Twice a month, three guys meet in Annadale to flip through their stamp collections. They're members of the city's oldest stamp club - the Staten Island Philatelic Society, founded in 1884.

"I believe it's the second-longest continuous club, philatelic society, in the United States," said Tom Braniff.

There are only a dozen active members left, many in their 70s or 80s. They're keeping the club alive while other stamp collecting organizations have long disappeared, victims of an era when free time is limited, leisure options are endless - and most people just don't use snail mail anymore.

"Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, we've survived," Braniff said.

The club has company in Manhattan, on East 35th Street, where one of the world's premiere stamp clubs still operates out of its own townhouse. 

"With stamp collecting it's generally more than collecting and owning, it's trying to tell a story and trying to understand history," said Bob Gray, a Collectors Club member. 

Founded in 1896, The Collectors Club boasts more than 700 members worldwide.

For much of the 20th Century stamp collecting was huge. People joined clubs at school and even at work. Stamps were entry to a world that wasn't yet at their fingertips. 

Franklin Roosevelt, for instance, was a big stamp collector and a member of the Collectors Club. 

Nassau Street used to be the hub of the city's stamp scene - with stamp shops up everywhere. Now they're all gone.  

The only stamp shop left in Manhattan is Champion Stamp Company in Hell's Kitchen.

"Back in the 50s and 60s, stamp collecting, coin collecting, everybody did it. You know? Not anymore, because now you have video games, and you have the Internet," said Liliana Rosende of the Champion Stamp Company.

The Collectors Club is trying to introduce young people to the hobby with monthly classes for about 15 kids. 

"Stamps are something tangible. You can hold it in your hand. You read a text message and it's gone. If you see a letter, it's real," said Debby Friedman, Youth Stamp Group Coordinator at the Collectors Club.

The American Philatelic Society is staking the hobby's future on the Internet as a place for collectors to shop for and discuss stamps. The Staten Island Philatelic Society has a more basic survival plan - gathering to discuss stamps as members did more than a century ago.  

"I don't think we do anything. We just show up. I mean, we stay alive," Braniff said.