Every surge in the number of stamp collectors is a manifestation of the rise in the market

In 1840, the world's first set of stamps black penny was issued, the stamp collector was born, as stamps became more and more popular, all countries in the world issued stamps, and more and more stamp collectors. After the founding of New China, the earliest batch of stamp collectors were the remnants of the old society, mainly collecting stamps of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. There are many varieties of old Jite stamps, the theme is more novel, the use of stamps is very wide, and a new group of stamp collectors has gradually formed, but the number is not large. In that era, everyone's income was relatively low, the monthly salary of college graduates was only more than 30 yuan, and ordinary people were lower, and such low wages continued until the early stage of reform and opening up. Due to lower incomes, most collectors mainly collect letter sales tickets, which saves money. Some stamps that cannot be sold will also be made into date-stamped stamps, although they cannot be sent letters, but they are good quality and cheap, and many economically strapped stamp collectors are preferred. At that time, stamp collectors were mainly concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, and students, soldiers, and staff of institutions and institutions accounted for the majority. Due to the small number of collectors, stamps are not booked and circulation is not large.

During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, the cause of philately was severely damaged, and even the magazine "Philatelic" was suspended until 1980. In the past ten years, there have been almost no new forces of philately, only the pre-Cultural Revolution philatelic collectors are still secretly insisting, that era is afraid of being criticized, many old philatelists even destroyed the stamps that have been collected for most of their lives, and there is no shortage of precious stamps. With the reform and opening up in 1978, the philatelic cause gradually recovered, and the theme of stamps began to gradually move closer to the old Jite era, and the special stamp topics were diverse, including folk culture, as well as talented people and emperors.

In 1979, philatelic activities began to resume under the official call, in 1982 the National Philatelic Federation was established, in 1984 the new stamp was scheduled to be rolled out throughout the country, the circulation of stamps began to gradually expand, before 1981, the sales of special stamps mainly earned foreign exchange, and gradually transferred to ordinary Chinese. Stamp circulation rose from 1 million to 5 million in 1984, and miniature sheets rose from 100,000 to 2 million. Around 1985, the number of philatelists began to soar for the first time, because philatelic companies began to officially price old stamps in New China and issued stamp catalogs, which was equivalent to the official basis for the sale of various high-priced stamps on the market. Old Jite, Cultural Revolution stamps, numbered stamps, early JT and other stamps finally have the opportunity to stretch their fists, many stamps became rare stamps overnight, even the 1980 monkey stamps issued for a few years rose to 20 yuan in 1985, which made many people see business opportunities, so a large amount of capital entered the stamp field, stamp collectors are getting more and more year by year, and by 1989, the national reservation of packages has exceeded 8 million sets, and the number of Ji te stamps has exceeded 15 million sets.

In 1991, with the release of the Disaster Relief stamp, collectors cheered even more. The face value is 0.8 yuan, and it was speculated to 40 yuan shortly after the issuance, and the circulation of this ticket is actually not small, and the official announced it in advance is 20 million. However, in the same year, most of the single package tickets were 40-50 million circulation, and 20 million was not much for such a set of circle themes that year. The increase in stamp collectors is because stamps are profitable, a large amount of capital into, but the transaction of personal stamps in that year is still a speculative behavior, and can not be recognized by the government, in order to curb the excessive popularity of the postal market, the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications decided to issue 20 million more disaster relief stamps, and the final circulation of 40 million. As soon as this news came out, it was like a thunderbolt, which awakened many people's dreams of getting rich, the price of disaster relief stamps took a sharp turn, a large number of investors suffered heavy losses, and the market in 1991 also came to a screeching halt.

In the early nineties, the average person's income was less than 300 yuan per month, and it was rare to be able to invest a few thousand yuan. Although the 1991 disaster relief stamp issuance led to the extinguishing of a round of market, but soon a second wave of market began to brew. Stamp issuance soared from 1992-1995, from 15 million in 1991 to 70 million in 1993, and although the circulation fell to 25 million in 1995, the market still did not improve, and the stamps of 1992-1995 began to be discounted. After the return of Hong Kong in 1997, the issuance of commemorative stamps became imperative, and the number of stamp collectors began to increase. In April, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications announced the circulation in 1996, the lowest Dunhuang mural miniature sheet was only 16.25 million, other small sheets were below 20 million, and the set ticket dropped to 18 million. Several popular themes and small sheets have become the focus of speculation, such as Dunhuang mural sheets and Shanghai Pudong sheets have been speculated to a high price of nearly 100 yuan, while the 1995 World Table Tennis Championships small sheet rose to more than 200 yuan, and the toothless osmanthus small sheet exceeded 1,000 yuan.

With the return of Hong Kong to the issuance of gold leaf sheets, a new round of market has been completely detonated, and the number of philatelists has increased significantly, and the official has revealed that in 1997, the number of philatelists was as high as 17 million, which is also the largest number of stamp collectors in Chinese history. Of course, this market actually began at the end of 1996, when the 1997 reservation card was speculated to 200 yuan a year, which was really a passionate years, and the number of stamp collectors in 1997 was at least 20 times that of now. The increase in stamp collectors is not because stamps are consumed in large quantities, so that the broad masses of people have feelings for stamps to collect stamps, in fact, most of the stamps sent at that time were residential and Great Wall stamps, and the amount of Ji te stamps entering the field of letter delivery was very small, but the consumption in the period from 2002 to 2006 was relatively large. The surge in stamp collectors is because the stamps have risen, everyone is holding the dream of getting rich to collect stamps, many people are attracted by the overnight wealth, this attraction is not the current postal efforts, find ways to let you book new mail, buy product books can be compared.

As the saying goes, the prosperity will decline, the face value of up to 50 yuan of Hong Kong return to the gold leaf sheet once again pit the stamp collectors, the original plan of 5 million circulation will eventually issue 20 million, soon the price from three or four hundred yuan to more than one hundred, dozens of yuan, until now it is still discounted, other plates also fell. Collectors save money and use the stamps they bought to lose their lives, and the income of that era cannot be compared with now, and many people earn less than 5,000 a year. Due to the surge in the number of new mail bookings in 1997, the circulation rose again in 1998, rising to 35 million, but the market took a sharp turn for the worse, and the monkey ticket that was speculated to 2,000 yuan in 1997 was only 800 yuan in 1999. All sector prices are falling, which can be described as a crash. At this time, collectors began to leave in large numbers, and many people completely abandoned the hobby they had insisted on for twenty or thirty years. A large number of new mail discounts, discounts are getting higher and higher, in fact, from 1999 onwards the circulation gradually declined, but it was too late, by 2005 the number of new mail bookings in the country has been less than 5 million sets, the number of stamp collectors is no longer officially announced, it is predicted that in 2005 less than 2 million people. In just eight years between 1997 and 2005, philatelists decreased by nearly ninety percent.

The use and consumption of stamps can indeed lead some people to collect stamps, but these drives are very limited, even if it is still the era of writing letters, if there is no big market, the number of stamp collectors will not be very large. After all, how many people can actually like a hobby, and how much of it accounts for it is basically fixed. Only when the market improves and stamp collecting can bring wealth to most people can philatelicists soar, as they did in 1991 and 1997. History is always similar, but the number of stamp collectors to return to the heyday is already a fool's dream, postal review of the situation has reduced the circulation to more than 6 million, you can draw a conclusion, the current philatelist is quite rare, many small and medium-sized cities of the postal market gradually disappear is proof, after all, philately is a sunset industry, with the development of society will eventually be replaced.