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

IMHO having less new stamps will have no impact, just like when we had more stamps: When Yugoslavia and USSR broke up we had dozens of new stamp-issuing entities, yet it had no effect. Same here: Fewer countries issuing stamps, no effect on the collectors.

No New Issues.

Same here, except I'll still use US discount postage (typically stamps 30-60 years old) on mailings to Western/Northern Europe, where the postal services can generally be trusted. I keep a supply of plain Jane definitives to use on mailings to areas that might be more suspect, and I always use my printer to print the name and address directly on the envelope. The more it looks like a bill, the better. In fact, I remember getting a stamp mailing from Germany once that looked so much like junk mail I nearly tossed it without opening it. That's pretty much the ultimate in theft security, right there.

"what would be the impact if many countries stopped issuing stamps....?"

FitzJames Horse hinted at the answer. What has been the impact on collecting since Newfoundland, British Honduras, Gold Coast, Portuguese India, Indo-China, Tolima, etc., stopped issuing stamps? Answer: none.

" What has been the impact on collecting since Newfoundland, British Honduras, Gold Coast, Portuguese India, Indo-China, Tolima, etc., stopped issuing stamps? Answer: none."

British Honduras became Belize, Gold Coast became Ghana. They did not stop issuing stamps. Newfoundland became part of Canada, Indo-China split up. Just not the same as a country still existing in its current state that stops issuing stamps.

eyeonwall: then why are the countries I listed, and many others, considered as "dead countries," meaning no longer stamp issuing? Are you saying perhaps that places like Tete and Kionga should not be considered because Mozambique still issues stamps as an independent country?

For the people that collects new issues (especially more than one country), would the money they spend go into older stamps or would they just stop collecting? The question is how much is the money they spend get diverted. This can be the new issues, mounts, album pages, etc.

Lets be clear. Iceland is a very modern country and along with no more than 20 other nations a beacon of Decency in a world that is pretty rotten.
There is no need for stamps. They exist only for the benefit of stamp collectors and basically Iceland has lost patience with stamp collectors. They deserve a round of applause.
What is the point of saying "I dont collect stamps issued after ....." and following it up with "Iceland is killing stamp collecting, we must condemn them".
The point that I was making about shedding no tears for Bechuanaland and Belgian Congo was not about stamp issuing after independence as currently Botswana and Democratic Republic of Congo....my point was that too many stamp collectors "live" in the 1950s where they are more comfortable with 1950s values.
Iceland is not killing Stamp Collecting.
Iceland is like too many countries keeping Stamp Collecting on a life support machine. When Stamp Collecting dies it will be because of the new technology AND Stamp Collectors.

Personally, it is postal unions and the ridiculous cost of the new issues due to absurd postal increases which has stopped me collecting anything new.

I would rather spend my time and money buying stamps to fit into the albums I have.

I would not have to buy any more supplements either if no new stamps were issued.

The majority of stamps tend to be a cash grab for postal authorities

I am using all my duplicate mint Canadian stamps for letter mail, but as others have said, refuse to use them on any larger parcels.

it would matter for dealers, the latest years still sell well.

but I welcome the day it happens.

I don't think it will kill it right away but if every country stopped issuing stamps today, I think we would see the hobby pretty much disappear within 30 years. Not good news for anyone hoping to sell their collection down the road.

We need young people to collect and young people are attracted to the topical side of the hobby. More often than not, their entry into the hobby begins by collecting current topical wallpaper that the likes of IGPC and Stamperija print. They would not be printing this stuff if there was not a strong market for it. I think by cutting off the new issues, fewer people will be attracted to the hobby and in time, there will not be enough people doing it to call it a sustainable hobby. Hobbies that do not stay current, die. There was a time when HAM Radio and even building radios (remember the crystal radio), was a vibrant hobby. No longer though. Model Rocketry, Plastic Model Kits, Train Layouts, quilting, home-brewing, racquetball - there are lots of hobbies that die when they do not remain current. Stamps, being one of the greatest of hobbies at one time, has certainly declined, but still stayed relevant and visible to people in their daily lives. Without new issues, I do think it would be the beginning of the end.

In 2009, Moya Green, CEO of Canada Post - announced that in 2011, Canada would no longer issue stamps. Fortunately, due to her poor record and Canada Post, she left and grabbed a position at Britain's Royal Post before she could implement the change. At the time, I thought she was crazy. I guess, considering Iceland's announcement, she was ahead of her time.

I tend to agree with this take. Stamp collecting would not disappear (it won't for a long time yet) but it would very much be in a similar place that ham radio or Indian arrowhead collecting is now -- a hobby that's still alive, but with only a small fraction of the enthusiasts it once had.

All the younger (under 30) stamp collectors I know are either topical or worldwide collectors.

I know of very few if any dealers or auction houses that purvey or give a hoot about any stamp issues considered modern with the exception of a major error or two and the buyers and sellers that keep those dealers and auction houses alive are not demanding modern material. The old and the new are apples and oranges.

Every stamp issues now could just as well be a piece of security paper with a code printed on it. The designs are for mass consumption and advertising National identity.

I disagree with the idea that if stamps go away that stamp collecting will decline. I am particularly surprised that in a group of folks whose hobby is largely based upon history, that many seem to resist change. History clearly demonstrates that postal systems have always changed and evolved. Obviously the next generation postal system, the internet, is just one of a multitude of applied technologies which have impacted postal systems in every single decade since they began. Ships, railroads, airplanes, automobiles, automated sorting machines, stamp tagging, cancelling devices, and ZIP codes are all examples of technologies changing how postal systems worked.

We all understand how much previous generations relied upon securing their own food to eat. But in many countries grocery stores now provide year round access to fruits and vegetables. Has this stopped people from gardening? My wife can easily go to any of a hundreds of local store and buy clothes. Yet this has not prevented her from sewing and knitting. I can jump in my new car and enjoy air conditioning, great stereo, and heated seats; yet this has not stopped me from restoring Studebakers and sticking my arm out the window every time I have to make a turn. (Turn signals were optional and I am here to tell you, rolling down your window every turn in the middle of January can be a drag.)

Postal systems and this hobby are not dying, they are changing. Anyone who thinks that the hobby is in decline is replying upon 1970s metrics like shrinking memberships and the loss of brick and mortar stamp stores. I challenge anyone who thinks the hobby is shrinking or declining to demonstrate how they are factoring in the current online hobby activity.
Don

Climber - I would say a one for one change like British Honduras to Belize does not make a dead country, while Indo-China to multiple new entities would.