We just showed my 85 year old Father in law this video who is an avid stamp collector and it totally made him so excited! Now he is showing us all the stamps in his books, especially the ones you had on the video!! Keeping doing these videos! You rock!
Your You Tube videos are a gift to the whole Philatelic community. I hope more collectors follow your great example and communicate their passion for the hobby. In the future people will point to these as a positive turning point for the hobby.
Wow, thank you very much for this positive comment Dwayne. I am glad that you like the videos and I hope that you are right, that other collectors will communicate their passion for the hobby. Thank you very much for watching :)
I accidentally stumbled upon your youtube channel yesterday (25th December) and found it extremely informative and very well presented. I shall continue to watch your channel regularly. I restarted my stamp collecting hobby after a gap of more than 35 years
Welcome aboard! This is an exciting time to be a philatelist, there are plenty of online resources and a wonderful community online, it such an enjoyable experience to be a part of 😊
So, I started watching your vids weeks before I got any stamps. I had a rather large coin collection, that I personally put together. As a 28 year old millennial, I've always been somewhat of a low-key nerd but your videos taught me so much and built up my interest so much that sold all 1300+ plus coins and got into stamps. Thank you so much! Please keep it up brother. Our generation needs this.
Hi Robert! That's really cool to hear, thank you for this comment :) It is exciting to hear of other millennials (not just me) looking for this kind of content and interested in what we can learn from the hobby. I will keep it up, and thank you very much for watching!!!
I agree that the stamp hobby is alive and well. There is a lot to look forward to. Also thanks for telling us about the first stamp catalog sounds like a great read.
Wonderful enthusiastic presentation! Very well done and produced! I was very fortunate to start my stamp business in the late 1970s, as described in this video, this was the height of the trade, in fact, I wish I would have started a few years earlier (early 1970's). As also indicated in this video there was a slow down in the 1990s and I felt it! I decided to sell my stamp business in 2000 which I did successfully. I continue part-time and I am now back in it full-time. I am so grateful to have made my passion my business. Yes, Chinese are collectors but they only collect stamps from their own country. What will happen with India and some Eastern European countries is to be seen! Have fun with stamps! Pierre Wertheimer
Thank you so much for posting this vedeo. I started becoming interested in stamps during my childhood, but that was the 70s. Today I am reallly excited about the hobby because it brings so many important aspects of life together. It is my conviction that mans greatest sin today is ingratitude. Stamps help me to understand the sacrifices that have been made that people tend to so easily forget. Stamps connect me year by year to the event of my own life. Stamps are real artifacts that will end up in the museums. That it why especially in this internet era, we can be guaranteed that ultimately stamps will be a fantastic investment. But the greatest investment is in developing our minds and learning from the past. Great videos; love you brother, from Texas.
I just decided to get back into stamp collecting this week and thought, "I should look for UA-cam videos! But they'll be boring, I'm sure so . . . " So GLAD I was WRONG! I really like your videos and this is my favorite so far!
Wow thank you so much Kenneth, glad you found my channel and happy to hear that you like the videos. This was one of my favorite videos to make. Welcome back to philately :D
Kenneth McCamish You have to look but stamps can still be found. Yesterday I found a 1876 German stamp at an antique shop where they were selling bundles of old post cards for $10. I also found two albums of stamps for $20. They aren’t making any more so snatch up what you can.
Hi I noticed you are picking the hobby back up, anyhow I have recently bought a collection of about 50 items I got at an estate sale and I don't know anything about them, but I do know that they are from the 1800s
That is an interesting thought. Stamps tell an unfiltered history, giving clues to the sentiments and thoughts of the issuing country. Another reason to collect them :D
Only some - very few - stamps will be significantly more valuable. The vast bulk of stamps (both mint & used) will only fetch a portion of what people paid for them. With the exception of two or three countries in the world, there are hardly any young collectors joining the hobby. We older collectors are dying out, but with some recently retired people swelling the numbers buying stamps. Too many new stamp issues per year are being released, depressing that market. One particular item, a Great Britain mint 1929 PUC black £1 beauty I paid Aust$1,000 about five years ago is available from dealers at around Aust$600. The stamp market is dynamic - it changes - but only the really good ones still command top price. Take the one penny black 1840 British, the first stamp ever. There were millions sold so they are not scarce, with one in good condition easily available at Aust$400. A lot of people want one in their collection but even then they can pick one up any day of the week. The condition of the item is critical to its value. Is it "off centre"? For a perforated stamp are the perforations all intact? Has the color "washed out" or faded? These all contribute to the price calculation.
When I was little, every morning we would get mail and nearly every piece of mail had a stamp on it. Every afternoon we'd get mail again and nearly every one of those pieces of mail would also get a stamp on it. My mother let me cut out the stamps and save them. Then My Dad, who worked for the post office brought me home a ton of stamps. Then my Grandfather died. he had been a post master for nearly 40 years and was the president of his stamp club. Guess who he left his stamp collection to? Me. Of course I wasn't allowed to touch much of it for years and I'm glad as it was a very nice collection. Basically it included everything except an inverted Jenny and a z grill. My interest in stamps though was the result of seeing them every day on multiple pieces of mail. We got an average of more than a dozen pieces of mail with stamps on them every day. By the time I was ten I'd accumulated 20,000 stamps. My father showed me how to mount them (his father taught him). Today the average 10 year old doesn't even know what a stamp is let alone what it's for. Last week I got 4 pieces of mail and the only one with a stamp on it came from a dealer in philatelic supplies. A clerk recently told me that 90% of stamps that the post office sells go into collections and are not used for mail. When I was 12 there were over 300 Stamp clubs in my state. Almost every town had a stamp club of some sort. Today, that state has maybe 3 stamp clubs. Recently I read a copy of Linn's cover to cover in about an hour. I remember when they were as thick as a Sunday Paper. Then again I remember when Sunday papers were as thick as a Sunday paper. I think I got my first subscription when I was 16 and it took me days to read it. There were maybe a hundred adds from dealers offering approval services. Our little town had three stamp dealers. We only had one pharmacy. I think there are as many dealers as stamp clubs in that state. Email and the invention of the internet has killed mail and the post office. With a drastically reduced demand for mail comes a corresponding reduced demand for stamps. But in my opinion, the post office has contributed to the demise of stamps and stamp collecting. When you include souvenir sheets, They issue far too many different ones every year. The year I was born they came out with about 20 new issues. In the last 30 years they have issued 50-60 new stamps every year. I personally hate self adhesives. I remember the 1974 Christmas self adhesive stamp. My Dad brought home two sheets from the post office. He gave me one for my collection and then gave me the plate block from the other one. The rest were used for Christmas cards. I tucked mine into a glassine envelope and put that in my album. I didn't have a good way to display sheets in my album so that is how I dealt with them when I was a kid. A year or two later I got some album pages for sheets and I took out the glassine and found that the whole sheet was ruined, stained by the gum. I was so disgusted that I vowed never to buy another self adhesive stamp. So when the post office started to sell more Self adhesive stamps than real stamps I stopped collecting new issues. I haven't bought a stamp at the post office in about 20 years. The other day I mailed a letter with 18 3 cent stamps and a single 1 cent stamp. The clerk read me the riot act. He could care less that I was mailing the letter to a stamp collector who would appreciate getting 19 different stamps that were all over 70 years old. He said "Next time just buy a metered stamp and stop wasting my time!" I try to avoid going to the post office. They have become nasty. They HATE stamp collectors. They issue a ton of different stamps but you can only buy them at philatelic centers, Regular post offices don't carry more than three or four issues at a time. The last time I tried to buy a plate block, 22 years ago, the clerk told me that I had to take what he gives me if I wanted to buy stamps. It's not just one clerk at one post office. I have bought stamps from over a hundred clerks at more than 40 post offices in 12 states. Every one I encountered in the 1990's detested doing business with collectors yet they have advertising all over the place trying to sell you on stamps. The last time I tried to get first day of issue cancelations was also about 20 years ago. I sent a bunch of covers to the same post office for the special cancelation and included a big post paid envelope to put them in and every one came back all crooked and damaged. It was a complete waste of time and money. My local post office is the second branch in our city of 120,000 people. It is the branch that my mail is delivered from and is about 5 blocks from my house. They are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9 am to 2 pm excluding 11:30-12:30 for lunch. There is one clerk. You have to get in line early in the morning because when they want to close they shut the window on you and tell you to come back the next day and then you turn around and the 40 people that were in line behind you get very irate. They have also done away with mail boxes except the one in front of the mail branch. If you want to mail anything you have to either go to the main branch or go inside the other one when they are open and god help you if you work during the day. The only drop box city wide is 4 miles from me which is too far to walk. While they will pick up letters from your mail box (if they happen to be on your street that day) They won't pick up packages from your box any more. This is why the UPS store and the Fed Ex store are putting them out of business. I can go to either one, shipping isn't much different in price. They are open from 7 in the morning to 7 at night mon - sat and 9 in the morning to 5pm on Sundays. There's never any line and they are always happy to see me. Franklin is rolling in his grave.
wonderful and interesting store Somewhat is littel similar to my story, I am Syrian. We do not have a stamp guide and no stamp clubs ,i believe every stamp that tells a history and a story - I started collecting stamps while I was young, 10 years old. I used to buy until my friend’s uncle used to work in the mail. He brought me envelopes and sealed stamps. I still collect stamps, it's my hobby, I love it
Everything here, and though I'm a lot younger than you my experiences are similar. I'm fortunate in that I have a blue box just outside my apartment, so I can mail whenever and it gets picked up every day except Sunday. But I almost never see mail with a stamp on it anymore. The only time I do is when a family member sends a letter, and never do I see them on packages. There are far too many issues to be interested in collecting them anyway. I like canceled stamps so if it hasn't gone through the mail it's not of much interest to me. USPS issued 57 new stamps last year, and I have maybe seen two of these. I don't like the self adhesives either. Honestly, the new stamp issues would bring so much more interest to me if they just went back to the printing and paper tech of the early 1960s and issued perforated sheets with monocolor stamps again. Something more interesting than a photograph.
This was a nice read. I agree, and I was born after the invention of email and all that stuff. I never really sent letters or anything because I just didn't need to. Postal clerks are really rude and don't even care about anything. I also avoid going to the post office, because whenever I go, they're always rude and there's never enough clerks. The small amount of people who go to the post office to mail are either old people or they're mailing something someone bought from them, but there's somehow still a line. Nobody really mails anymore and I think it's kind of sad. Yes, it's way less convenient than emails or using facebook messenger or whatever but it has way more meaning, or at least so I think. Nobody uses stamps either, they just go to the post office with their mail where they don't put any stamps on them. Pretty much nobody under the age of idk, 35 or 40 knows what stamps are and think you're old if you send mail. The postmen don't empty the postboxes on the street anymore, only every few weeks. The only mail people get is checks and business mail and even that's getting replaced by email etc. I agree that the post office made it's own downfall. It's a chain of events. People don't send mail anymore, clerks quit, there's not enough postmen, the clerks become angry, they're rude to people, therefore nobody goes to the post office and everyone uses Fedex or UPS and even less people send mail.
Thank you for taking the time to breakdown the history and think towards the future of stamp collecting! This was so cool to see laid out and makes me feel even more proud to be a philatelist!
Great video! Your presentation skill is off the chart!!.. On the topic, I am recently rejuvenating my old hobby of stamp collecting..and now-a-days, because of online storage of information, it became more interesting...hope the future of philately will be much more than it was ever before.. and my future generation and their generations will continue the legacy...
That is exactly the same reason I got back into the hobby! There is so much information online that a stamp album becomes hours of googling and reading/learning about the stamps and subjects on them. Thanks for watching :)
This is my very favorite hobby, now i have postage stamps in many more than 50 countries and more than 70-80 year old postal stamps, I am very happy now
I've been a stamp collector since I was a kid & inherited quite many old & facinating stamps over the years! Have been lucky really! Thanks for the very informative video, was facinating to learn things from you! I collect coins as well & have amassed a big collection of those as well! I'm 58 now & will probably keep going to the end!! Cheers buddy
Great and informative video. You ask the question "what next?" In the UK the Royal Mail has been over issuing irrelevant stamps since 1999 it would be a welcome move to reduce the number of issues with fewer stamps in each issue; the RM often includes 10 or more stamps in each issue with a face value of £6 or greater. Include the extras then a complete set could well come to £50+, to much for many established and novice collectors.
I completely agree with you! You can't help feeling abused when postal services deliberately issue a high volume of material to profit from philatelists, sometimes with little intent of the stamps being used in the mail. A good move would be to limit the number of issues and reduce the size of a full set. Thanks for watching John!
One of my collecting areas is Papua New Guinea. They were well on the road to huge numbers of irrelevant issues each year, forcing many collectors to reduce their interest to pre-1990, for example. A few years ago they realised that this was costing them sales, so made a deliberate choice to limit the number of new issues each year, and focus on local topics. More countries should follow this lead - increase the interest while reducing the cost.
When you began to discuss the drop off in stamp collecting in the 90's, thought for sure you'd likely bring up the self-adhesive stamps and how they nearly did put that last nail in the coffin. But caught the bug again and formalizing my meager start at collecting back in the early 60's. Great work on your videos. Great topics, good info and great presentation style used for them. Always interesting.
young, enthusiastic, well-informed. you keep a good pace, and have identified the pivotal points in the story. really well done. i'm a middle-age schoolboy collector (i.e. i don't indulge in asperger's antics like watermarks or perforations; that's rather "sad"! your video is superb. i wish i was you. only critique, near end; "fewer", not "less".
I've been stamp collecting since 1981 and I must say it take alot to impress me, but I can see where your knowledge makes stamps fun and exciting for those wishing to learn more. I'm going to spread the word about your videos. Keep up the great work promoting the joy and learning through stamp collecting!
Totally agree with you on the online philatelic community not keeping up with the internet. Too many 1990s bulletin boards where it's like hanging out with your granddad. But on the bright side, so many collectors are now using Instagram, and your UA-cam channel has been fantastic. Congratulations! Looking forward to the next season!
Yeah if you have a thing for 1990s nostalgia... become a philatelist and go online! Instagram has been a breath of fresh air for the community, my favorite followed by Twitter in a distant second. Blogs like yours are exciting and very much needed... A different kind of commentary from the standard paper quality discussions... so you keep up the good work Punk Philatelist... Oh if anyone is reading this reply, go to punkphilatelist.com/
Thanks for a most interesting and well put together video. I've long been a collector & I remember people buying sheets of stamps in the UK in the late 70's as a retirement plan. No wonder there are so many 70's mint blocks out there worth very little. You are right that the Royal Wedding caused stamp overload, I even bought a FDC which is now likely worthless.
Great video. I remember in the 1960's the flagship Macy's store on 34th Street in NYC had a huge stamp department on the ground floor. As a teenager I went there every chance I got. As we move into a cashless society we are also moving into a stampless society for postage. As you state I think stamp collecting will continue and may prosper. I think stamps will be issued and collected maybe used for purposes other than postage such as raising money for charities. Keep up the good work. Your video stimulates very interesting food for thought.
I love your videos... Keep on making them. For me stepping away from preprinted albums really gave my collecting experience a boost... I started as a young child, and now 40+ years later, I am back to "exploring" my collection, whereas I got stuck for about 20 years in the "filling the gap in an album"-collection (of my home country). I do have a "world" collection (no expensive famous stamps) with a focus on history. Countries that no longer exist, occupational stamps, border disputes, ... are my focus. It's fun and I learn a lot!
This is interesting but I met my best friend from Sweden because of stamps collecting. Now we usually share our stamps with each other and learn new things
I can finally watch this undisturbed. I am glad that we, philatelists, are not "maniacs", haha. I thought I knew the history of stamp collecting, but I still learned something new.
your video is very informative and great work , I am Syrian. We do not have a stamp guide and no stamps clubs that tells a history and a story and how to collected - I started collecting stamps while I was young, 10 years old. before internet I used to buy until my friend’s uncle used to work in post office . He brought me envelopes and sealed stamps. I am now 48 and still collect stamps, it's my hobby, I love it Thank you for the video I am learning from you in every single video ,great work.
Extremely interesting video.......Graham you continue to educate and fascinate me with your talent, creativity, and enthusiasm for this hobby. Philately is definitely an interesting hobby with a story and the artistry behind each stamp; but you are bringing a whole new level of interest. You are part of the future of Philately!
Thank you Gary. We are all part of the future of philately :) With engaged philatelists such as yourself, the hobby won't just survive.. it will definitely thrive! As I found out while researching this video, philately has a fascinating history, and I really do think the most interesting parts are yet to come.
Bravo, Graham! You are doing a great job with these videos, and we like you and your style of presentation, including your sense of humor! Speaking about the future of philately, I am advocating a shift from PASSIVE collecting (what our grandparents kept doing) to CREATIVE (active) collecting. The point that will attract younger people is not "simply hoarding stamps in albums", but the chance that younger people have now for EXPRESSING THEIR OWN CREATIVITY by designing their own philatelic items. My main philatelic interest is #maximaphily, traditional and non-traditional (postage stamp + postmark, both on the picture side of a postcard; all 3 elements should have some concordance). Nowadays, anybody can design personalized stamps in over 60 countries; personalized postcards on several places online and offline (for example at Zazzle, moo, etc.); personal postmarks (including MPP - Mailer's Postmark Permit, see USPS Form 3615 for philatelic precancels, not for bulk mailers) that can be further juxtaposed with rubberstamps to create "personalized pictorial postmarks". Further details and lots of images in the 4 Facebook groups that I founded about the 4 topics above: 1. "Maximaphily, traditional and non-traditional"; 2. "Create stamps: Personalized stamps/ Personalised stamps"; 3. "How to create your own postcards?". 4. "Mailer's Postmark Permit - how to postmark yourself your first-class mail?"'. Other area of creativity is "cover/envelope with personalized cachet".
Greatings Brothers and Sisters from other Mothers. I recently opened a stamp collection from my grandmothers that recently past away (95 y) and looked at the 15 books from 1851 (most of them) and realized that i have quite a lot of older stamps that are quite scarce. Thanks you for sharing your experience with us and keep on sharing. Amazing channel! Priceless
You left out one extremely important factor. Collecting costs much less now due to supply and demand. Many of the older collectors are dying off, and their families often have no interest in collecting. In my area, the market is flooded, and I often find stamps, not just definatives, for as low as 1 cent each, as opposed to the catalog values, which seem highly inflated in many areas. It's a great time to buy.
Absolutely! It is a great time to buy. A few of the stamps that I own would not have been in my collection in the 80s or 90s... the drop in demand has given us an opportunity...
Stamps collecting is diminishing with model railroad. These hobbies are too time consuming for todays world.. The kids are gravitating to more stimulating pass times. TikTok, Virtual Reality Gaming, Porn.
I do miss going into an old brick and mortar stamp shop. I first started in 1980 my collecting has been on and off through the years. I do go to stamp conventions and wonder what will become of the dealers, thus most of them I talk with and buy from are in there late 70's and early 80's and some tell me they feel it's a dying hobby. I hope not😕 Thanks for your video👍
Layely I slightly picked an interest in philately and I've tried informing myself a little, and the message I've mostly perceived is "philately is dying and there is no future for it", which made me a little perplexed and it let me down some. However, you are the first person I've encountered to shed some positive lighe on the tomorrow, especially highlighting the innovations that the community is embracing (like ebay for example). I don't know, maybe it's because you are so young, but that makes me a little bit more confident. Thank you, great video
Glad you found the video to be positive and informing. There definitely is a future for the hobby and it is an exciting one. Make sure to join the movement on social media or by joining a society. Thanks for watching and happy exploring :)
You should do a video on the Royal Family's involvement in stamp collecting, I did some of my own research on the subject and found it was pretty interesting.
Hi, this was very interesting. Regarding the Air Mail the US were later regarding stamps starting in 1918. Germany had several private air mail issues with a ton of different cards in summer 1912 like Flugpost an Rhein und Main (Air Mail at the Rhine and Main river), & Gelber Hund (name of the plane)& a third series (E.EL.P.). The cards are worthy and there are some really expensive varieties. Also there are half state/half private German stamps starting in 1912 with different shows and special flights. Even Zeppelin issues from 1913 are existing. A couriosity is a stamp from Bavaria (also half from the state/half private) from October 1913 and three different postcards. And Austria established a regular air line in WW1 1918 from Vienna to different cities to East Europe with regular stamps. I think I also saw from France some early issues in that time frame. And I´m sure I missed several air mail issues from different countries. I liked your video and we will see how stamp collecting will develop. I´m not too optimistic for Europe, but Asia seems to be far more interested. We also had some years with Russia who were interested in stamps from the soviet union and modern Russian stamps. But it declined a bit. The last part with used new stamps starting in 2010 is very interesting. And this is for near every country, because a lot of issues are rare. This is a good channel.
Hi! I love your wonderful and informative videos! Thank you for sharing the wonderful hobby of stamp collecting with us (the world). As an English teacher who teaches in various countries, I want to use your videos to teach English to my students. Wonderful job. Again, THANK YOU. :)
Another great edition. It is the best online history of stamp collecting - fast paced, understandable, and fun. There is a rumor that you will be giving a workshop at the APS Exhibition in Columbus, Ohio, USA in August. Anything you can divulge about your participation?
Thank you! Yes that is true, I will be doing a discussion on 'Influencing the Next Age of Philately'. Basically running through my experience with philately, my journey with this UA-cam Channel, and my thoughts on where we all can take the hobby moving forward......(that rumor spread quickly) ;D
Cool, I like the way you research the subject of your videos thoroughly... I also like you own cancel. I started signing interesting covers that are sent to me personally, to add value for future generations :-)
Great video I loved the history especially the stampless covers with letters. They can be quite amazing! Then to I am quite interested in Colonial America though this is rather pricey I have recently found two nice examples on eBay from someone quite inexperienced and I picked them up for $5 each!!!!! Stamp and cover collecting is amazing especially if you love history and I do. Thanks again for a very interesting video!!!!!
Colonial America can be very pricey... what a great find for just $5 a piece :) Thanks for watching Dennis, I am glad you enjoyed the video... and it sounds like you have a very interesting collection - Graham
I have come and gone and come back again. I started as a child in the '70's through the mid '80's (when I left home and went to university and had other concerns); I came back in the mid '90's and kept going until 2012, when as I GB/UK collector (in Australia) I felt exploited by the Royal Mail's issues with the final straw being the 2012 London Olympic issues. I kept my collection and come the pandemic I've started again and now I concentrate on UK 1840-1970. I still have a problem with collectors being exploited by national postal services and fear it will alienate more people more than it brings in. Perhaps early mid-aged guys like me are the past and Royal Mail, Australia Post and the rest see it that way, e.g. the big market you point out in Asia and India. You paint a rosier picture of the future and I do hope you are right. A final thought what has the impact of the Pandemic been?
Hi :) I have recently got back into philately! I haven’t felt the passion since roughly ‘05. All my fault by the way, not the stamps :) With all the info online and your extremely high quality production and research. I have caught the bug again :) Here’s to the future of philately and your UA-cam channel!
Thank you very much for the wonderful comment! I have a similar story, I took a long break from philately, but got my passion reignited in 2016 when I realized how much info was now online, it changed the game. Welcome back to the hobby and thanks for watching 😃
Great video. I must echo what's already been said in many of the comments. Your videos are a welcome change from the standard over-done hum-drum "How Do You Start A Stamp Collection" and "How Do You Sell A Stamp Collection" videos that already populate You Tube. Keep up the good work! Hey, just a suggestion..... how about a video on Machins? Just a thought.
Thank you Phil, really appreciate it 😀. I have done a video about Machins and even hunted down Arnold Machin’s sculpture of QEII... check it out ua-cam.com/video/NLx4x_N6WEA/v-deo.html
Been a collector for about 65 years, I've seen a lot. Suprised you didn't mention that there has been at least a generation and a half that have stuck their noses in fromt of computer monitors playing games. Sorry but the stamp collector market has been dying. Very few new collectors. Values are way down. Of course as you mentioned there is always the possibility of people finding collecting stamps again. But I can go weeks where in the mail I don't see an actual stamp. I hate to see what has happened to our hobby. Look it up, do you have a stamp shop in your town?
We need to consciously make an effort to introduce young people to the hobby. I am personally helping a few young 'uns get started, and you will be surprised at the interest they show if given a bit of encouragement. Videos like this one are going to get more attention from younger people who don't usually dredge through stuffy old books any more.
Wow!!! What an amazingly motivational video and this is just as priceless as a stamp collector's album. You are a true philatelist. I was so much into coin and stamp collection during my school days around three decades ago.I would revisit those moments from time to time because of my fascination for the World, Geography and History. I still have those albums However, I will be going deeper with this passion. Greetings from India! :-D
It's so interesting to me how stamps, sports cards, and comic books all experienced a bubble and then burst around the same time, with sports cards never really recovering. I'm curious if the similar timing is coincidence or if there's something else at play.
Yeah, started with Elvis as a kid because my parent's forced me... Brother collected coins. Honestly I have a small sweet spot for it. I love revenue stamps but don't know where to store them. Especially narcotic stamps.
Cover collection era will start after few years it would be hard to see stamp use on commercially circulated covers . Most of postal authorities are going to digital transaction payments, mint stamps will be available even after years but their use during issued days will be a rarity .
Hey. You really do cool stuff about philately! I want to add some of your videos to groups on Russian-speaking phillatel facebook. You can add Russian subtitles under this video, and do not forget to add Russian to your new videos too. I became your fan and I want you to have more subscribers in the ex-Soviet space. Good luck
This is killing me he is killing the stamps by glueing them ahhhhh. This guy is the best stamp expert I Have seen on UA-cam so far. I want to learn but I want to learn from the best. Thank you so much. It is so hard to find the true stamp experts.
I've just begun stamp collecting, and I am interested in finding stamps, covers, and parcels that were used during the Bosnian war that took place between in the 1990s. Is there any recommendation on how to go about this?
I am pretty new to stamp collecting. I mostly like to collect antique stamps, 1920s, or older. I also enjoy collecting stamps from USSR and from the soviet union I found some cool soviet space stamps
In my opinion the "bubble" you refer to, which here in Italy started already in the early 1960s, was already a symptom that things were going awry. Postal administrations from all over the world went berserk after collectors' money who tired soon to spend a bundle on stamps that had zero value the moment after you put them in the album. All the Royal wedding stamps you show aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The problem, of course, is that when objects are mass produced in order to be collected (and not used for what should be their primary purpose) they never get any real value. The problem today is basically the same with the added difficulty that regular mail is rarely used and stamps do not come into our houses through their natural way, i.e. the mailbox. I think that most of the people today in their 20s have never used a postage stamp and maybe never seen one in their homes. When I was a kid, basically everyone at school had their own small stamp collection taken from the mail received by parents and relatives. I remember trading stamps during recess in 3rd or 4th grade. That's the way one starts stamp collecting. Today this key fundamental step is totally missing.
Within the last few years I have been researching to write a book on a topic totally unrelated to stamp collecting. I kept running into odd articles in the old newspapers that I couldn't resist saving. I have a handful of articles from the 1800's on stamp collecting that I am sure you would enjoy. I'm not a real computer pro so I don't know how to send them here as attachments. Do you have an actual email address I could send them to so you could check them out? Some of them give insights into the early days of philately and I'm sure you could find material to use in further videos. If you sighted the source of the article I'm sure there would be no issues.
Hi Joseph, yes I have an email address. All contact info is kept on my website: www.exploringstamps.com All insights and content such as articles are very welcome. Thanks you :)
What a great video with lots of information. Here in Southern New Jersey we have a very active stamp club that meets 3 times a month. What state are you in?
We just showed my 85 year old Father in law this video who is an avid stamp collector and it totally made him so excited! Now he is showing us all the stamps in his books, especially the ones you had on the video!! Keeping doing these videos! You rock!
As a life member of the Syracuse Stamp Club I am happy to report on your channel that we just celebrated our 100 year anniversary.
That is excellent to hear James! Congratulations to the club and its members :D
You´re a great communicator. Thank you for the history and for the positive message for the future of philately!
Your You Tube videos are a gift to the whole Philatelic community. I hope more collectors follow your great example and communicate their passion for the hobby. In the future people will point to these as a positive turning point for the hobby.
Wow, thank you very much for this positive comment Dwayne. I am glad that you like the videos and I hope that you are right, that other collectors will communicate their passion for the hobby. Thank you very much for watching :)
I agree with the last bit 100% - i think it’s a great time to get back into the hobby , I feel a rise coming
I accidentally stumbled upon your youtube channel yesterday (25th December) and found it extremely informative and very well presented. I shall continue to watch your channel regularly. I restarted my stamp collecting hobby after a gap of more than 35 years
Welcome aboard! This is an exciting time to be a philatelist, there are plenty of online resources and a wonderful community online, it such an enjoyable experience to be a part of 😊
So, I started watching your vids weeks before I got any stamps. I had a rather large coin collection, that I personally put together. As a 28 year old millennial, I've always been somewhat of a low-key nerd but your videos taught me so much and built up my interest so much that sold all 1300+ plus coins and got into stamps. Thank you so much! Please keep it up brother. Our generation needs this.
Hi Robert! That's really cool to hear, thank you for this comment :) It is exciting to hear of other millennials (not just me) looking for this kind of content and interested in what we can learn from the hobby. I will keep it up, and thank you very much for watching!!!
I agree that the stamp hobby is alive and well. There is a lot to look forward to. Also thanks for telling us about the first stamp catalog sounds like a great read.
It sure is! Dr. Gray's catalogue is in the public domain, so you can read the short introduction here:archive.org/details/ahandcataloguep00graygoog
Alive and well.
Wonderful enthusiastic presentation! Very well done and produced! I was very fortunate to start my stamp business in the late 1970s, as described in this video, this was the height of the trade, in fact, I wish I would have started a few years earlier (early 1970's). As also indicated in this video there was a slow down in the 1990s and I felt it! I decided to sell my stamp business in 2000 which I did successfully. I continue part-time and I am now back in it full-time. I am so grateful to have made my passion my business. Yes, Chinese are collectors but they only collect stamps from their own country. What will happen with India and some Eastern European countries is to be seen! Have fun with stamps! Pierre Wertheimer
just watched 4 of your videos, easily the best stamp channel ive found so far, gonna watch everyone you made, great stuff.
Thanks Daz, welcome to the channel 😊
Thank you so much for posting this vedeo. I started becoming interested in stamps during my childhood, but that was the 70s. Today I am reallly excited about the hobby because it brings so many important aspects of life together. It is my conviction that mans greatest sin today is ingratitude. Stamps help me to understand the sacrifices that have been made that people tend to so easily forget. Stamps connect me year by year to the event of my own life. Stamps are real artifacts that will end up in the museums. That it why especially in this internet era, we can be guaranteed that ultimately stamps will be a fantastic investment. But the greatest investment is in developing our minds and learning from the past. Great videos; love you brother, from Texas.
I just decided to get back into stamp collecting this week and thought, "I should look for UA-cam videos! But they'll be boring, I'm sure so . . . " So GLAD I was WRONG! I really like your videos and this is my favorite so far!
Wow thank you so much Kenneth, glad you found my channel and happy to hear that you like the videos. This was one of my favorite videos to make. Welcome back to philately :D
Kenneth McCamish You have to look but stamps can still be found. Yesterday I found a 1876 German stamp at an antique shop where they were selling bundles of old post cards for $10. I also found two albums of stamps for $20. They aren’t making any more so snatch up what you can.
Hi I noticed you are picking the hobby back up, anyhow I have recently bought a collection of about 50 items I got at an estate sale and I don't know anything about them, but I do know that they are from the 1800s
Joseph Pittd it’s probably best to look online on eBay for an average value of the stamps or contact a dealer for a valuation. Good luck!
Stamps will become more scarce and more valuable because they tell of a nations history that some try to change.
That is an interesting thought. Stamps tell an unfiltered history, giving clues to the sentiments and thoughts of the issuing country. Another reason to collect them :D
Only some - very few - stamps will be significantly more valuable. The vast bulk of stamps (both mint & used) will only fetch a portion of what people paid for them.
With the exception of two or three countries in the world, there are hardly any young collectors joining the hobby. We older collectors are dying out, but with some recently retired
people swelling the numbers buying stamps.
Too many new stamp issues per year are being released, depressing that market. One particular item, a Great Britain mint 1929 PUC black £1 beauty I paid Aust$1,000 about five years ago is available from dealers at around Aust$600.
The stamp market is dynamic - it changes - but only the really good ones still command top price.
Take the one penny black 1840 British, the first stamp ever. There were millions sold so they are not scarce, with one in good condition easily available at Aust$400. A lot of people want one in their collection but even then they can pick one up any day of the week.
The condition of the item is critical to its value. Is it "off centre"? For a perforated stamp are the perforations all intact? Has the color "washed out" or faded? These all contribute to the price calculation.
When I was little, every morning we would get mail and nearly every piece of mail had a stamp on it. Every afternoon we'd get mail again and nearly every one of those pieces of mail would also get a stamp on it. My mother let me cut out the stamps and save them. Then My Dad, who worked for the post office brought me home a ton of stamps. Then my Grandfather died. he had been a post master for nearly 40 years and was the president of his stamp club. Guess who he left his stamp collection to? Me. Of course I wasn't allowed to touch much of it for years and I'm glad as it was a very nice collection. Basically it included everything except an inverted Jenny and a z grill. My interest in stamps though was the result of seeing them every day on multiple pieces of mail. We got an average of more than a dozen pieces of mail with stamps on them every day. By the time I was ten I'd accumulated 20,000 stamps. My father showed me how to mount them (his father taught him).
Today the average 10 year old doesn't even know what a stamp is let alone what it's for. Last week I got 4 pieces of mail and the only one with a stamp on it came from a dealer in philatelic supplies. A clerk recently told me that 90% of stamps that the post office sells go into collections and are not used for mail.
When I was 12 there were over 300 Stamp clubs in my state. Almost every town had a stamp club of some sort. Today, that state has maybe 3 stamp clubs.
Recently I read a copy of Linn's cover to cover in about an hour. I remember when they were as thick as a Sunday Paper. Then again I remember when Sunday papers were as thick as a Sunday paper. I think I got my first subscription when I was 16 and it took me days to read it. There were maybe a hundred adds from dealers offering approval services. Our little town had three stamp dealers. We only had one pharmacy. I think there are as many dealers as stamp clubs in that state.
Email and the invention of the internet has killed mail and the post office. With a drastically reduced demand for mail comes a corresponding reduced demand for stamps. But in my opinion, the post office has contributed to the demise of stamps and stamp collecting. When you include souvenir sheets, They issue far too many different ones every year. The year I was born they came out with about 20 new issues. In the last 30 years they have issued 50-60 new stamps every year. I personally hate self adhesives. I remember the 1974 Christmas self adhesive stamp. My Dad brought home two sheets from the post office. He gave me one for my collection and then gave me the plate block from the other one. The rest were used for Christmas cards. I tucked mine into a glassine envelope and put that in my album. I didn't have a good way to display sheets in my album so that is how I dealt with them when I was a kid. A year or two later I got some album pages for sheets and I took out the glassine and found that the whole sheet was ruined, stained by the gum. I was so disgusted that I vowed never to buy another self adhesive stamp. So when the post office started to sell more Self adhesive stamps than real stamps I stopped collecting new issues. I haven't bought a stamp at the post office in about 20 years.
The other day I mailed a letter with 18 3 cent stamps and a single 1 cent stamp. The clerk read me the riot act. He could care less that I was mailing the letter to a stamp collector who would appreciate getting 19 different stamps that were all over 70 years old. He said "Next time just buy a metered stamp and stop wasting my time!" I try to avoid going to the post office. They have become nasty. They HATE stamp collectors. They issue a ton of different stamps but you can only buy them at philatelic centers, Regular post offices don't carry more than three or four issues at a time. The last time I tried to buy a plate block, 22 years ago, the clerk told me that I had to take what he gives me if I wanted to buy stamps. It's not just one clerk at one post office. I have bought stamps from over a hundred clerks at more than 40 post offices in 12 states. Every one I encountered in the 1990's detested doing business with collectors yet they have advertising all over the place trying to sell you on stamps.
The last time I tried to get first day of issue cancelations was also about 20 years ago. I sent a bunch of covers to the same post office for the special cancelation and included a big post paid envelope to put them in and every one came back all crooked and damaged. It was a complete waste of time and money.
My local post office is the second branch in our city of 120,000 people. It is the branch that my mail is delivered from and is about 5 blocks from my house. They are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9 am to 2 pm excluding 11:30-12:30 for lunch. There is one clerk. You have to get in line early in the morning because when they want to close they shut the window on you and tell you to come back the next day and then you turn around and the 40 people that were in line behind you get very irate.
They have also done away with mail boxes except the one in front of the mail branch. If you want to mail anything you have to either go to the main branch or go inside the other one when they are open and god help you if you work during the day. The only drop box city wide is 4 miles from me which is too far to walk. While they will pick up letters from your mail box (if they happen to be on your street that day) They won't pick up packages from your box any more. This is why the UPS store and the Fed Ex store are putting them out of business. I can go to either one, shipping isn't much different in price. They are open from 7 in the morning to 7 at night mon - sat and 9 in the morning to 5pm on Sundays. There's never any line and they are always happy to see me.
Franklin is rolling in his grave.
wonderful and interesting store Somewhat is littel similar to my story, I am Syrian. We do not have a stamp guide and no stamp clubs ,i believe every stamp that tells a history and a story - I started collecting stamps while I was young, 10 years old. I used to buy until my friend’s uncle used to work in the mail. He brought me envelopes and sealed stamps. I still collect stamps, it's my hobby, I love it
Everything here, and though I'm a lot younger than you my experiences are similar. I'm fortunate in that I have a blue box just outside my apartment, so I can mail whenever and it gets picked up every day except Sunday. But I almost never see mail with a stamp on it anymore. The only time I do is when a family member sends a letter, and never do I see them on packages. There are far too many issues to be interested in collecting them anyway. I like canceled stamps so if it hasn't gone through the mail it's not of much interest to me. USPS issued 57 new stamps last year, and I have maybe seen two of these. I don't like the self adhesives either. Honestly, the new stamp issues would bring so much more interest to me if they just went back to the printing and paper tech of the early 1960s and issued perforated sheets with monocolor stamps again. Something more interesting than a photograph.
This was a nice read.
I agree, and I was born after the invention of email and all that stuff. I never really sent letters or anything because I just didn't need to. Postal clerks are really rude and don't even care about anything.
I also avoid going to the post office, because whenever I go, they're always rude and there's never enough clerks. The small amount of people who go to the post office to mail are either old people or they're mailing something someone bought from them, but there's somehow still a line.
Nobody really mails anymore and I think it's kind of sad. Yes, it's way less convenient than emails or using facebook messenger or whatever but it has way more meaning, or at least so I think.
Nobody uses stamps either, they just go to the post office with their mail where they don't put any stamps on them.
Pretty much nobody under the age of idk, 35 or 40 knows what stamps are and think you're old if you send mail. The postmen don't empty the postboxes on the street anymore, only every few weeks.
The only mail people get is checks and business mail and even that's getting replaced by email etc.
I agree that the post office made it's own downfall. It's a chain of events. People don't send mail anymore, clerks quit, there's not enough postmen, the clerks become angry, they're rude to people, therefore nobody goes to the post office and everyone uses Fedex or UPS and even less people send mail.
Thank you for taking the time to breakdown the history and think towards the future of stamp collecting! This was so cool to see laid out and makes me feel even more proud to be a philatelist!
Great video! Your presentation skill is off the chart!!..
On the topic, I am recently rejuvenating my old hobby of stamp collecting..and now-a-days, because of online storage of information, it became more interesting...hope the future of philately will be much more than it was ever before.. and my future generation and their generations will continue the legacy...
That is exactly the same reason I got back into the hobby! There is so much information online that a stamp album becomes hours of googling and reading/learning about the stamps and subjects on them. Thanks for watching :)
This is my very favorite hobby, now i have postage stamps in many more than 50 countries and more than 70-80 year old postal stamps, I am very happy now
@hasan-Uz-zaman rashid can we talk?
I've been a stamp collector since I was a kid & inherited quite many old & facinating stamps over the years! Have been lucky really! Thanks for the very informative video, was facinating to learn things from you! I collect coins as well & have amassed a big collection of those as well! I'm 58 now & will probably keep going to the end!! Cheers buddy
Great and informative video. You ask the question "what next?" In the UK the Royal Mail has been over issuing irrelevant stamps since 1999 it would be a welcome move to reduce the number of issues with fewer stamps in each issue; the RM often includes 10 or more stamps in each issue with a face value of £6 or greater. Include the extras then a complete set could well come to £50+, to much for many established and novice collectors.
I completely agree with you! You can't help feeling abused when postal services deliberately issue a high volume of material to profit from philatelists, sometimes with little intent of the stamps being used in the mail. A good move would be to limit the number of issues and reduce the size of a full set. Thanks for watching John!
One of my collecting areas is Papua New Guinea. They were well on the road to huge numbers of irrelevant issues each year, forcing many collectors to reduce their interest to pre-1990, for example.
A few years ago they realised that this was costing them sales, so made a deliberate choice to limit the number of new issues each year, and focus on local topics. More countries should follow this lead - increase the interest while reducing the cost.
You sir will be the on that time line as the one person that keep philately going through the 21st century. Thank you for your contribution.
:) Thank you James, and thank you for watching the videos!
When you began to discuss the drop off in stamp collecting in the 90's, thought for sure you'd likely bring up the self-adhesive stamps and how they nearly did put that last nail in the coffin. But caught the bug again and formalizing my meager start at collecting back in the early 60's. Great work on your videos. Great topics, good info and great presentation style used for them. Always interesting.
I have learned so much from you being a stamp collector Thank U. I have a worldwide collection just collecting dust. Will make changes
young, enthusiastic, well-informed. you keep a good pace, and have identified the pivotal points in the story. really well done. i'm a middle-age schoolboy collector (i.e. i don't indulge in asperger's antics like watermarks or perforations; that's rather "sad"! your video is superb. i wish i was you. only critique, near end; "fewer", not "less".
Thank for posting. Your videos are very informative and fun to watch.
Very well presented which made this an enjoyable viewing!
I've been stamp collecting since 1981 and I must say it take alot to impress me, but I can see where your knowledge makes stamps fun and exciting for those wishing to learn more. I'm going to spread the word about your videos. Keep up the great work promoting the joy and learning through stamp collecting!
Love how you integrate stamps into the story telling for illustration purposes.
Very nice information
Totally agree with you on the online philatelic community not keeping up with the internet. Too many 1990s bulletin boards where it's like hanging out with your granddad. But on the bright side, so many collectors are now using Instagram, and your UA-cam channel has been fantastic. Congratulations! Looking forward to the next season!
Yeah if you have a thing for 1990s nostalgia... become a philatelist and go online! Instagram has been a breath of fresh air for the community, my favorite followed by Twitter in a distant second. Blogs like yours are exciting and very much needed... A different kind of commentary from the standard paper quality discussions... so you keep up the good work Punk Philatelist... Oh if anyone is reading this reply, go to punkphilatelist.com/
Copy and paste what she said.
Thanks for a most interesting and well put together video. I've long been a collector & I remember people buying sheets of stamps in the UK in the late 70's as a retirement plan. No wonder there are so many 70's mint blocks out there worth very little. You are right that the Royal Wedding caused stamp overload, I even bought a FDC which is now likely worthless.
It is interesting to see the history summed up like this, very enjoyable... Thank you!
I agree, seeing the history laid out this way was fascinating to me as well. Glad you enjoyed it :)
Great video. I remember in the 1960's the flagship Macy's store on 34th Street in NYC had a huge stamp department on the ground floor. As a teenager I went there every chance I got. As we move into a cashless society we are also moving into a stampless society for postage. As you state I think stamp collecting will continue and may prosper. I think stamps will be issued and collected maybe used for purposes other than postage such as raising money for charities.
Keep up the good work. Your video stimulates very interesting food for thought.
I love your videos... Keep on making them. For me stepping away from preprinted albums really gave my collecting experience a boost... I started as a young child, and now 40+ years later, I am back to "exploring" my collection, whereas I got stuck for about 20 years in the "filling the gap in an album"-collection (of my home country). I do have a "world" collection (no expensive famous stamps) with a focus on history. Countries that no longer exist, occupational stamps, border disputes, ... are my focus. It's fun and I learn a lot!
What a great introduction to the history of stamps and stamp collecting! Loved the timeline with its highlights of events in the hobby's development.
Thank you Jerrel, glad you enjoyed it!
This is interesting but I met my best friend from Sweden because of stamps collecting. Now we usually share our stamps with each other and learn new things
Thank you Professor Beck, another cool video with great effects
I can finally watch this undisturbed. I am glad that we, philatelists, are not "maniacs", haha. I thought I knew the history of stamp collecting, but I still learned something new.
Can you imagine being called a Timbromaniac instead of a Philatelist?? NOPE! ;) Thanks for always stopping by and glad you learned something new :)
In philately, the last word does not exist. There is ALWAYS something more to learn.
your video is very informative and great work ,
I am Syrian. We do not have a stamp guide and no stamps clubs that tells a history and a story and how to collected - I started collecting stamps while I was young, 10 years old. before internet I used to buy until my friend’s uncle used to work in post office . He brought me envelopes and sealed stamps. I am now 48 and still collect stamps, it's my hobby, I love it
Thank you for the video I am learning from you in every single video ,great work.
Extremely interesting video.......Graham you continue to educate and fascinate me with your talent, creativity, and enthusiasm for this hobby. Philately is definitely an interesting hobby with a story and the artistry behind each stamp; but you are bringing a whole new level of interest. You are part of the future of Philately!
Thank you Gary. We are all part of the future of philately :) With engaged philatelists such as yourself, the hobby won't just survive.. it will definitely thrive! As I found out while researching this video, philately has a fascinating history, and I really do think the most interesting parts are yet to come.
Hear hear!
you are the best philateliste on youtube, I know I am an expert
Such an honor! Thank you for this nomination :D
@@ExploringStamps Unfortunately it has disappeared in India
Profound knowledge,deep research excellent,continue.
I just "discovered" stamps. This is a really well done show.
Very Interesting very good presentation. As a Worldwide Collector info is always usefull
Thanks for helping me take my first steps into this hobby. I'm joining philately because the USPS is under threat of bankruptcy!
Fascinating video! Your enthusiasm for the hobby is infectious.
Thanks Greg! I can't help it...I am infected with philately :D
I also collect banknotes and coins!!! Is a very good mix between philately and numismatics!
Absolutely agree!
Bravo, Graham! You are doing a great job with these videos, and we like you and your style of presentation, including your sense of humor! Speaking about the future of philately, I am advocating a shift from PASSIVE collecting (what our grandparents kept doing) to CREATIVE (active) collecting. The point that will attract younger people is not "simply hoarding stamps in albums", but the chance that younger people have now for EXPRESSING THEIR OWN CREATIVITY by designing their own philatelic items. My main philatelic interest is #maximaphily, traditional and non-traditional (postage stamp + postmark, both on the picture side of a postcard; all 3 elements should have some concordance). Nowadays, anybody can design personalized stamps in over 60 countries; personalized postcards on several places online and offline (for example at Zazzle, moo, etc.); personal postmarks (including MPP - Mailer's Postmark Permit, see USPS Form 3615 for philatelic precancels, not for bulk mailers) that can be further juxtaposed with rubberstamps to create "personalized pictorial postmarks". Further details and lots of images in the 4 Facebook groups that I founded about the 4 topics above: 1. "Maximaphily, traditional and non-traditional"; 2. "Create stamps: Personalized stamps/ Personalised stamps"; 3. "How to create your own postcards?". 4. "Mailer's Postmark Permit - how to postmark yourself your first-class mail?"'. Other area of creativity is "cover/envelope with personalized cachet".
Greatings Brothers and Sisters from other Mothers. I recently opened a stamp collection from my grandmothers that recently past away (95 y) and looked at the 15 books from 1851 (most of them) and realized that i have quite a lot of older stamps that are quite scarce. Thanks you for sharing your experience with us and keep on sharing. Amazing channel! Priceless
You left out one extremely important factor. Collecting costs much less now due to supply and demand. Many of the older collectors are dying off, and their families often have no interest in collecting.
In my area, the market is flooded, and I often find stamps, not just definatives, for as low as 1 cent each, as opposed to the catalog values, which seem highly inflated in many areas.
It's a great time to buy.
Absolutely! It is a great time to buy. A few of the stamps that I own would not have been in my collection in the 80s or 90s... the drop in demand has given us an opportunity...
Stamps collecting is diminishing with model railroad. These hobbies are too time consuming for todays world.. The kids are gravitating to more stimulating pass times. TikTok, Virtual Reality Gaming, Porn.
I do miss going into an old brick and mortar stamp shop. I first started in 1980 my collecting has been on and off through the years. I do go to stamp conventions and wonder what will become of the dealers, thus most of them I talk with and buy from are in there late 70's and early 80's and some tell me they feel it's a dying hobby. I hope not😕 Thanks for your video👍
Layely I slightly picked an interest in philately and I've tried informing myself a little, and the message I've mostly perceived is "philately is dying and there is no future for it", which made me a little perplexed and it let me down some. However, you are the first person I've encountered to shed some positive lighe on the tomorrow, especially highlighting the innovations that the community is embracing (like ebay for example). I don't know, maybe it's because you are so young, but that makes me a little bit more confident. Thank you, great video
Glad you found the video to be positive and informing. There definitely is a future for the hobby and it is an exciting one. Make sure to join the movement on social media or by joining a society. Thanks for watching and happy exploring :)
Collecting stamps my whole life! Thanks for the Video ,Smiling the whole time!
Welcome to the channel Michael, glad you are smiling from the video :) thanks for watching!
Congratulations on this feature which is relevant and thought-provoking. Thankyou.
Thank you John, glad you liked it :)
Just came across this channel, what a great discovery. Thanks for all your work!
Great video. Long live the King of Hobbies.
Your best show ever! The truly frightening thing is that you seem to have a complete collection of Charles and Diana wedding stamps...
Excellent Didactic and Chronological Explanation, *Congratulations!*
You should do a video on the Royal Family's involvement in stamp collecting, I did some of my own research on the subject and found it was pretty interesting.
Hi, this was very interesting. Regarding the Air Mail the US were later regarding stamps starting in 1918. Germany had several private air mail issues with a ton of different cards in summer 1912 like Flugpost an Rhein und Main (Air Mail at the Rhine and Main river), & Gelber Hund (name of the plane)& a third series (E.EL.P.). The cards are worthy and there are some really expensive varieties. Also there are half state/half private German stamps starting in 1912 with different shows and special flights. Even Zeppelin issues from 1913 are existing. A couriosity is a stamp from Bavaria (also half from the state/half private) from October 1913 and three different postcards. And Austria established a regular air line in WW1 1918 from Vienna to different cities to East Europe with regular stamps. I think I also saw from France some early issues in that time frame. And I´m sure I missed several air mail issues from different countries.
I liked your video and we will see how stamp collecting will develop. I´m not too optimistic for Europe, but Asia seems to be far more interested. We also had some years with Russia who were interested in stamps from the soviet union and modern Russian stamps. But it declined a bit. The last part with used new stamps starting in 2010 is very interesting. And this is for near every country, because a lot of issues are rare. This is a good channel.
I just discovered this channel and I'm a big fan already. Subscribed immediately. Great stuff!!!
Excellent! Welcome to the channel, thanks for watching 😊
Hi!
I love your wonderful and informative videos! Thank you for sharing the wonderful hobby of stamp collecting with us (the world). As an English teacher who teaches in various countries, I want to use your videos to teach English to my students. Wonderful job. Again, THANK YOU. :)
Great video. Loved it.
Another great edition. It is the best online history of stamp collecting - fast paced, understandable, and fun. There is a rumor that you will be giving a workshop at the APS Exhibition in Columbus, Ohio, USA in August. Anything you can divulge about your participation?
Thank you! Yes that is true, I will be doing a discussion on 'Influencing the Next Age of Philately'. Basically running through my experience with philately, my journey with this UA-cam Channel, and my thoughts on where we all can take the hobby moving forward......(that rumor spread quickly) ;D
That's great! You have a lot of ideas that traditional organizations can learn from to create a bright future for stamp collecting.
Cool, I like the way you research the subject of your videos thoroughly... I also like you own cancel. I started signing interesting covers that are sent to me personally, to add value for future generations :-)
great video as always. loved the way you placed it all on a linear scale. :)
Thanks Johan! I always have to draw it to understand it :)
This was interesting, I have a few of those 'Not the greatest' Royal wedding stamps as well... But not nearly as many as you!! Great video
Yeah I definitely have a LOT. Glad you found it interesting, thanks for watching Peter :)
Hilarious when Graham realised he'd spend the next 4 hours clearing up Diana stamps from his desk :-)
No kidding! it took a long time to put the stamps back and reset the desk... all for 20 seconds of video, Lol
Fabulous video. Thank you so much!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video I loved the history especially the stampless covers with letters. They can be quite amazing! Then to I am quite interested in Colonial America though this is rather pricey I have recently found two nice examples on eBay from someone quite inexperienced and I picked them up for $5 each!!!!! Stamp and cover collecting is amazing especially if you love history and I do. Thanks again for a very interesting video!!!!!
Colonial America can be very pricey... what a great find for just $5 a piece :) Thanks for watching Dennis, I am glad you enjoyed the video... and it sounds like you have a very interesting collection - Graham
Great video, a lot of history I didn't know...
Thank you Christian! Glad you liked it :)
I have come and gone and come back again. I started as a child in the '70's through the mid '80's (when I left home and went to university and had other concerns); I came back in the mid '90's and kept going until 2012, when as I GB/UK collector (in Australia) I felt exploited by the Royal Mail's issues with the final straw being the 2012 London Olympic issues. I kept my collection and come the pandemic I've started again and now I concentrate on UK 1840-1970. I still have a problem with collectors being exploited by national postal services and fear it will alienate more people more than it brings in. Perhaps early mid-aged guys like me are the past and Royal Mail, Australia Post and the rest see it that way, e.g. the big market you point out in Asia and India. You paint a rosier picture of the future and I do hope you are right. A final thought what has the impact of the Pandemic been?
Great video and very informative, learned something new. Also, great to hear a positive voice about the future of stamp collecting.
Thank you Cory, I really think there is an exciting future ahead! Glad you liked it :)
Wow! Very very good channel! Greetings from Budapest!
Thank you and welcome to the channel :)
Your videos are fantastic. Please never stop making them. Thank you
Thank you Tony! I will keep making them =)
Hi :) I have recently got back into philately! I haven’t felt the passion since roughly ‘05. All my fault by the way, not the stamps :) With all the info online and your extremely high quality production and research. I have caught the bug again :) Here’s to the future of philately and your UA-cam channel!
Thank you very much for the wonderful comment! I have a similar story, I took a long break from philately, but got my passion reignited in 2016 when I realized how much info was now online, it changed the game. Welcome back to the hobby and thanks for watching 😃
Great video. I must echo what's already been said in many of the comments. Your videos are a welcome change from the standard over-done hum-drum "How Do You Start A Stamp Collection" and "How Do You Sell A Stamp Collection" videos that already populate You Tube. Keep up the good work!
Hey, just a suggestion..... how about a video on Machins? Just a thought.
Thank you Phil, really appreciate it 😀. I have done a video about Machins and even hunted down Arnold Machin’s sculpture of QEII... check it out ua-cam.com/video/NLx4x_N6WEA/v-deo.html
Been a collector for about 65 years, I've seen a lot. Suprised you didn't mention that there has been at least a generation and a half that have stuck their noses in fromt of computer monitors playing games. Sorry but the stamp collector market has been dying. Very few new collectors. Values are way down. Of course as you mentioned there is always the possibility of people finding collecting stamps again. But I can go weeks where in the mail I don't see an actual stamp. I hate to see what has happened to our hobby. Look it up, do you have a stamp shop in your town?
We need to consciously make an effort to introduce young people to the hobby. I am personally helping a few young 'uns get started, and you will be surprised at the interest they show if given a bit of encouragement.
Videos like this one are going to get more attention from younger people who don't usually dredge through stuffy old books any more.
well done!
Wow!!! What an amazingly motivational video and this is just as priceless as a stamp collector's album. You are a true philatelist. I was so much into coin and stamp collection during my school days around three decades ago.I would revisit those moments from time to time because of my fascination for the World, Geography and History. I still have those albums However, I will be going deeper with this passion. Greetings from India! :-D
It's so interesting to me how stamps, sports cards, and comic books all experienced a bubble and then burst around the same time, with sports cards never really recovering. I'm curious if the similar timing is coincidence or if there's something else at play.
Very nice presentation
Thank you, glad you liked it Adrian!
Brilliant work Graham - Thankyou .
Glad you liked it Steve, thanks for watching :)
I am collecting Iceland MNH - fascinating issues, and accessible. Any thoughts, out there?
Yeah, started with Elvis as a kid because my parent's forced me... Brother collected coins. Honestly I have a small sweet spot for it.
I love revenue stamps but don't know where to store them. Especially narcotic stamps.
Such great advise, again...thank you.
Cover collection era will start after few years it would be hard to see stamp use on commercially circulated covers . Most of postal authorities are going to digital transaction payments, mint stamps will be available even after years but their use during issued days will be a rarity .
Just makes me sad.
Keep these videos coming . We love them.
Hey. You really do cool stuff about philately! I want to add some of your videos to groups on Russian-speaking phillatel facebook. You can add Russian subtitles under this video, and do not forget to add Russian to your new videos too. I became your fan and I want you to have more subscribers in the ex-Soviet space. Good luck
Nice video!
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you for watching :)
This is killing me he is killing the stamps by glueing them ahhhhh. This guy is the best stamp expert I Have seen on UA-cam so far. I want to learn but I want to learn from the best. Thank you so much. It is so hard to find the true stamp experts.
I've just begun stamp collecting, and I am interested in finding stamps, covers, and parcels that were used during the Bosnian war that took place between in the 1990s. Is there any recommendation on how to go about this?
very informative and some good points, philately needs to embrace social media more
I am pretty new to stamp collecting. I mostly like to collect antique stamps, 1920s, or older. I also enjoy collecting stamps from USSR and from the soviet union I found some cool soviet space stamps
video excellent - thanks
Very informative one
In my opinion the "bubble" you refer to, which here in Italy started already in the early 1960s, was already a symptom that things were going awry. Postal administrations from all over the world went berserk after collectors' money who tired soon to spend a bundle on stamps that had zero value the moment after you put them in the album. All the Royal wedding stamps you show aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The problem, of course, is that when objects are mass produced in order to be collected (and not used for what should be their primary purpose) they never get any real value. The problem today is basically the same with the added difficulty that regular mail is rarely used and stamps do not come into our houses through their natural way, i.e. the mailbox. I think that most of the people today in their 20s have never used a postage stamp and maybe never seen one in their homes. When I was a kid, basically everyone at school had their own small stamp collection taken from the mail received by parents and relatives. I remember trading stamps during recess in 3rd or 4th grade. That's the way one starts stamp collecting. Today this key fundamental step is totally missing.
Within the last few years I have been researching to write a book on a topic totally unrelated to stamp collecting. I kept running into odd articles in the old newspapers that I couldn't resist saving. I have a handful of articles from the 1800's on stamp collecting that I am sure you would enjoy. I'm not a real computer pro so I don't know how to send them here as attachments. Do you have an actual email address I could send them to so you could check them out? Some of them give insights into the early days of philately and I'm sure you could find material to use in further videos. If you sighted the source of the article I'm sure there would be no issues.
Hi Joseph, yes I have an email address. All contact info is kept on my website: www.exploringstamps.com All insights and content such as articles are very welcome. Thanks you :)
Graham, your website is intimidating. The ads are overwhelming and difficult to work around. Try viewing it as a visitor and see what you think.
Nice work.
Thank you 🙂
Thank you. Great information. I just started on stamps
I appreciate the effort that you put in, thank you!
What a great video with lots of information. Here in Southern New Jersey we have a very active stamp club that meets 3 times a month. What state are you in?
Woot woot, NJ represent! Thats my home state too :D
What part of Jersey? I'm near Haddonfield and Cherry Hill.
Well done! Thanks!
You have a nice set over there I will give you a like👍