen years, the prices are starting to rise already. No one is stocking these in depth and it doesn't appear anyone is buying them in quantities (i.e. sheets) to hold. If there is any uptick in interest in collecting stamps, these are going to rise quickly.

At least that's my opinion...

Even if they rise in value some day, what will that amount to?

Any investment that accrues 5% will double in 14 years, quadruple in 28 years.

There is a storage risk that PSA stamps will, perhaps, dry out, fall off their backing sheets, and stick together.

In any case, at that time, someone is still gonna have to incur the transaction costs of selling them.

A minimum wage job at Mickey-D looks like a better use of one's time.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey ... https://goscf.com/t/38527 ... THE INVESTMENT MEME MUST DIE

STAMPMAN 2002---There was a stamp dealer at the bourses around Chicago back when I had a table to sell . He would sell modern USED U.S. current issues at .25 each when postage was 25 to 29 cents and he would sell out the first day of a 3 day bourse . His problem was trying to find new inventory ,he was selling everything he could get his hands on .