Article: Did the Internet Kill Stamp Collecting?

Agree that due to the internet, there are choices where to buy more affordable stamps. Also more and more stamps are available for views and for auctions.

 

Nice article over there. I agree with most of the points.

Internet actually helped stamp collectors somehow. There are many stamp exchanging websites out there. When I was young, stamp collecting was a "trend", and there were many stamp shops around the city. I guess that era is just over now.

 

I too am glad the Internet allows me to shop so many different stamp sites: stores on the bid sites, auctions that there is NO WAY I could visit, and private collectors that just want to trade off some surplus.

And because I am very active in this, I find I spend a lot less time watching most of the mindless drivel that passes for television these days... most weeks I don't even turn one on.

Finally: stamps are a peaceful way to wind down after a long day...

 

I don't believe that the internet has a major role in any decline in stamp collecting, it's true that less stamps will be produced in the future but i think the main threat lies elsewhere. The world is changing rapidly and people's interests are also changing over the decades. A lot of people's interests nowadays lie in more technological hobbies rather than stamp collecting. There will always be those of us that will support the hobby but not in as great numbers as in the past.

The result will be less supply due to the internet and less demand due to declining interest. We will never reach ''the end'' though, there will always be plenty of stamps in circulation for the hobby to continue to be both challenging and fascinating.

 

Some of us 'old guys' will just so some of the mints have current dates... if you can get someone to use the hand cancels. If you ask the postmaster when you mail the covers, etc. they usually have a hand cancel just for that purpose. What destroys me is when I get a mailing from a dealer and the postal clerk takes a blue ballpoint and just wavy scribbles through the stamp... kills the whole effect of using classic postage.

 

That is the key... look at the photos and, once you have sellers you can trust (my list of good sellers is over 50 so many opportunities and variety), then use them to the fullest. Because THEY have another list of folks they can trust and help you fill in the holes...

 

And the historians among us will continue to collect for not only the enjoyment but also the knowledge that comes with the search and research!

 

I used to have a couple of local dealers I 'worked' with... would go over and talk for hours. They would always say 'wait a minute... let me show you something'.

Some of their offerings were out of my price range at the time; others I bought and still others I traded with them. But the common conversations were priceless as well as increasing my knowledge base.

There are a couple of good coin shops here but I haven't found a stamp shop yet, if one exists. The coins I can see... most folks are willing to trade in their silver and gold for the melt value, not the joy of holding a piece of history. Sad...

 

Well obviously the internet didn't kill stamp collecting because it's still very prevalent.

 

I think philately as a hobby has been on the wane for a long time - long before the internet 'intruded' into our lives. My dad had a collection that intrigued me to start some 60 years ago. Neither one of my kids have shown the least interest in the hobby.

In some ways, the internet has transformed the hobby. Fewer local stamp dealers with store front operations. The internet has provided more options for me to interface with other collectors, better availability of stamps by catalog #, and perhaps a more focused (better selection) of stamp supplies.

Stamp collecting for me is perhaps only a passing interest - keeping albums current with available supplements, filling US spaces with current issues, and the occasional foreign stamp purchase to complete a page or a set. Good way to while away the winter hours now that I no longer snow ski.

 

Agree; there are too many other distractions/diversions - Netflix / video games / sports / sex / drugs / rock & roll. Not only that there aren't anymore Woolworth's, etc, the local stamp dealers have gone the way of the wind. Stamp supplies aren't readily available to get youngsters started in collecting. The local stamp club in my town of 70,000 people quit holding meetings with the same 'three to four of us'. I sometimes travel 220 miles (one way) to attend a regional stamps show. Current stamps at the post office are expensive and many times non-existent. Current US self-adhesive stamps are a pain/expensive to remove from paper; I can 'clean' maybe 20-30/hour. People no longer use commemoratives on their mail (limited availability at the post office), and don't mail much anyway.

 

Well some bookstores here sell stamps and supplies for it.

 

I agree with Larry: the internet has no important part in the wane of our hobby.The disapearance of stamp shops began with the rise of the mail-order-business.
Internet-shops are just are just the same,except that offers and orders are no longer done on paper.
By the way,many other small shops of any kind have vanished in developed countries.It´s not just stamp shops.
I guess the main reasons for the decline of stamp
collecting are this two:
1. In the developed countries very few youngsters
get into stamp collecting.The most simple reason for
this is: there are very few children born,especially
into middle-class families.Without rising immigration
population numbers in Europe would have decreased dramaticly.
2. Since around the 1980ties former conservative
stamp-issuing countries produced more and more
stamps.Nowadays they really flood the market
with what they call products: not just stamps in
abundance and varieties,but souvenir sheets,
miniature sheets,se-tenant issues,different types
of booklets and so on.Not to mention FDC´s,
Maxicards and other kind of rubbish.
Most stamps are multicoloured and look uniform
throughout the world.
When I was very young,I was intrigued by stamps
of intensive colours.Gone with the multicoloured
flood.
Later when I learned to read and write,I was fascinated by the different countries stamps were
from,often bought in mixtures.
In my teens money became an important stimulus
to collect and buy stamps.
Lets face it: that stimulus does not exist any more,
at least in most developed countries.Take the US
as an example:
Apart from a handful of stamps issued from the
1940ties onwards,you will not fetch more than face
value,if at all,when you want to sell them.This for
mint stamps.Used will not find a buyer at all.
That does not interest those collectors,who collect
"for fun" only and have no material interest.
But those collectors do count very little in the
world of stamp collecting !
The outlook:
As there are many people with spare money to
spend on stamps,there will remain enough buyers
for older stamps.As more and more people live
longer in good health,the number of potential
stamp-collectors will probably decrease very
slowly,if at all.
Catalogues will have to adjust and issue periode-
catalogues,like all world till 1940,Europe till 1960
and the like.For newer issues single country
catalogues will survive and maybe thematic cats.

Ex oriente lux !
Maybe the boom of stamp collecting in Asia,mainly
in China and potentially in India will make the future
of stamp-collecting much brighter than it seems
to be now,from the perspective of the old western
developed world !
Thoughts of one of the rare rainy days in Paraguay.