by Charles Cairo
Assembling stamp is a very prominent hobby. It is a very effortless activity that provides fun to many. If you would like to start your own collection of stamps, the following teaches you to how to collect stamp:
1. Firstly take a decision about on what type of subject you would like to use for your collection. It is also not compulsory to start general but it is more stirring to choose a specific theme for your stamps. If you prefer to collect postage stamps from other countries, you may start tightening behind your collection from stamps coming from a specific country that interests you.
2. Buying new stamps from the market to start collection also. This will help you get a good start on your collection and this will also put off replication of your collection. Buying a whole pack will give you different designs that will make it interesting for you and stimulate you to collect more.
3. If money is imperfect while starting the collection, you may want to mull over asking your friends and family to give stamps that they are no longer using. They can also help you in asking their friends to give their stamps to you. This will also be stimulating seeing as the stamps came from people who are special to you. This will make you value the stamps more because of their sentimental values.
4. Previously your friends and relatives have educated that you are collecting stamps, you will be trained that they will give you stamps as gifts for any occasion. This will make the collection easier for you. Some may even exert the effort of getting special editions or memorial stamps to make you happy.
5. Your collection by bearing in mind whether you like new or old stamps. A lot of people favor old stamps in their collection. New stamps, on the other hand, are easier to find and manage. Once you have decided on what stamps to keep for your collection, you should not throw away the others since you can still exchange them with other collectors.
6. Solitary advantage of stamp collecting is that you will not spend much money for the hobby. You may buy reasonably priced tools and supplies needed for your collection. For starters, an album is the first thing to acquire. The most popular kind is the loose-leaf album. A loose-leaf album has a binder that has detachable sheets. This will make the stamps easier to manage and compile.
7. You should always know how to eliminate the stamps from envelopes previous to you can place them in your album. You may cut the stamp from the wrapper around the stamp but it is important to still leave a space between the scissors and the edges of the stamps. You can then place the stamp with the face twisted down on a bowl of warm water. You may then peel the stamp, let it dry and place it in the album.
8. The Internet is the most effective way to search for stamps and determine where you can get the cheapest and even those that are hard to find. You can also make use of the Internet to make friends with other stamp collectors
Once you have your own collection, you can demonstrate them to your friends and families. You may even have your own display in the future. One way to let people know about your collection is by putting up your own website. You can make the website a place where you can demonstrate all your stamps and you may also provide stories about the stamps and how you got them.
About the Author
Charles Cairo is an professional stamp collector. He has successfully maintaining stamp collecting and brought about innovative changes in the field of stamp collecting.
by Larry Stepanowicz
It might not be as popular a hobby as it once was, but a lot of people still collect stamps, today. From my own experience, those who enjoy this quiet but satisfying hobby are not apt to talk about it much, except when in the company of other stamp collectors.
What’s the attraction in collecting stamps?
For me, as an eight-year-old, it was a mixture of geography, color, novelty, order, and fun. It was also a chance to work on my collection along side my father who got me started and passed his duplicates along to me. He’s gone, but that’s something I still remember, today.
Stamp collecting is also a relaxing hobby that can soothe a troubling day. There is something almost therapeutic about sorting through a group of stamps, and it’s very pleasurable to find and place needed items into an album and to watch your collection grow.
At one time, stamp shops that sold stamps and philatelic supplies to collectors were everywhere. Even Macy’s and Gimbles had stamp departments. I can remember going into Woolworth’s, say in the 1950’s and 1960’s and purchasing packets of stamps, usually colorful and exotic stamps, for my collection.
My grandparents even took to saving stamps for me, and my grandmother who worked at an office building downtown, faithfully brought back the stamps she salvaged from incoming mail for many years. There were also magazines that advertised pen pals, and I exchanged letters and stamps with a boy in Korea who was about my age and also a stamp collector. And mail order stamp companies selling “stamps on approval” advertised everywhere from match books to comic books. And once you passed the beginner stage, joining a stamp exchange was a way to trade your duplicates with other members, using the mail.
Today, with email, low long distance rates, and metered postage being used instead of stamps, even recent U.S. commemorative stamps are hard to find unless you buy them mint, as they are issued, at the post office.
Publishers like White Ace still offer album pages for U.S. commemoratives stamps, if collecting stamps bought at the post office appeals to you. But doing this may not be as relaxing or satisfying as putting together an old fashioned international collection in a world-wide album.
If you’re new to the hobby, beginning with a general world-wide collection can be a good way to go. Not only will it give you an overview of the hobby, you might find that you have a special interest in stamps from a country or two, or from a certain part of the world, or from a certain point in time, or even stamps that feature specific subject matter. The latter are called topicals, and are widely collected.
There may not be as many stamps on the mail as there once were, but that doesn’t mean that collectible stamps aren’t out there. It just means having to find them — or finding sources for them.
Unless you carried on a wide-ranging foreign correspondence, collecting stamps from the mail never was much fun, anyway. In fact there are more stamps out there today than there ever were. The growth in quantity is cumulative. Not only are more stamps issued throughout the world, but once in the hands of collectors, stamps are seldom lost, except possibly in a flood or fire.
Over time, most stamps will resurface somewhere because most people who come across an old stamp collection left behind by a loved-one tend to think it might be worth something, no matter how poor or basic it is, and will not throw it away but look for a way to dispose of it if only by giving it to a thrift shop.
Today, a lot of stamps that were collected during what might have been stamp collecting’s high point, say just before WWII through Vietnam, continue to fill the market with older and interesting material. Much of it is available through auctions as well as through dealers who advertise in the philatelic press or offer their holdings online. The Modern-Vue Stamp Store, for example, is a good place to look for “philatelic treasure” online. And if you check your phone book, you may still find a stamp shop or stamp dealer in your area.
Where you take your collection will depend on where you want to go with your hobby. For those with the interest and the means, or with investment in mind, the more valuable stamps can be found in printed catalogs from philatelic auction houses, but the more plentiful and less expensive items can be a lot of fun, too, especially if you have an album in which to place them.
About the Author
Larry Stepanowicz is a long-time stamp hobbyist and philatelic trader. You can find more of his articles on stamp collecting at The Modern-Vue Stamp Store, a gateway for finding collectible stamps and philatelic treasures, online. His blog, Stamp Talk features collecting commentary.
