Fifty years ago, if you had to draw a picture of the average stamp collector, he (and it was a "he") was an older white male who had a general world wide collection, maybe a US mint collection and definitely a collection of US Plate Blocks and First Day Covers. Today if you were to do the same thing it would be a somewhat younger male who collects one country(or British Commonwealth) usually mint. The change to a somewhat younger collector has been brought about by the Internet, where access to philatelic information is just a click away. Fifty years ago a person interested in stamps had to subscribe to a stamp publication or join the APS or go to a stamp exhibition. To those of us fiercely involved in the hobby, this is no big deal. But to a person who has a moderate interest, this is a large barrier to entry. Younger people are more time constrained and the ease of access to areas of interest that the Internet provides has made for a younger face among our buyers. It's still an overwhelmingly male hobby, but most of the collecting growth in the last 20 years has been in Asian philately giving our hobby a more heterogeneous face. What collectors collect has changed too. Fifty years ago FDCs and plate blocks were the rage. This has changed for two reasons. First, when it was less convenient to acquire philatelic material, many collectors resorted to monthly services. These were best designed to send out prepackaged First Day Covers or monthly sendings from philatelic agencies, or come from a visit to the post office. The web has made finding stamps easy (maybe too easy) and collectors can tailor their purchases to their real interests. And second, the cost of a year's plate blocks or FDCs has skyrocketed. In 1953, the United States issued three commemoratives making a years plate block budget 36c. Recently there have been years where a complete run of plates have over $1000 of postage.