But when it comes to the demographics of this noble, if a tad fusty, hobby, a scarcity of younger enthusiasts – those yet to be targeted by the AARP – is cause enough to get dealers and collectors to look up from their magnifying glasses and take notice.
"Look around," said Jim Leer, 68, of Oroville, waving an arm around the room of balding gray pates bowed over bins at the Sacramento Stamp Fair on Saturday morning at the Knights of Columbus Hall. "Where are the young kids? Show me one. Wait, there's one – Gary. He's been a dealer for 25 years. That qualifies as the new guy around here."
Kidding aside, one might think that stamp collecting is in danger of being canceled out and shipped to the dead-letter office of popular hobbies. These days, young people are more apt to collect e-mails – or texts and tweets – than something so quaintly 20th century as stamps. Gee, Gramps, you mean people actually licked the backs of these things, stuck 'em on envelopes, put them in a box, and it took days to arrive someplace else?
Philatelist A. Keith Kaufman, 55, whose booth featured stamps from the British Colonial period selling for hundreds of dollars, says the future of stamp collecting is in Europe and Asia. The United States, he says, is not fostering the tradition. He blames the advent of electronic communication. He laments that kids just aren't exposed to the aesthetic pleasure of a finely designed stamp.
"There too many other distractions, like video games," says Kaufman, who lives in Southern California. "I don't see the end of the line for stamp collecting. But we have very little outreach to younger people, particularly on the West Coast.
"I gave a couple of talks a few years ago to my daughter's classes in Los Angeles, and the kids get really excited. They learn about history and geography. To this day, there are about 10 kids who still collect stamps. It's all about exposure."
Those hoping that stamp collecting might be subject to a retro revival among hip 20-somethings – à la knitting – admit it's a long shot.
But longtime dealer Bill Hontos, of the Oceanview Stamp Co. in Huntington Beach, says that once the younger generation ages, they might better appreciate the quiet satisfaction that comes from finding a precious stamp from long ago and far away.
"I've been doing this 25 years, and it's always been that way," Hontos said. "They might pick it up as kids, have a little beginning collection, then put it away for a while because they've discovered girls or have to work. Then, as they get older, they have more leisure time, and they'll pick up (the hobby) again."
Hontos says nearly all of his dealings with younger (under 50) collectors come via e-mail and Internet queries – "I guess there's a little irony in that," he says, ruefully – but the rarer stamps have drawn interest from young and old alike strictly as investment options.
"People like having their money invested in something like this, especially with currency discrepancies," he said. "There (are fewer) sales at the shows like this, but more on the Internet, especially overseas."
Despite their aging ranks, sales among stamp collectors have risen 89.7 percent since 2000, according to Stanley Gibbons, the world's top stamp dealership, based in London.
Prices of the rarest stamps, Stanley Gibbons reports, have risen 38 percent since 2008.
That could be one reason why dealers such as Leer are able to joke about the graying of stamp enthusiasts.
"The business is alive and kicking, even though the average age of the collector is 72," Leer said. "Listen, a collector who comes to these fairs is willing to spend about $1,000 (on stamps). You really think young people today have got that to spend?"
Indeed, 71-year-old hobbyist Don Parker of Folsom said he was happy not to have to elbow around youngsters with baggy pants and music leaking out of their headphones in order to find stamps issued by Pakistan shortly after it was partitioned from India in 1947.
"It's fascinating," Parker said. "Pakistan didn't have time to issue its own stamps, so it just printed the word 'Pakistan' over India's stamps. That's what I'm looking for."
Parker ended up not finding anything worth buying. But that's OK. Stamps are only one of his retro passions. He also collects typewriters.
Source: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/09/3310375/sacramentos-aging-stamp-collectors.html
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