Some Food For Thought On Collecting Stamps




Where is philately headed? Are postal administrations going to kill off the postage stamp as being too expensive to produce? Will the value of collectible stamps go through the roof because of this? Will philately itself become extinct? Where will philately be in 50 years?




Our thoughts are that stamp collecting will be around for a long time, even if stamps are no longer produced sometime in the future.




1. Adhesive postage stamps have existed for almost 170 years - since 1840. Millions of collectible stamps from the 1800s still exist, and many stamp collectors still avidly desire stamps that were produced 100 or more years ago. We believe that will still be the case even if countries stop printing new stamps in the future.



2. If new stamps are no longer produced, this may well make existing postage stamps even more desirable than they are now. If that occurs, the values of collectible stamps will rise as a function of supply and demand.



The main problem for stamp collectors going forward is that nowadays, stamps rarely turn up on letters and parcels any more, as post offices prefer to stick cheaper, computer-generated labels on them when the people mailing them bring them in to the post office to be franked and mailed. And in many cases, when stamps are used, they are the same definitives over and over again. Commemorative stamps are just as attractive as they ever have been, but hardly anyone uses them. Another problem for collectors are the peel-and-stick self-adhesive stamps. Some are almost impossible to soak off paper, while the better ones are merely difficult.



Does anyone have an opinion on this situation?