General Commentary: The Topic is Topicals!

Topical, or thematic, collecting (the formation of stamp collections based on the themes pictured on the stamps) is probably growing worldwide. Unfortunately, as is true of stamp collecting in general, no hard demographic data exists on the number of topical collectors in the world, or the breakdown of the population of topical collectors by country, topic, or level of "seriousness" as collectors.

The American Topical Association (A.T.A) conducted a survey in 2008, and determined that the following topics (listed in order of popularity) were the most widely collected by A.T.A. members:

1. Animals


2. Famous Men


3. Sports


4. Medical/Nursing


5. Flora


6. Religion


7. Birds


8. Railroads


9. Americana


10. Ships


11. Fairytales/Folktales/Disney/Mythology


12. Marine Life


13. Space Exploration


14. Insects


15. Geological Features


16. Music


17. Fine Arts


18. Literary Subjects


19. Military Subjects


20. Aviation

The survey is useful as far as it goes; certainly, some notion concerning the popularity of a topic should be taken into account when attempting to evaluate the investment potential of a stamp.

The dearth of demographic data regarding this and other areas of the stamp market illustrate one of the differences between investing in stamps and investing in equities. While information concerning the supply of a stamp may sometimes be known or estimated, getting anything clearer than a fuzzy, nebulous view of demand trends is usually impossible. A philatelic investor who knew how many "serious" collectors specialized in particular topics and which topics were growing in popularity, and by what rate, would not have to make "educated guesses." Contrast this with stocks, which are frequently analyzed based upon a veritable feast of numerical and technical information. With stocks, tragedies occur only as a result of mis-analysis, hysteria, or when the numbers reported by a company turn out to be lies.

Stamp Investment Tip: Spain 1950 Stamp Centenary Issue (Scott #776-79,C127-30)

In 1950, Spain issued a set of imperforate stamps (Scott #776-79, C127-30) commemorating the Centenary of its first postage stamps. The "Stamp on Stamp" topical pictured the 1850 Isabella II issue, and 41,000 sets were produced. Scott values the unused NH set at $ 575.00 and the used set at $ 376.00.

I favor the scarce and undervalued issues of Spain and its colonies. The nation has 46 million people, the 9th largest economy in the world, and the most rapidly aging population in Europe. Philately will continue to flourish under such conditions.

I recommend purchase of the set - unused or used. First Day Covers with the complete set are also attractive, as long as the premium over the cost of a plain used set isn't exhorbitant.