What Is The Greatest Need That Stamp Collectors Have?

I'm working on the basis that, UK-style, "unused" means no gum.

The lack of description of the gum and the lack of pictures of the SG card and the back do raise questions on the completeness of the description.

Like you, I'd expect an example with original gum to go for four figures. The estimate's commensurate with uncancelled, but no gum.

I'd agree, but the first thing younger generations need to do is get interested.

A thirst for general knowledge seems to be lacking.

Not sure about anyone else, but I have listened to people say that the hobby was dying for 50 years. And I have also heard people say it was because there were not enough young people entering the hobby. 50 years is typically considered as two generations.

So my question is, how many generations have to pass by before we can finally either confirm or put to bed the idea that the hobby is dying? 3? 4? 6? 10? Never?
Don

How many of us should care about what happens three generations down the line?

Missed my point.
Don

Collectors need to understand that the demographics of the hobby in the next decade are changing and with that what areas are hot and which are not. The hobby as a whole is not dying, I see too many people registering with online stamp catalogues to suggest that there is a lack of interest in the hobby as a whole. Rather the structre of the hobby as it was in the 1980s and 1990s just does not fit the needs an interests of the newer generations.

This new, younger generation, GenX and younger, just collect differently from how it was done in the "Golden Age". The local stamp club has been replaced with online forums and social media outlets, online shopping on portals such as Delcampe and Hipstamp long ago replaced brick and mortar, and will likely replace shows as well to a great degree, and their collecting interests have changed - more topical, much less focused on classical era (in part due to cost, but also subject matter - lets be honest pre-1920 stamps that mainly only show pictures of royals and presidents tell the collector much less about the societies that produced them than post-1920).

By 1960s the hobby pundits were lamenting the lack of kids in the hobby. They recalled the 1940s and early 1950s BT (before television) when kids were much more involved in stamp collecting. But since the 1960s, folks have been calling out fewer kids as an issue that leads to the eventual death of the hobby.

My point above is that we have sat through two generations where this 'theory' has been floated, but it has yet to come to fruition. I guess one way to become a prophet to just keep predicting something bad will happen; it might take a few hundred years but sooner or later something bad will indeed happen. Bonus, in the meantime the pessimism feeds into self-fulfilling prophecy situation.
Don

It is HALLOWEEN ,we got to scarce people today .

While I generally agree that attracting kids to the hobby is important, I don't think the issue ends there. I think most of us would agree that the average stamp collector is part of an educated class of people in all countries. Right now, there are literally millions of individuals who are in their late 20s to mid-forties and part of this educated and professional class.

Young doctors, lawyers, accountants, investment bankers, engineers, professors, dentists, chiropractors, architects, IT professionals, etc frequently have the disposable income to participate in a hobby like Philately, but are they actually participating? There must be a way to reach out to the educated and professional class, for example, in the United States, to create interest in Philately as a transitional step to improving general engagement in the hobby. Very young potential collectors could still be courted simultaneously while they are hungry for knowledge at an impressionable age.

Are we all missing an opportunity?

The multiplicity of younger, differently motivated professionals and vocational workers we have in 2023 certainly have more disposable income than their counterparts may have had in the past. However, what you are missing is that these folks, for the most part do not have the inclination(s) to pursue any other pastimes, hobbies or intellectual endeavors beyond their quest for higher monetary intake and more pleasant hedonistic pleasures. Their most common goals are to work less hours, travel more, and to be entertained by the empty, and violent world of 2023 and beyond.
Stamp collecting's most enticing element since the early 19th century until the late 20th has been the allure of obtaining the knowledge of geography, geopolitics, history, architecture, and the brilliance of the art of creating the stamps themselves. Our last two generations, may we call them Millennials and Gen-Z?; have demonstrated very little interest in increasing their abilities to garner experience regarding any cultural, philosophical, historical, political or geographical knowledge. These interests were the keen and absolute reasons that young people of "our" generation(s) developed and exercised their/our interest and participation in philately.
Let's face it; All of us "old" folks who still participate in philately deal mostly or even exclusively with other persons of our age. Yes, the "hobby" has made great efforts to try to get younger folks to develop an interest in philately for a plethora of reasons that range from simply the enjoyment of collecting some entity to the deeper reasons that are included in my paragraph above. One great reason is the want and need to preserve philately as a practice of the common man.
This approach regarding our attempts to interest younger folks to develop, even a partial interest in philately has not been working well, and I believe that it is close to a dead end. This "dead-end" will preclude all persons except older and financially well off persons from continuing in philately. All stamps after or around 1940 will become worthless; certainly many are already in that category. Ergo, the stamps that many of us have thrown away, given away or that have simply been lost due to the interspace between childhood, and the movement to our college years that lead to family responsibilities such as the 40 hour work week has mostly precluded any ample time for previously serious philatelists to apply to philately.
Look at the auctions, the auction companies, and the death of over 98% of local brick and mortar stamp and coin stores that we all, years ago, loved to visit to peruse the stamp stocks, learn from them and build our collections. Gosh, don't most of you remember one of your local dealers that helped you to obtain the philatelic knowledge that so increased your interest in the "hobby"?
So, as many of you look positively to the future of philately, I , unfortunately predict the end of this wonderful world "hobby" and its usurpation through the take-over by the super wealthy. Johnny won't ever have the chance to find a US SC # 594 or much less an inverted Jenny. They will all be bought up by giant philatelic corporations from old dead and dying philatelists and their heirs only to be held in the vaults where the once useless and unappreciated Cezanne's, Monet's and Pissarro's were until the dawn of the 20th century grandiosely increased their values..
My best advice to the aging and life-long philatelist is to find the time to carefully catalogue your collection and, somehow, enlighten and educate your heirs so they will not get duped and defrauded by the many "we buy stamp collections" charlatans working now to ring the death knell of our "hobby". These carnival barkers have been preying on this brilliant "pastime, hobby, profession, avocation, etc." for many years and they continue to participate in the exsanguination of another true humanistic historical art form. Not to complicate my subject (philately) here , but, where and when will they stop or where and when will we stop them??

I do not think that 1970 metrics are good metrics to rely upon in a post-internet world. How are you factoring in the fact that how people interface with the hobby saw a seismic paradigm shift post-internet in your opinion?

The decline of brick and mortars have been replaced by exponentially more availability of material online. The loss of local dealer 'help' has been replaced by communities like this one. etc. etc.

Yes, the hobby has undergone a huge transition, and this can be unsettling to many folks. But as uneasy as it may be, I think that the health of the hobby will remain 'unknown' until we figure out how to include online metrics.
Don

A nice unused full own gum plate 1b from the 'Cyriax' collection just sold for GBP 3,500, below estimate (4,000 - 5,000). A plate 7 with part own gum and small fault (estimate 2,000 - 2,500) was passed at a starting price of GBP 1,500.

An unused own gum with four large margins VR official went for GBP 6,000 (estimate 3,000 - 3,500).

I did manage to add one of the four Penny Black plates missing from my collection. Three to go. Of course, two of them are the ones that hurt my wallet.
Edit: used, of course.

NSK - went for £625, so around £750 including buyer's premium. Some strong results for Hong Kong and Indian material.