Philately WILL get you everywhere: Stamp collectors grow up

[sinfiligrana]

By JAMES MILLS

Stamp Collecting: Once a popular hobby and a study shows philatelists are more successful than the rest of the population in their adult lives

They may not be seen as the coolest kids in the playground.

But youngsters who develop an interest in stamp collecting tend to be more successful in their adult lives than the rest of the population, a study suggests.

Researchers found that 74 per cent of philatelists are university educated, compared with only 20 per cent of the general public. And nearly half earn more than £30,000 a year - nearly £7,000 more than the national average.

Three out of four stamp collectors live in homes with more than three bedrooms, compared with one in three of the rest of the population, and one in seven owns a second home, a luxury enjoyed generally by just one in a hundred.

The survey by Royal Mail also reveals that 62 per cent of stamp collectors take at least two holidays every year.

But it seems that the hobby remains a male-dominated pastime, with just one in ten women among the country's 2.5million stamp enthusiasts.

There also appears to be something of a North-South divide, with 59 per cent of collectors living in the South.

Child behaviour expert Eileen Hayes said she was not surprised to learn that young stamp collectors tend to make a success of their lives.

"Stamp collecting develops several key skills such as persistence, attention to detail and patience, all of which contribute largely to the ability of people to succeed academically, in their careers and, ultimately, in their lives," she said.

"Stamp collecting as a hobby, particularly in children, can be of huge benefit to successes in other areas and it is fascinating to see this reflected so clearly within these statistics."

In the days before computer games, stamp collecting, along with building model railways, was a staple activity among schoolboys. It has long suffered from an image problem, coming second only to train spotting in the "anorak" stakes.

But there are a number of celebrity stamp collectors, including Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood who revived a passion for collecting rare stamps and painting after giving up alcohol.

A friend of his said: "Ronnie gets assistants to go to specialist shops to buy the best stamps. He's very proud of his collection."

The Queen has one of the finest stamp collections in the world, worth around £100million.

The first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, was launched in Britain on May 6, 1840, followed two days later by the Tuppence Blue.

Stamp collecting began soon after, but the hobby really took off in the 1860s. Stanley Gibbons Ltd, founded in 1856, is the world's oldest stamp dealing business. It claims rare stamps have risen in value at a rate of 10 per cent a year since 1907.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z142sr3PkD

[zakur]

Interesting. But all those numbers make me think that stamp collecting is a consequence of a life in better economic conditions, not the cause for it....