Stamp Collecting in the 21st Century

What will stamp collecting be like in the 21st century?

There is a lesson to be learned from the recent arrival of the new U.S. quarter dollars in circulation. For the first time in some generations, people are actually looking at their money. Change is no longer boring. The suspicion that a Canadian quarter has appeared in your change yields to the discovery of a Delaware or Connecticut quarter. It's unusual and worth saving. Now, everyday pocket change promises new discoveries. Save one, and another, and someday you'll have a collection of all fifty.

In one fell swoop the U.S. Mint has done more to revive and to sustain coin collecting, and to create new --- though only casual --- coin collectors than anyone in decades. Note that the U.S. Mint has done this without fancy products targeted at collectors willing to pay premium prices. They've done it with ordinary, everyday quarters. From casual collectors come more serious collectors and an interest in coins than can't be found in circulation.

It's tempting to look for a parallel for stamp collecting. Some say that there will always be stamp collectors. The questions are how many will there be, where will they come from and what will attract them? There will be stamp collectors as long as there are people who use postage stamps and have everyday postage stamps they can use. And one more thing: there will be stamp collectors as long as people receive everyday mail with postage stamps that, like different quarter dollars, are different and attract attention.

Therein lies the rub. Just as the U.S. Mint makes the coins we get, the U.S. Postal Service determines the stamps we see and use. The U.S. Postal Service and postal operators elsewhere in the world will shape what stamp collecting will be in the 21st century. They can revive and sustain stamp collecting, and create new --- though mainly casual --- stamp collectors in significant numbers, but only if they rethink what stamps they provide --- and where.

First off, who in the 21st century will be using postage stamps? Fax, eMail and almost free telecommunications have redefined how we communicate, have impacted mail volumes significantly, and will continue to do so. Today, businesses originate 90 to 95% of mail volume --- that's more than ever. Households overall spend 30% less on postage today than 15 years ago, even though stamps cost 60% more. Households accounted for 19% of postal revenues in 1987, only 10.6% in 1994, and probably about 5% today --- even though there are more households. Households need and buy fewer stamps than ever.

Most of today's stamps are really little more than "hot house"plants. There are too many stamps that are really never intended to be used. It's absolutely essential to get an ever-changing variety of stamps into the hands of people who use and receive stamps --- if they are to become interested in them. Stamp collecting in the 21st century needs stamps that are meant to be, and in fact are, used. Otherwise, stamps run the risk of being relegated to the dustbin of antiquity.

Yes, individuals and smaller businesses still use stamps. It's a pretty simple way of paying for the hard-copy delivery that we'll need until we reach the "beam me up, Scotty" era. There some very nice stamps for home and office use, and there are some very ugly ones, but many of the best stamps are issued in fancy and sometimes inconvenient formats which cry out "don't use me" --- if they are generally available at all. After all, your local Safeway is a more convenient place to get stamps than your post office, but it isn't into big selections. It features the same stamps month after month.

In contrast, the volume of advertising mail arriving at households has doubled in the past 15 years or so. Much of it uses stamps, because stamps give a response "lift." These stamps, though, have a sameness and blandness that makes them boring and unattractive. Imagine the lift stamps could give "junk mail" if they displayed a real and ever-changing variety, just as there is now suddenly in our circulating coins. Imagine if every day "junk mail" brought a surprising new stamp. It could be done very easily. Instead of billions of regular-size single-design "Standard Mail" stamps produced year-round, the Postal Service could change the design every few weeks and move up to commemorative size. In three years you could go through all the Presidents and in four all the state seals. They'd be something to collect and save, something to look forward to finding.

The joy of collecting stamps --- as in collecting anything --- is the thrill of the hunt and the excitement of discovery. That's the lesson that the new U.S. quarter dollars teaches us. That's the sense of adventure postal operators around the world need to restore to stamp collecting. If they do, stamp collecting will be reinvigorated in the 21st century and some casual collectors will also become more serious collectors with an interest in stamps that can't be found "in circulation."

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Last Updated: August 7, 2008 11:39.31 MT | Copyright © Unicover Corporation 1997-2008. All Rights Reserved.