Commentary: Response to Nicole Mowbray (The Guardian)

Nicole Mowbray, The Guardian

Is the popularity of stamp collecting in decline or on the rise? This was the question explored in a recent article by Nicole Mowbray in The Guardian ("Post modern: why millennials have fallen in love with stamp collecting," 11 April 2020). Mowbray's conclusion, based on interviews with five individuals between the ages of 29 and 37 active in the United Kingdom's philatelic scene, was that the popularity of stamp collecting is on the rise. Is her analysis an accurate reflection of reality or does closer scrutiny reveal it to be a product of wishful thinking?

"Year of the Ox" stamp (China Post, 2009)

Among stamp collectors there are two attitudes regarding philately's future. To frame the debate in Wall Street terms, the bulls believe stamp collecting experienced a decline in popularity for an extended period but has bottomed out and is now in a definite uptrend; the bears, on the other hand, believe that even if stamp collecting is rising in popularity, it is a momentary bounce in a clear downtrend. Each camp has valid arguments in its favor. The bulls view the digital landscape as largely uncharted territory for philately, where social media, blogs, YouTube, and e-commerce are spreading philately's reach into new domains, even as there is a concomitant decline in traditional venues of philatelic activity such as clubs, print journals and dealer shops. The bears, on the other hand, argue that the shift from letter-writing to digital communication and from adhesive stamps to meter marks is, respectively, the reason postal administrations are struggling to survive and evidence that the traditional postage stamp is on a path to extinction.

"1970s Fashion" stamp (U.S. Postal Service, 1999)

Mowbray attributes her bullish outlook on stamp collecting to two aspects of the hobby:

Philately is gaining popularity with younger hobbyists who are drawn to its vintage -- and Instagram -- appeal.

The millennial generation is unique in that it retains vivid memories of life before the digital revolution at the same time that it was young enough when the revolution started to have thoroughly assimilated its technology into the millennial identity. This is a generation that is hip to the latest mobile game releases but still appreciates classic board games, that listens to MP3s but still appreciates the sound of an LP, that uploads vacation photos to Instagram but still sends the family a postcard from the trip. These examples don't purport to represent every millennial in a literal sense, but taken together they suggest a reality in which millennials straddle a point on the historical timeline corresponding to the start of the digital revolution such that they have a leg on either side of it. Stamps embody this same duality. As cultural artifacts, they are a way of communicating with the past; and because of their visual nature, they lend themselves to communication in the image-heavy language of the present.

"Makhtesh Katan" stamp (Israel Post, 2014)

Nicholas Challinor-Halford, 33, cites the capacity of stamps to transport millennial collectors back in time to relive memories and experiences from before the world went digital:

Nicholas Challinor-Halford, business manager at stamp auctioneer Harmers of London, believes that part of the millennial boom is the result of romantic notions of pre-digital life. "For Generation Y ... [stamp] collecting is escapism with a nostalgic slant, giving collectors a link to the past.

It used to be that the notion of digital detox was exclusively the province of small subculture pockets of society: observant Jews, for example, whose religion forbids them from using electricity on the Sabbath; New Age spiritual practitioners, whose cultivation of mindfulness involves a minimization of screen time; or outdoors enthusiasts, whose communion with nature is often a means of disengaging from their electronic devices and associated pressures. In these times of global lockdown brought on by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, with millions of people effectively trapped in their homes and compelled to consume digital content in unprecedented quantities, the notion of digital detox is being invoked in mainstream circles with increasing frequency. As a fundamentally offline activity, combining the intellectual benefits of reading with the fine motor skills of playing a musical instrument, stamp collecting is both a conduit to other worlds and other times and a home remedy for digital overdose.

"India National Philatelic Exhibition" stamp (India Post, 1970)

A major consideration in any discussion of stamp collecting's future is how the uninitiated will find their way to the hobby. In the case of 37-year-old Suzanne Rae, the introduction was made at a young age through her family:

Rae's love of stamp collecting was instilled in her as a child, thanks to her grandparents.

In the days before email, stamp collecting was a self-promoting hobby by virtue of people routinely sending and receiving mail with stamps on it. Millennials, even if they aren't writing letters anymore, are at least familiar with the concept of a stamp -- the sight of a stamp still evokes in them a range of associated memories and experiences from their past. What about younger demographics, who never sent a letter in the mail? Unless they have relatives who are collectors, as in Suzanne Rae's case, or studied under teachers who promoted stamp awareness at school, the odds of them ever having a meaningful encounter with a stamp are exceedingly low. The fact of the matter is few kids know what a stamp is anymore, what a postcard looks like, or even what their mailing address is, and that will make trying to interest them in stamp collecting later in life a seriously tall order.

"La Saint Valentin" stamp (La Poste, 1985)

Stamp collecting has an image problem. Among the general public, the hobby is perceived as antiquated and dull and collectors are perceived as old and reclusive. It comes as no surprise, then, that philately is a crypto-hobby -- as in "a hobby pursued in secret." 34-year-old James Leigh, however, insists he feels no shame in making his interest in stamps public:

I find them utterly fascinating and I don't care who knows it.

When two running enthusiasts or whiskey aficionados meet, it doesn't take long for them to discover their common passion. How long would it take two stamp collectors to make the same discovery? Things may be starting to change, though. In particular, the American Philatelic Society's recent promotion of young collectors like Graham Beck and Erin Seamans is injecting a youthful, hip energy into the hobby that has been sorely lacking from it. In Israel, there is a generous scholarship for college students who undertake to write research papers that relate to philately. The day may not be far off when online dating profiles begin highlighting philately as an interest to attract potential partners.

"Sydney Stock Exchange" stamp (Australia Post, 1971)

The main takeaway from Mowbray's article is this: Millennials are falling in love with stamp collecting, and that bodes well for the hobby's future in the near term. Why only in the near term? Because the circumstances that are drawing millennials to the hobby are unique to them and for the most part don't apply to post-millennial generations. In other words, as things stand, the boom that philately is enjoying now will in the longer term turn out to have been a bounce.