Future Of Stamp Collecting

I have been re-reading The Postage Stamp: Its History and Recognition by L.N. and M. Williams. It was published in 1956. I found the following segment interesting and would be curious to know whether others have views on how well this has aged and what questions it now raises given the rise of email:

"With the increasing use of franking machines the question must arise whether the adhesive postage stamp will ever become obsolete. Will the romantic bits of coloured paper one day give way to the march of progress and sink into the limbo of the past together with the flint-lock, the horse bus and the spinning-wheel? That is a question which only time can answer, but as long as there are people interested in collecting stamps and studying them it seems unlikely that governments will discard this ready means of propoaganda and revenue."

I think if there were no collectors, Governments the world over would've stopped producing postage stamps decades ago.

As it is, they're produced in numbers far in excess of postal requirements, and have been for decades, maybe even close to a century now.

As for the spinning wheel, there's one in my house, but I don't know how to use it. I'll have to ask Mrs. DLR

Who knows, the horse bus might be back in fashion if things keep going the way they are

Hide all the stamp albums, the princess might prick her finger on one!

The future of stamp collecting was yesterday. The main stamp collectors are on their last leg of life, the boomers. It will be a sad day when they leave the earth, because not only do they have the stamps but they have the knowledge. We are losing experts by the year. Think about this. No more Sismondo or any new certs from him. GenX and the Millennials are the next group. Can they hold the fort? I don't know.

The knowledge is being passed along.

I'm an older Xer and I understand I'm standing on the shoulders of giants, but for what I'm interested in I have a thirst for the knowledge. Books can only carry you so far. You must be able to handle the stamps themselves.

People collect Merovingian coinage, illuminated vellum manuscripts and incunabula, Ming porcelain, Tiffany lamps, T206 baseball (and other cigarette) cards, muzzle loading firearms, and the output from Faberge's workshop. The production of something is only a part of the collectibility equation. Philately isn't dying, it's merely changing.

I have a total different respond to the question here .

I believe stamps will have a future but it has nothing to do with stamp collecting .

I could tell you about governments printing money 24/7 , about the many countries that are swimming in debt , taxes becoming a international pain in the butt , money piling up with a new Billionaire every day somewhere in the world , but you already know about this and have no disagreement what is happening with what I just said .

The day had already happen that people got scared and withdraw 60 billion dollars from banks in California in 2 hours , let me say that again . 60 billion in two hours . Nobody ever heard such a thing and nobody ever thought to have a plan to handle it .

Stamps is part of the world of collectibles ,meaning coins , semi-precious stones ,art and silver and gold . So something happens worldwide and they need to hide or move valuables around the world ,you can bet stamps will take off pricewise .

Trying to smuggle something of value out of a country only works if people in the new country are willing to pay a lot for it. Just showing up in a new country with stamps does not cause them to be more valuable there.

I do not think my gas station or grocery has the capability to accept precious metals or other stamps.

Collectibles certainly can be a store of value. Esp ones with a long history and track record. While the people in my crew collect useless digital tokens, the stampdragons will be buying stamps.

Some of my stamps have survived several wars and will surely survive me too... They will surely continue forward in time becoming part of new collections, they will live through better and worse times in terms of their value, of which even in hours low will be kept to a minimum.
The stamp is a relevant object in the history of human communication and that value will always be on the rise.
For me, the issuance of stamps peaked in 2001 with the Audrey Hepburn German stamp. Beyond the year 2000, the letter stamp no longer has any purpose, just as the ridiculously false perforations..

I don't care too much about the future of stamp collecting. I enjoy it and the governments are producing more than enough for collectors as well as usage.

I tend to collect modern, low cost stuff - mostly. The most I have ever spent on a single stamp was $40 bucks. Why? I have other collecting interests as well as expenses AND I love the variety of design of modern stamps. The only thing I do miss is the disappearance in most countries of engraved stamps. The USPS once in awhile issues a stamp with partial intaglio on an otherwise offset lithography stamp. Great Britain uses Gravure once in awhile and Russia seems to produce some engraved defins but otherwise very little options other than lithographic printing.

Anyway, for those who are seeking stamps with potential for attaining a premium, the stock of MNH seems to be greater than used for commemorative and some defins in the US. Although from individual collectors I hear recognition of this and desire to receive used definitives and some commemoratives, the dealers say that although this seems to be a case the market for such stamps is not strong. But that may change as from my study of numismatics there have several coin issues that were derided when plentiful and now are sought after (one example is the silver 20 cent coins of the 19th century).

"i don't care too much about the future of stamp collecting "---Really !

"I tend to collect modern low cost stuff " --- Collect what you want .

I grew up around the giants of philatelity , the experts who taught the experts ,these are the best and greatest of the hobby .I want to continue in their steps .

I care about the future of stamp collecting ,I want to cut my own path and see how far a person can go down that path. I been a worldwide stamp collector and a buyer of stamps for 65 years and figure I got 20 more years to get a decent worldwide collection together .

The future looks bright to me and excited to see how the future developes .

The future of stamp collecting is the present. Right now the World's great stamp collectors are passing their collections on to the next generation. Early bird gets the worm.

About 20 years ago there seemed to be a great influx of material, from the non-descript to the high end, come in to the market, mostly thanks to eBay. I think a generational change of ownership took place then, and some of that material won't resurface for another 20 to 30 years, maybe longer.

The present is perhaps a little quiet, but stamp collecting's future is assured. It just won't be centred so strongly within the G7 nations.

If everyone else stopped collecting stamps, I could afford to fill those holes in my collection....