It's Called "Show and TELL!"-- Meaningless Photos in Philatelic Groups

I get much enjoyment of our stamp collecting hobby from interacting with other collectors and seeing/hearing about their collecting interests and adventures. As a result, I belong to many online forums and groups for stamp collectors. There are literally hundreds of them out there... something to fit almost every collecting interest, as well as "general" groups for people who are simply "interested in stamps," in the broadest sense of the world.

Although I mostly collect Scandinavia, I have also had
a small collection of Australia, for many years, because
my godmother was Australian

At the risk of sounding "curmudgeonly," I am somewhat baffled-- and a little annoyed-- by the common practice by many people of posting dozens and even hundreds of photos of (seemingly random) stamps with never a word of descriptive text about the stamp. Basically, we are "treated" to what amounts a seemingly endless parade of "meaningless" images. This practice seems particularly prevalent in groups on social media sites like Facebook and Google+.

"WHY bother?" I ask myself.

Back when I was in school, we had something called "show and tell." This was when you had to bring something to school, get up in front of the class to show it off and talk a bit about what it was and what it did, and why you were interested in it. I expect many people experienced "show and tell," when they were in school.

All these years later, online stamp groups largely work as a "show and tell" for (by now adult) stamp collectors.

So why do I consider these "blank" images posted to stamp groups "meaningless" and even annoying?

Well, here's just a random picture of a stamp. OK. Fine. What am I supposed to do with that? Are you expecting me to go find a catalog and look up what it is? WHY did you post it? Do you particularly LIKE it? Do you HAVE it in your collection? Or are you LOOKING for it? Are you wanting to TRADE it? Are you asking others to help you IDENTIFY it?

The "Posthorn" definitive series from Norway is widely regarded as the
world's longest continually running stamp series. Introduced in 1872,
the basic design remains in use today.

It's really not rocket science to write a small comment about an image-- like the captions under the images on this page.

Obviously, people who post hundreds of images to stamp group surely must have some kind of "objective." Presumably, they are "showing" their stamps with the hope people will look at them. But if you don't care enough to provide at least a tiny bit of information about the stamp, why should I "care enough" to look at them, let alone "like" or "comment" on them?

Now, you might be wondering what "the big deal" is here, and why I am even bothering to comment on this particular trend. Why not just "ignore them and let it go?"

I guess the "big deal" for me is that I (and quite a few other people) am interested in the social aspect of online stamp groups... and when someone posts one "meaningless photo" after another, the actual stamp discussions pretty much get pushed out of the way... and I find myself spending a lot of (not particularly enjoyable) time sifting through mountains of photos of common definitives from "Upper Slobodnia" or "Philamondobondistan" I don't care about. I might care if you gave me a reason to... but you don't.

Is it really "a problem?"

Iceland became the 3rd country I started collecting
after learning about volcanoes and geothermal
geography in school.

You might well wonder just how much of an "issue" a few collectors posting "blank" pictures can be. For curiosity's sake, I perused some of the online profiles of the posters... and at least a couple of them had posted more than 50,000 (yes, fifty thousand!) images each. That's more pictures of stamps than there are in many collections.

Really makes me want to shake these folks and say "How about a little QUALITATIVE editing?"

Don't get me wrong-- I honor the fact that different people approach stamp collecting from different perspectives... and I also honor the idea that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to collect stamps. That said, there is the broader issue (outSIDE your stamp collection) of a little awareness of others and how your actions impact those around you. If your actions-- however innocent they may be-- result in your monoplozing a philatelic group's space, you may be taking away from others' enjoyment of the group, even though your root intentions may be the exact opposite!

The other issue that comes to my mind concerns the general future of stamp collecting. Will an endless "encyclopedia" of stamp images with no explanation attached inspire potential new collectors to join our hobby.... or just confuse them? I lean towards the latter, thinking they'll just see some of ALL those pictures and think "pretty cool, but I feel so lost. This is very complicated and I'm afraid I'll never figure it out." Or worse still, they'll think philately is some kind of "private club" where if you don't know what something is, you "don't belong." And then they'll move on.

What do YOU think? If you are reading these words, you're obviously a stamp collector online. Do you belong to stamp collecting groups? Do you notice people doing this sort of "empty image posting?" How do YOU feel about it? Leave a comment!

Coveting thy Neighbor's Stamp Collection

Unlike many stamp collectors, I spend a fair amount of time being "plugged into" online venues. I have-- in essence-- been "a nerd" since first messing around with computers in the mid- to late 1970's. I am fairly well-versed in blogging, building web sites, Facebook, twitter, search engines and most other things relating to the World Wide Web. I went to one of the very few schools that had a computer-- when I was 16 (in 1976), such a computer sat in an entire room, and had less computing power than today's average SmartPhone!

But I am digressing.

I am fairly active on a number of online forums for stamp collectors. As part of our forum activities, we tend to share stories and post pictures of our recent finds and acquisitions. In some ways, I think stamp collectors are as much into telling "big fish stories" as any group of people!

A nice stamp I recently added to my collection

What I have found interesting, though, is that whenever I post news about something I've found-- a nice stamp I recently added to my collection-- I almost immediately get a half-dozen inquiries: "Do you want to sell that? Is it for sale? How much is it? Do you have more?"

Maybe I'm being "too sensitive," here... but such inquiries feel a bit akin to walking up to someone you meet at a dinner party and asking "How much money do you make?" I certainly am aware that stamp collecting-- and collecting ANYthing, for that matter-- is about "getting" things for your collection. But still... there is (at least to MY way of thinking!) a huge difference between "new things I put on eBay" and "new things I put in my collection."

It makes me sit back and wonder if everything in life-- not just in stamp collecting-- has gotten to the point where our primary thinking is about "acquisition" rather than about what makes things interesting, in the first place.

Then again, maybe these inquiries are merely the result of the fact that I do sell stamps, as well as collect them-- and maybe part of the territory is an automatic assumption that "everything is for sale." That said, I regard myself as a collector first, and a trader/seller, second.

I should hasten to add that I am not upset about this practice-- merely a little curious.

Happy collecting to all!

Selling Stamps on the Web: Where do you go?

In these "modern" times of the Internet, it's not unusual for stamp collectors to turn into "part time stamp dealers."

I've been one, myself, for over 15 years. I didn't start selling because I "wanted to be a stamp dealer," nor because I was trying to make a living. Like many collectors, I simply wanted to pass on some of my duplicate material... and hopefully get enough money in the process that I could buy more stamps... and keep the cycle of building my collection going, without having to spend too many of my hard-earned dollars from my "day job." My primary objective was always to try to make the expansion of my collections "self-funding."

Of course, as collectors we have lots of options.

Different web sites make different "claims," as to why we should use them-- why precisely their site will be the best thing for us. Sometimes, the options can leave us more confused than enlightened. I have tried-- and, in many cases, continue to use-- a number of online venues, with varying degrees of success.

Like many things in life, I have found that the most appropriate answer to "where should I sell my stamps?" typically tends to be "it depends."

Some sites are "fixed price," like the American Philatelic Society's online "StampStore," or independent site Stamps2Go.

Other sites are "auction format," most notably e-commerce giant eBay, whose humble beginnings were akin to an online garage sale. Since then, dozens of "alternative" sites have cropped up and attempted to present themselves as viable marketplaces.

These days, many sales venues are "hybrids," that is, sellers can choose a combination of fixed price (or "buy it now") and auction formats. On some sites, you can even have your own "online storefront."

But there are additional choices we have to make: Do we choose a "general" sales venue (like eBay or eBid) with a strong presence in the "stamps" category? Or do we choose a "collectibles" sales venue (like Delcampe or BidStart), where the audience is more focused? Or do we choose a "stamps only" venue (like Stamps2Go or StampoRama)?

Another factor that plays into our decision is the fees we have to pay to the selling site. Often, what site we choose, and what fees we're willing to pay, will be dependent on the average price per stamp (or lot of stamps) we're planning to offer for sale. If you have a bunch of 50-cent items you want to sell, it obviously doesn't make much sense to list on a site that charges a minimum fee-per-lot of 25 cents. But that same site might work really well if your average item is worth $10.00.

There are also a lot of web sites to offer "reviews" of places people can sell their items-- stamps, or otherwise. Sadly, the majority do not offer very objective opinions, as they tend to "fund themselves" through a network of "referral links." And who's going to honestly write "this site sucks" if part of their income comes from referring people to that site?

Anyway, this post is a bit of a pre-amble to my intentions to-- during 2012-- write about each of the seller  venues I use to sell stamps. The good, the bad and the ugly... from someone who (a) actually sells (or has sold) on those sites, (b) isn't being paid for his opinions, and (c) specializes in stamps, not all sorts of other merchandise. Not going to set any "schedule" for this-- I'll just get to it, as I can.

Cluttered Web Sites: Are stamp collectors cluttered in the head?

I spent some time today, looking around the Internet at various web sites related to stamp collecting.

To be honest, I wasn't very impressed with what I found.

Please! No cluttered web sites!

Maybe that sounds a bit blunt and rude, so let me clarify. I was actually very impressed with the volume and variety of philatelic web sites and blogs out there. Seems a LOT of stamp collectors have found their way to the world wide web and are sharing lots of interesting content about stamp collecting and philately.

What left me feeling very UN-impressed-- and even a little frustrated-- was the sheer number of poorly designed, willy-nilly, cluttered web sites out there; web sites that looked more like a going-out-of-business sales flyer than a way to present one's treasured stamps.

Now, you might be asking yourself why I even care. Good question. So here's the point:

If your web site is made up of dozens of seemingly unrelated little text boxes with text in different colors and fonts, arranged in a way that suggests NO planning whatsoever... your web site design, itself, is actually taking AWAY from your attempts to share with other people. Think, for a moment, about what an album page looks like. It is pretty plain, with borders around each stamp, and maybe a little bit of descriptive text. Odds are your stamps are NOT mounted up on paper from the most recent Wal-Mart flyer, right? So WHY would you build a web site made up to look like a patchwork quilt with blinking lights?

Think simple. Let the STAMPS tell the story... not the "wrapping" (aka web site). Keep it simple...