Stamp Collecting... the hobby of Presidents

[Ray Eklund]

I tossed about my fetish about my Geology and Paleontology fascination with books about those subjects I enjoy earlier.

Stamp collecting. A great hobby to keep one's mind off of the trouble's of the day. You really learn a lot of history collecting stamps, but also one stamp can have a number of variations, so the hunt took you to others that share these fascinating pieces of paper.

Well... do we have bad news to share. Our children and grand children use hand held devices to communicate among one another. Sitting across the table, or across the Continent.

Stamps of the USA at this moment are selling MINT and by the unused sheet for as low as 65% of Face Value. No body is collecting 99% of the postage stamps we found fascinating as kids. I loved the 1964 Mercury 4 cent stamp. I have the First Day Covers, I have the Plate Blocks... I have Sheets of them. Today... the stamp dealers will give very little for what was a precious commodity when a nickel bought a 1/4 pound Baby Ruth candy bar, to the delight of dentists, everywhere.

What to do. What to do? Like Books, the culture is changing away from Model A's, 1940's sedans and 1950's classic cars. Now a car I would not be seen owning from the 1970's is on the want list of every adult, who was a child at the time this car was made. Even this market is in a big flux.

But stamps. A sheet of 50 four cent 1949 California commemoratives costing $2.00 at the Post Office, kept for 68 years, now can be bought for less than face value. Even using them as postage would take all the licking you could produce, quick enough. The weight alone would make a letter put you in a heavier rate.

Oh... but I will play with my books and stamps until... well until I get tired of them and readjust my expectations. If you are wanting to collect stamps... today is the time you have been waiting to happen. Hang onto the coins... but you are going to take a serious beating on your stamp collection.

If the collection is a rag tag gathering of stamps... we do not even want to ruin any sense of value you may have had in mind. Make the best of our 'Senior Interests' as we are a dying breed of true accumulators of what people consider... junk today.

[drew05]

Ray,

I share your pain. I have a collection that I started with my dad over 45 years ago. I went from an avid collector to an accumulator at best. Life happened... I believe that in addition to the new activities you described, the quality and themes, especially in the US has led to lower interest in collecting stamps.

I have an idea of the overall value, and do have some nice specimens, the value for me lies in the memories of the time I spent with my dad early on. My wife understands about the sentimental value, but wonders why monetary value isn't there. While I couldn't get my kids interested in the hobby, maybe the grand kids will...

[uncle_bob]

Hi

An interesting aside to this are coins with "silver value". There are large categories of coins that are worth more melted down for their silver content compared to their "collector value". Only time will tell what ultimately comes from all of this.

Bob

[PKI]

My parents were able to pay off some bills with the money mom made when she was able to work the first day issues. Thanks for buying. Pat

[centennialman]

I still have my stamp collection that I started, with my Mom, when I was a child. I can remember long hours getting lost in the beauty of them and learning about far away places. I would buy bags of stamps from brokerage houses. The advertisements were in the back of magazines. The days would come when the bag of stamps would arrive and we would sit down and sort them all out, hoping for the elusive one from the Maldive Islands or maybe one with a picture of the Queen of England. As time went on, relatives became involved in saving stamps to give to me. Now that I am an old fart, I reminisce about getting out the collection and disappearing into it again

[HowieE]

My father's collection started back in the 30s. He died in 1994 and I am still using the post war sheets as general postage.

He had a code that he marked most of his purchases with. The collectable items I am selling now are getting less than 1/3 of what he paid for them.

Two thing caused this drastic drop in value. Collecting lost favor with the general public and E Bay cause a flood on the market thus dropping prices. One used to seek out dealers that might have a coin or stamp you needed to fill a gap. You might be willing to pay the asking price. Now you can look on E Bay and find over a 100 of that particular coin or stamp competing for your money.

There is one exception within his collection. Stampless covers, mail before 1847, commands good pricing if the content, signer, postage mark, or addressee has historical value.

Just think in 20 years you will be able to buy those expensive handheld devices for pennies or maybe some old stamps.

[DMP54]

My great-aunt worked for the post office starting in the '50's for her entire career, and used to send my sisters and I the first day covers when they were issued. I still have those. Even today, I love commemoratives, but sometimes get crazy looks at the post office when I ask about them

Has there been an Airstream stamp??

[Ray Eklund]

Originally Posted by DMP54

My great-aunt worked for the post office starting in the '50's for her entire career, and used to send my sisters and I the first day covers when they were issued. I still have those. Even today, I love commemoratives, but sometimes get crazy looks at the post office when I ask about them

Has there been an Airstream stamp??

******
Google 'trailer postage stamp'.

I even find a "Trailer Permit" $1- National Park Service - United States Department of the Interior... stamp (1939... some for sale for $195)

No Airstream to be found? You can contact the U.S. Postal Service and request that they consider an Airstream Forever postage stamp. Since Airstream is still in business, not likely... but go for it.

[DMP54]

Originally Posted by Ray Eklund

******
Google 'trailer postage stamp'.

I even find a "Trailer Permit" $1- National Park Service - United States Department of the Interior... stamp (1939... some for sale for $195)

No Airstream to be found? You can contact the U.S. Postal Service and request that they consider an Airstream Forever postage stamp. Since Airstream is still in business, not likely... but go for it.

I'm on it!

[Ray Eklund]

It appears that some company takes various trailers and makes valid postage stamps of your choosing. A 27 foot Airstream may need... two... stamps. Those trailers they used seem to be 16 foot and shorter... much shorter.

Zazzle... 49 cent, but obviously the Forever Stamp is a better choice. There are people who made a fortune 5 cents per sale... and I suspect this company makes a couple cents each with the prospect of selling millions with dogs, trailers and cats.

A 34 foot... now you are talking postage!

[Xymox]

What an interesting thread! I've never known that collecting stamps was also a popular hobby for Presidents but that sounds really interesting. In my case I had this hobby too during my child years, I had a really nice collection as for this age... It lasted till my teenage years, then I lost my interest in stamps and gave my collection like a gift to one of my friends We don't see each other anymore but I suppose that he still keeps this collection and maybe even continues to add here new stamps
At the current time I collect only favourite music CDs and books but without my old chldish obsession in all these things