
The Shrinking World of the Stamp Collector (2012) - sidko
http://themidtowngazette.com/2012/11/the-shrinking-world-of-the-stamp-collector/
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DanAndersen
A question for anyone who does collecting of stamps/coins/baseball cards,
etc.: How do you deal with / feel about the trend of the creators of the
collected items making things specifically to be collected?

A while back I picked up a few cheap pre-WW1 German coins -- fun to have a bit
of history for not that much money. I haven't pursued coin collecting because
I could imagine going down a rabbit hole of spending way too much money on it.
But when I see, say, the US Mint releasing special commemorative coins
specifically for collectors, my whole interest in the field dries up. It takes
a hobby that, in my opinion, would be about discovery and the individual
search for something and turns it into merely another consumer product to
consume. Same with so many stamps nowadays, being designed and released
specifically for collectors to gobble up. And then there's baseball cards and
Magic cards and "colllector's editions" of video game boxes that are all
designed as these mass-market products that satisfy the collecting urge in a
cynical way.

If I did end up really getting into collecting, I'd think it would be more
enjoyable to collect interesting rocks found during travel, or historical
items like coins/stamps that were all made before the trend of marketing to
collectors.

~~~
Infernal
I am not a collector myself, but my grandfather was a "stamp collector". I
heard all through my childhood about the stamps he had collected since the
1950's, how big and presumably valuable his collection was. He passed almost
20 years ago, and when we finally went through his (admittedly large)
collection about 5 years ago, we discovered that everything he collected was
the type of stamp you describe - made to be "collectible", not actually
particularly interesting or rare. Essentially worthless in terms of monetary
value.

However, he enjoyed his lifelong hobby, so, who can say?

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Scoundreller
The funny thing is that I buy unused stamps off EBay. Some recent deals I got
were for about 43 cents on the dollar. But usually they go for 50-60% of face.

Been doing this for the last 15 years with no real change in pricing (which
really means a loss every year).

Mostly 30-50 cent stamps (this is Canada). But ranging from 8c to $2.5

I use the smaller ones on regular envelopes. Usually I have some $1 or $2
stamps to make up any balance on packages (or just buy it from the post
office).

It’s quite a bit of extra profit when I sell stuff.

Though my packages probably look a little... Unabombery.

I’m sure the receivers get a little laugh when their package arrives covered
in stamps.

~~~
anonymous5133
haha, I do the exact same thing but only for buying first class stamps.

~~~
Symbiote
In the UK, this is generally fraudulent – the stamps aren't really unused,
they just weren't franked properly, or had the ink removed somehow.

~~~
Scoundreller
Those are available, but the ones I buy are still lick and stick. Sometimes
still with the commemorative stuff around the perforations.

~~~
abrugsch
I think this is where the confusion comes from. lick and stick haven't been
generally available to regular buyers for some years now (i.e. go to a store
that sells stamps and you get a book of 6 or 12) and the available ones are
generally self adhesive. Great fun when my toddler finds a fresh book of
"stickers" to stick all over the house... The situation is different with
sheets of stamps that the post office has but most of the time they just print
a generic postage label with the exact denomination required so it's rare to
get issued as a punter a lick and stick. as a result any "unused" UK stamps on
ebay are ones that have been successfully lifted from unfranked letters (yes
it's possible, despite the tear-holes cut into them)

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radosc
It's an excellent time to collect super rare stamps. Common stamps declined in
value and a lot of abandoned collections are sold for next to nothing so it's
easier than ever to look for some hidden gems. In 10-20 years, when all the
random collections disappear it'll be a super specialized market with high
prices again based on scarcity. Some years ago when I was into cars, I could
buy any beaten up BMWs for less than €1000 including E24 6-series or E9.
Sometimes I'd find a gem in super an excellent condition, and it still
followed price trend with an abundance of similar cars for sale. Now with all
these cars junked to buy a parts E24 you need to have upwards of €7000.

~~~
UweSchmidt
Not sure about that: When the next generation doesn't know what a stamp is,
and the fascination, getting a message from someone, getting glimpse into the
world, has no basis, who will 'collect'?

I think it's similar to collecting old guitars; people in their financial
prime buy a connection to the music and bands of the 60ies and 70ies; their
children may have grown up with electronic music and can't relate.

Cars might be relatable, since you can still drive around with it, but the
current fashion of having 'vintage' things may be over in 10 years.

~~~
pjc50
More like vinyl collections: it becomes valuable only after it goes through a
period of being untrendy enough that a lot of the stock gets thrown away.

~~~
UweSchmidt
...before it finally fizzles out, along with the Hipsters that brought it back
in the first place!?

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neilv
A light HN story... Stamp collecting (or was it the Kool-Aid stand) might've
been my first "startup", in early grade school. I casually collected stamps
myself, and would get duplicates of interesting-looking ones. So I turned my
duplicates into stamp collecting starter kits and supplements, packaged in
glassine envelopes with handwritten labels and prices, packed them into my
little kid's blue suitcase (traveling salesman's case), and brought them to
school, to sell to other kids. I don't recall whether I got any sales.

Another stamps-related early sign of disturbing startup inclinations was when,
in early grade school, the class would occasionally be put to work, for a
fund-raiser, trimming out stamps from boxes of envelopes. I suppose the
trimmed parts were going to a company, to soak off, press, and sell. Well, I
don't know how I'd even heard this was a thing, but I also trimmed out the
addresses from the envelopes, then presented a pile of them to one of the
mothers helping out in class, saying we could use them to assemble and sell a
mailing list. I might only recall that because one of the mothers told my mom,
probably in a "you'll never guess what your child said this time" way, and I
guess it was a mix of funny and embarrassing to my mom.

(After that, there were several non-stamp-related, more-credible childhood
"startups", until I lucked into a hardcore software engineering job. They used
to say that stamp collecting was a great way to get children started learning
history, but it got me started learning business.)

~~~
RickJWagner
Great story.

Do you think you'll give up programming for a more sales-oriented gig one day?

~~~
neilv
Thanks. I'm absolutely not a salesperson, nor any kind of CEO material. After
I outgrew my childhood innocence sales boldness, I'm clearly better-suited to
be a startup technical co-founder/contributor (maybe also providing a bit of
not-totally-naive business sounding board to the startup CEO), developer,
researcher, and maybe also startup dev leading.

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xref
Same deal with baseball cards (and all sports cards), they had enormous print
runs but then the collectors went away so now everybody who wants a Don
Mattingly rookie card already has 7.

After finding them completely unsaleable I ended up giving my collection to a
family friend who still just enjoys the cards.

~~~
anonymous5133
hahaha, this is so funny because I was cleaning out my closet and noticed the
same thing. Even though the cards were 20-30 years old...they were basically
worthless. I live in a high cost of living area so to me there is no point
keeping them around taking up space. I must've tossed well over 10,000 cards
into the trash.

Moral of the story: teach your kids how to invest in the stock market instead
of them "investing" their money into collectibles. Teach your kids the value
of investing early and encourage them to do it. They can still buy collectible
toys but make sure to remind them that they won't be worth much in the future
and to encourage them to buy stocks if they want to invest their money for the
future.

~~~
bluGill
Invest in a collection because you like the collection. If you love baseball
cards, the fact that a few years ago you paid $100 for a card that you could
get for $1 today doesn't matter because you had that card to enjoy for those
few years. Note that love is different from fad. If you just buy the card
because everybody else is, with no enjoyment, then it is a loss.

My life is better for having a few collectibles around now. I could have
instead invested the money spent, and it would have already doubled, and it
would double a few more times before I die - since I don't enjoy collecting
money in my bank account it would be a waste.

Don't get me wrong: I to enjoy financial security. I can't retire today (well
I could, but I couldn't afford to live the life I want), but the money I'm
setting aside for retirement is planned to be used to enjoy life when I
retire.

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classichasclass
I've got a decent coin collection going, and a few legitimately noteworthy
pieces like ancient coinage and what I call my conflict diamonds (South
Vietnam, Japanese occupation currency, Somali coins, etc.), but I think it's
ending up a lot like stamps. Except for the very high end museum quality
collections, little of most personal collections is worth very much (except in
currency its face or bullion value), and I do it purely for the historicity of
the artifacts.

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GuiA
Vinyls, film cameras, typewriters, camper vans, and other objects which have
been superseded by the ever turning wheels of progress have known notable
regains of interest lately.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Urban Outfitters started selling vintage stamp
collections.

~~~
fvrghl
The difference between all those and stamps is that the former offers an
experience. UO sells a lifestyle, and objects like stamps don't convey a
particularly exciting narrative within that.

~~~
usrusr
Not only that they provide an experience, they are also subject to wear and
tear while doing so. The supply in historic stamps is a lot more stable than
the supply in historic mechanical things that some may actually want to use.

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reaperducer
A couple of months ago I was cleaning out a closet and I found my old stamp
collection from when I was a kid. It was fun to look through and see so many
stamps from nations that no longer exist.

I looked on some auction sites, and it seems like you can buy the collections
of the recently deceased at pretty cheap prices. I don't know if they're worth
the money, but if you're just collecting for fun, and not for profit, it seems
like a good way to beef up your collection.

~~~
gbhn
A local coin/stamp person was completely uninterested in my old stamps from
like 35 years ago. I think the shrinking number of collectors is outstripping
the number of collections getting thrown out, and the whole idea of collecting
stamps is just fading away.

~~~
anonymous5133
Yup it is exactly that. The big problem, in contrast with precious metals, is
that stamps have basically no intrinsic value. They're just pieces of paper.
At least with precious metals, the coins can be melted down to create high
technology.

~~~
turtlecloud
Cryptocurrency will take its place :) Millennials will flock to alt coins just
as the old people went into stamps

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lithiumhead
This story is 6.5 years old. Wonder how that store is doing now

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anonymous5133
Still in business apparently. They seem to sell themselves as NYC's only stamp
store. Based on the yelp reviews...it appears their biggest customers are
women looking to buy vintage stamps for wedding invitations lol

[https://www.yelp.com/biz/champion-stamp-co-new-
york](https://www.yelp.com/biz/champion-stamp-co-new-york)

