New New New*********

Hey all. First off my name is ryan. Im new to this. Im a coin collector at heart and have zero stamps to my name but they seem fascinating. Such an oberlooked yet important part of everyday life. So where should I start? What should I buy? What do I need to know? I would prefer recommendind actual stamps. When it comes to knowledge im as much of a bookworm as the next collector but id like to buy a few stamps to see if I like them. Thanks so mich guys.
-Ryan

Ryan, yours is one of those length of a piece of string questions: there really isn't a single answer.

There are two broad approaches to collecting: whole world, and one or more particular countries or periods.

Many of us start out (at least) collecting everything. This is easy. Just cruise around on ebay or the other auction sites, and buy whatever takes your fancy, and is within your budget. You can check on them in one of the Scott catalogues your local library will probably have. If you run into problems identifying stamps, just post scans of them here. Likely as not someone will be able to tell you what they are.

If you want a bit more focus, you can home in one or more countries. As you're in the US, US stamps will be most accessible, and there are vast amounts of literature on the subject to guide you, at different levels of expertise. If you enjoy more of the challenge of the hunt, and a touch of romance to go with it, look through the various country-specific threads here for countries or historical periods that interest you. (I started out collecting, back when postmen rode dinosaurs to deliver the mail, taking everything. I soon got tired of it, and decided (after thumbing through an old stamp catalogue) that I loved the primitive stamps of the former Indian Princely States - my avatar being a perfect example of them.) Once again, there'll probably be literature available to guide you through, though you may have to ask for a few directions here.

A few words of warning: beware the siren call of investment in stamps. It is possible to make your collection pay, but it requires hard work to acquire the expertise, and usually a fair financial investment, in the first place. Start out, at least, collecting simply for the pleasure of it.

Hiya Baltimore (Ryan), welcome.

Do you want to just stick with new (mint) stamps or are you into the history aspect and would like used and maybe envelopes (covers) and such?

How old do you want to go?

Which country or countries or eras or reigns of monarchs or time frames?

I think that id you like coins you would enjoy engrave stamps which are usually older. Search on Stamp Community for a topic called Engraved stamps or something similar for examples of.

Or maybe not. Do you want stamps to compliment your coins, like stay in teh same era and stuff or does some period of history (that had stamps) fire up your imagination?

Or do you just like the ones that you like? Libraries usually have catalogues of stamps in the reference section to look at and newer catalogues are in colour, if that is an idea.

Ryan-- welcome--
One thing I'd caution you about-- the Post Office promotes that it's fun to collect stamps, but if you do decide to collect new issues and buy at the post office, realize that there are millions of them, and many people today are trying to sell their mint sheets from the post office, and are not able to get face value for them. It's the "supply and demand" thing-- millions available, with little demand from buyers and sellers out there. Comparable to Proof Sets with coin collectors-- you can't sell a proof set for what you paid for it to a dealer, either.
Stamps are a great hobby--read and absorb lots, look for a local stamp club, and feel free to ask questions here! Thanks, Ray

Ryan.

Something to make you feel at home.

Quote; "millions available, with little demand from buyers and
sellers".

Ray.mac, I often wonder how many stamps (new issues) are collectors buying from Post Office these days. Will the next generation's children find a shortage of 'some' short term modern stamps issued over the last 20 years.

Welcome Ryan and my advice is to go slow and enjoy the process as you go.

Thanks everybody. To answer some questions I want to focus entirely on us stamps. I find foreign coins and stamps less than interesting. I want the time frame to be 1700's 1800's and early 1900's. I dont reqlly know if there are series to collect the way there is in coins. For example in coins you can collect every lincoln penny from each year from each mint. I also dont know if there is key dates in stamps meaning a certain stamp within a series that is rare and brins a huge premium. Thanks for any further advice to come :)

-Ryan

Welcome Ryan. Looking at your focus areas that you mention above, this is an awesome place to be since the members here are super knowledgeable on most US issues. My humble suggestion is to start with a off-paper or on-paper lot (kiloware) which should be pretty cheap for the time frame you are talking about. ebay, bidstart perhaps. It should give you a lot of common issues to start your album with and then perhaps resort to swapping or buying specific stamps as needed to fill your collection.

Welcome & cheers...

Ram.

HI,

First of all:

to our SCF forum ...


Regarding your "general" question, I would suggest going through the below links:

http://www.wikihow.com/Collect-Stamps (general idea)

http://www.stamps.org/directories/d...a.htm#remove (US stamps)

http://www.kidsgen.com/hobbies/stam...llection.htm (US stamps)

Hope it helps!

Cheers

Welcome to the forum Ryan

I am sure you will get a lot of help here in this forum and knowledgeable answers.

While I may have well over 900 postings in here, I only have about 3 or 4 in the 'coin' section in here. I used to be a coin collector, well, still am to a certain degree but stick mainly to the new coins struck nationally here in Canada. My collection in coins is nothing spectacular <G>

Chimo

Bujutsu

Ryan, welcome!

I am a coin collector that accidentally got into stamps when my father
passed and I ended up with his stamps. He never shared them with me,
so I was clueless as well. I have gotten much great advice from this forum.

I will try to give you some basics from a coin collector's point of view:

Stamp collecting can be done any way you like it, just like coin collecting,
however, there is a general trend, driven by album makers, towards a very
technical approach to what is considered a "set". Imagine Dansco made an
album for Lincoln cents that not only had holes for year/mint, but also
each and every known RPM, die variety, overdate, overmint, double die, etc so-on.

That is how stamp albums are. They not only include every basic design, but they
include slight variations, die re-cuts, color variations that the naked eye can
hardly recognize, etc. If you get a stamp album, these are all 'holes' to fill.

As a coin collector, this frustrates me very much. I believe that if you have two
of the same stamp, but one is worth .20c, and the other $200 over a 'secret mark'
you cannot see without a high power loupe, there shouldn't be two holes to fill.

It's way overkill.

There is a trend starting though, that you collect more in the numismatic style
of one of each business issue design, and not every tiny variety known to man.

The problem is that the album makers have not caught up to this yet, and you
have to print off your own album pages. I would convert to this sort of method,
however Dad already had more than a dozen albums in hand with stamps mounted.
It would be a labor intensive task to change now.

I would recommend this style of collecting AT FIRST, then you can decide to
get more technical very easily in the future because you started on a more
compact scale. Trust me though, even on a compact scale, filling an album
with the business issue types will still be a very expensive task if you
are obtaining high quality stamps. It will however, be about a tenth of the
cost to do a full on album as the album makers push. I believe it is the
album maker's profit motive to keep the albums very large.

I forgot to mention that if you love old coins, you will love
the stamps too! They are great designs and full of history.

Like coins, lower denominations tend to be less expensive.
The higher denomination stamps are used far less, therefore
they are more scarce. Like coins, look for stamps with eye
appeal. A used stamp with good eye appeal and a desireable
cancel that doesn't obliterate the stamp is akin to a gorgeous
toning on a lightly circulated coin. A well centered stamp
with a light cancel and no flaws, to me, is better than an
unused stamp that is far off center and flawed.

Ratio are you a member of cointalk? With a washington bust as your avatar? Im on there too. My name on their is oldsilver youve probably seen my posts before

Yep, that's me.
I used to hang out on CC as well, but the coin side of this family of sites is...
Well, I'll be nice.

What I like about stamps is the fact it's a buyers market allows me to have a
hobby alongside my coin collecting that is more affordable. When the money is
too tight for coins, I can build my stamps!

Not much to ad other than a hardy Welcome. For starters I'd suggest grabbing mixed lots maybe with a few faulties that can fill your pages and your time. Contrary to somes beliefs there are still errors and oddities to be had in low priced lots. Of course once you start that your quest will be intensified. When you start looking at all the varieties say in the 2 cent washingtons its as crazy as looking for VAMs on morgans so your coin collecting eye will be put to the test. Once you hit 50 post you will likely be able to acquire many lots and assortments right from here and I gotta say some of the best deals on the net.