"Stampcollector" Discourages Woman !

larsdog....those are rules I can get behind!

centerstage98.....I know, right! It's hard not to get distracted! There are so many wonderful stamps to collect, it's very hard for me to pigeon hole myself! I'm so excited to get back into it. I ordered the Mystic 3-volume American Heirloom album. I have been using the Scott's Minuteman album, but I have so many pages I needed to add, I decided to start with a new system.

No kidding! I finally had to add an album for interesting examples of stuff that I don't collect, but were interesting anyway. Examples of Revenues, Cinderellas, perfins, crash covers, V-mail, Encased Postage, Postage Currency, Savings Stamps, Official Seals, Postal Notes, Test Stamps, Local Posts, RPO's, APO's, ladies envelopes, adversity covers - the list just goes on and on! My airmail collection is in one album and Back of Book (BOB) is in another album. The album for B-BOB (Beyond Back of Book) has now grown to FOUR albums!

I love that! Makes perfect sense to me!

I am a female with some non-female hobbies (cars, trains, stamps, etc) and often am treated badly because of it... though more by women then men!

A long time ago, when I was actively collecting but still somewhat new at it, a dealer I was writing to once told me I was not a collector. I didn't have a "collection", but an "accumulation" of stamps with no real order to it, no objective. That bothered me enough that I still remember it to this day. In fact, I am pretty sure I still have that letter somewhere...

I think some dealers and collectors are just plain snobby. I collect what I like. Stamp-wise, I do have some topicals. My ephemera collection (or whatever it is) is full of items I just plain like, with some actual groups such as train tickets, etc. But is it right for someone to put me in a "lower collecting bracket"? I think dealers should be happy ANYONE still collects stamps, as he makes money off of those people and shouldn't complain.

My original reply to this topic was deleted without a reason, perhaps because I mentioned the gender bias issue. Dunno.

At any rate, having since read the actual article in question, it's actually different than what is being portrayed here. The emphasis on the thread title and in the OP implies that gender is a factor in the incident, when in fact the title really should be "stamp collector discourages fledgling collector" or "stamp collector discourages newbie".

Nowhere in the original letter does the collector say or imply the comments or behavior being geared towards her being a female collector... which is what is being implied in this thread. The collector in question just happened to be a woman. Gender doesn't factor into the original incident report.

The bottom line is that an experienced collector was rude and dismissive to a novice, something that we all hope is never the case.

Rule #1 The collector is always right.
Rule #2 If any dispute arises refer to rule #1.






I had something similar happen to me at a stamp club meeting but eventually went back and hung in there and referred to rule #1 and had fun and continued on my quest to collect.

I think perhaps new collectors or even collectors coming back into the hobby from years absence, can feel a bit touchy and new and don't want to ruffle any feathers anywhere and just want to get along. And maybe some collectors can get into a mood that they want everything the way they want it.

But once you get over the personalities and drama there is always the stamps and the collecting / accumulating / hoarding / enjoying what you're doing, and that's what keeps us all coming back and asking for more.

Revenuecollector the 7 pages of letters of support each refered to the writer as Lisa..so I took it for granted it was a female !

And she is. However, the way you framed the thread title and the initial post implies that her gender was a factor in her treatment, whereas there is nothing in the original letter that states or even implies this.

No harm no foul, just another example where the wording chosen can have a great bearing on implication and interpretation.

I have to disagree. If he had written "stampcollector discourages WOMEN" then you would have a point. As written, there is no gender bias in the original post. Some was introduced in a few replies, but I don't see how the original post was in error.

I think we should discourage all house cats from collecting stamps!

Feedback = hiss hiss yowl . . . rearranging of human pet's coloured bits of paper.

As someone who resides with 5 cats, I can tell you that they DO enjoy playing with/in/around/under/through stamps...

The women won't go to stamp shows anymore because she's been called a hoarder by one dealer. Then she wrote to American Philatelist about it. I wonder what else in her life she complain about and write about it to here and there. If you don't like a dealer just go to another one. Stamp shows have many dealers. And what is it bad to be a hoarder. I can see the woman. The dealer ask her what she collect and she answer "i don't know, everything" Then the dealer said "Your an hoarder". And the woman got upset and it made a nationwide story about it. That's when some media get stupid.

Now wait a minute here . . . do you mean that media aren't the smart guys I always thought they were?

Oh no. It's like Christmas stopped or something.

Oh my. I think I need a chocolate chip cookie with sprinkles on top to settle my nerves.

The only reason I can think of for dealers to dislike "just" a collector (or the more derogatory "hoarder") is that there are plenty of unscrupulous dealers that will sell altered stamps that an untrained "hoarder" may be unable to differentiate and an honest dealer can't compete with their prices. I suppose another possibility is that they specialize in high-end quality that a "simple collector" is unlikely to be interested in for the price. But that's still no reason to be rude!

Karen,

Here is a link to the B-BOB albums:

http://www.colp.info/stamps/beyond.htm

If you think I'm missing anything, feel free to say so!

Lars