World Largest -Biggest Stamp Collection

@ stampgreendragon, I posted a question about how to get younger people interested in stamp collecting, and got no real response. I will say a stamp show in Dallas last year was the first time I have been called "young man" this decade....

DefinitiveStampr - "I posted a question about how to get younger people interested in stamp collecting, and got no real response."

I think one big factor in the decline in interest of young people in stamp collecting is the decision by the great majority of collectors to put an end date to their collections, for example, the "Big Blue" people who stop at 1940, or others who stop their collection at various years (1970 seems to be a popular shoice).

I understand the impulse. For several years, I thought I would stop my collection with the end of the 20th century (though I recanted and now collect worldwide up to the present).

One unintended consequence of these cutoff dates is that the stamps that potential young collectors might run across on snail mail are of no interest to the great majority of experienced worldwide collectors.

There are many other factors, of course, like the proliferation of "unsoakable" self-adhesive stamps. The worst offenders in this regard are the USA and the UK, whose stamps can't be removed from paper without a chemistry lab.

Another factor is the explosion in the number of new stamps issued -- to give one egregious example, France's stamp issues remained fairly steady for decades, but have exploded in the 21st century. France issued 127 stamps in 1945, 107 in 1985, and 106 in 2000. But in every year of the current decade, France has issued 400-plus stamps, culminating with a staggering 462 new issues in 2025.

I don't know that the decline in stamp collecting is reversible, unfortunately. For it to occur, there would have to be a rebirth of interest by collectors in contemporary stamps, but collecting modern stamps is incredibly difficult.

DefinitiveStampr - "I will say a stamp show in Dallas last year was the first time I have been called "young man" this decade...."

My 72-year-old wife tagged along with me to a stamp show last month here in the DC area and sat outside reading, while waiting for me. I warned her to be ready for the excitement that would be caused by having a "young woman" at the show.

It may be best to worry less about the "young people" crowd who are consumed with a myriad of other distractions and focus more on the "young-middle adult" crowd of the 30 to 50yo. This is the group that may have more evening downtime, extra cash flow, and an interest in finding a hobby to dull the daily grind. It is this group that likely carries the torch for these types of these hobbies.

Your discussion is leaving out one important group .
That group is the small investor / small speculator .

This group is running into a problem ----it is called ---TO SMALL TO PLAY .

Think about this Gold is over $5,000 ,Silver is over $100.00 a oz. , Crypto is $75,000 + ,forget art works , forget diamonds {too many fakes} this leaves the little guy out .

Now tell someone you got a 100 year old stamp for $5.00 and it already catalogs at $7.00 and could go to $9.00 they will be interested .

They keep those money printing press running 24/7/365

We are moving toward holding your own wealth and that means hard assets .

"Now tell someone you got a 100 year old stamp for $5.00 and it already catalogs at $7.00 and could go to $9.00 they will be interested ."

And then you tell them a dealer MIGHT give then $1 for it and they can't find the exit fast enough if they are only looking for an investment.

Yep. An immediate & guaranteed 80% loss will have them queuing round the block.

"That group is the small investor / small speculator . " - Money stamps is a great book that touches on stamps worth buying for speculation.

I think people here are thinking too hard on what is being sold instead of how it is being packaged and offered for sale .
You would be surprised how many buy what they don't understand .They are focus on what they can make not what was the price last year .They know the crowd is buying and they want in .

Sheeple
But the crow isn't buying stamps. They were buying AI stocks and gold & silver.

edited to say that was supposed to say crowd not crow

FLOORTRADER- You may want to start new topic on Stamps as Investments. The moderators don't seem to like when this thread starts going too far off into that direction.

With that being said, here is my take on the subject. There is no FOMO when it comes to young/small investors and stamps. Investing in stamps is not on the radar of anybody who isn't interested in the field of stamp collecting. Is it theoretically possible stamps could eventually be seen as some kind of alternative investment, yes, but there are no signs of it happening with your Average Joe investors.

A recent anecdote: I was watching a YouTube video on Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon. I commented that the USPS just released a Bruce Lee commemorative stamp. The reply I got: "I think I'm more surprised that postage stamps are still a thing." That seems to encapsulate what average people think of stamps.

Stamps are not like precious metals or Bitcoin. Regardless of how high the price of gold, silver, or Bitcoin gets, small investors are not getting priced out of them. Why? Because they are fractionable, unlike stamps. No investor has to buy a full ounce of silver for $90, or gold for $5200, or a Bitcoin for $68000. On the other hand, you can't buy 1/10 of a $5 Columbian stamp.

Stamp Slacker --- Agree , I need to stick with stamps here , I just got to remember who reads this page.

And, again, here we are with the repetitive subject of stamp investment.




It has been tried. It turned out to either be a Ponzi scheme or a still-born.




See the utter failure of Stanley Gibbons' moronic British Guyana 1 cent Magenta scheme. That put an end to all other attempts.

A huge obstacle to stamp investment, always, will be the cost of upkeep and insurance. What happens when commodities become long-term liabilities was shown at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, when oil futures turned negative. It is not a commodity you buy to be delivered in three months that you sell to an end user to be delivered shortly after.

A large stamp collection even one filled with cheap stamps will still cost money. When you build a comprehensive WW collection, you have to think about resources and how you will spread them for each country. Lets say for simplicity you go for 200 countries. Even if you spend 100 per country you are staring down 20,000 and you have not bought a single supply. In addition, there are shipping costs as well, auction fees if you go that route etc.... You get a starter collection for each country.

We got a failure in communication.
Your confused and can't seem to read what I wrote . Your posting remarkes about today,s market place and what is going on today , to how you preceive what is in front of you .

I spend my life on the trading floor , I don't look at the markets as today and tomorrow and whats happening . My success has been in trading next week and next month even next year . future
market movements .

Stamps fall into these long term trends ,it is not a today or tomorrow market , so I am outside your discussion and your market place thinking .

The only people that will make money off the World's Largest-Biggest Stamp Collection are the ones involved in trading in it after it is disposed off whether in pieces or whole. Well, also everyone involved in selling the supplies used to create it. Oh, and the people taking the fees and profits on your purchases to build the collection. It's like vintage vehicles or guitars or paintings or buggy whips. The value is in the entertainment provided.