What Hath Jobs Wrought?

Steve Jobs died this week at the very young age of 56. While many different people have been instrumental in the electronic transformation of the last thirty years, few have had more impact on how, when and why people use computers than he was. Information technology has changed all fields including philately and Jobs’ death lets us reflect on how things have changed for us. Thirty years ago every serious collector needed to subscribe to a hard copy magazine or be a member of the American Philatelic Society in order to collect stamps. Linn’s was a buyers marketplace in 1975 with hundreds of ads listing stamps for sale. Many dealers used Linn’s as their primary selling source and that was because many collectors did most of their buying from those lists. Today, Linns is the only mass circulation philatelic magazine left and it is a fraction of its former size and has only a small subscriber base. Linns ads are almost entirely buying ads from dealers with almost all selling now being done online. Electronic communication sped the demise of stamp stores. A main street stamp shop has wares for only a few of the hundreds who pass it each day. The economics don’t make sense-paying high rents for exposure that you don’t need- and the net world allowed dealers to give up their shops and meet their customer in the virtual world. Auction catalogs are another area that has changed. Most catalogs are now just guides to online descriptions and scans and the vast majority of the philatelic auction market is paper catalog free. All lots are illustrated (scanned) and larger collections can be scanned so that auction lot viewing has come to collectors’ homes. And the stamp market has gone from being regional and national where collectors had to visit their local shop to buy stamps to being truly international in scope where it is just as easy to buy from New Zealand as New York. When history of technology books are written decades from now about the changes that we have all witnessed there will be no chapter on the changes in philately. We have just incorporated the changes that have permeated all communications. But it is very possible that historians will date the evolution of computer technology and use by the life of Steve Jobs. And if that’s true, we have just entered a new era.