Tales Of An Old Collector

Hi Family,

I thought I would share with you my experiences as a philatelist. I started out in the hobby approximately 55 years ago (1959). I had a Minkus All-American Stamp album. From there, I "graduated" to the Harris Liberty Album. It was natural to do so because HE Harris was only 20 miles from my house!(Boston) I stopped collecting sometime around 1962. Girls and cars, you know. After college and the Army, I started up again in 1975, staying with the Harris platform. By the time I turned 30 in 1977, I gave it up again! Kids, you know.

Now, (well, you have an idea how old I am) I am starting it up again. The Harris albums have been safely stored away in my dress all that time (1977 to now)! I felt that I had to reorganize everything before it was too late. I am running out of time and there doesn't seem to be anything around to distract me any more.

So I started back up with the Harris albums about three months ago. Then I discovered this website. What an eye-opener.

After much research, I decided to go with the Mystic Premium Heirloom. This meant that I will have to re-mount everything. This migration process will be expensive, but I am looking forward to it. It will enable me to re-visit each stamp; one by one. I plan to fill the "holes" as I go.

So that's it for now, stamp family. I plan to post my progress as I go. Unless something comes up, you know!

Jack Kelley

Philatelists are natural collectors and organizers. We'd be happy as document / office managers in any organization. But only so long as we were left alone to get the job done.

Hi Jack and to our "family". I look forward to seeing your progress.

CanadaStamp - truer words have never been spoken - especially your second sentence. Just leave us alone LOL

to the forum! I for one am excited to see a bit of your collection as you go and I hope you'll share your experience with us as you go. What do you collect? U.S.A. or World Wide(WW) material or do you specialize in any certain area? Anyway, again welcome!

Group,

Thank you for the "Welcomes". One of the things about this hobby (maybe the biggest thing) is organization and presentation. I really like the way that MYSTIC presents their stamps in the Heirloom albums. This pages and layout are super. I hope to learn how to post pictures on this site.

Jack Kelley

Family,

After exhaustive research, I am re-doing my entire collection using MYSTIC Heirloom albums. My initial thought was to stay with the Harris Liberty. Lord knows I have a lifetime supply of Liberty albums. But I canned the idea after reading the pro and cons of the Liberty album on this site. So then I purchased a VARIO F and a VARIO G binder with the thought of cutting down the Liberty pages. The attempt was unsuccessful. So then, based upon what I have been reading here, I decided to go with the MYSTIC Heirloom Premium.

I think I made the right decision. I like the MYSTIC page presentation and the write-ups. The stamps are not all crowded in like they were in the Harris Liberty. And with seven Heritage Premium binders, I can break it down into manageable bites. I am almost done "moving in". 1920 to 1980. There were over 1500 stamps to be re-mounted and moved. It was fun. Oh, I have a loads of SHOWGARD MOUNTS available if anybody wants them. Free! Now for those pesky "holes" I have to fill.....

Jack Kelley

to SCF all the way from Northern Mi

Thanks TinMan,

I read somewhere on one of the threads that you were looking for some Showguard Mounts. I am switching from Harris Liberty to Mystic Heirloom. As you know, Mystic only requires blocks. Hence, I have some extra Showguards that I can send to you (free). If you are interested, please contact me at jkelley01938ATyahoo.com so I'll know where to send them.

Jack Kelley

Family,

I have been busily working away on my collection. It lay fallow for over 30 years. My first task was to choose an album(s) to replace my Harris Liberty. I chose the MYSTIC Premium Heritage. I broke the pages up so that there would be no more than 200 pages per binder. That'll be ten binders 1847-2015. I have just completed Binder #4 - The 1970's. I am one stamp (#1041b) away from completing Binder #3 - The 1940's, 50's, and 60's. And one stamp (753) away from completing Binder #2 - The 1920's and 30's. Then on to the 1980's and 90's. I figure one volume for the 80's and two for the 90's. Anybody see a pattern here? They sure issue a lot of stamps these days! Well, I'll keep you posted.

Jack Kelley

Jack: welcome back to the hobby. I must say as a collector myself for over three decades I find the stories of collectors like yourself---how you got started; what you collect; why you got back into the hobby---as interesting and varied as the material itself-- maybe more interesting. We all like to sort, research, and mount in peace, but we all learn from each other and that magnifies the enjoyment.

Speaking for myself, I got started around 1961 via my parents. My first classic stamp was Scott 223. Since I was 10 years old and this was an unused/OG stamp, I really wasn't ready for a stamp like this and so damaged it. However, I will never get rid of it since it was my entree into this wonderful hobby which has taught me much about US and world history and geography. As I got older and my income permitted, I sought out those stamps that heretofore were only a fantasy in my youth.

The interest in history ignited through stamps expanded by collecting into the world of historical manuscripts and documents. At times these two parallel hobbies would intersect. One is a signed letter by William T Robey of inverted Jenny fame to another dealer during the same month that he bought that sheet in 1918. Two other examples acquired recently include a presidential postmaster's appointment signed by Rutherford B Hayes and Assistant postmaster general Thomas J Brady. Brady was the main player from the post office side of the equation in the famous Star Route Fraud unearthed in the Garfield administration and had a lot to do with promoting civil service reform in the 1880's. The other is a Confederate postmasters appointment for Everett Springs, GA in 1861 and signed by CSA PMG John Reagan. The interesting thing is, if you google this little town you will come up with an entry that this is a "designated populated place" but nothing else as thought the town was wiped from the face of the earth. If we have any forum readers that know something about this town I would be pleased to learn more. I knew next to nothing about the Confederate postal system, but after researching this document I learned quite a lot.

I hope that other forum members will chime in with their collecting stories as well.

Mark

Interesting stories ,and welcome back to the hobby . I started collecting around 1956 with a 25 cent album from Woolworths and buying stamps from the Boys Life magazine ,the offers of 100 stamps for 10 cents . I just never stopped collecting .

Mark,

Scott # 223? Wow. I agree with you on where-with-all. We can buy stamps today that were completely out of reach when we were ten years old. Having come back into the hobby after a thirty plus year "break", I was shocked to see that stamp prices actually declined while I was away. I remember "back in the day" when they used to tell us "stamp prices have NEVER declined in value. I don't know when it happened, but I am able to fill those pesky "holes" more easily because of it!

FLOORTRADER - The best thing I remember about Woolworth's was the lunch counter! They had one here in Ipswich, Mass (with counter) all the ways up until about 10-15 years ago!

Jack Kelley

Jack: I imagine you feel a little like Rip Van Winkle when it comes to the stamp market currently. We all have our own opinions on why this happened. My own opinion is that it is the perfect storm of a number obf factors including the recession, the general increase in the cost of life and the relative decrease in buying power putting pressure on disposable income, the electronics revolution etc which gives the younger generation many more choices for entertainment than our generation and the poor or non-existent education in history and geography to name a few. Certainly the younger generation in the United States scores very poorly as a group in these two subjects. So the entrance of younger people in the hobby is dwindling as the supply of stamps from the baby boomers is increasing and making the supply much greater than the demand. Naturally this does not apply to the super wealthy; they are dealing with the true rarified where the demand will always outstrip the supply. But even some of those stamps might be selling at a comparative discount since the stamps may not serve as good of an investment as in the past. But for the rest of us there will always be an adequate supply of the stamps we seek. So the answer as you have already figured out is to collect what you love and not with the idea of a payday at the end of your collecting days.

HA HA HAA! That was ever so profound FUNCITYPAPA. In my own simple terms, it was the Great Recession. But in the larger scheme of things, I would certainly have to agree with you. It was a Perfect Storm. (The Perfect Storm was filmed in Gloucester, only 14 miles from here in Ipswich).

But on a happier note, I have completed the "holes" in my 20's/30's MYSTIC binder. And also in the 30's/50's/60's MYSTIC binder. Two binders in one day! That will never happen again, I bet.

Family,

I have just completed my 1980's MYSTIC album. That makes four MYSTIC albums of MNH covering 1920 (Scott 548) thru 1989 (Scott 2438). That's 1890 stamps over 70 years; an average of 27 stamps per year.

A quick look at the 1990's shows 930 stamps for the decade; an average of 93 stamps per year. This is overkill. I may stop at 12/31/1999 although that wasn't the original intention.

Any thoughts?

Jack Kelley

Hello Jack, I'm relatively new to this site and thought would contribute.

I began collecting stamps at somewhere between 7-9 years old...think it was closer to 9, but my 90 year old mom says 7. I had asked a realtor in our small town if I could sweep his sidewalk for a quarter. He chuckled, gave me a broom...and when I was finished, he gave me a quarter...and a handful of Fleetwood first day covers. Seems he was a dealer and since I showed an interest ( I really liked the stamps and the story behind them ) he continued giving me a quarter every Sunday and a handful of covers for several years before he passed away.
As I got older, I became more interested in single stamps, adding them to my Minuteman Album and also plate blocks in my H. E. Harris album. My plate block collection is now housed in (6) of those albums and my Minuteman album is long gone replaced over the years when I too decided on Mystics which has also grown to 12 albums.
I agree that the number of new issues seems to have become more a business for the Postal Service and I ended my collection of new issues at the year 2000 and enjoy adding the older classics. My collection is MNH and I search out the x-fine/superb examples. I recently added a beautiful C15 plate number single which completed my Airmail collection.
I've started selling off my many duplicates on ebay several years ago and continue enjoying this hobby that has kept me interested for over 50 years. I can honestly say that I learn something new and interesting every day and it still thrills me to come across something special. Being retired, keeping myself busy is wonderful and I love bidding on larger auction lots. Collecting along with buying & selling has kept me occupied doing something I truly enjoy while meeting people and making new friends all over the world.
Its a great hobby!