What Do The Serious Collectors Buy/Collect ?

I have to agree with Aisaev. What exactly is a "serious collector"? I think most collectors are pretty serious about their collections. I know that I am. I collect covers, singles, blocks, whatever I like. I don't collect for the monetary value of it all as much as I do the enjoyment, history, and overall fun of it. I've recently
gotten back into worldwide after a long hiatus in which I only collected Turkey and Germany. My Turkish and German collections are still ongoing but most of the things I'm missing in those areas cost more than what my budget (and wife) allow. :)
Now, for my cutoff year.. I think 2000 for WW unless I find something in the kiloware that catches my eye (like the Austrian World Cup Stamps I got in the last batch) and about 1995 for US. The USPS lost alot of my respect when they went to that self adhesive sticker type of stamp. If I ever decide to go that route, I'll start collecting stickers!

I agree with most of the thoughts voiced so far regarding modern postage stamps
but personally I find it hard to ignore the modern issues for a few reasons:

a) They're fun to look at.
b) It's nice to be able to 'discover' new material all the time.
c) Sometimes I like to have a nice afternoon soaking off stamps, its almost like a meditative thing.

That said, one really great reason NOT to collect modern stamps - is that fact that you will end up spending MUCH less on bookcases, as they take up a TON of space, perhaps too much when you consider their worth.

In my opinion the necessary criterion for any collector being serious is having exact definition of what one's collections includes and what are exceptions to this frames, if any (like "Topic: wild cats of South Africa, except all those imperforated issues or intentional variations they clearly got out just to get more money for rarity value").

Aisaev I am not going to define serious collector for you..most of the folks understood what I was getting at !!

panda.bear:
Well, good final point, that's what I'm saying: any collector not willing to go bankrupt has to have some set limits, be it by countries, issue date, and/or topic.

philb:
Yup, I hear you. Just to make a point, though, 80% of US drivers answered to the question "How do you rate your driving skills: below average / average / above average?" as "Above average", which is, as anyone knowing statistics would say, cannot be true ;)

My cut off is generally 2000 but my collecting interests now a days is predominately postally used covers - some of the modern stamps look great on covers - and I also look for covers from countries that have been known to be high issuers (e.g Equatorial Guinea) as they appear to be very scare - am I a serious collector? - yes and no - regardless I enjoy stamps

I collect U.S. stationery EFOs. Early 20th century was the heyday of EFOs, and appear a dime a dozen. Recent issue EFOs are quite rare and are much prized. So, this genre is a little different than most.

We live and learn..for years I have been posting here and did not realize that every word has to be carefully crafted or else not everyone will understand...why did I think that every stamp collector was serious about his hobby ? I should consider myself lucky that more people were merciful and did not take me to task !

Philb, a lesson I learned long ago, craft every word carefully so no member feels one's having a go at them because we all have different perceptions. My senior mate tells me, "if there's 2 ways of understanding what I say, take it the nice way".

I guess that there are different aspects to any collection of stamps. I 'collect' anything with a stamp that comes my way, but I tend to collect "seriously" early British Commonwealth, in other words I constantly search for them, look for better samples, store them in albums, look up their history etc.

I prefer stamps pre 1970, but there are some late issues that I find very attractive e.g. the Australian 2010 Kingfisher series.

I also collect US precancels (I am not really sure why I like them, but I do).

One of my Favorite collectibles are used postcards as they have 3 faces: the photo/picture, a personal message that fixes a time and space and of course they are postally used covers.

e.g.

[url=http://www.thegomc.com/PicHosting/share-FD6C_4E006F3E.html"][/url]

:)

I think I chose the easiest, yet most expensive, period to collect. British Empire during the reign of King George V, 1910-1936.

I should have collected Liberia, it would be cheaper!!

Our interests do change...i am being drawn towards interesting (to me) postally used postcards..i hope not to the extent that I start frequenting postcard shows...i can find cards at stamp shows !!

haha I know what you mean too...Right now I'm engrossed with "Buckacover"! lol

I am a serious collector of South Korea and I collect all the modern stuff that comes out each year. I enjoy seeing all the new issues and have a lot of fun with them.

As for the USPS issued stuff, if I happen to see a sheet of something I like I'll pick up two of them. With all the new commemoratives being forever stamps I've had less heartache over dropping ~$9 a sheet.