Winds Of Change In The Philatelic World

Kids in the 1980s were collecting stamps. So if you were born in the 70s, that puts you close to 50. Mail was often a persons first introduction to stamps. This is largely lost. Outside of philatelic mailings I get ZERO pieces of mail with a stamp, outside of seasonal and birthday cards.

So where is a kids on ramp? It is not the cool thing. Kids of philatelists? Mine want nothing to do with it. Some free stamps? A library gathering?

Why is a hobby like stamps even worthwhile to attempt at this point for kids? Unless they are a history buff, or a collecting kid, or kind of a loner type it isn't going to beat out baseball cards, video games, or hot craze with financial attachments, or just fantasy football.

I don't see kids getting into knitting. Knitting won't die. So realize where the interest lie and cultivate around that. For me, as prices fall, hoarders decease, and free time expands it is then open to the future. I am optimistic and think Stamp Smarter and other outlets will ultimately help larger amounts of folks. Ultimately I hope to have a marvelous collection that will be sold, and the next person can enjoy the fruits of my labor. If not, I got my joy.

I am in the process of open sourcing it soon and will be able to share everything with the most amount of people. It is a ton of work.

I agree, I think philately in general needs a huge, broad-scope, ubiquitous and accessible internet presence. Where is the younger generation? The younger generation are on their phones, on the internet, in certain apps.

Stamp smarter is a really good start. Stamp images and stories need to just appear there, where they are. It would be nice to get 'tangible' real stamps in front of younger people, but, alas, digital stuff will have to do for promotion.

Its not so much about getting younger people to necessarily spend a lot of money, its about exposure, so that someday, they will engage.

edit: Lots of youtube videos are an easy way to get going.

Exposing young kids is fine, but I liken it to planting an apple seed; perhaps one day far into the future it will bear fruit. But I agree with rismoney, how many kids are interested in history? I do not see many kids taking an interest in genealogy. These interests tend to be ones that come with considering our place in this world, a type of wisdom. Not many kids have those interests or wisdom. And the points made in previous posts about time and money are also important factors.

I think that this explains why the over-whelming majority of people we see entering the hobby are the 45-65 folks; this pattern has been clearly seen in this community over the years.
Don

I attended a webinar sponsored by the Collectors Club of NY on the future of the hobby. One panelist (did not know any previously but not saying much) stated that the often mentioned exposed as a child, hibernate, then resume at later time days are almost over. They will not see a need for organized philately. I tend to agree except they may connect like minded types in specialist groups (formally or informally like on social media).

New collectors may eskew traditional album based collecting method. They may specialize rather than the fill in the spaces type method (trying to get 350,000 stamps). The specialization would be personal and tied to other topical interests.

Personally, I think the specialist societies need to consolidate but due to fiefdoms this will not likely happen. From several groups I am involved with,it is hard to find webmasters and editors that usually do the get out the word work for a group. They are often the true leaders of a group.

51studebaker - How do you know the ages of new members? I don't recall giving any information that would indicate my age when I joined.

From being a Moderator here for a decade and reading what folks post. People often post information such as how long they have collecting, when they started collecting, their APS membership status or membership number, events they have attended, etc. We also frequently see younger people identify themselves since they realize that they are unusual in the hobby.
Don

I think you are correct historical interest does come with age. Kids' brains are not wired to look back. Still, you might be surprised how many kids are fascinated by history if told in a way that catches their attention. Historical children's novels sell quite well. The existence of history departments at many European universities of high standing also suggests all is not lost.

What worries me more is 'old' people that become historically aware and are highly selective in their historical interest.

NSK, agreed. In university I originally trained as a teacher and feel that part of being a good teacher is to find a person's 'learning motivation' and try to tap into it.
Don

Maybe I'm extrapolating too much from my own experience, but I wonder if the pattern of collecting when you're young, then dropping it during mid-life and returning after retirement isn't fairly common.

But how do young people today find the low-cost material to start building their collection? Back in the 70s there were a ton of smaller stamp companies sending out packets on approval. These were pretty cheap - I have a stack of glassines with 10c, 15c and 25c prices printed on them. A lot of paper route money went into paying for those but it was something I could afford.

And it was a great learning experience in economics and responsibility. I remember a good talking-to I got from my Mom who told me that my tardiness in sending back the stamps and the money for my purchase was causing a family to go hungry.

So how do twelve year olds get their stamps today? Does the APS have anything like circuits for juniors?

It is not a hard concept that the way things were in the 50's, 60's and 70's is not the way things are now. Now there is the internet and social media which are limitless in scope. No kid sits around on a rainy day anymore staring out of the window wondering what to do. Not to mention that postal mail is no longer the way to communicate. Kids don't lick stamps and send away letters and envelopes nor do they receive many if any at all. Everything is electronic. Yes, you will find some young people interested but I just don't see that there will ever be the same level of interest as pre-internet which changed the way in which we communicate as well as limited entertainment and information access. There is a reason that you no longer find stamp albums in department stores or stores targeting a young audience. Target does not carry Minuteman albums because they would disintegrate before they sold.

It is not a question of availability. You can buy 1000s of albums on Amazon. You can buy thousands of stamps online on ebay or any other venue. Buy a Linn's magazine and you can order kiloware. If you order a single stamp from Mystic you will get more mail than you ever dreamt of. This is not a problem of Brick & Mortar presence vs online or mail order.

The fundamental problem here is there is no STAMP connection. Lets compare a few back of the napkin, collectibles. Sports cards are based on players and popular sports resonate with a large segment of kids, either as players or spectators of at least 1 sport. 100M people watch the superbowl. That's a lot of impressions at a family level. But the cards, even the stickers are SO pricey today. Packs of cards were "pocket" change investments a ways back. You'd go to the candy store, and buy gum, a drink, and some baseball cards. So I doubt even well popularized things like baseball cards are sticking with kids 8-18. It's just too expensive to buy a pack of scrubs. The manufacturing/delivery/economy no longer works. It's akin to arcades in malls. Really cheap brick and mortar stuff doesn't pay overhead, so you can't get a pack of cards for under $1. Kids and cheap go together.

Bobbleheads and other related collectibles are popular, but kids are not acquiring them. Rather 18&overs start getting them, as they go to sporting events and a hobby forms often unintentionally at first.

Video games=kids. But I imagine only a small segment of kids buy games for "collection" vs playing. Once you open the shrink wrap, your game becomes worthless. So I imagine this is a millennial/GenX vice, to reconnect become nostalgic with this one.

Comic books - how popular are the movies these days?! If you are truly a deep diver into comics, you might start buying comic books, but probably not so much either, as I'd imagine only the 'hard core' fans are into the books, akin to ComiCon diehards.

Coins? Money is a funny thing. It is probably fairly low on the totem pole as far as kids collecting like stamps, but saving money and realizing there is a world of money that is worth more than face value, can intrigue some kids that may initially fall into some wheat pennies, Susan B Anthony's, silver dollars or some other item. As people use physical money less, I suspect interest will wane like stamps. Why can't I just google/apple pay? Who carries coins?

That's the question. I got into it back in the 70s just as you said. I saw the stamps on incoming mail, thought they were neat, started collecting. My parents had saved years and years and years of correspondence with other people and my mother told me to go through all of the envelopes and take what I wanted. It was a great start. Today, just like you, the only stamps I get in the mail are philatelic. Otherwise, I get none. My wife trades stamps with someone and the only way she could get any was to have her work save all of the envelopes. 99% of the stamps are definitives, of course, but occasionally there's something worthwhile, if you can get away from the marker monkeys. Otherwise, there are no stamps. My kids were never interested, even though my wife and I collected the whole time they were growing up. One doesn't collect anything, the other collects dice, but traditional collectibles, they don't care. Now, they're adults and off on their own.




I don't know. I have three younger people that I supply extra stamps to. Younger, in this case, means late teens and twenties, but they love collecting. I got one of the people I work with into stamps a couple of years ago. He'd just gotten divorced and had a lot of time on his hands. He now collects dead countries because the idea appealed to him. Now he's not young per se, he's in his 40s, but at least we are seeing some people coming in.

When we used to go to stamp shows, we were always the youngest in the room. Even in our 50s, most collectors are older, but I'm starting to see younger people trickling in. There are a handful of people in their 20s and 30s buying stamps, so it is happening.




That's not true either. When my mother-in-law died last year, we got all of her crafting stuff. Metric tons of knitting and crocheting supplies, more than my wife could use in a hundred lifetimes. So, she took it to work and found young people, in their 20s, who were into it. Now, they're supplied for years to come. We just spread it around. These people are out there. They're not advertising it, but they're out there. Younger people collecting stamps are too. They're just doing it in their own way.

Judging from posts on Facebook and other social media, a big stepping stone for younger people into the hobby is through finding or inheriting collections. The "did I just get rich" silliness sometimes evolves into a genuine interest in the hobby. It makes me wonder if I should designate just one binder of stamps to each of the many, many relatives in our extended families when I'm gone.

I believe humans have a hoarding tendency and that comes to collectibles. This seem to change over time. Many have the collecting gene and can be anything. Exposure and interest will affect the end result.

The point was not availability but rather that if albums were a popular item, they would be on store shelves. Look carefully at the thousands of Amazon listings (actually mostly stockbooks) and you will see a smattering of listings that sell 50 plus per month (but less than 100 per month). Kids don't wander around the aisles of Amazon looking at things and pestering their parents for them. It is an entirely different dynamic. Then take a look at Amazon listings for "video" games. You will see "5000 plus" sold in the last month. Granted, you cannot assign an age bracket to any of these buyers but unless a customer has an adult with a credit card consenting, they are not purchasing by themselves. You don't walk up to the Amazon counter with a pocket full of coins.




Which is why I said:




I get the feeling that people become very defensive when the suggestion is made that kids are not engaging in stamp collecting as they were in the 70's and prior. That is not casting aspersions but acknowledging realities.