What Would Be The Impact If Many Countries Stopped Issuing Stamps?

How do you think it would impact the hobby - collectors, dealers, catalog publishers, collecting supplies?

I doubt it will happen since they will want to milk this as long as hey can even not usable as postage.

But if all major countries actually did it, my initial reaction is that it would not be the end of the end of the world for collectors.

For catalog makers they would lose one reason to buy catalogs regularly.

Periodicals that focused on news could not fill pages with new issue information.

NOTHING ----Who cares. We got enough stamp for yours and mine life time .

Would not affect me in the least - I do not collect anything past the Transportation Coils anyway,

Peter

Apparently Iceland is stopping.

https://www.icelandreview.com/news/...S5wkmd4TTbPA

I believe the effect would be very minimal.

The massive increase in the issue of stamps, souvenir sheets, and contrived "rarities" since 1990 have "turned off" traditional collectors, and obviously not attracted new collectors.

I do not see stamp 'supply and demand' as a factor.

But I see this as one of three possibilities;
Hobby benefits – The hobby benefits because stamps become a nostalgic reminder of time past. Some people who are not currently collectors start hording stamps while others enter the hobby because they think stamps will become worth more.

Hobby suffers – The hobby suffers due to 'out-of-sight, out-of-mind', the amount of interest falls because postal systems no longer market modern issues.

Hobby neither benefits or suffers – The two things described above cancel each other out and the overall effect is near zero.

I do agree that the hobby, like the postal systems it revolves around, would continue to transition online. If stamps went completely away I agree that it would push the majority of philatelic publishers over the cliff. They are already struggling to transition to online publishers and if new stamps disappeared many would quickly die off without yearly catalogs, album pages, and new issue news to report on.

But overall, my opinion is that the hobby neither benefits or suffers.
Don

I am not at all sure that it is obvious that new issues have not attracted new collectors. Those new collectors don't generally join clubs and don't seem to go to shows. They do their collecting on line, so it is impossible to know how much they are involved with new issues.

Many, perhaps most, collectible hobbies don't have "new issues", so I think for most, the impact would be minimal. Unless you collect new issues, naturally.

No more antique maps are being made (one of my other hobbies, so I know a little about it), and prices continue to be strong reflecting the ongoing demand by collectors.

One could perhaps argue that with the passage of time today's stamps/maps etc. may become "antique" and thus more collectible, but that's impossible to say from our current point in time.

Did not most of us start out with new issues, either those that showed up on the family mail, or what we could buy at the post office? So it would definitely hurt attracting new collectors (I think it would be years before a nostalgia/antique effect might show up)

It would be a major blow to Scott and Linn's (and their foreign counterparts). At first dealers and collectors who chase new issues would save money not having to buy new catalogs, but when the catalog producers go out of business, it won't look so good.
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If every country stopped issuing stamps tomorrow, I think it would ultimately strengthen the hobby.

Catalog editors could concentrate on adding content to the catalogs and work on enhancing existing listings.

Collectors would know there was a finite set of stamps for the countries they collect and there would be no more added to that finite set.

Dealers would have to rethink their marketing strategies but would find ways of doing so.

That's some of what I think would happen.

"Collectors would know there was a finite set of stamps for the countries they collect and there would be no more added to that finite set."

Collectors can already make that set finite by only collection a particular run of years which many already do.

"Catalog editors could concentrate on adding content to the catalogs and work on enhancing existing listings."

It is a question of economics. Doing those enhancements will cost them money and would they sell enough catalogs to cover those costs? They average collector is not a specialist who needs any more than what is already in the catalogs.

If the likes of Grenada and St Thomas would stop with their endless floods then the catalogs would stop expanding at an unsustainable pace. That would certainly be good.

Personally I hate the modern stamp issuing policies of most countries (way too many stamps!!), but I think the impact on the hobby would be very negative.

There is a host of collectors who would be impacted -- FDC and new issue collectors, kids starting by getting stamps of the incoming post, etc.

Sure it would make my task easier, as a whole world collector, but I think its a poor prospect. I just hope not too many countries rush to follow Iceland's example.

I think that many already have.
Certainly many British and Irish post offices dont stock commemorative stamps. And most postal clerks see collectors as lovable eccentrics or just cranks.
Thru Technology there is no need for a colourful receipt for a postal service. Credit card companies, banks, insurance companies, large companies...do they really use stamps?
Philatelic Sections seem tired of Stamp Collectors and there seems no insult that Collectors wont take....Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Dr Who.
THe standard for a person being on a stamp seems lower than before. You dont even have to be dead.
And we are our own worst enemy ...we project an image of a 1950s middle class man in a three piece suit smoking a pipe.
I dont really contribute to the notion that everything was better in 1959 than it is in 2019.
I dont get misty eyed mourning Bechuanaland, Belgian Congo and the rest.
So long as we project an image of outdated values then the postal authorities will be right to say that we are not part of the real world.

I think the pros of no more new issues far outweigh the cons.

That said, I'm happy to admit my bias. I stopped collecting new issues from Australia over 30 years ago and the Australian Antarctic Territory last year. Even the AAT has become silly. Lick & stick issue with corresponding minisheet and the occasional peel & stick booklet. All completely unnecessary of course but a boon for the PO I guess.

This topic rocks the very foundation of what stamp collecting has always been for me and that is very recent stamps issues being postally used.Sure I have been into AUS KGV 1914-38 definitive issue in some sort of depth but very recent issues have always been a big part of stamps for me.

It disturb me greatly when I heard that forged US forever stamps were being marketed on line way below face value.

With the sharp decrease in postally used stamps coming onto the market has not been a good thing. It has been the reverse, most people have just stopped collecting.

My wife asked me for stamps to mail 2 large boxes to Canada. My answer was buy a label at the PO as putting stamps on those parcels seems to attract postal theft. Sent 4 large parcels to our daughter in Chile and none arrived. Stopped putting stamps on the parcels and they arrived, no theft. Sad hey!Now am part of my own demise! Just finished the dreaded wait to see if $130 of mailing stamps on parcel makes it to the Netherlands. In the last 2 years I have lost 2 parcel. None were under AU$2,000 in value. They all had heaps of mailing stamps on the boxes.

When sending lots abroad, I usually use a minimum number of bland Machin definitives (sorry, Machin-lovers!) to minimise attention. Some buyers will request the use of the dull Post Office labels.