When Have You Thrown A Stamp Away And Why? Did You Feel Guilty?

I would think that certified fakes of coils to be invaluable as a reference source and monetary well being.

Spot on redwoodrandy, known fakes/forgeries create an invaluable reference collection for whatever it is that a collector is studying

Probably a character flaw, but I do not throw stamps away.

Note that sometimes reference collection examples end up being 'released' back into the unsuspecting marketplace (when the current owner is no longer around). Best to mark them with permanent ink.
Don

To answer the original question, the answer is "yes." I do feel guilty about throwing away any stamp.

That being said, there's no point in continually circulating stamps of minimal catalog value which have obvious major/minor flaws. For stamps which are prior to 1920, I'll put them in an envelope until I accumulate enough of them and then offer them as seconds (or third, fourths or just plain wounded warriors) as a "Good, The Bad and The Ugly" lot on eBay.
These lots have been quite popular over the past two decades, when offered.

Although, intellectually I can understand the need to destroy the stamps which are no longer viable collectibles, it is still a difficult thing for me to actually do.

I throw away damaged stamps nearly every day. I'll only keep a damaged stamp if it's relatively high catalog value. Common low value damaged stamps go in the trash bin without a second thought or a twinge of regret.

I've also thrown away perfectly good stamps before as well. I remember buying a junk lot one time that had literally hundreds of some common letter-rate definitive, I forget which stamp offhand, but I know I had dozens to hundreds of them already. After considering a couple other options, I decided the simplest way to solve that problem was simply to throw them away, and hopefully make them just a little bit scarcer in the process. It felt wrong doing it, but that feeling went away after about 5 minutes.

Instead of throwing away unwanted stamps I gave them away.

I'd prefer to use pencil, a lot less unsightly, in my opinion of course.

That said, if it's modern tat, then ink away, but for classic forgeries, I'd only use pencil. For material with forged perfs I'd still lean towards using pencil.

A little description on the album page would also instruct future sellers/owners.

I throw away damaged stamps unless they are rare in which case I might keep them. One of my GB one pound green stamps has a white patch where someone tried removing the crayon registration mark. With more common modern stamps I am more fussy and throw away any damaged ones I've even been known to trow away manuscript cancelled and messy cancels among Machins. Having soorted tens of thousands of machins by colour and obvious visual differences I keep unsorted Machins for collage and decorating slip cases and booklets. I look at the grocery sacks full of unsorted surplus machins and wonder whether I should or will ever throw them away. There is no way I would palm them off on new or juvenile collectors.

I don't see what the big deal is about throwing stamps away.
People toss tons of stuff all the time, much of it potentially useful -- in poorer countries, much of what gets thrown away in the advanced nations would be picked out of the trash and recycled.
As for stamps, I throw lots of damaged stamps in the trash every day, and I also burn lots of kiloware leftovers. If someone wouldnt be willing to pay money for it on eBay, then what's the point of treating it like buried treasure?
Space is also a valuable commodity!

Incoming raw charity kiloware comes with everything in it.

My rubbish box gets quite large. It is then put into a large envelope as a fire starter for our colder months. Nice to turn it into something useable.

Contents of rubbish box! PO worker's pen & or marking pen cancels. Next, stamps with sticky tape on them. Then torn & ripped. That is about it.

Fill a shoe box of these stamps per 20kg of sorted kiloware.

Happy Stamping John

There's the explanation: I don't buy kiloware or in bulk. I acquire US stamps one or two at a time or in small collections. They either go into albums or stock books, never are they thrown away, burned or otherwise disposed of. I just haven't reached critical mass, which I define as the point at which I am overwhelmed by my collection and need to make space. At this point, I'm not even whelmed!

Newbie here. Yes, I threw away one stamp from the inherited collection I'm going through. Some were stuck together and when I soaked and carefully parted them the face was missing off the stamp. Could not determine even country of origin, so yes I tossed it. Soooo felt guilty on it and thought I aught not to have done it, but there it is. Oddly enough the missing face of stamp was not on the back of the other as I would have thought. Damaged goods I reckon'.

Damaged and common? It gets tossed without a second thought.

Not common and damaged and I don't have it; it goes into my collection.

Since I collect revenue stamps, they led a hard life and many are stapled or prefin canx and may be missing small interior parts (think beer stamps).

Many of these are quite scarce and I am happy to have a damaged copy until something better comes along (if it ever does)!

The only stamps I throw away are seriously damaged, low-value stuff, or else common-as-dirt "Nonprofit Org." stamps and the like on my junk mail. No regrets.

Most of the stamps that I get on mail go into a giveaway box, including some of the junk mail stamps. I save some of the more interesting covers for myself.