How Many Of Millions Issued Still Survive?

IMO, Moderns get short shrift among collectors, especially those whose who collect Classics. To be clear, I'm talking about Moderns WW2-1960s, whichhave decent CV in the 95-100 range. Yet you can buy them for a dime on the dollar in the 95-100 range.

Yes, that 1950s stamp had a 1.5 million printing that a zillipn people bought at the post office and stuck on letters, but how many of those still survive in well-centered pristine state today?

Not that a CV of like $20-$100 for a top-form 1950s stamp a bad thng for the discerning collector passing collections down to their kids, but am I missing something here?

Personally, I think it's a matter of why we stamp collect, not what we collect.

Well, that's the best thing about this hobby. You collect what and how it pleases you. As long as you're not doing damage to the stamp I think the vast majority respect that, even if they offer contentious comments. Street value is considerably different than catalog value and demand almost always sets the price. The same can be said about Scott #1 (3,712,000) and #2 (891,000) were sold and a lot were saved. I've never seen a day when there weren't a good number of them on ebay (and other sites), but they hold their price because everyone and their brother want's them.

So, another way to look at this is: if you really like the WWII-1960's era, revel in the fact that the demand is low and you can buy at much better prices.

Like many other things that weren't collected/saved such as comics/baseball cards/posters/toys/etc. in the 40s/50s/60s they are very collectible and valuable today. Here is your chance to build wealth for your descendants.

Not every old thing becomes valuable as time passes. The ones that do are genuinely scarce or rare but they make up a tiny part of the population. Not every comic/poster/toy/ is a cash cow because of age. Most comics, toys and posters from my youth are of minimal value. If you want to build wealth for your descendants I can think of a lot better things than collectibles.

As an example here is one of my favorite vintage stuff sites:

https://www.oldstuffonly.com/Store_Closed.asp (offline right now for a few days)

The prices are in the cents and dollars and yet it is such cool stuff.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, here.

In the world of numismatics, survival rate of coins was addressed systematically with teh rise of the grading agencies. Although I have mixed feelings about their impact on the market, the research and info they prov ide is invaluable --- especially survival rates. It helps inform the buyer of the potential future demand of the coin as well as if market prices are at their peak or not.

Determining survival rate for stamps I would think would be harder for medium to large nations - however, very small countries and those which developed postal systems very slowly would of course have heir early stamps carry quite a bit of a premium in many cases.

Another interesting point made by this poster is usage --- I love collecting some of the recent issues of the USPS but I know that these are being far less than those decades ago. Production of modern stamps have fallen for at least the commemoratives and some high value stamps but still range from 1 million to hundreds of millions. For ultra modern, design, attractiveness and theme become greater influences upon desirability in the market compared to decades ago (don't get me wrong, a gorgeous, well-designed stamp from any time will always add to its desirability). The point made about modern stamp and their wide usage would apply to issues until about 2000 when email programs had become sophisticated enough to supplant many types of short to medium length written correspondence. One unscientific example is the letters my brother kept from old friends and family --- the stamp issues go to about the late 1990's and then peter out around 2000showing the drop in letter writing.

The pandemic of 2019 - 2021 revived it somewhat but far from the levels of 30 or more years ago. However, I see stamps used for packages although not often (many just get the metered strip). The only area I see strong stamp usage is for special occasions such as wedding invites. I know I had not done much letter writing for years although I still used stamps for some small business correspondence.

I think the topics attached or implied in the original posting would be great to explore - stamp usage, survivability and the reasons for stamps being hoarded or used widely.

Chris s: Good observations. I think the recently issued Raven Story stamp with it's beautiful, timeless design will remain desirable for decades.

You would think so but it can be counterintuitive. Many "dead" countries and small countries (population of course) did indeed issue small quantities of stamps at times but very large quantities of stamps for the most part. Some of it has to do with colonization and the "mother" country producing omnibus issues with the only difference being the colonized or controlled countries name and currency, if different, on within the common design.

The other factor is demand. There just are far fewer collectors seeking out smaller countries stamps than there are United States or major European countries stamps.

I was always shocked at the amount of stamps that come along in large lots and collections from countries that most people would need to Google.

The postal history aspect of these geopolitical places is often far more valuable but again the demand is softer than for a dollar value Columbian.

I ooh and ahh over many of the WW items in major auction catalogs because they are so rarely seen and so fascinating. Quite a few though realize shockingly low results given their populations.

I am not a coin collector but it would seem that stamps are a tougher nut to crack in some ways such as the sheer volume of different issues and the fact that they were meant to be used once and discarded for the most part. Stamps are so fragile compared to coinage as well.

rogdcam - I agree determining survival rate of stamps would be far more complex than with coins (well modern coins). However, I think it feasible if survival rates were determined for Mint Never hinged stamps.The type of stamp to start could be definitives for mailing (not revenue stamps).

Torin - I agree the recent 2021 Raven stamps are gorgeous.

For some stamps, there are stamp censuses that give an idea of how many copies there maybe left out there. See https://siegelauctions.com/census.php

As time goes on, it can get harder to find intact full panes of some stamp issues in great condition that used to be easier to find before. When one is a specialist on a certain specific stamp issue, this becomes more noticeable as one hunts for more philatelic material. There is a tendency for philatelic multiples to get broken down over time which can affect those trying to find or reconstruct plate positions, etc.