What To Collect?

Hey everyone,

At the moment I collect all kind of Belgian stamps. The last two years I got the feeling that I'm "At the End". I have most of the stamps, and only the most expensive and rarest pieces are missing, and I'm not the kind of person who gives thousands of dollars (or Euros in my case) for a single stamp. (don't blame me).
The last six months I am thinking about a new topic, country.... to start. And here is my problem: no matter what I think of, I never have a great feeling about it, or at least not very long.

So I would like to ask everyone of you:
Are you collecting something, that you can say: "the more I am busy with my collection, the more interested I get", or something like that? Please let me now

Thank you

Scarah

I have enjoyed adding topicals that dovetail with my other personal interests that I already have. So for example I collect Scouting and Photography topics because I enjoy those activities. If I already have an outside interest it is easy to be excited about the stamps that represent it.

You could look into collecting covers with your favorite Belgium stamps on them. I also found topical collecting to re-ignite my collecting passions. There are so many avenues to travel down while on the road of philately. The most important thing is to have fun and relax.

Belgian precancel stamps are a facinating specialty. You can collect them for ten years and still not locate ten percent of the listed varieties. There is a good catalog in English with current retail valuations. Most of them go for under a dollar but they are a real challenge.

I think I agree with Scouter and Stamperdude, topicals and covers might provide renewed interest, and neither needs to be expensive. I would say for me, covers have been the most surprising avenue I have gone down. There's so many angles to collecting, social history, postal history, stamps and cancels...the list goes on...

If you are trying to think of a new country, maybe you could dabble in worldwide for a while, and see what grabs your attention?

Another one I collect - station cancels on Belgian Railway stamps [Scott Q-numbers]. There is a great catalog/album available for these also. They are very plentiful/inexpensive - and they are certainly in the infancy of collecting organization so new finds can be made.

I have to agree with stampgal. I'm at the same point with my Turkish collection and I've decided to lay off for awhile and come back at a later time and hit it from a different angle. These days, I'm playing with Worldwide and whatever I like. Sooner or later something will spark my interest in another country or another topical. :)

My uncle and I used to collect USA stamps... Well I left for about 30 years I came back to collecting in the past month. I plan on finishing the USA as much as I can,,, I also want to collect stamps from were my ancesters came from Ireland, Austria-Hungairian (?) Empire/ Croatia.

If you enjoy a bit of a challenge, why not try to add examples of your Belgian collection on cover - used in the correct period, for all the possible ways each value could be used?

Rodney Perry here in Australia (not our Rod222 ) has been writing a column on this subject in a local stamp magazine for some years. You can find an archive of his articles at www.rap.com.au. Click on 'Rods Columns', and look through the Woodchip-free Zone section; I'd suggest that you start at the earliest columns. This may give you some ideas about how to do the same sort of thing for your Belgian stamps.

And if you're looking for something completely different ... you could always try the Indian States

Rodney Perry and wood chip free zone info is totally amazing.

Good on you tonymacg for giving him a mention, he works
very hard at what he does and what he does becomes infectious.

A great example for the collector.

@tonymacg: I'm already collecting those covers. That is (still) a huge challenge :)