Stamp Collecting Isn’t Dead

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/opinion/stamp-collecting-isnt-dead.html

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To the Editor:

In “Stamped Out” (Op-Ed, Sept. 30), Eugene L. Meyer presents a disappointingly myopic view of the stamp-collecting hobby. In fact, philately (as serious adherents call it) is dizzyingly active, involving millions worldwide.

Though the exact number can’t be known, large numbers of hobbyists are active in internet forums, online timed auction platforms like eBay, and live auctions (many of which allow concurrent online bidding).

The photo accompanying the article online shows stamps that were worth pennies in the 1950s and still are now. But the market for hundred-dollar and thousand-dollar stamps is active and, in many cases, highly competitive.

International exhibiting of rare collections, carefully organized, meticulously researched and with well-written narratives, is so popular that heated controversies have broken out about governance.

Knowledgeable professional philatelists flock to the meetings of the Collectors Clubs of New York and Chicago, and the Royal Philatelic Society in London for lectures, fellowship and competition.

The death of the hobby has been greatly exaggerated. It’s not dead; it’s just different.

CHRISTOPHER J. PALERMOSAN CARLOS, CALIF.

The writer is president of a stamp club.