Stamp Collecting On A Shoestring !

Behold these humble minimum value Hungarian stamps...if they were unused I would hardly pay attention to them...but...when I see a nice cancel on them telling me where they were cancelled and on what date...it makes a big difference...long story short..you do not have to have a 6 figure income to collect stamps..its what you make it !

That's the beauty of the hobby. It's open to anyone, no matter what their income bracket. The stamps that are worth little are often just as interesting as the ones that are worth a fortune. It's all in what you make it!

wt1 said:





Well said


Cheers

A shoestring budget is one reason that I think stamp collecting is such an affordable hobby. For me the fun isn't to simply fill an album with stamps. For a few bucks, you can purchase a kiloware of stamps. The fun is to then actually pore over each stamp or cover and make decisions about its condition, value, etc. That may explain why so many of my stamps end up in boxes. The fun is looking at the stamps, not storing them.

Often the more interesting stamps are the common ones- the definitives with a long run with engraving differences, watermark changes, color changes, paper and even printing differences. A shoestring budget is all one needs, and one is off on a very fascinating study.

I forgot to mention of course postal history, postmarks, and so forth...

Even more fascinating..

jkjblue...i agree on the postal history....i know what a 15 dollar cover is and I know what a 30 dollar cover is...so do the dealers...but the kooks selling on the internet think everything..is valuable...i guess they would ask a hundred or two hundred for a 15 or 30 dollar cover !!

There seems to be more "investment collectors" lately as the very high end stamps sre hitting new records. I'm just an old fashion pleasure stamp collector and have found that most stamps that I need are priced over what I am willing to pay. I find that I do more historical research that actual purchases now and that has added a whole new passion to it. When it becomes about the value it stops being fun, its a hobby enjoy it.

I concur. You don't have to put money into a collection to have an interesting collection. I feel sort of peeved when people ask me what my "most valuable" stamp is or "how much it's worth".

Sometimes I have that happen and lately I have said in reply, well, it is worth something to me.

Box lots are my favorite purchases. You can't replace the thrill of the hunt when that purchase arrives!

I concur with all. I just love stamps.

Dianne