What Is The Greatest Need That Stamp Collectors Have?

Oh, you're one of those:
- Sir, do you have any children?
= Not that I know of.

Ha. It's not that I don't have kids. Five of them, as I said, aged between 16 to 30. Just not looking good for grandchildren as of yet. Hope I live long enough to have a few options.

Younger generations taking up the hobby.

Time and Organization of their collection .

Too many collectors fail to start putting their stuff in a orderly manor . Many other collectors start well and keep good organization then they get into a lazy period and continue buying new material ,this goes on for years and everything looks like a mess .

Then you have those collectors who start and stop 15 different subjects ,it is like they have a different interest each year . They end up spending money and time into 10 or 15 different beginner collections . Never getting to the point of being a advance collector of anything . They change so often they just get frustrated with the hobby with no long term goal .

Yeah. That's how I am with my covers. Too many topics/interests and falling behind on organization. The stamps are easy to put away in their right place, but the covers take much longer to write up and file.

Especially with ones that are hard to categorize, like the one recently posted by serf_tide "Postage Due 1c - Is It J52 Or J59?"
https://goscf.com/t/85395

If I owned that cover, does this go into the Postage Due collection, or with the Paquebot covers, or my plate number singles on cover, or ship covers, or maybe just 4th Bureau W/F since that is what was used for the original postage. Ugh, the paradox of acquiring interesting postal history and how to organize it appropriately.

Have a scanner? How about a cell phone? All of my Hawaii covers and ephemera is digitally stored on the web. You can easily search/view/enlarge images and share your prized possessions to anyone who's interested, right on your phone or desktop. Your binders will be used primarily for storage only. Although it may be too late for large collections and other reasons, but then, it could be helpful in case of fire, theft, floods, etc. I still have a way to go, but having backup copies of certs, in a totally separate location is some reassurance.
Hey, have grandkids? Have them do it for you! Pay'em with a Happy Meal or Starbucks!
My 2 cents worth of comments.

Agree with rodgcam: greatest need is infusion of new blood into the hobby and a market sustained by something other than grading.

Fun City ----I doubt the infusion of new collectors would help at this point ,that is a good long term answer . Because it takes new collectors many years to get up to speed to start spending serious money .

Our best bet would be another BLACK SWAN event .

We had a BLACK SWAN event in the early 1970's ,as inflation went wild stamp prices climbed .
We had a BLACK SWAN event in the 1998-2003 ,as ebay took off and stamp prices climbed .

So now we come to 2023 and all I hear are the printing presses in every major and minor country around the world running 24/7 printing paper money .

Somewhere the pile of paper is getting too high . Where does this lead ...but to a collapse . So where does everybody run ? Then we got another BLACK SWAN event .

That means hard assets take off . Like Gold and Silver ,then Art and othe collectabiles follow ,which in turn push classic stamps higher .

High inflation is not a Black Swan effect.

USA cpi inflation.

1946: 18.1%
1979: 13,3%
1980: 12.5%
1974: 12.3%
1941: 9.9%
1942: 9.0%
1973: 9.0%
1978: 9.0%
1981: 8.9%
1947: 8.8%

1970 - 1972 are very far down the list.
Much of these were caused by other events and not unforeseen

Source: Investopedia
And there are more countries in the world.

ebay was created and not a surptise. It is not a Black Swan either. It is disruptive technology.
Also, did all items sold on ebay when it was introduced become much more expensive?

I love this C13-15 pricing trends feature that Don has on Stamp Smarter. The adjusted for inflation numbers are very interesting.

https://stampsmarter.org/learning/Z...gTrends.html

floortrader - "That means hard assets take off . Like Gold and Silver ,then Art and othe collectabiles follow ,which in turn push classic stamps higher ."

Well, maybe I'll have that covered. My daughter is not interested in any of my stamp collection at all! But she'll gladly take any of my gold coins below:


Just one additional pic of my favorite gold coin. Only 1000 minted in the world.
Gold Proof Libertad.

That, certainly, is interesting.

Probably, popularity or relative scarcity is an important driver. These stamps have fallen off a cliff since the late 1980s, both in nominal and real terms.
Looking at British stamps, I can find another trend for some classic stamps.

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My 1989 SG Concise lists a Penny Black unused at £ 2,750. My 2020 SG Specialised Vol. 1, Part 1. lists it at £ 12,500.
Statista gives the purchasing power of one UK Pound (2023) for 1989 as ca. £ 2.50. That would make the inflation-adjusted catalogue price £ 6,875.

The 1841 Penny Red was listed at £ 150 in 1989 (adjusted ca. £ 375). In 2020, it was listed at £ 600.

The 1870 1/2 d rose-red was £ 150 in 1989 (adjusted £ 375). In 2020, it was £ 500.

The 1848 10d Embossed was £ 2,250 (adjusted £ 5,625). In 2020, it was £ 11,500.

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(Horizontal lines: I watched Don's new instruction video.)

I expect you can find many examples showing the 'stamp market' has slumped and many that show the opposite.

Gold, often is considered a good hedge against inflation. The jury, very much, is out on that.

See graph at bottom.

https://goldprice.org/inflation-adj...d-price.html

On the other hand, tomorrow's Warwick and Warwick sale has an unused 1d black with an estimate of £300 -

https://www.warwickandwarwick.com/a...logue/327038

If that has original gum and no defects, that's a very good buy even if it goes for a few times estimate.