k naseer ahmed 52 a resident of coimbatore has been collecting stamps for the last 45 years he has an entire collection of commemorative definitive issue and miniature sheets from 1947 till 2016 but he has stopped collecting them now he has not bought a single stamp since 2017 and has left the hobby as the price of the stamps has skyrocketed in the past few years its not just him but a number of philatelists across the country said that they will leave the hobby soon in tamil nadu out of the 14097 philatelist accounts with the postal department 2700 have become dormant over the yearsthe postal department that is trying to earn revenue with the sale of stamps has increased the rates of stamps released per year by six folds in the past decade the number of issues released per year has also gone up three timesearlier if a stamp was released we could purchase one or two stamps but now postal department sells only an entire sheetlet also several stamps of face value rs 25 come in a package with assortments and we are asked to pay rs 250 for it said naseersources in the postal department said that they wanted to promote stamp collection as an investment more than a hobby but philatelists said there is no corresponding increase in quality of printing and supply earlier in a year i would have to spend only around rs 200500 for stamps now we need to pay more than rs 25000 to buy all the sheetlets and issues that are released in a year said r kasinath a philatelist he said the department released the childrens day stamp in november 2017 but it was not available until february 2018som ghatak 36yearold techie also a stamp collector from bengaluru said the department was killing the king of hobbies i have stopped buying india stamps and only collect thematic ones from other countries what is the point of releasing a new stamp if it is not available our friends from other countries keep asking us for these stamps and we feel ashamed to say that our country does not have stock he saidphilatelists also pointed out that it was a pity that all the new releases were available with the dealers but not for genuine collectors if supply and prices were also ignored spelling mistakes also found on stamps recently goann tiatr pondicherry jubilee and coconut research miniature sheets were printed with spelling mistakes a rs 100 value coffee stamp was released with a claim that it will have smell of coffee but it did not have pointed out a philatelistmahesh parekh committee member of south india philatelist association said that the increase in rates can be attributed to the increase in the cost of operation as well the department has not increased the postage stamp rates for several years it is a fact that genuine collectors are affected but we need to help collectors become more organized and create