Ways To Collect

A great way to get stamps is to let others know you are collecting them. you might be surprised by how many of your friends collect stamps or are willing to help you.

James

Talk to the folks working in church offices around you. Many Churches have missionaries all over the world. Most of them will save the envelopes from them and be glad to give them to you

I appreciate the replies on the stamp soaking and all

There are a lot of good tips above. Collecting stamps is not that difficult when you want to keep to current MNH stamps. A simple trip to the post office can get you most of what you will want. While not every PO has every stamp for the current year most of them carry at least last years mint book set. I have bought these since the early 1970's and while the new ones are a little more expensive they are nicer.

Other MNH stamps can be bought from the USPS web site or one of those special PO's.

Getting used stamps can be fun and less expensive than you can imagine. Of course start with the mail you receive at home first. Then spread out to asking relations, friends and business. You can find many bargain of unsorted from many different mail house dealers. Just don't be in a hurry and wait for the price to go on sell.

There are even some web sites and clubs that will give out free starter packages of stamps. I find stamp people love to help people get started by sharing their doubles. Just make it habit to collect every day and you will find that you will soon start to obtain enough different ones to start to organize them.

Today the internet makes obtaining stamps both easy and cheap. There are many sites that host stamps for sell. However I try to obtain as many as I can for free since the type I collect have little value in them.

While I have never tried to soak a modern stamp I found just giving it nice trim works well as long as you don't cut too close to the stamp. I have over 500 of those 1974 Dove stamps and I can attest that for the most part all of them have changed in color because of the adhesive used on them.

Thanks for the info mkfarm

Dianne

If a new member of the forum can chime in. After many years of collecting, I finally decided that for me mint was not the way to go. I live in Georgia and the climate here is not conducive to preserving gum. Our high heat and humidity cause a real problem. I have had many stamps ruined by the humidity.

So I decided to go used. A used stamp can really be very attractive, if you are picky about the cancellation.

Storage can be a challenge. While I don't own tons of MNH stamps at this time the ones I do have not had any problems. I do tend to make sure I don't leave them all together in one package though. I saw where some people have had the stamps stick together.

Places I don't store my stamps included the attic, basement, garage or any place that may have the possibility of high moisture.

Since even here in PA humidity can be a problem during the spring, summer and fall I run a good dehumidifier. In addition I try to keep them in the coolest part of the house.