Maybe He Should Have Tried Stamp Collecting!

Today's local paper carried a story about a 24-year-old who got drunk, committed a horrendous crime, and got 50 to life in sate prison. Maybe he should have tried stamp collecting. When/where he was growing up, stamp collecting probably wasn't cool, but drinking was. Well, now with at least 50 years on his hands, he could consider giving it a look, if he can.

Lately, whenever I see someone involved in crime, I wonder if they would have turned out better if they had collected stamps.

I have wondered somewhat of the same thing regarding todays students. As a former high school teacher, I witnessed first hand the terrific ignorance of geography and history. When I started stamp collecting, I learned so much about other countries and the history of a lot of events.

I can see no downside to stamp collecting, and find myself in agreement with modern_who. I really think stamps make a person a better person.

Yup I agree fully

Though we are a pretty tame City here when you look at most of the crimes, they are being committed by young people under the age of 20. It's really a shame when you think about it.

Exept for video games, computers and TV it seems kids today have no ambition to go exploring and do just plain kid stuff in their spare time. Now I know there are some kids out there that have hobbies and play lots of sports but if you look around the mall on any given evening you'll get the picture.

Dianne

I fully agree..stamp collecting calms both the soul and the spirit

Its no joke..according to Parade magazine about one in every 31 adults in America is in jail or on supervised release..i was no angel..but I was VERY LUCKY or the Good Lord liked me...now I understand and obey the laws..wear my seatbelt etc !!

I do! It's all seniors, here! Yikes!

David

In hindsight, I wish I had been a collector as a child. I was a good student, esp. English, but the first "C" I ever received was in 7th grade geography! I was NOT very happy with Mr. Castle! I'm sure that stamp collecting would have improved my knowledge and interest in many areas.

I agree... stamp collecting does have an effect on one's personality and moods

I had my share of misdeeds, but overall I was concerned with the consequences of my actions and my dad's reaction. It couldn't hurt that I was a Boy Scout. LOL
...Then again there is that author, Robert? Block, whom has several books in a series where a professional killer named Keller is an accomplished stamp collector: Hit Parade, Hit and Run, etc. are some titles.
Our mall has slowly been loosing its tenants the last several years. I think it is because of high rent. The Arcade & movie theater closed and a quarter of the food court.

On the other hand, here is someone who did try stamp collecting, Greg Manning, a well-known stamp dealer and auctioneer.

Below is a link to an SEC civil complaint against him. It is a long PDF document so you might want to right click and choose 'Save Link As' or 'Save To Disk' or your browser's equivalent.

http://www.sec.gov/litigation/compl...omp20965.pdf

This is a brief item about Spanish authorities asking the U.S for an indictment.

http://arrestsworldwide.blogspot.co...d-us-to.html

Wow! I had dealings with Greg Manning back in the 1970's. He was located in New Jersey, I think. I sold him a small collection of Great Britain. I got what I considered a very fair price. He offered me double what another very well known dealer in Philadelphia did.

You never know.

Greg Manning..when they revalued the Scott catalog prices back in 1989 he took out full page ads in Linns saying that the only catalogs he would use for pricing in the future would be the 1988 catalog ! What a statement ! Guys like him can become millionaires as stamp dealers ???

But to his credit, he weeded out and would not allow the sale of millions of dollars worth of forgeries, which is how his involvement began.

Traditional pursuits like hunting, fishing, stamp collecting and sports have been proven, time after time, to improve grades and decrease crime in men between the ages of 13 and 24 or so. Doing everything we can to encourage our kids to participate is extremely important!