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.
However, he enjoyed his lifelong hobby, so, who can say?
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.
Reminds me of a parcel I got from Japan (in the UK). The front was about A4-sized, and entirely covered in stamps (with a small gap for the address).
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.
Following this trend, Model As and Ts have gone way down, as the dreamers are now past the age or dead.
57 Chevys are on the downside, too. Too old.
90s Japanese sports cars are on the upswing now.
But stamps? I don't see it recovering. It was popular in the 70s/80s, like Professional Bowling. Both are still with us, but not the same as they were.
In Canada, I think it’s 17 years of age, then you can bring in your right hand drive car more easily than container of potatoes.
Personally, I don’t know why each country has its own safety standards when every industrialized country has a similar enough mix of speed limits and urban/suburban/rural environments.
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.)
Do you think you'll give up programming for a more sales-oriented gig one day?
After finding them completely unsaleable I ended up giving my collection to a family friend who still just enjoys the cards.
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.
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.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Urban Outfitters started selling vintage stamp collections.
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.
