Collecting And Completness

After he had read them David Giles gifted me with the two volume set The Worlds Greatest Stamp Collectors..published by Linns..i have to warn you..these guys were not collecting on a budget..all were multi millionaires who not only created great collections but were usually generous to charities and friends. The stamps THEY purchased either increased in value or when they tired of them at least had some salable value...Anyway heres whats written about one of them Alfred H. Caspary..."In areas outside of his masterful United States collection he did not seek completeness nor specialty..but chose instead to be a connoisseur ..gathering items of both intrinsic rarity and beauty. While striving to acquire superb examples of the finest philatelic material he could buy,realized as most serious collectors that some remarkable pieces because of their unique status likely to be flawed or have minor defects !

This is a great question...focus and completeness.

1. I love the idea of buying just the special gems ("for intrinsic rarity and beauty"). The Sandafayre site has pictures of just early classics per country...a nice small representation of a country without any real boundary for specialization or completeness...most higher priced that I will get.

One could define the core key issues per country and set that as the measure of completeness.

For collectors on a budget that becomes a bit more of a challenge...are we collecting just issues that are of interest and affordable but not common (i.e $10-$50 stamps) but not the mega expensive? This strategy makes more sense to me when one focuses on the top regardless of price.

2. Condition - sure it's easy to accept flawed items when they are some of the best examples remaining, but for the average collector at what condition do we settle just to have representation of some of the $100+ issues or do we focus on high grade $20 issues?

3. 40+ volumes of stamps is hard to review and enjoy beyond working it...althought one binder at a time has been a fun study---especially to see the evolution over the years per country. One binder of just gems begs to be carefully examined but may get tiring...

4.I understand wanting just a few high grade baseball cards...those with rare and top player qualities...and clearly I don't see the value in boxes and boxes of commons, but stamps are slightly different. I do have a few stamp issues I would like to treasure but I get a lot more value out of the commons and completeness compared to my percepton of a baseball card collection (as an example).

Some amazing things about Caspary I can relate to...not the fact that he could afford anything..but that he did not care what his albums looked like..he knew what he was buying..but he would casually throw rare covers loose into an album !! We are strange folk !!

I know I'll NEVER complete my U.S. collection... but I don't care. I enjoy the simple pleasures of the hobby... finding a new marginal marking and putting it with the rest on a nice page; completing all the plate number and positions of a stamp like the 44-cent New Sweden Air Mail (now that is do-able!)

Wise words, Phil the Mentor!

David

A complete collection-Never (Frustrating)

Complete Issues and Sets-Of course (Enjoyable)

Having fun along the way-ABSOLUTELY ! (Simply the Best)

I only have to collect the reign of King George V.

Complete? Impossible in my lifetime!

If the only hope you will ever have of an example of an expensive stamp, then I see nothing wrong in accepting a less than perfect stamp.

In my experience, there are degrees of imperfection and some are more acceptable than others. I had a choice of US number 1. One was priced very low, but for a reason--it was a three margin copy with the design being really compromised on the fourth. The second cost substantially more (but still a lot less than a VF copy) but the flaw was not visible from the front. Naturally I went for the one which looked ok.(but was not)

To sum up....

1. Cost of my King George VI album in 1999: $350.00 Cdn.

2. Completing the album (slowly), reading Linn's, learning lots... $20.00/week.

3. Meeting all you folks here, going to stamp shows, helping to run a stamp club and working for a dealer... PRICELESS!!

David

Ok David...in my opinion..thats the post of the day !