My Pre-1940-S Stamp Realization

Hello All,

For those of you who have helped me identify stamps and will continue to help me identify stamps, thank you. More will come soon.

For those of you who responded to one of my posts and I offended you, my apologies.

I've come to realize that stamp collecting is a mad, time consuming treasure hunt and just because something isn't worth a dollar doesn't mean it's worthless. You put time and effort into collecting those stamps and they're worth something to you.

So with my collection, I now no longer look for a potential price tag but for a piece of history.

This may be the wrong place to post this, but I wanted my pre-1940's stamp people to see this.

Just wanted to let you know that I will be keeping my book and packets and such. I've (mostly) stopped my gem mining.

I regard 'the hunt' as having great intrinsic value; but the context must be right. Rare stamps are just that; rare. And when I find something I always try to remember that extra-ordinary things require extra-ordinary proof. This means I do not trust myself on subtle color shades or difficult watermark calls.

I usually ask meekly in this forum for opinions knowing that the most definitive approach is to send the stamp in for a 3rd part opinion in the form of a cert. For example see this thread https://goscf.com/t/36715&SearchTerms=423b

But please note that while we all aspire for these kinds of finds, they only come around rarely. The find like the 423b has only happened to me 2-3 times and I have been collecting since the 1970s.

So have fun and relish 'the hunt', but keep your expectations in check.
Don

I'm with Don. I've been at it since the mid 60's. Occasionally we get lucky. I say luck; but learning what to look for has a lot to do with it. But its really not about finding the gems, its more about enjoying the journey. Having said that, here's one I did find, so don't stop looking for the gem as you learn from your journey.

https://goscf.com/t/41355

Heidi, you keep right on posting pictures and asking questions. Most of us here are happy to assist a newcomer with questions and to provide feedback, etc. The nice thing about stamps is they can be whatever you want them to be - a piece of history, a miniature work of art, an object of study, etc. They can be rewarding that way, if not financially. And if you get to a point where stamps are nothing to you and are simply taking up space, there's nothing wrong with selling them to someone who wants them for whatever you can get. Although the vast majority of stamps are worth very little, a sizable collection or accumulation of them is still worth *something*, even if it's just a lunch or a dinner, a tank of gas or a new outfit.

People who collect stamps do it because they like them, feel free to keep posting you never know what you might find. The odds of getting rich from stamps is about the same as hitting the lotto but to a stamp person a 20.00 stamp will get you excited even if it took you 20 hours of searching to find it.