Stamp Collecting in the Internet Age


A recent blogger suggested that with the advent of the Internet, email, texting and tweeting, stamp collecting is essentially dead, with the stamp collecting hobby holding little appeal for today's youth.

If this is true it's a shame, because boys and girls all around the world used to collect and trade stamps, some keeping their stamp collections into adulthood. Many young stamp collectors would set their collections aside when the responsibilities of adulthood came calling, but resurrected their interest once their children grew up and they had more leisure time to work with stamps again.

The implication of the blogger's post is that the Internet has "killed" stamp collecting. But is this really true? We believe that the Internet may have changed stamp collecting, but it certainly hasn't killed it off. Take a look at all the philatelic websites that are available nowadays. Check out the number of virtual stamp clubs on the Internet. And what about all the successful online stamp auctions and stamp shops? Sales of stamps are actually up, not down, and some stamps are fetching record prices.

So in the end, we think the stamp collecting hobby is re-inventing itself as a result of the Internet, email and all the other new-age electronic communication modes. It's not dying, not even a little bit.