Sadly very true of today's collectors but if I read the article correctly they send stamps to war vets, if so maybe some of our members could apply? Though I have no clue as to where.
We can still have our enjoyment with our stamps...i never had any illusion of monetary gain from my stamps other than as a hobby selling stamps to purchase stamps.
Philately has always seemed cursed with this strange attitude that unless you can show a profit, it's not worth doing any of it. I don't know if that is something peculiar to Americans. It does seem systemic in our culture. People can engage in model building, for example, and no one seemingly expects to get back much when selling out.
I have memories of being a kid collector and adults, including my father, telling me not to be wasting my money on stamps, they will 'never be worth anything.'
The hobby is indeed shrinking. I wonder how much longer Linn's will continue publishing weekly. I would also expect the APS to go to bi monthly for the AP magazine and we may in some cases be seeing the winding own of some specialist societies and their publications. It is inevitable for collectors of artifacts of means of communication that are becoming obsolete.
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bobgggg President Cortlandt Stamp Club 02 Oct 2017 07:33:21am
re: New York Times 9/29/17 article "Stamped Out"
Take a good look at this guys collection, ( that is pictured in the article ). I would be ashamed to send a piece of crap, like that , to the Vets...
Regardless of the condition or value of this guy's childhood collection, the real damage is the perception about stamp collection that this op-ed leaves in the mind of the reader. It relays to the general public that the era of stamp collecting is over, when in fact it is not. Diminished in size? Perhaps. Approached differently than it was in the 1960s? Definitely.
What the author does not address is this second point. Yes, it's difficult to find a bricks and mortar stamp shop anymore, but stamp collecting, as a hobby is still being pursed through the Internet. A down and dirty search of eBay returned over five million hits when I searched for stamps. The price of "good" stamps are as robust as ever. Someone is buying and that someone is the average Joe stamp collector.
As has been pointed out elsewhere on SOR, people who collect stamps today are not necessarily joiners. Thus, the reduction in APS membership - as well as membership in other philatelic organizations - over the years. So, I for one, do not take umbrage with the report of these diminished figures.
The one thing that proves bothersome, however, is the aging of the North American collector. I am at a loss as to how to interest younger people in the age of the iPhone. I understand that is is less of an issue in places like China where there are reportedly millions of young collectors.
Please note that the APS membership today is about where it was in 1972! It was not even 6000 during FDR's period and averaged 12,000 in the 50's in the so called age of collecting as a hobby. APS did not represent the hobby health then either.
All hobbies are in the same situation. There are a lot more activities available today than in the past. Youth are not drawn to the traditional collecting and crafts. Values are down for the very common, but the high end stamps continue to be desirable.
There are fewer and fewer hobby shops every year. The market is moving to being Internet based. In the model car market, the large distributors who traditionally sold to stores, are now retailing on the Internet.
Keep Postal systems alive, buy stamps and mail often 12 Oct 2017 12:47:24pm
re: New York Times 9/29/17 article "Stamped Out"
"We can still have our enjoyment with our stamps...i never had any illusion of monetary gain from my stamps other than as a hobby selling stamps to purchase stamps. Happy"
AMEN to that! A hobby is not a business it's a fun enjoyable time with your hobby!!!!
Some years ago I was a leader in the Scout Movement. Research showed that only about 10% of the country's youth were "joiners". All the organized youth organisations were competing for this 10% - the rest were labelled somewhat patronisingly as "unclubbables".
I suspect that hobbies are somewhat similar. If we take out spectating or participating in sport - all the hobbies whether genealogy, collecting ( anything ), modelling ( anything ) or amateur research (of anything ) attracts people with broadly similar personalities. The rest of the population are the " can't be bothereds ". I suspect that those who denigrate hobbiests mostly come from the latter group, who haven't got the patience, intellect or concentration levels necessary.
My ( admittedly limited ) experience is that most hobbiests tend to be sympathetic to others, even if they don't particularly understand the attraction of their particular subject. Perhaps they recognise a kindred spirit?
I would also agree about the value of the internet. Since using the net I have found that my knowledge has increased by many times that which I could expect from membership of a normal stamp club. I would guess that the social aspect of many stamp clubs now is more impoortant than the philatelic knowledge exchange.
"the rest were labelled somewhat patronisingly as "unclubbables"."
I run a large model car show in NJ. We notice that our mailing list includes over 1,000 people who have attended our show over the years who live with 50 miles of our club meetings, who don't belong to any local club!
And for an event that draws 1200 people each year, we gain 1-2 members a year from the promotions at the show.
I will be attending a postcard show in Kingston N.Y. Tomorrow..around 15 or 20 dealers and people will attend from New England,New Jersey Manhattan..probably a couple of hundred folks. If it was a stamp bourse..you might see 20 customers. I don't know why...it just is.
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