Fifty years ago, the vast majority of stamps sold between the same fifty thousand collectors and dealers. How could it have been otherwise? In 1960, except for a few major cities, stamp shops had begun to close (they are almost all gone now). Linns had about thirty thousand subscibers but many of them weren't active buyers. To buy stamps you had to go to a stamp shop or get Linns (or another stamp weekly) or get a stamp company price list or auction catalog. One had to actively pursue stamps in order to buy them. I know our business was dependent on the same two or three hundred customers.
Fast forward to 2011. EBay has expanded the market beyond anyone's dream. Three EBay sellers that I know have between them over 250000 feedbacks and that means sales to unique buyers over the last ten years. The implications for our hobby going forward are enormous in this regard. In 1960, with the vast majority of stamps trading in the same small pool, the recycle rate was high. Collectors bought, sold and traded and when they passed on their families sold their stamps. Today there are many more small collectors with small holdings. People dabble on EBay-buy a few sets or collections and then move on to some other diversion. This means that a great deal of philatelic material is now moving into hands where it is far less likely to be resold, where it goes to some storage bin and never gets recycled into our hobby's mainstream because it is too small an amount for the owner to bother with. (If you doubt this theory, ask yourself whether you or someone you know hasn't bought some group of collectibles that you now have no interest in and which are someplace in your house that you can't quite remember. Millions of people have done this and are doing this now with stamps.) This means that large quantities of philatelic material, mainly common material, is flowing to places where it is not likely that it will be quickly recycled to the market. One of the problems with the stamp market has been the huge overhang of common material. If this current trend continues much of that should dry up.
Fast forward to 2011. EBay has expanded the market beyond anyone's dream. Three EBay sellers that I know have between them over 250000 feedbacks and that means sales to unique buyers over the last ten years. The implications for our hobby going forward are enormous in this regard. In 1960, with the vast majority of stamps trading in the same small pool, the recycle rate was high. Collectors bought, sold and traded and when they passed on their families sold their stamps. Today there are many more small collectors with small holdings. People dabble on EBay-buy a few sets or collections and then move on to some other diversion. This means that a great deal of philatelic material is now moving into hands where it is far less likely to be resold, where it goes to some storage bin and never gets recycled into our hobby's mainstream because it is too small an amount for the owner to bother with. (If you doubt this theory, ask yourself whether you or someone you know hasn't bought some group of collectibles that you now have no interest in and which are someplace in your house that you can't quite remember. Millions of people have done this and are doing this now with stamps.) This means that large quantities of philatelic material, mainly common material, is flowing to places where it is not likely that it will be quickly recycled to the market. One of the problems with the stamp market has been the huge overhang of common material. If this current trend continues much of that should dry up.