There’s a sub over on Reddit called r/askastampcollector and the only thing it ever gets used for, virtually always in fact, is people just show up with stamps that they found or inherited or they were given, looking for a big paycheck.
It doesn’t work that way and a lot of them get positively upset when they receive the news that what they have is worthless, but honestly, can we just stop worrying about value when it comes to collectibles? You people are going about it all wrong!
Now I’m going to point out a channel on YouTube called Mallard Stamps which, at least in the handful of videos that I’ve watched, he seems very concerned with “value”. He’s got these giant tubs of stamps that he digs through for anything “of value”. Now far be it from me to tell anyone how they should collect and what they should do, that’s entirely up to them and there is no right way or wrong way to do it, but I really do have a problem with so many channels on YouTube aiming at the “you can get rich” demographic.
That includes a number of scam channels that I’ve seen, people who are making videos of common, worthless stamps, worth a couple of cents at best on the market, but they have it on eBay for $500! It might be a case of buyer beware, but there have to be enough real idiots out there who are buying this worthless crap at inflated prices of they wouldn’t keep doing it.
Back to Mallard, the simple fact is, the overwhelming majority of stamps that he pulls out to show off, they are actually monetarily worthless. You can buy them for a few cents anywhere. He has a Scott catalog, it’s an old one but it really can’t be that hard to look these stamps up before he gets excited at the “value”.
In fact, in one video, he had a block of Argentina stamps with a misprint and he was gushing over it. Yeah, I went and looked and I think I found him trying to sell that block on eBay for about $30 and there were absolutely no takers.
This is really where I think that so many YouTubers are doing a serious mis-service to collectors by emphasizing value. The “value” in collecting anything, be it stamps or Funko Pops, is in the experience of doing it. It’s in the enjoyment. It’s not in what you can sell them for when you’re done with them.
I find it sad that in the modern world, so few people seem to understand that. Most of the people who are doing this, in my experience, are very young. Like I said, I can’t tell anyone what they can do or what they can’t do, it’s just a bit depressing that so many people can only think in those terms about absolutely everything. There is no joy in just doing a thing that you love. There’s far too often a profit motive involved.
A while back, I finished going through some kiloware that I picked up for fun. Most of it, I’m not going to use. The vast majority is going to go into my swap pile for anyone who wants it. The overwhelming majority of my collections are mint stamps and I really only need the older, rarer and more expensive to fill holes. It was something that I wanted to do so I did it, just for the pure enjoyment of being able to sift through a bunch of stamps. I don’t care about recouping my “investment” because it wasn’t an investment in the first place.
It really can’t be that hard to figure out. Reality isn’t about making a buck, it’s about enjoying the time that you have. You certainly need to make money to stay alive, but once you do that, your hobbies are about the enjoyment, not the financial excesses that you can extract from it. My collections, I don’t care what happens to them when I’m gone. I’m not selling. If my family wants to once I’m dead, that’s up to them. I have never collected anything with the intention to sell it off for a quick profit. If that’s what you’re doing, then you’re doing collecting all wrong.
Maybe more people ought to rethink their intentions.
