Three Philatelies - Apfelbaum, Inc.

We tend to think of Philately as one hobby when it is really three separate and distinct endeavors, each with its own goals, problems, future and marketplace. The three are Mainstream Philately, High-end Philately and Aspirational Philately. Mainstream Philately is what most of us engage in from the youngster enjoying his first packet to the collector perusing Ebay for the best price and quality for the items he wants to add to his collection. Mainstream Philately is determined largely by the market-the stamps that mainstream philatelists desire are for the most part readily available, with most of the search and negotiations going on over price and quality rather than over whether the item is going to be offered at all. Most of the stamps that most collectors want fall into this category. High-end Philately is quite different. Here, most of the items are not only price rarities, but items that are offered so infrequently that collectors who want them have no choice but to purchase them when they are offered, at the price that the market determines. A High-end collector who holds out for a lower price misses the item that may well not be sold again in his lifetime. Aspirational collectors try to combine the aspects of High-end Philately, that is rarity, with the more modest philatelic budgets that most of us have. Collectors of this type gravitate to arcane specialties and niche postal history areas where items are rarely available but, because they lack some of the glamor of the higher end, are not so pricey when they are sold. These three markets are quite different and tomorrow I will look at how each is doing at the present time.

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