Philately: An Aging Population or an Asian Population?

In the most recent Canadian Stamp News, John Sheffield, the retiring executive director of the Canadian Stamp Dealers Association (CSDA) gives a revealing interview in which he notes that at one point, the CSDA counted 280 members. There are now fewer than 80, and the organization can no longer hold a financially-viable stamp show. Then he shares his memories of the halcyon days: collecting stamps as a young paperboy, going to the local stamp store with his father and becoming a full-time dealer in 1988. CSDA shows twice a year at the Toronto convention centre and in Montreal, and annually in Ottawa. More people are getting out of the business than are getting in, with age and death drawing down the numbers. He suggests the biggest challenge facing Canadian stamp dealers is relevance.

Well, how relevant is this? In the same article, he notes that in Asian countries, stamp shows are attended by hundreds of thousands of people, most under the age of 30. Taiwan alone can count 2.7 million collectors, about 13% of the population. The recent five-day Taipei 2023 (top photo) attracted over 180,000 attendees! In a 1997 article from Taiwan Today, a Christie's dealer says, "A lot of children love collecting, but they get distracted as they get older, although one day they may come back to it. At this point, most collectors are middle-aged men, at least that's certainly the case at auctions." Interestingly, there are many more women collecting stamps in Asia than in the North American old-man market. While we're at it, let's change the names of stamp shows to leave out the -PEX suffix. Who knows what an ORAPEX is anyway, and does that encourage new, inquisitive collectors or just leave them walking away, scratching their heads?

Sheffield says the biggest change in the stamp industry has been the internet, opening up gaping new worldwide markets. Indeed, those who had an internet presence were able to weather the pandemic's economic downturn, all while thousands of collectors had time at home to return to their stalled collections. "The future must be embraced by stamp dealers of they're going to go the way of the dinosaur", he dryly notes. Hey, here's a suggestion for dinosaur dealers: instead of dying with your stock in hand, sell low to those willing to buy thereby kick-starting a resurgence here in Canada. 

But will they?