Where did all the collectors go?

Hey all:

There was an article in the November 24th issue of Linn's - not really
an article, rather a disclosure, giving their subscription statistics.
All publications are required by law (here in the US) to publish this
information once yearly. Many newspapers publish it in every issue -
but, I digress.

The information given states that Linn's has a subscription total of
52,574. this comes out to one collector per 6032 individuals
(assuming a total population of about 280 million in the US). I'm
sure that some of these are 'international subscriptions' so the total
would be even more meagre.

I've not done a 'headcount', but I've a feeling that there are more
dealers in the U.S. than there are subscribers to Linn's.

Ok, there may be some collectors who do not subscribe to Linn's (or
any of the other publications) - but how many out there are able to
add to their collections without having some trade magazine at hand?
A few (very few) may be blessed with several dealers in their locale.
This discounts those of us in places like Dog Trot, Texas or
Chilblains, Montana. I'm not discounting the power of the net - most,
well many, dealers do have a web presence. I wonder how many
collectors depend solely upon that venue to add to their collections.

I believe the subject of dimishing collectors has been broached here
previously so I may be trodding a well worn path. My thoughts are
that considering the (probably) negative growth of the hobby, then how
can the value (per dealers and the various catalogs) of stamps keep
expanding to obscene levels? I don't beleive all the good stamps are
being snapped up by those "Nigerian Interests"!

Or, perhaps, maybe, just could be - I missed something very obvious.
If so, I'd sure as heck appreciate someone filling me in on this
'unknown' (to me anyway) factor so that I could better understand it.

Handshakes,


Dakota

The philateliphant graveyard (near Nigeria, i think). legend has it that
it is knee deep in tweezers.

tl

it's more like "one SUBSCRIBER per 6032 individuals", not one collector. I
have only subscribed (off and on) to Linn's for the last ten years, but I've
been collecting since the early 60's. I don't really need Linn's, but it is
interesting. I originally subscribed to Stamps, but dropped it in the 80's.
I've been an APS member off and on, and was both an AFDCS and ATA member for
about 2 years.

Societies, stamp shows, local stamp clubs, eBay, internet search engines...
just to name a few alternative sources of information and material. Also,
once you have some dealers and some foreign exchange friends in a "network",
there's no need to look for others.

We're still out here, and we're still active!


Ron

"Dakota" wrote in message
om...
Hey all:

There was an article in the November 24th issue of Linn's - not really
an article, rather a disclosure, giving their subscription statistics.
All publications are required by law (here in the US) to publish this
information once yearly. Many newspapers publish it in every issue -
but, I digress.

The information given states that Linn's has a subscription total of
52,574. this comes out to one collector per 6032 individuals
(assuming a total population of about 280 million in the US). I'm
sure that some of these are 'international subscriptions' so the total
would be even more meagre.

I've not done a 'headcount', but I've a feeling that there are more
dealers in the U.S. than there are subscribers to Linn's.

Ok, there may be some collectors who do not subscribe to Linn's (or
any of the other publications) - but how many out there are able to
add to their collections without having some trade magazine at hand?
A few (very few) may be blessed with several dealers in their locale.
This discounts those of us in places like Dog Trot, Texas or
Chilblains, Montana. I'm not discounting the power of the net - most,
well many, dealers do have a web presence. I wonder how many
collectors depend solely upon that venue to add to their collections.

I believe the subject of dimishing collectors has been broached here
previously so I may be trodding a well worn path. My thoughts are
that considering the (probably) negative growth of the hobby, then how
can the value (per dealers and the various catalogs) of stamps keep
expanding to obscene levels? I don't beleive all the good stamps are
being snapped up by those "Nigerian Interests"!

Or, perhaps, maybe, just could be - I missed something very obvious.
If so, I'd sure as heck appreciate someone filling me in on this
'unknown' (to me anyway) factor so that I could better understand it.

Handshakes,


Dakota

From: "ron walenciak"
Reply-To: "ron walenciak"
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 04:33:07 GMT
Subject: Where did all the collectors go?

Societies, stamp shows, local stamp clubs, eBay, internet search engines...
just to name a few alternative sources of information and material. Also,
once you have some dealers and some foreign exchange friends in a "network",
there's no need to look for others.

I'm with Ron on this one. We are long past the time when periodicals were
the hobbyist's only lifeline. Subscriptions to philatelic publications like
Linn's may well represent collectors who aren't on-line. And, of course, a
good number of those subscriptions would represent libraries; who knows how
many collectors read Linn's and other philatelic publications in public
libraries? I used to do that on a regular basis, at a time when "web page"
conjured images of nature magazine articles about spiders.

For me, when I was a kid, Boy's Life magazine and its page(s) of approval
ads was my "stamp magazine". I am fortunate to live in a city (Vancouver)
with several stamp shops and stamp clubs, but I find half or more of the
stamps and covers I buy come via sources I've found on the internet, and
probably 90% of the philatelic information I'm looking for (and get) comes
from the internet.

Bob Ingraham

To directly answer the question asked in the Subject line: the existing ones
are slowly but surely passing by, and the influx (of young and old) is
smaller than the loss.

The Swiss philatelic association has recently raised the fees paid by its
members, in order to finance its own journal, SBZ (or, like they said, to
maintain and even improve its quality). SBZ is distributed to each of its
members.

The reason for raising fees is, obviously, the reduction of the number of
stamp collectors. The method is, of course, controversial...

Victor Manta

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"Dakota" wrote in message
om...
Hey all:

There was an article in the November 24th issue of Linn's - not really
an article, rather a disclosure, giving their subscription statistics.
All publications are required by law (here in the US) to publish this
information once yearly. Many newspapers publish it in every issue -
but, I digress.

The information given states that Linn's has a subscription total of
52,574. this comes out to one collector per 6032 individuals
(assuming a total population of about 280 million in the US). I'm
sure that some of these are 'international subscriptions' so the total
would be even more meagre.

I've not done a 'headcount', but I've a feeling that there are more
dealers in the U.S. than there are subscribers to Linn's.

Ok, there may be some collectors who do not subscribe to Linn's (or
any of the other publications) - but how many out there are able to
add to their collections without having some trade magazine at hand?
A few (very few) may be blessed with several dealers in their locale.
This discounts those of us in places like Dog Trot, Texas or
Chilblains, Montana. I'm not discounting the power of the net - most,
well many, dealers do have a web presence. I wonder how many
collectors depend solely upon that venue to add to their collections.

I believe the subject of dimishing collectors has been broached here
previously so I may be trodding a well worn path. My thoughts are
that considering the (probably) negative growth of the hobby, then how
can the value (per dealers and the various catalogs) of stamps keep
expanding to obscene levels? I don't beleive all the good stamps are
being snapped up by those "Nigerian Interests"!

Or, perhaps, maybe, just could be - I missed something very obvious.
If so, I'd sure as heck appreciate someone filling me in on this
'unknown' (to me anyway) factor so that I could better understand it.

Handshakes,


Dakota

| The philateliphant graveyard (near Nigeria, i think). legend has it that
| it is knee deep in tweezers.


..........Sounds very much like my good wife's makeup bag.

(Don't use one myself, I'm pretty as I am)
........hang on! is that a hair growing out of my ear?

dear Victor,

the philatelic magazines may serve different purposes. Some rather
ephemeral like publishing society meetings, obituaries, etc; advertising;
new world issues; and so on...

But avery important role of the magazines is their content as it goes for
articles that reflect research being done - rather more in-depth stuff that
won't reach anybody and won't get preserved for future generations.

I'm writing a monthly column in a Dutch magazine and I realize that the way
I'm describing new Dutch stamps [and Begian as well] will be more or less the
only manner in which the history of modern stamps will be documented as now
all Postal Authorities like to forget to write their history, dont' think it's
even necessary and throw away everything what's more than a year old.
The Belgian Postal authorities had to base their new policy on the parcel post
upon the article I wrote in June 2003 aobut their 'Kilopost'.

I think it's vital that the contemporary history of the stamp is written down
and published in a magazine that has a thorough base and can be re-read in a few
years time. There is no guarantee that web-based publications will last for more than
a few years.. On paper publications may survive us all.

gtx, Rein


On 20 Nov 2003 08:56:59 , "Victor Manta" wrote:
To directly answer the question asked in the Subject line: the existing ones
are slowly but surely passing by, and the influx (of young and old) is
smaller than the loss.

The Swiss philatelic association has recently raised the fees paid by its
members, in order to finance its own journal, SBZ (or, like they said, to
maintain and even improve its quality). SBZ is distributed to each of its
members.

The reason for raising fees is, obviously, the reduction of the number of
stamp collectors. The method is, of course, controversial...

Victor Manta

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 08:56:59 +0100, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

To directly answer the question asked in the Subject line: the existing ones
are slowly but surely passing by, and the influx (of young and old) is
smaller than the loss.

And you know this how? Do tell!

The Swiss philatelic association has recently raised the fees paid by its
members, in order to finance its own journal, SBZ (or, like they said, to
maintain and even improve its quality). SBZ is distributed to each of its
members.

The reason for raising fees is, obviously, the reduction of the number of
stamp collectors. The method is, of course, controversial...

In other circles, this is called planned obsolesence. :^)

Tracy Barber

On 20 Nov 2003 14:11:44 GMT, (Rein Bakhuizen van den
Brink) wrote:

dear Victor,

the philatelic magazines may serve different purposes. Some rather
ephemeral like publishing society meetings, obituaries, etc; advertising;
new world issues; and so on...

But avery important role of the magazines is their content as it goes for
articles that reflect research being done - rather more in-depth stuff that
won't reach anybody and won't get preserved for future generations.

I'm writing a monthly column in a Dutch magazine and I realize that the way
I'm describing new Dutch stamps [and Begian as well] will be more or less the
only manner in which the history of modern stamps will be documented as now
all Postal Authorities like to forget to write their history, dont' think it's
even necessary and throw away everything what's more than a year old.
The Belgian Postal authorities had to base their new policy on the parcel post
upon the article I wrote in June 2003 aobut their 'Kilopost'.

I think it's vital that the contemporary history of the stamp is written down
and published in a magazine that has a thorough base and can be re-read in a few
years time. There is no guarantee that web-based publications will last for more than
a few years.. On paper publications may survive us all.

There are plenty of specialty societies out there for many area of
stamp collecting. I am a lurking member of one and a webmaster of
another. The amount of detail documented is amazing and this is still
distributed via mail.

Someone, somewhere, though, will keep that information displayed on
web pages - somewhere. If the work is substantial, someone will web
snake it to their own PC - somehow.

I also know some people who have been avidly transferring old
handwritten / typed docs into digital formats for posterity, before
the paper rots away...

A local dealer friend has given me a huge pile of The German
Philatelic Society to keep. What a resource! I may join, after I
figure out what my collection looks like... :^)

Tracy Barber

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 20:00:11 +0800, "Rodney"
wrote:

| The philateliphant graveyard (near Nigeria, i think). legend has it that
| it is knee deep in tweezers.


.........Sounds very much like my good wife's makeup bag.

(Don't use one myself, I'm pretty as I am)
.......hang on! is that a hair growing out of my ear?

There are small devices that one can buy that will take the pain away
from cutting ear hairs with scissors or plucking with tweezers. :^)

$14.95! On TV! No COD!

Tracy Barber