machin141
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Post by machin141 on Jul 22, 2023 10:06:19 GMT
Hello everyone can anyone please explain to me what digital stamp collecting is all about I'm a older collector of postage stamps I can't seem to get my head around this digital stamp collecting
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REL1948
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Posts: 790
What I collect: 1840-Pre-Decimal, GB and Colonies, 1840 1 penny reds, British Empire Postal History, Switzerland Postal History
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Post by REL1948 on Jul 22, 2023 15:58:02 GMT
Hello everyone can anyone please explain to me what digital stamp collecting is all about I'm a older collector of postage stamps I can't seem to get my head around this digital stamp collecting
The British Empire Study Group recorded our Zoom meeting last week on "Digital Philately, the Future is Now" presented by Dr. Darin Cherniwchan. It should be on YouTube within the next week. Just enter British Empire Study Group on YouTube and all of our previous recordings can be found there. Hope this gives some insight to your question.
Rob
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machin141
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Post by machin141 on Jul 22, 2023 21:02:15 GMT
Thanks for the information Rob best wishes 👍
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angore
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What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 23, 2023 10:22:33 GMT
I did not interpret the question that way but I did not ask it. I envisioned digital philately as someone collecting images of their favorite stamps and related material like as some people take pictures of all their meals at restaurants. Using REL1948 's defintion, just being on this forum is participating in digital philately. |
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paul1
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Post by paul1 on Jul 23, 2023 10:39:12 GMT
if like me you're old and unaccustomed to using a variety of electronic processing systems which consists of information solely in the form of digits 0 and 1, then it's difficult to see what to perhaps younger folk might be obvious. The reply from angore is correct insofar as simply being here and participating means we use just 0s and 1s to communicate our interest in stamps, not that I would ever want to not live in the physical world - not handling actual stamps seems rather pointless, if that is what is meant by 'digital philately'? - of course it may well not be, and I could be misunderstanding the subject.
Now, that should be a cue for some quick replies ;-);-)
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angore
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What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jul 23, 2023 11:11:10 GMT
One then could ask what is the opposite - analog philately?
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paul1
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Post by paul1 on Jul 23, 2023 11:24:38 GMT
how about just 'real philately' ;-) Unfortunately, REL1948s reply to machin141 wasn't what I expected - a two or three sentence reply explaining the nub of the subject would have been helpful.
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Post by michael on Jul 23, 2023 12:14:29 GMT
The OP machin141 needs to confirm whether they mean digital stamps as in the presentation of their stamps in a digital way (flipbook, website etc.) or the collection of 'digital images of stamps' as in NFTs (non-fungible tokens). |
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clivel
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Posts: 386
What I collect: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Rhodesias, South Africa, Swaziland, Israel to 1980, Ireland predecimal, Palestine Mandate
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Post by clivel on Jul 23, 2023 19:14:11 GMT
Having attended a number of BEG meetings, all of which have been excellent, I was disappointed at not being able to attend the "Digital Philately, the Future is Now" meeting so will have to make do with waiting for the recording instead.
As the video is not yet available, and given that there is not as yet a precise definition of Digital Philately I can only speculate as to what the scope of the meeting was.
For myself, being the author of two software programs that are hopefully of some use to a few collectors (AlbumEasy & ImageSleuth), when I think of Digital Philately it is in the broader sense, which includes just about anything where philately and computing collide, which admittedly in this digital age gives a lot of latitude.
Yet others may have a much narrower definition in mind when referring to Digital Philately.
A definition that specifically addresses the new-fangled NFT-based digital assets being issued by post offices around the world in yet another attempt to fleece hapless collectors.
And I suspect, given the title of this thread, that it is to these digital assets that machin141 is referring to. In which case the following points may apply: - Collectors love rarity. In general, the rarer an item is, the more valuable it becomes. The British Guiana 1c magenta is valuable because there is only one, it is unique. If there were two, or ten or a hundred, it would no longer be unique and it would be worth significantly less.
- An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token, which in plain English is a unique digital token.
As a simplification, it is just a very large prime number that is designated as the unique token. To ensure that a token remains unique it is recorded in a list called a blockchain.
- The blockchain provides the mechanism that ensures that the token remains unique, it also associates ownership information for each token. Only the owner may transfer ownership to someone else, thus allowing tokens to be bought and sold.
- A digital stamp is a stamp, often with a barcode, that links to an NFT stored on a blockchain. By purchasing a stamp, you are also receiving ownership of an NFT.
- Because of the unique nature of NFTs, investors have decided that the attached assets will increase in value, irrespective of whether the asset is a stamp or a digital image, often buying and selling these for ridiculous amounts of money.
For example, a screenshot of the first tweet, one which anyone can copy and view on their phone or computer as often as they like:
was purchased for US$2.9 million in 2021. The owner is currently trying to sell it, I believe that the highest offer so far is $4. Truly a story worthy of Hans Christian Andersen.
A good investment?
You be the judge.
Clive
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paul1
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Post by paul1 on Jul 23, 2023 19:38:47 GMT
thanks to clive1 for taking the time to attempt to clarify the meaning of 'digital stamps' - regret I'm probably not the best person to assess this, so will leave to those who better understand the meaning of these new words.
Have to say I'd not heard of the expression 'Non-Fungible Token', and clive1's explanation sounds to me a long way from the stamp collecting I know, but hey, it takes all sorts to make collectors.
I'm not inclined to feel too sorry for 'Jack' - if he had 2.9 million U.S. then he can't be too hard up. In the coming decades, philately may well go in directions we currently have no idea of, and speculation is always risky, but I'd like to think that at least the collecting of classics will remain simple and free from jargon and lengthy explanations for long enough to see me out.
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madbaker
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What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Jul 24, 2023 3:07:15 GMT
I'm also looking forward to the recording of the talk @clive1 mentioned.
The title of the original post is "Digital Stamps", but machin141 asks about "digital stamp collecting". Clive explained the former quite well; I'd like to riff on the latter.
Another take on 'digital philately' (which may not be in the "Digital Philately" talk) is the rise of new collectors on digital platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
I spend most of my time on TSF within the topics that discuss mounting and displaying my collection on paper pages, storing the pages in binders or albums, possibly displaying these pages of stamps at a club exhibit, etc. etc.
The new generation of collectors don't seem to be bothering with any of that stuff. They're taking photos or videos of cool stamps and sharing the photos online. Or they're using their purchases to mail letters and postcards and other art.
Or there is the fascinating offshoot, #extremephilately, where folks are taking pictures of a stamp in front of the object in the stamp's design.
Some of this blurs into the traditional ways too. Take blogging for example. Jim's @1840-1940 blog is one of the blogs I can't miss, and he's doing it the old fashioned way, filling paper albums with classic stamps. Meanwhile, Punk Philatelist is talking about contemporary culture through stamps. I love it just as much as Jim's blog, but for different reasons.
Or Grahams 'Exploring Stamps' channel on YouTube. We need to invent a Philatelic Oscar so we can give him one.
I even noticed a fellow on YouTube who collects stamps like he used to collect baseball cards. His favourites are mounted on a card then inserted into sportscard 'top loaders' so he can carry them around. (He's a little, shall we say, optimistic about condition and catalogue values, but his excitement makes up for it. )
What I notice is new collectors being absorbed by the newer issues and topicals. I wonder if the allure and romance of the old classics, the numerals, the posthorns, the omnibuses and the king / queen heads will continue.
Personally, I welcome it all. I get as much joy from viewing Chris' cape triangles as Linda's anime stamps. Or to be more precise, I enjoy their excitement when sharing the things they care about.
Not sure about NFT's though.  |
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madbaker
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Posts: 802
What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Aug 6, 2023 2:49:51 GMT
The talk REL1948 mentioned, about Digital Philately, presented for/by the British Empire Study Group is up on YouTube.
I thought it was a good talk, with a lot more that could be covered. The presenter's focus was more about how digital tools could be used to aid traditional philately, than what the young folk are doing these days. I learned of a few websites that I need to dig into further, for sure.
I was intrigued by the talk and almost inspired to build upon it. 
Here's the talk:
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angore
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What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Aug 6, 2023 10:07:16 GMT
This forum is an example of digital philately. There is this website by Gavin: thedigitalphilatelist.com/ The site is a modern Joe Luft web site. The aspect that has not been discussed is collecting digital objects themselves as opposed to using digital tools and resources to collect. |
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dorincard
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Posts: 1,623
What I collect: My focus is on Wild Mammals on maximum cards. Occasionally, I get or create maximum cards with other animals, or any other topic.
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Post by dorincard on Aug 6, 2023 12:31:38 GMT
Siberian Tiger yawning, a personalized stamp that I designed at zazzle.com/dorinco. Valid for postage, I might specify. USPS stopped the program in June 2020, so the 1 sheet of 20 such personalized stamps that I managed to buy remains a final 20 copies print run. Nobody else in the world has such stamps, except a few who bought from me. This tiger design started as a DIGITAL stamp design. Like some 160 other stamps that I designed at Zazzle et alter. But I materialized by ordering from Zazzle about 60 of my 160 stamp designs. A few savvy collectors ordered some of the 100 designs that I did not buy for myself. |
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kasvik
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Posts: 607
What I collect: Cancels mostly, especially Sweden Gävle and Lidingö, Switzerland Geneva, Germany Pforzheim
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Post by kasvik on Aug 6, 2023 21:09:58 GMT
Thanks a bunch to Mark/madbaker for posting Dr. Darin Cherniwchan’s lecture on digital methods. After REL1948 mentioned, I was sad to miss that. The recording is very appreciated.
Reminded me of Robert/WERT , who Cherniwchan mentions as his mentor. Clearest explanation of Gwyddion I’ve encountered. Gwyddion is far from easily understood. Its own training videos are blindingly quick, incomprehensible. Forget those. Rather, Cherniwchan has own instructional video--covering the specific process even more systematically than his lecture--on the British North America Philatelic Society website. That requires membership, and makes the stuff look malleable. I'm determined to try again. |
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drblade
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Posts: 848
What I collect: GB Unmounted mint & Machin definitives Q.E.II Used commemoratives
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Post by drblade on Aug 7, 2023 9:44:08 GMT
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Post by michael on Aug 7, 2023 11:44:40 GMT
I looked into NFT stamps awhile back, not to purchase, but to understand. There are many types, including those from an official postal authority that provide a postally valid stamp and a NFT digital copy that can be traded (Austria UN, Switzerland and many more) and sites like Stampsdaq that just offer digital NFT stamps that have no postal use whatsever so are effectively digital art in the shape of a stamp. Then there are those people that have heard about NFTs and the fortunes that can be made and take their worthless childhood stamps, create an NFT of them and then offer them on NFT trading platforms like Opensea.
Here's an example......yours (the image) for just $18 !
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paul1
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Post by paul1 on Aug 7, 2023 12:41:52 GMT
Surely if this image is unusable in terms of postal activity, then the item becomes simply a cinderella and not a stamp? I'm sure you could buy the real thing 'used' for a lot less than US $18.
Ah, I can hear you say, but that's to overlook the whole point of digital philately, which is that those folk simply collect computer images - but that's not 'collecting stamps', surely, and to pay for just an on line image may not cut it for collectors?
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angore
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What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Aug 8, 2023 9:57:30 GMT
A digital collection of first issues.  |
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