Do You Think Used Modern Stamps Will Have A Better Premium Than Modern Mnh In The Long Term?

As Ellie88 wrote, it is subjective. I belong to three local stamp clubs, all APS affiliated clubs.
The club which main purpose is to buy stamps to fill the member's collection considers post 1950 too modern to bother with. Those stamps are just tossed to the side to be given away or sold as low percentage discount postage for mint post 1937 US.

The second club meets for dinner and stamp talks. Only three members actively collect, one stampless early 1800s Mexican ship mail along me and my postal history. The first person mention was a CoC Single Frame winner. Lastly one is a new collector who is collection either a topical or thematic of Florence Nightingale, narrowed from nurses in general.

The third club actively buys at 3% or less of wholesale stamp material of pre-1960. Post 1960 I can't give away. I know, I am the auctioneer. So donations of free material is snapped up, except for anything I can sell for more than 3% of Scott to a dealer. we also get materiel to sell on behalf of non-members. I have stopped selling in our auction at the prices folks want to pay and move the material to real dealers for real money. The last such group was 8 banker boxes of generally post 1950 collection, announced as "junk" coming for club auction. Nothing will be sold in the club, but I have gotten close to a thousand for just two collection in two of those boxes with 5 boxes to go.

A few months back, the person who is the contact for "valuation and disposal" of non-member inquiries, rolled in 5 boxes of what I had reviewed as $2000 wholesale, announce here it is take what you want and pay what it is worth to you. He netted the club $100. Three boxes went to the vest pocket dealers (two) with rest vacuumed up by other members. He was happy to get them out of his garage, but also complains about collecting enough money to pay rent on the meeting room. The 2000 I knew it was worth would have cover one year and a half month of rent.

Here my point being is how can anyone compete for buyers when said buyer can get stuff at 3% or less of wholesale.

In general I cannot disagree with Ellie88, but there is on solid area of growth in philately. Younger and newer folks are being attracted to topical philately. That has been a growing area for decades, especially for new woman collectors. Just like the collector of Florence Nightingale mentioned in my post above.

post 1960 stamps get a bad rap. But try putting together complete sets of just about any xyz country outside the US, and it is not as cheap as everyone thinks. Packet stamps are cheap, broken sets are cheap. Completed sets still cost money.

You seem to have not read my reply, or failed to grasp what I wrote.

Nevermind, different strokes for different folks.

"You seem to have not read my reply, or failed to grasp what I wrote.

Nevermind, different strokes for different folks." - To clarify my comment was not in response to anything you wrote. Was looking at the subject line about modern stamps.

Bobby De La Rue - Just read your comment. Yes, I agree with you.

No problem stampgreendragon, I was quoting Ellie88 above

See this thread about putting together modern used stamps assembled during the prior modern 20-30 years. https://goscf.com/t/90227

The entire holding sold for hundreds of dollars. The collector really knew what he was doing. In the US material you can read notations as to either catalog value or priced paid.

Now the current owner could perhaps make thousands of dollars on the purchase. Why not the original collector of modern material? Well, he forgot to sell in time.


Edited to make last sentence less forceful. Seriously it is a fantastic holding assembled from modern material.

Well modern has been beaten to death. So on to "current."

I define current stamps as stamp currently available from the USPS as being on retail sale. ALL of that is just 21st Century,and even post 2015. [Note: this is a US Stamp thread but you comments about the other many foreign stamp issuing entities is noted]

Likewise "used in period" tends to overlap the period of validity (day, days,or weeks,month or so for special issues) and the period of time the issue was on sale. This again really limits what period, current, modern stamps are. Yes there are US stamps issued for say the letter rate which changed to a higher amount several days later. Thus the period of proper use end when the rate climbed.

So I understand your comment, "Nevermind, different strokes for different folks," certainly applies when the difference between "current" and "modern" is counted in decades.

My question back to you is, what is the in period use of US Forever stamps? Dates of sale plus a bit or from date of sale until the USPS ceases to exist some unknown date centuries from now?

Your turn.

@Bobbydelarue Very ironic of you to criticise my reading comprehension. Your reply definitely seemed to come from somebody who did not read what I wrote about the subjectivity and relativity of the term, if you did read it, maybe you need a dictionary to look up those terms. Your reply says you have concluded it to mean "current" stamps. How have you concluded this? The subjectivity of "modern" without elaboration means one has to guess, that is my point, and that was parcelpostguy's point too, when he asked what period.

so we need to differentiate between modern & current. My understanding (an opinion) is like other respondents: Pre 1940 (or earlier was one era of collecting, the beginning as it were. Some I would venture would go as early as pre-1910-20. Then we have the 30's-50's, which produced innovating printing methods, as well as security & canceling, (not that the earlier issues did not have some of these). Then the 60-70's period which developed new printing methods, canceling, and pre-sorting by mechanical means, and don't forget the OCR sorting (optical character reading machines, lesser manpower) Stamps were now being tagged for facer-canceler, & the beginning of bar-code readers etc, for more advanced OCR technology. In the 80's the USPS began what I call honorarium issues, artistic, theme, etc, & flooding the items to the market to appeal to an ever increasing market target, (the topical collector). Get the bad taste, go to adhesive, self sticking issues, with water activated on the wain, off-paper also became harder to find. And then there is the elimination of the'make-up stamp at every 1st class rate increase with the initiation of the 'FOREVER" stamp, the most current issues in the late 90' to present. So do we define modern, current in the same way or define the eras in Philatelic history for what is, an ever-changing hobby that can fit into any individuals fancy. Value is dependent on worth being real or intrinsic. current I would say is within the last 3-5 years. Modern period would start in the 20,s to 30's up through present day, understanding that material, & direction changes as each generation moves in. the the beginnings are just that. Value now is over stated as far as worth is concerned. Intrinsically that depends on the emotional benefits you acquire, the enjoyment you've garnished & gathered, that part of the life experience that was positive (or negative) in the friends you made, the satisfaction. (edited due to screen freeze)

To help to put to bed the definition of "modern" used in the title of this thread, I meant stamps from 1990 onward. For many people under the age of 40, vintage runs for them 1950 - 1990. Current would then be in my vuew 1990 - present.

All good points made, and I agree the area of philately that has shown growth is topical colelcting. Also, I should have added I was not implying that we should all collect stamps for the sake of investment. That would be a bit foolhardy. But it is worth the discussion to conjecture where in cureent stamp issues (particularly the US) what areas may have a chance of developing premiums in the near to intermediate future. I like the comment about the difficulty of getting some of the complete sets of current stamps. In fact some of these issues such as the Black Heritage have been going on since the late 1970s! Plus there are issues which are simply expensive to get - try obtaining all the Priority Mail Express sheets of the American Landmark series as some run well above face value.

Chris, had you included this little gem in your OP, I would not have had as much fun replying, nor, likely some other posters .

However, methinks you learned a instructive lesson on "wiggle words."

It's fun to have a lively conversation ;) I would say, some of the hardest stamps to find for postally used US are more recent Priority and Express Mail. Express is especially hard to come by. I'm not sure if APS still mails stuff with stamps, but back in the day it was a good way to get some nice higher value stamps. I think I got the $10 stamp when I checked out a book from the APS. It's a keeper!

Sorry Ellie88, but we appear to be on very different wavelengths.

Transeat