The APS Report On Resurecting The Hobby

The contents of the library will or should be digitized anyway which will make the library in the traditional sense obsolete. Besides, an electronic copy won't deteriorate like the paper materials. Libraries hold a special place in many of our hearts but are becoming symbolic institutions with large overheads. There was a time when libraries were a place where those with less means could access the same information as the wealthiest amongst us. The were equalizers if you availed yourself of them. Now even remote tribes and inner city school children have internet access.

Moving libraries to digital-only does make it harder to find adjacent books on the same or similar topic. To say nothing of the sheer pleasure of browsing... something I enjoy doing every time I visit the Spellman. But I agree that in the future, the best way to preserve access (and to lower costs) might be to digitize all but the rarest/most valuable items.

I will say that it's quite nice to have the entire Gibbons Stamp Monthly archive at my fingertips online, going back to the beginning. Far easier/nicer than having to dig through heavy volumes of bound periodicals.



Re APEX, I'm not sure why so many here claim it's so overpriced...? In line with PSE, PF, RPSL, etc.

Admittedly, I have very strong opinions about the APS, but this was an honest attempt at pointing out the glaring issues with marketing at the APS. Objectively speaking, is there anything about their website that would excite a new collector enough to join? If there is, I missed it!





A reasonable question - it's been there so long I forgot about it! But I think I'll leave it there so at least I can say I gave them a chance.

Brian

Really??

Let's see, I joined in Jan 1975. Paid my annual dues all those years even when I was inactive due to work and raising family. I switched to digital membership when it was possible, not to save me money, but I considered more convenient andI considered mailing a printed copy unnecessary.

Exactly seven years ago I decided to become a life member simply because I never saw myself quitting. Doing the math a digital membership is currently $35. A digital life membership is $750, so it takes over 21 years to break even, not accounting for inflation. So I have another 14 years plus before I become a "freeloader". I'll be over 90 years old then, assuming I make it. Regular life membership is $1,000 versus $45 annually (22+ years to break even).

Not knowing the demographics, I would think most life members tend to be on the older end. We've paid our dues, literally. And I suspect people committed to paying life membership would tend to occasionally donate. I occasionally do.

A more valid consideration is cancel new life membership availability, but I suspect that is a net loss given the 21-22 year break even point.

I have been following the thread and there is a lot of good suggestions being discussed, otherwise.

@mestephil, at 3%, $ 1,000 is the cost of a 37+ years annuity of $ 45.

Not true. https://stampschool.stamps.org/main/home

APS/APRL cannot digitize everything since they do not own the copyright or have rights to do it. For example, I would love to see old Linn's, Stamps, etc. digitized. At least they have recognized the search capabilities are deficient to narrow down results.

As for social media, let's take Graham Beck. He made some fame with Exploring Stamps. He was not a heavyweight in terms of knowledge but he could produce videos. He did enough to get on the CSAC for USPS.

There are several groups that outproduce APS in webinars.

And the thing about social media is that you do not need a traditional office space to get the job done. I know a fitness influencer that creates content in his own commercial gym and at home and generates six figures a month in revenue from YouTube. A friend operates the camera and/or phone depending upon what is being captured. That's it. You really don't even need an assistant for philately.

The right person could generate more revenue for the APS then the APS gets from any other service or function even allowing that philatelic content has a far lesser appeal than weight training or cat videos.

Exactly - social media can be done at a fraction of the cost of renting an office, paying a full salary, etc.

As for knowledge and community, look at SCF, Stamp Smarter... even the Down Under board with the tiresome Sheriff (can't stand his broadsides at times, but there's a ton of incredible info there, particularly anything Commonwealth) - this is more than enough to meet the needs of your average collector.

I take books out all the time from APRL and the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library. Can't get those online. (And to those who say that buying books is easier/cheaper than borrowing, I'll say that shelf space fills up quickly, especially when you live in a small apartment!). Same goes for expertizing: can't get that online, although there are some wonderful resources/groups on forgeries.

It's clear that the future of stamp collecting orgs (outside of the high end RPSL etc) will be online, and there's no indication yet that the APS is heading in this direction. Hope they can change course before it's too late.

This is one big reason why so much fake crap gets sold on ebay. If they would open up a book once in a while, they might learn something and discover there is a lot more to the hobby then just the Scott catalog.

Not to pile on too much, on a more minor note, sometimes the APS falls short on communication to its members. Back at the end of May, I pre-ordered at $78 total cost the "Worldwide in a Nutshell" book which was to contain the columns that Bob Lamb used to produce every month for the magazine, each one focusing on a particular country or stamp-issuing entity. I always found these columns to be very interesting and informative even as just a quick snapshot of the history and stamps of the area being discussed. It would have cheaper (but more time-consuming) to just go back and print out the page from each back issue, but I liked the idea of having them all in one professionally bound volume.

The books were supposed to be shipped by August 2025. That date came and went with no book and no communication. I then sent a message to the APS in mid-September and got a reply that they ran into production problems and the publication was delayed. OK, understandable, but why no notice until my inquiry? Nothing was heard until end-October when I again inquired as to the status of the book. Lo and behold, two days later an email blast to everyone (not just a reply to me) was sent out that the expected publication date would be March of 2026.

Well, it's approaching the end of April and no update. Just sent another email inquiry, to which the response was, "The Worldwide in a Nutshell book release, anticipated for late 2025, was delayed by editing and production issues. We are still working hard on the volume now. I've spoken with Bob and he is thankful for everyone's patience as we work to get it released later this year."

At least they offered to refund my money. I have no problem with "production and editing delays" - stuff happens - nor with Mr. Lamb taking longer than anticipated to get the book into shape - I appreciate the work he has put into these columns and perhaps there are personal extenuating circumstances. But the communication from the APS has been nonexistent until prodded, which falls short of any professional standard.

What a load of nonsense! With an estimated 600,000 unique postage stamps issued since 1840, there are more than enough countries, topics, colors, themes, schemes and eras to satisfy the vast majority of stamp collectors without worrying about expensive stamps which are almost always the target of fakes. Those of us who dabble in expensive stamps are the exception, not the rule.

Scott, Gibbons, Michel, or whatever the common stamp catalog from your respective country is, contain more than enough information for a lifetime of collecting.

[qWhat a load of nonsense! With an estimated 600,000 unique postage stamps issued since 1840, there are more than enough countries, topics, colors, themes, schemes and eras to satisfy the vast majority of stamp collectors without worrying about expensive stamps which are almost always the target of fakes. Those of us who dabble in expensive stamps are the exception, not the rule. ][/q]

It's human nature to want to find a good stamp cheaply; to think "I put one over on someone". Happens every day.
On top of that, there are plenty of inexpensive stamps that are faked as well, especially in overprinted non US sets where only one or two stamps are really valuable. It was normal for people to fake a complete set so that collectors would think "they must be genuine, no one would fake the cheap stamps". Except that they did.
And people still make basic mistakes every day with condition; most collectors (and not a few dealers) do not genuinely know how to examine a stamp. And even modest value stamps get played with.

Modern,yes; but there is a huge amount of material out of copyright thus in public domain.


Edit:




Without proper forward migration, old file can and do become inaccessible.

Back in the day, not too long ago, life memberships were effectively free with the proper age and duration of membership combination. There no prepayment collected. And, I have been a life member for quite some time and yes, terms, conditions and pricing have changed. Also "back when" one could not buy life memberships.

I joined as a life member in 1980, I believe the fee at the time was $200, with option to pay in two or four installments. I paid the full amount in the initial installment.

I think what rogdcam is referencing is that at one time, when the age of the member and number of years as a member reached some point (I will not trust my aging memory to claim for certain that the magic number was 85, as I know an professional organization I belonged to also used that total count, and I could be confused :) ), then the Life Membership was awarded.

I have donated directly to APS/APRL on several occasions, and they have been on my short list for some type of bequest. However, it is harder to justify such a plan when they spend money on programs and projects that never seem to improve the membership appeal, and offer so few benefits for me as a collector.

Life Membership is not necessarily a good deal for a Society. Between 1974 and 1988, I was the Life Membership coordinator for a major country oriented philatelic organization (which shall remain unnamed). At the time, we had maybe 1500 members, and the Life Membersip fee was roughly 10 times the annual dues. By the time I retired and moved to other responsibiliites, our life member count was above 500, which meant that one-third of the membership was not paying a membership fee at all. The Life Membership fund, which had started out as a savings account or CD saw its interest rates drop from 10%-12% down to 3% or 4% and the Life Member fund could no longer carried their weight. By the year 2000 or so, they had to recover something, so they revised the benefits to the life members to only receive the digital edition of their publication, and had to pay extra to receive the print publicaiton. Unfortunately, they also used such poor PDF file formatting in the digital publication that it was virtually unreadable.

Fortunately, I do not actively collect in that specialty any longer, but I did enjoy being able to read what others were doing.

The PRL Digital Library is a great idea and resource, but the quality of some journal conversions is poor, and the display and search features are almost impossible to use with any success I

While the Americaln Philatelist (AP) is a slick magazine, I also get journals from perhaps 15 different organizations, and the AP has less of interest to me than most of them. Of course, I'll confess the sin of being a postal historian and not a pure stamp collector, but it would be nice to find something of interest in the AP more often.

I wish I had a crystal ball or genie in a lamp to provide the answer for the APS/APRL, but I don't. I wish them well. I definitely agree with the earlier posts which express concern about the overhead in the building and staff, but I also realize that people with the skills to carry out some of these functions are expensive. It's obvious that we have been blessed with many wealthy collectors in the past decade who were able to make contributions to fund new concepts and programs, and pay off most of the previous debts, but eventually, "you run out of other people's money". We need a plan that matches the income and expenses better than we have in the past several decades.