Looking For Guidance

Ah, waxing nostalgic just now, after seeing that old collection.

The latest stamps I see in the US material shown are the "Blackjack" Pershing issue of 1961, the Space Needle from the 1962 Seattle Worlds Fair, and the bluejays of the Audubon issue of 1963. Those are stamps I remember from my own early days as a stamp collector, along with the Monroe issue, Liberty series definitives, and Queen Elizabeth stamps of Canada from the mid to late 50s. Most of that array of loose material is common world wide from the fifties, with a few earlier, and it is later vintage than what is in the album. It is the kind of stuff we used to swap as kids back in the day. I still have a hardbound copy of the Modern Collector's Stamp Album from Whitman Publishing with a red cover, although I have no idea where it is at the moment. But the embossing on the cover of the one pictured has the same design as the All-Nations album from an earlier time, back in the 30s, so I would expect this album to be from the late 30s or 40s, and may have been a hand me down to whoever got it in the late 50s, probably with many of these stamps already in it. The little booklet, "the Stamp Finder" was a combination "basics of stamp collecting" and worldwide stamp identifier which we used religiously to help track down countries of origin by whatever text we could deciper on a stamp. The identifier consisted of words and phrases or partial phrases arranged alphabetically by first letter and giving the country of origin. As I recall, the one that had that cover design was a product of H.E. Harris & Co. from 1955 to about 1965 or so, and was given free with your first approval order from them.

It is intriguing to me that so often people looking back two or three generations at their forebears can have an artifact like this in their hands yet still find it hard to visualize their ancestors as children. There is little doubt that this is a "schoolboy" collection and will be limited to whatever a 10-15 year old child back in the late thirties, or again in the late fifties/early sixties could afford. Which was almost nothing for most of them. But the grandchild cannot imagine that someone that old could have assembled something so mundane, so off it goes for a professional appraisal.

I hear you essayk... through the thread, I see the big picture of generations ago, collecting stamps as kids, broke and bored in boston... very little value here.. the only reason for professional appraisal is to get a path forward... keep or toss, much like my 1980s baseball collection that has no value... but since we're on the lifestyle aspect... i'm curious, how would children in the 30's go about getting stamps from across the world (europe, africa, south america, etc.)... certainly no ebay back then, i'm curious how does that happen?

One attempt at an answer to Andy's question. Packets, packets, packets, connections, connections.

What links both is people saving postage in offices and organizations because they knew there was a market for international stamps and they could earn a few pennies for them in a day when a nickel could buy you lunch. People kept anything that came through the mail slot and then sold the accumulation to dealers who made up packets from them and sold them to schoolchildren and other beginning/low end collectors. Church groups saved stamps from missionary correspondence and from members' own (nondescript) domestic correspondence), businesses saved stamps from business correspondence.

Then, in some instances, one might have one's own "connection". My wife bought a collection at a church rummage sale in Maine 20 years ago. It dates from the same era as your and has a few covers addressed to the secretary of a Christian Scientist national committee or something in Boston. The secretary's name makes him probably the father-in-law of the woman who assembled the collection (her name is in one of the albums, a cover or two was addressed to her). When one then looks at which countries were better represented than others, one sees a pattern that fits with correspondence with a Boston-based church group.

This collection is a bit more advanced than a schoolboy collection--but one of the reasons is that included in it was an old 19th century album that probably belonged to the woman's father. From an inscription in her album it seems likely that he gave her his collection to continue. So it has a few (very nondescript) things from the 19th century (his stuff) but is mostly 1920s and 1930s common material (her stuff). But like yours, it spans 2 generations. That offers a slight "upgrade" over a single-generation childhood collection.

If you had a father or an uncle or aunt or best friend's parent who worked in an office with extensive correspondence, then you might have bypassed the dealer and gotten your hands on the fruits of office-stamp-savers directly--you had a connection. But for those who did not have that kind of connection, there were the packets at Gimbel's or Macy's or through the mail based on ads in Boy's Life, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping or the Farm Journal or on Tootsie Roll wrappers.

Of course dealers could also buy new issues at face value from postal systems and make up packets of mint material from them. And I'm sure there were other segments of the market. But the widespread saving of used material off of correspondence was a major factor, I think.

So the short answer is that, because stamp collecting was such a widespread hobby, even non-collectors were aware of the market for even common stamps, and they thus saved them in offices and businesses that had widespread domestic or international correspondence or created a virtual-office in the form of church groups saving missionary and domestic correspondence.

The packet-maker dealers, for all that we poke fun at them, did a real service by buying this saved-from-the-wastebasket material, thereby creating awareness in the general public of a market for this material. Eventually it made its way to the schoolchildren and their nickel allowances or paper-boy money.

I started collecting as a 10-y-o in 1980, so I am sure my experiences will differ greatly from those much older than I. After I started collecting, I discovered numerous resources in which to buy or trade stamps. My biggest resource was the Oregon Stamp Society. They had a monthly event held for kids which I attended with classmates from school (we had a stamp club at school) - there was never enough time to sort throughthe boxes of stamps set before us! Additionally, I attended another regular stamp collector's event at a local church, and finally, my best source (and biggest learning experience) was through a stamp dealer whom I delivered newspapers to his home. I loved hanging out at his home going through piles of stamps!

For others, there were many sources of stamps including (but not limited to): Mail order. Major stamp companies like Harris, et al would sell inexpensive packets of stamps aimed at kids (stamp companies used to advertise in comic books among other places), department stores (Here in the Pacific NW, Montgomery Wards used to sell packets of WW stamps), stamp stores (something that has all but disappeared as online sales have taken over), scouting (earn your stamp collecting merit badge!), and so on.

I enjoy reading stories about our experiences of collecting stamps in our youth!

Brian

I cannot speak for the 30's, but in the 50's (long before ebay) foreign stamps were sold in inexpensive packets now called "kiloware" (I don't know if there was a distinct name for them back then or not). Ads for these would appear in all sorts of magazines. Companies like Mystic have been in business since the 30's (and earlier) doing business by mail order. Quite common were dealers who would send out lists of their stock/inventory and prices to anyone who wanted to get on their mailing list. And stamp shops were more common, as well. So between the brick and mortar shops, and mail order vendors, there were plenty of opportunities to acquire stamps, including foreign stamps, "back in the day."

Basil

The previous posters have pretty well described how we got our foreign stamps "back in the day."

I just want to mention one more "connection" that I had, pen-pals. If I remember correctly, there were small ads in Lynn's or some other stamp magazine offering to exchange stamps with people in other countries.

I had pen-pals in Great Britain, Brazil and India. I would send a glassine of my duplicate stamps along with a short note about the weather or family. In return I would get a similar packet from my foreign friend.

As a kid it was exciting to get mail from a foreign country! The stamps weren't high value, just the definitives and commemoratives of the day.

It helped my collection and gave me some great trading stock.

Dan

Long before ebay, when I was a kid, I would be given stamps by my grandfather, who collected. Someone who worked in an office used to save me Malaysia stamps - plenty of them would arrive. Newsagents and toy shops would sell packets of stamps, mixed, or themed, or just sets mounted on a display card. Lots of other kids collected, so we'd swap (we also had a school stamp club one lunchtime each week). There were ads in comics for starter kits and packets of assorted stamps which you could send off for. Not forgetting the new issues appearing in my own country.

Except for the pen pal connection, Hieronymous covered most of the usual sources. Lots of churches had boxes where they gathered "Stamps for Missions," And these were usually sold wholesale to local packet makers who would put them up in bundles for resale to larger companies. Eventually they would end up in the hands of kids through ten cent packets at the drugstore, as well as larger packets with more variety that made good birthday gifts. But sometimes the mission box went to the youth group or a parent-teacher league who doled them out to the kids directly.

But as others have already pointed out, the culture of the day was very different from the present culture in the matter of what gets thrown away. Stamps on envelopes, especially right after holiday Christmas card exchanges, were not routinely tossed out, in those families where even one child was a collector. And judging by the volume of mission stamps traffic, that was a lot of families. Stamps were a more significant part of the culture at that time. When you went to the PO to mail something, the clerks put stamps on an outgoing piece of mail (while everyone waited). Things speeded up when they could dial in an amount and a piece of tape with the exact postage popped out, but few were interested in collecting those.

What you are NOT hearing us mention as a philatelic source for kids was stamp shows. They existed, but few kids went to them. Nor were they encouraged to attend in most cases unless chaperoned, since it was all a bit above the minds of children. Special booths and activities for young philatelists at shows came later, at least in the hinterlands.

really cool info... thanks everyone... I definitely learned some history!

I do remember that Woolworth's had packets of stamps. I began collecting in the late 50's and as I recall there was no difficulty in getting common non-US stamps. Also in many of the comic books, there were ads for stamps, but you did have to read the fine print. Otherwise you would get approvals.

There were classified ads in several magazines that had stamps for sale. The only problem I had was scraping up the money.

Hieronymus, I applaud your response. It was sincere, insightful and conveyed what I've found to be true about this site. Most people here are always willing to give assistance and help answer questions. I've received some very interesting information and learned quite a bit. I've been collecting over 50 years and more recently selling off my duplicates. There is so much to learn and a novice or beginner surely appreciates some direction this forum affords.