APS Website Is Disappointing

I don't think a flashy (and expensive new one to boot) website is going to create stamp collectors. I could be wrong.

Would Stamp Smarter be behind a membership paywall?

The central issue with these recent APS topics is revenue.

The APS is facing declining membership, property lease/rental issues, increased costs (inflation in general) and a push to expand payroll.

I just don't see throwing money at new things is smart unless you have positively identified an untapped demographic that is likely (highly likely would be nice) to fork over membership money.

How about a free trial membership program in conjunction with an aggressive social media push (influencers?) that offers no financial risk to potential members while giving the APS some idea of how many potential members are out there.

I know that when I enter a new field/hobby and am uncertain about how financially committed I am I want to test the waters first. I'm not going to spend $45 or whatever amount right away only to be underwhelmed or find that I am not as interested as I thought.

Remember that the APS is competing against the internet writ large. There is so much free stuff out there. It has to make a compelling case to become a paying member.

If I was given a five or six figure budget for a task that task would be reaching people through social media. again. you need to be prepared to eat that money if you set out without knowing if the potentials even exist.

If the new website is to make existing members happy that seems ill advised given that membership numbers decline year after year AND the current stamp collecting demographic is decidedly well aged.

Great if you have a large endowment fund but then we would not be having these discussions in the first place.

Young folks will dump a website in minutes if not seconds if not up to speed with current expectations. As to Stampsmarter, no paywall, but it would act as a attraction to APS and APS membership.

A website which appeals to the over 50 group would be a complete waste of effort. Just like APS stamp sales for the low cost items being sent to Hip only keeps the near the end collectors happy trying to sell. It only works if those seller value their time at zero or slightly more per hour. Better would be to help them explain the money spent on the hobby and its enjoyment is long gone.

Edit:

Catering to existing membership is not a wise investment. The current older members stay members until unable to collector are dead. They will stay. The focus must be on attracting the younger folks to survive as an organization or for it to die as the current membership does.

I do not visit stampsmarter any more than APS because Stampsmarter does not offer information I want to know. The centerpiece is the US section but I do not collect US anymore. It is pretty but that only goes so far. I am not knocking it but people will visit websites often with something they want to know. Search engines drive my visiting habits.

It is more than making a website look pretty but having information that collectors want often driven to site by search engines.

Or how about we acknowledge a reality that their are not numbers of younger folks that will replace the older folks. I see no evidence of those people existing and it defies logic that they would in 2026. That's not a ding on the hobby but simple truth. Sure, someone will point to some outreach where they give kids stamps in NYC or reach out to school children. But there really is zero evidence that recent generations are enamored by stamp collecting.

The chicken or the egg is real and I don't believe that some 15 or 18 year old is curious about stamp collecting, Googles and hits on the APS, sees the hip and modern website and says "I'm forking over $45!!!".

I believe that the demographic will always remain older due to the hobbies requirement of healthy disposable income levels. You don't get serious about collecting without investing money. And you need solitary leisure time in abundance.

In recent years we have lost a stunning amount of philatelic personalities. Many dozens of professional sellers and experts and none of them were replaced by a younger person to carry on. Those storefronts and expertizers just cease to exist. Every week there is a new post about another "closed album".

Complimented that I am included with young folks and young members. However, I think people in general like up to date sites, with useful information. A static website with dated information, which demographic does that appeal to?

I don't think having a flashy site is what is needed. I wish their site was more informative like SCF. On this site you can easily navigate and find what you are looking for.

I haven't even looked at the APS site in years, but it screams "GIVE US MONEY" more than "collect stamps." That really seems to be all they've been about for a long time.

I've been saying that for years. There is no quantifiable data that a significant number of young people are taking up collecting stamps. Some, certainly, but enough to offset older collectors dropping dead? Absolutely not. Yet you get people making every excuse under the sun that it just has to be true because they don't want philately to drop any further. It's just got to be young people buying stuff off ebay. Except sellers on ebay have no way of knowing the age of the people buying their stamps, nor what might happen to them after they're shipped. Others keep trying to redefine collecting, such that anyone who casts a sideways glance at a stamp is magically a collector. If you mail a letter with a stamp on it, you're a collector. The whole thing is ridiculous.

I'd love to see it happen, but I haven't seen the hard data to support it yet.

I have rarely seen sites where posts get buried so deep to never to be found again. The search functionality, mostly, returns irrelevant threads. The search function within forums does not return anything relevant.

I believe the low hanging fruit for APS are all the collectors that are not members. As for the hobby, I believe an older audience who appreciate history, have the collecting gene, have leisure time, etc. are more likely to adopt collecting (of anything).

It was never like this for anyone I ever knew.

Getting back to the title of the topic, some of my thoughts...... Current APS member.








Keeping in mind that the above is more design oriented vs content of site.

The APS website is not usable on my tablet.

This is a simple calculus. I am on this forum every day. It is free but members are encouraged to donate. I have learned an incredible number of things here from a wide array of people. There is no comparison of this forum to the APS website as far as value goes. Yes, they have different functions, but when you think about why they have different functions there is no logical answer. At the very least the APS should be a meeting place for likeminded people, but it has no such function. The APS website should be THE place that collectors go to interact and learn.

APS has a discussion forum at https://stampschool.stamps.org/main/home. This was set up last year as part of the education initiative funded by a donation. It was created to combine discussion with educational offerings. It will take time to get a lot of traction. The site needs to be more mobile friendly,

The APS strategic plan has your comments as one of the goals but the goal had been mentioned before that. There just not anything really accomplished to do it.