Looking For A Good Country To Collect

So, can anyone recommend a good country to collect, with low annual stamp output (10 or less per year), and reasonably interesting topics on the stamps.

How about a country that no longer exists?

Indo-China
South Vietnam.
etc..

Something to consider. I was debating doing Germany, since I am part German, but they crank them out like crazy, and all those WWII overprints would drive me nuts, diving this late into the game. If I had started Germany back in the 80s, I might have had a chance...

Less than 10 is difficult, check out Spanish Andorra, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Finland Aland, Guernsey, Alderney, Georgia, Lesotho, Malta, Portugal Acores, Portugal Madeira, Qatar, Solomon-Islands, Tadjikistan.

Klaus

Check out Chile!

Thats the wrong approach to take,find a area most collectors overlooked.Something you can develope into the go to person on this chat board and be the expert in .Find something in a few years that your the one with the better material.
Why do you want to have a so-so collection ,find the area thats cheap now and all the best items are still floating around cheap .
Here are a few suggestions -------the flood overprints of IRAQ, the BANLE-DESH{sp} overprints on PAKISTAN stamps ,the history of Candian Airmails,the pre-federation of Russia after the USSR, and the philatelic history of South Sudan.

Singapore or Malaysia

I like Iceland and Greenland myself. The Faeroe Islands aren't too bad either.

Chimo

Bujutsu

This subject is guaranteed to provoke controversy LOL LOL.

I saw "...the flood overprints of IRAQ, the BANLE-DESH{sp} overprints on PAKISTAN stamps ,......... and the pre-federation of Russia after the USSR, and the philatelic history of South Sudan." I strongly suggest you stick with countries with Western languages and alphabets, so you can identify the stamps and read the literature.

For Iraq and Bangladesh, they may suddenly discover a warehouse-full of rarities and prices tank.

Singapore's not bad, except its early issues are very expensive due to high demand.

Iceland, Greenland, and the Faeroes are a good choice, as they all appear in the Facit specialized catalog, and are reasonably accessible language-wise. The follow-on would be Denmark, since Greenland used to be a Danish colony, more or less.

From a postal history standpoint, South Vietnam would be an interesting choice, but once again, you have a severe language impediment.

My own thoughts, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, Bahamas, Ireland, Malta (as mentioned previously), both segments of Cyprus (Greek and Turkish), Monaco (unfortunately tons of new issues), and the topical, "Stamps on Stamps." As for Germany, you could collect just "part," like the Third Reich, which is very simple and straightforward, and plenty of interesting covers.

You might consider collecting Newfoundland which stopped producing stamps in 1949 when it became part of the Canadian confederation. Another suggestion is Barbados. Lastly, if you like WW2 stamps, the Marshall Islands released a large number of these stamps in the 1990s.

Hi apastuszak

I seem to think that you already collect Colombia but if not take a shot at it. Some of the classics are pretty pricey but in general it is affordable, and interesting. Lots of history if you are so inclined.

Jerry B

Someone suggested dead countries earlier. I enjoy collecting DDR. Most items are affordable and relatively easy to find.

I collected both Greenland and Iceland. I sold both collection in need of cash. Greenland don't issue many stamps every year. Iceland probably less than 10 issues. They both have beautiful stamps and sheets. If you want to collect used Iceland I know a dealer (If needed contact me) who sells lots of 600 and 800 stamps off paper for Iceland. I now collect Sweden as a Scandinavian country, nice country to collect also. When I sold my Iceland to the dealer he told me he's buying any Scandinavian countries collections because he finds buyers for those. I didn't get that much for my collection but at least he wants it. Dealers don't buy everything.

Andy,

If you establish an end date to your collection then it won't matter how many new issues a country cranks out because they will be outside of your collecting window. I've seen how frustrated you seem to be over the proliferation of new U.S. issues so I think you'd be doing yourself a favor by limiting the period of the collection. Something to think about...

Steve

I like the suggestion of Newfoundland, altho a lot of the complete sets or earlies are expensive.

My suggestion is Portuguese colonies. All colonies, except Macau, became independent by 1975. So, you have a good ending date. Many of the issues, including sets, are relatively inexpensive. You can find lots of misprints, errors, etc. on issues through the 1930s. Be advised that some of these can get pricy and may require expert review to make sure your items are genuine. Still, I've collected the colonies for almost 25 years and am always highly entertained.

That's why I decided I was done collecting U.S. stamps after 1993, an arbitrary date that happened to be where my album stopped back in the early 90s. I recognized that the U.S.P.S. was screwing collectors by putting out hundreds of stamps per year and, since we went to self-adhesive (which I cannot stand) and really ugly designs, I don't miss them a bit. I haven't bought a new stamp for my collection for 30 years.