Newly spotted (2)
Many new stamps on a wide variety of subjects are released on a regular basis. Below you will find a selection of recently issued stamps from around the world.
The Bayeux Tapestry on an Alderney block. A prestige booklet has also been published.
Australia is the only country that issues a stamp and/or booklet every year to commemorate the Queen's birthday. This booklet featuring roses was issued for her 88th birthday. The stamps have also been issued individually as well as in self-adhesive versions.
Many stamps this year to commemorate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. This issue is from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The tab appears only once in a sheet of eight stamps.
The stream of new Europa stamps with musical instruments as the theme continues. Here is the series from Ireland. Click on the image above to view the 2014 Europa stamp issues already received in the Freestamp catalogue.
A nice stamp from Monaco with the theme of the development of public transport within the principality.
Architecture as a theme on this sheet from Ukraine.
Roma in paintings. In the Netherlands too, (copies) have adorned walls. Romania is releasing a series and block featuring Roma in paintings.
Message from a Goose is the title of this painting depicted on a stamp from Taiwan.
Jazz on stamps. A still manageable theme to which the United Nations has dedicated an issue this year. Above is the sheet from Geneva. Naturally, there is also one from New York and Vienna.
Minerals on new Swiss stamps.
Most of the expenses for the Year of the Horse have arrived by now. The block above is from Curaçao.
Pope Francis's first year has come to an end. Reason for a Vatican publication.
Romania is really taking things too far. A special folder containing a peculiar booklet is published for almost every issue. These booklets have a print run of only a few hundred copies and are therefore not supplied to subscribers. The folders are sold with a very large markup on the face value. The booklet shown above is an example of such a dubious publication.
All 34 presidents Ecuador has had together on one sheet.
France always issues stamps whose images are recognized by many from holidays. Many Dutch people have also left their footprints in Boulogne-sur-Mer. 
Many new stamps on a wide variety of subjects appear with great regularity.
Unfortunately, new stamps with high values (Alderney, Curaçao), in large sheets (Ecuador, UN), or in limited editions (Romania) are also appearing with increasing regularity.
...and then it is a question whether those stamps are actually used by real people who send real letters and cards.
Or that all those stamps only end up in collector albums.
The stamps are meant to frank mail, aren't they?
Well, who still franks mail with special stamps here in the Netherlands? Surely no one, except for a handful of philatelists...? The special issues are hardly available here, at least not here in the village, and even if they were, the general public prefers the familiar standard stickers.
Many collectors bring this upon themselves to some extent. After all, those who use stamps for mail generally prefer to do so with self-adhesive stamps. You would therefore expect that a stamp collector would prefer to collect those stamps that are actually used.
However, nothing could be further from the truth. Many stamp collectors shudder at self-adhesive stamps and prefer collecting gummed stamps—precisely those stamps that frankers would rather not use!
What's wrong with beautiful stamps?
I think there are some beautiful specimens among them.
Some countries live off the sale of postage stamps.
Hence the high values.
Philatelists sponsor a great deal.
The Uiver and actually aviation as a whole in its early stages.
Postage stamps are also a means of escape.
If a king is deposed, he can hardly take 10 kilos of gold with him, but a blue one in the lining of his coat is a lot easier.
Disadvantage becomes advantage:
It is a fantastically beautiful subject for a thematic collection: 'the stamp collector as a cash cow'.
@Paulv,
That is going to be a very expensive collection with all the issues from IGPC, Stamperija, and Van Reijen included!
'@Lars,
It is even much worse than you already describe: on top of that, you are stuck with it for life. It has been said before: stamp collecting, a hobby for life.