Looking into the future of Stamps and Stamp Collecting. open

[cbavier]

I'm posting this link because it goes along with my thoughts which I have been thinking about for some time.

www.stampcommunity.org/topic...=28750#28750


Open for discussion.
I've been thinking about the future of Stamps and Stamp Collecting for a long time..

There has been much discussion on SCF and several other Forums I belong to about the future of Stamp Collecting.

My thoughts say 2065 and beyond.
I think there will still be stamp collectors and stamp collecting will be still be around but the number of collectors will be very low in number.

I think the USPS will still be in existence but in a very small and limited capacity. Mail delivery will be down to three or four days a week. Postage will become so expensive it will no longer be profitable for business to advertise through the mail system.

I think the USPS will almost cease producing postage stamps as we know them today. People will print the postage to mail on there home computers. Not computers as we know them now but computers to come. The computers we are using now will be dinosaurs. Extinct. I think the USPS will continue to produce a very small limited supply of commemorative stamps mainly for collectors.
I think because of this especially. Used Postage Stamps will become scarce if not rare and because of this. It will cause the values to soar. I am not so sure about Mint stamps but I think they will soar in value also,  perhaps not as much as postage cancelled stamps. Of course I won't be around since I am already near the end of my life.
My Grand-kids might see this come to pass though, certainly their kids will.

Share your thoughts!

[Admin Bear]

the link is broken.. PM forthcoming.

[swish513]

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

I'm posting this link because it goes along with my thoughts which I have been thinking about for some time.


Open for discussion.

challenge accepted!

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

I've been thinking about the future of Stamps and Stamp Collecting for a long time..

There has been much discussion on SCF and several other Forums I belong to about the future of Stamp Collecting.

My thoughts say 2065 and beyond.
I think there will still be stamp collectors and stamp collecting will be still be around but the number of collectors will be very low in number.

i agree 100%. i am in the over 30, not yet 40, generation, and there are few collectors of stamps, let alone collectors of anything, in my generation. the below 30 generation has even fewer. maybe as they get older they may become collectors. i hope so.

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

I think the USPS will still be in existence but in a very small and limited capacity. Mail delivery will be down to three or four days a week. Postage will become so expensive it will no longer be profitable for business to advertise through the mail system.

i agree and disagree. i see the usps becoming more like ups and fedex.

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

I think the USPS will almost cease producing postage stamps as we know them today.

agree

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

People will print the postage to mail on there home computers.

again, agree.

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

I think the USPS will continue to produce a very small limited supply of commemorative stamps mainly for collectors.

disagree. this contradicts (sp?) your previous statement. either stamps as we know them will continue (defins and commems) or they won't. personally, i think all postage will be cvp. neither defins nor commems.

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

I think because of this especially. Used Postage Stamps will become scarce if not rare and because of this. It will cause the values to soar.

ok, stop right there. rare does not mean $$$$. for instance, i own a coin (coin collecting is popular) of which only 3 are known to exist in the world. 3. that's it. 3. to add to this, the coin is over 1600 years old. yep, a roman coin with a known population of 3. old and rare. is it worth big bucks? nope. why? i'll get to that in a moment.

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

I am not so sure about Mint stamps but I think they will soar in value also,  perhaps not as much as postage cancelled stamps.

why? if there are fewer collectors, why would the value go up? demand drives the price up, not rarity. again, refer to the coin i previously mentioned. the coin is from crispus (died 326 a.d.), not someone highly collected. the price is low. only 3 exist. i paid less than $100 to obtain it. now look at the penny black. i guarantee more than 3 exist, but to own one, you will pay more than $100. maybe you can luck out and get one for less than $100, but that is few and far between. i own a coin of which is way older than the penny black, and way fewer exist, yet is way cheaper. simply put, fewer collectors drive the price down, not up. rarity does add some value, but demand determines the price.

May 9, 2014 7:52:56 GMT -5 cbavier said:

Of course I won't be around since I am already near the end of my life.
My Grand-kids might see this come to pass though, certainly their kids will.

Share your thoughts!

sadly, i may see all of this pass. i am not yet 35 years old.

[cbavier]

Very good points swish. I'm glad I got you thinking. Hopefully I will get more collectors thinking. I by no means meant to be precise and cover all angles. Some we don't know right now. Some I didn't think about. My thoughts about the USPS printing stamps. They won't print many. Either by choices of design or in quantities printed and especially quantity. The numbers printed of each stamp. In fact quantity may diminish gradually until they cease to print stamps altogether. I agree supply and demand is what drive's prices up. My thought was as supply dwindled and the number of collectors also dwindles the changes will be slow and gradual. But in a combination of supply and those stamps that do survive that will cause values of stamps already printed and even what are modern now to increase in value. (not well said).

I think definative's will vanish completely. In the future once the commemorates the USPS releases runs out. They will just be gone. That alone will cause the value to increase.

What I have not been able to understand is why the value of covers have diminished so much. They have almost lost all value. I would have thought or you would think the value would increase rather than decrease. Inspite of that fact I continue to hang onto a few choice covers.  My choice.

[swish513]

May 10, 2014 4:29:19 GMT -5 cbavier said:

What I have not been able to understand is why the value of covers have diminished so much. They have almost lost all value. I would have thought or you would think the value would increase rather than decrease. Inspite of that fact I continue to hang onto a few choice covers.  My choice.

i think it's because there are fewer cover collectors. most people have a few in their collections, but not many actually seek out covers as their main way of collecting.

[troutdude]

May 10, 2014 4:29:19 GMT -5 cbavier said:

What I have not been able to understand is why the value of covers have diminished so much. They have almost lost all value. I would have thought or you would think the value would increase rather than decrease. In spite of that fact I continue to hang onto a few choice covers.  My choice.

It depends on the 'covers'.  High quality postal history is generally up, but first day covers are nowheresville . . .when first day covers were popular stamps were under 10 cents a pop and the US released less than 20-30 per year.  You could collect every single, coil pair, and plate block for under $10 a year.  So folks collected first day covers also, they weren't that expensive, and they were artsy and cool  But first day cover books that hold 120 covers cost upwards of $30 a piece now.  thats a ton of money and space to display your collection, and the popular trends are currently against philatelically created material.

td

[Craig]

Stamp value (including covers) is determined by three things: demand, condition and scarcity. Of the three, demand is tops, followed by condition, then scarcity. If they don't want, ya ain't gonna sell it. And if they want it, the better the condition, the higher the demand. Scarcity hardly ranks at all, unless there's demand.

IMHO.

[kannik]

I can`t say what will be, I can only say what I HOPE
will be. And I think that, if what has been said above
is true, the albums with many stamps in at least "pretty
good" condition will be worth the most, but I hope they
will be kept intact so that people can see them laid out
in their proper historical order, actual physical copies
of used stamps, not just pictures!

I don`t like this
current trend (which I think is happening) where a dealer
just pulls all the stamps out of a collector`s album and
sticks them in an envelope and sells them off. Of course,
that can mean you find an interesting one every so often,
and THAT is fun, but it means that I can collect,(and I AM
doing so), say, Australia, from scratch, for pennies a stamp,
50 at a time, and get all but the rarest, most expensive
ones in a very short space of time.

[troutdude]

Discount postage / older US mint after WWII will get cheaper and cheaper as people want to chuck those 3 cent - 8 cent US sheets bought on speculation 50+ years ago . . you can buy $500 in us stamps for $350 - with a huge variety of full sheets, plate blocks, ect, and thats just doing a quick search on Linns, there's probably better deals out there too . .. $100 in postage for $79 postpaid was one i just saw . .

td

[Perfs14]

Every year almost every country in the world is issuing more and more stamps, I cannot see this changing anytime soon. The use of these stamps for actual mail is dropping, so that collectors must be buying them (some one is).

Stamp collecting as a pastime is definitely fading because of all the electronic choices, but I see no actual end in sight...unless civilization as we now know it ends first. Global warming will see more stamps suffering fungal attack...but we may not care if we have to swim for it!

Of course one of the millions of asteroids may put a fiery end to all of it and who is next inline...silverfish and cockroaches? They will happily eat away what is left of our perforated friends!

[cbavier]

There is a Hobbby shop about 75 miles from me and he buys and sells sheets. He told me he Buys them at 40% face value and sells them for 60% face value. So Not to promising or encouraging in values.

[kacyds]

May 12, 2014 11:03:09 GMT -5 Perfs14 said:

Every year almost every country in the world is issuing more and more stamps, I cannot see this changing anytime soon. The use of these stamps for actual mail is dropping, so that collectors must be buying them (some one is).

I have to agree with you Alex, about 99% of the mail that I receive in my mailbox doesnt have a stamp on it. Most business use preprinted business rate envelopes or some sort of presorted or nonprofit label.  

So who's buying the millions of stamps that are sold each year.  Apparently collectors and bill payers like myself.....