Building A Worthwhile Stamp Collection Is No Piece Of Cake

I think everyone has their own reasons for collecting, and like it has been said some collections take years to even really become something. I myself have gotten into it for the education and also for the fun of the hunt. I am basically going thru the common phase right now but it's all fun. I think right now the most valuable stamp in my collection is only about $15 but when it does come to doing something you love and enjoy how can you put a price on that.

Floortrader, your collection - superbly presented, one feels the quality within.

I approach the question of what makes a 'serious' collector quite differently from some who have responded here.

I count myself a very serious collector of Barwani State in India. I can boast that I have the second best collection of Barwani in existence. It consists of - what many of you might consider a paltry - 2800 items (single stamps, blocks, booklets of 32 stamps and covers). It sits in four large stockbooks, and I very much doubt that I'll ever get around to mounting it on pages and writing it up. That would mean that I'd finished with it, and I can't see that happening any time soon.

Of course, my approach isn't the only 'serious' approach to collecting. I'd just like to make the point that simple numbers of stamps don't IMHO make a serious collection: a large collection, a very well written-up collection, but not necessarily a 'serious' collection.

joe 1225us------I read with interest your posting about the future of stamp collecting and its bleak future .
Can I give you my view -----I hear the same thing during the 1990's about all the old collectors dying off and the stamp collections would be going down in price .So I went to stamp auctions and purchase huge amounts of bulk material . You know the stuff,dealer cards , binders of inventory ,complete sets,albums and more albums,Boy was I silly I had enought stamps for three life times and I still was filling up my SUV for a few hundred dollars per load . Dealers were unloading inventory and going to covers and postal history . But I enjoyed those stamps working on them every week and still buying more .
THEN....THEN........E-BAY CAME AROUND .....and it all changed .
Now....now......all the world currencies are falling apart and many people the whole world over are produceing more but ....today nobody trusts their own currencies and all the major powers in the world are issueing more and more paper to pay off their debit ......so....so maybe stamps could hold up to the world full of fiat paper money .....JUST MAYBE

TONY------I agree with you to be a serious collector ,it is more than just filling blank spaces in pre-printed albums .There is so much that a person learns as they get beyond the "what is it worth" and the "fill the blank space on the album page".
It is rare to find worldwide collections were the owner lists the different watermarks and the different perforations making for a more serious collection . As Scott catalogs has done over the past few years and they are getting better all the time ,are doing more to expand the listing with perfs,watermarks and even various printings .
Im glad to see even the Steiner pages have expanded some of the varities .

My stamps are an investment in my ability to remain sane.

I just love to buy bulk messy lots of old Australia. It is so great for a humble budget. The treasure hunt, to find a stamp or 2 or 6 that will pay for the next lot. It is the hunt that keeps me young and a very happy collector.
To see at the same postal auction where the lots are up dated on the screen. The happiness of seeing your own lots being bid on. That feeling that is so special when I realizes that I can bid on that messy bulk lot that I have had my eye on. Just one of the beautiful reasons I collect stamps. It is just so personal, so humbling how it all works out. To get a chance to smell the roses when you have a humble budget to get those hard to get items. Happy 26th of Jan! That is our Australia Day!

A far from a perfect KGV. But saved!

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Please keep the thread on track or it will be deleted.

Steve

Floortrader,

Regarding your comment,

" all the world currencies are falling apart and many people the whole world over are produceing more but ....today nobody trusts their own currencies and all the major powers in the world are issueing more and more paper to pay off their debit ".

Have you checked the Australian Dollar lately, it is increasing all the time against all the major currencies.

Okka

tonymacg.

seems it is about time you got your collection properly mounted and let other people see it in Exhibitions,

Okka

The Australian Dollar looks good now ,but it moves around too much to be a trend trading market for me because its unpredictable on when it changes direction .

OKKA-I leave the currencies to other people ,I perfer buying large stamp lots and breaking them down and looking for variations,especially using the catalogs that are not normally found around here .The U.S. has to be the biggest gold mine for Australian stamps if one is looking for plate defects and other oddities not listed in our catalogs .

floortrader,

you didn't answer the question,

you said

" all the world currencies are falling apart "

Okka

some weird stuff going on today...i never saw so many posts being wiped out..oh well, mine was just one of many !!

It was getting a little weird alright Philb.