Directions of Philately - Part 1

Recently I read a very interesting post on Apfelbaum's Corner-John Apfelbaum's Blog on Philately. I made a comment that this motivated a post on my blog. I made a comment on this post, but reflecting a bit more on the subject I decided to publish a post on my blog.

Directions of Philately - Part 1

Philately is is going through  a transformation in all countries. The traditional philatelic commerce reached its height many years ago and has being reduced to a few retailers. Of course this situation may have eliminated many serious experts in the market, but a small market may hinder the entry of unscrupulous dealers. The traditional philatelic commerce is still a reference for many veterans and novice collectors, because there is no substitute for personal service and experience.  

I believe there are relatively fewer collectors in the countries of traditional philately (which had its boom in the early 1900s). In the past emerged a large number of collectors who were influenced by the propitious moment to be mass pastime: globalization, urbanization, literacy, free time that industrial society allowed for the people ... added to this, traders invested in advertising, and developed catalogs, publications and a variety of accessories. At this time the hobby hit the middle class, philatelic clubs and associations flourished in thousands of cities around the world.

Many governments recognized the need for increase the supply of stamps, not only to meet the large volume of correspondence resulting from economic and population growth, but also to meet the growing sophistication of philately, ordinary emissions began to share space with commemorative sets.

At this time philately was young and growing rapidly, allowing many opportunities for gains but also of abuse. The new collectors often were led to believe that their little collections could become great fortunes over the course of decades or find a treasure in the basement. Maybe they had some really valuable things in the basement, but not everyone really got high gains.

The philatelic industry profits were enormous, dealers and governments were successful. The problem is that the hobby, although grow, gaining new followers, was not continued by the majority, who left after a few years and when they tried to sell their collections received the news that was worth a few bucks. There has been much disappointment combined with the emergence of thousands of substitutes hobbies. Many collectors who really like and understand what is philately, persisted until the end of life or are still active.

To be continued ...