I’ve had a couple of discussions lately with newer philatelists, wondering what the point of the APS actually is. What do you get for being a member that’s actually useful?

To be honest, I don’t think there are any, at least for me.

The benefits that they list on the website are pointless, at least to me.

You get a subscription to The American Philatelist, their monthly magazine that frankly, I hardly even look at. Most of the articles are boring and because it focuses almost entirely on U.S. stamps, which I’ve mostly completed my collection of and rarely even look at, why bother? My wife reads them, but she’s probably 6 months behind because she’s bored with the whole thing too. Is that worth the $45 I pay them every year? Not remotely.

Next is “buy and sell options”. I don’t use any of it. Back when they had their own Stamp Store, it was pointless. Why? Because members paid regular prices, the same prices you could get anywhere else, and non-members paid a premium. That just drives off non-members who, as I said, could get the regular prices anywhere else. I don’t even get a discount and the selection is much larger and usually cheaper on Delcampe or Hipstamp. So who cares?

Secondly, though, is their circuit books, which I have no clue if they’re even doing it anymore. I tried them once. It was a waste. Why? Because I only collect mint, unhinged stamps. Most of what’s in the circuit books are used, often damaged stamps that people are just trying to get rid of. I don’t think I ever bought anything out of them and, as I said, I can just go to other places, get better quality at cheaper prices, so why bother?

The research library. I don’t care. Now if you’re a stamp fanatic, maybe. I’m not. I don’t spend all of my time reading about stamps and honestly, with the Internet, a lot of that information is freely available online. Why would I pay postage for a physical book that will take weeks to arrive when I can look it up in a couple of seconds? I don’t use it. Not a benefit.

Expertizing. Again, don’t care. Anything that I buy that needs to be expertized, I buy it that way. I am not one of those people who buys tons of stamps in the hopes that something might be worth a lot of money. I have no respect for those people. I collect. I do not speculate. Don’t care about your expertizing.

Their newsletter. It shows up in email. I hardly ever look at it. I have tons of them sitting in a folder in my email, unread. Why? Same reason as I don’t read the magazine. It’s boring and mostly, it doesn’t even apply to me and my collecting interests.

Stamp insurance. Covered. Don’t need your help.

Locate dealers. Simple. Google does that. Locally, there are none. The closest one is well over 100 miles away and while I like the place and stop in every now and then when I’m in the area, it’s not something I can’t live without. Most dealers are dying. Most stamp collectors are dying. If you look at the listings in the back of the magazine every month, they are hemorrhaging 800-900 members every single month. The average stamp collector is in their 80s these days. In another couple of years, I expect the APS to be dead. I’m just watching it go down like the Hindenburg.

I’m honestly not seeing anything that I get for my money that I couldn’t get just as easily, perhaps better, without them. A local stamp club? There aren’t any. The closest one is on the other side of a mountain and the few times I’ve been, while they are an APS affiliated club, anyone can turn up and usually, it’s less than 10 people, sometimes significantly less, each month. What difference does it make?

Now I’m not trying to be negative here, but if you look at the APS as value-for-money, there just isn’t any. Granted, that goes for just about any other stamp group. I’m a member of the China Stamp Society. Same thing is true. My wife is a member of the International Society for Japanese Philately. Same thing. Both come with magazines, I flip through them in a couple of minutes, put them away and that’s the end of it. I can’t think of a single benefit I get from either of them.

Granted, I’m not a very competitive collector. For me, stamp collecting is something that I do in the privacy of my home. It’s not a group sport. I buy stamps, I put them in albums, I enjoy looking at them… that’s it. So maybe these things aren’t really “for” me. I get it. However, I’m still watching the APS slowly die and wonder if it’s actually “for” anyone. What is it doing “for” philately? Is it necessary anymore? I honestly don’t know, but it’s still dying and soon it won’t matter anymore.

I don’t know that I’ll miss it when it’s gone.