The state of Stamp Collecting and the Stamp Market

Much talk and discussion is made of "the future of stamp collecting," and many who have been in the hobby for decades are concerned about an overall decline, as older generations of collectors pass on and fewer youngsters take up the hobby.

When I look around, it's definitely true that there seems to be more and more stamps for sale, and fewer buyers.

That SAID... there doesn't seem to be a "uniform" effect on the stamp market. There's lots and lots of material for sale... but it's more often the "junky stuff" that gets low prices while the market for "extra fine" is not only quite robust, but very little top quality material is even offered for sale.

Within the past few weeks, my auctions on Greedbay (yes, I still trade there, sorry folks!) included a couple of really choice quality stamps... that ended up selling for multiples of catalogue value, more than I can ever recall seeing. Meanwhile, their "good-to-fine" counterparts sold for under 10% of CV, much LESS than they would have, even 10 years ago.

I don't know what (if anything) that tells us about the state of the hobby, or the stamp market... what do you think?

Cheers,
Peter