I Want To Play With My Stamps!

Has anyone reached a saturation level with their stamps that they aren't fun anymore? I am sitting here a staring at 40 albums, various boxes of "to be sorted" plus stockbooks etc. Truthfully, I have forgotten what stamps are inside some of them. I always have "work" to do with my collection - and I rarely have fun "to do". I am in serious negotiations with myself to create 4 new empty 3-ring binders and mounting my favorite stamps on simple pages by country and/or topic, with no organization except for sets. The only requirement to be in my VSP (Very Special Postage) albums is that I really enjoy looking at that stamp for whatever reason (topic, postmark, image etc.) Then begin moving on the rest of the stamps to others. Then I can just pull one of my VSP albums off the shelf and enjoy our playtime together. Addition by subtraction. There, I feel better.

I have a similar problem. You are doing what I've been trying to do. I'm creating a collection of the best of the best and items I just plain like or love. I find many issues and items loose their appeal and I don't just want to own something, I want the best I can own and be able to enjoy it.

Scouter, I think you are on to something...i have a couple of cinderella albums or stockbooks and I just put in what I like..Swiss military stamps,Stamp expos and so on !!

A hobby you spend many hours a week doing it cannot be exciting a long time. What I like the most is SCF and shopping for stamps. Since my budget for stamps is zero these days it's SCF that keep me busy the most. I do work in my collections but that's really when I find nothing to do. And some time the spirit come back. Just looking at nice colorful stamps brings satisfaction.

Nice one Scouter !

I have albums I never look in anymore, I don't even collect what is in them [I did once] and they are just taking valuable [wife] space.
For many years I have collected Cinderellas, 'willy nilly', all placed into stock pages, mixed up and no organization...except for the British Exhibition material.
About a month ago I decided enough was enough. I began to take all my Cinderellas from their albums and organize into categories....and I have just about finished. It was great fun and it's very pleasing to see them all in order. It will save time too, when searching and posting pics on the forum.
Now the problem what to do with the postage stamps ?

.....and my wife still wants that bit of space.

Londonbus1.....help needed to condense stamp collection, poor salary !

My wife always asks why my desk is so cluttered, and its simply so I can enjoy the new purchases a bit longer. Once they are housed its all but over.

I took a break from collecting when I started my family. Stamps had always been something I did completely by myself. When I started up again stamps became a very social thing. I got involved in clubs, things like ebay and even this forum. I am always learning and sharing and listening to others stories. It is never boring. I still have a bunch of alone time with stamps, but my collection is not just for my enjoyment. I look forward to showing and viewing and swapping stamp tales. It has been years since I put a stamp in an regular album. My albums are topics that I like and mostly covers. I have 100's of categories in 3 ring binders with everything from my Minnesota cancels to stampless, territorials, machine cancels, auxillary markings, etc.. You get the idea, it is never boring. If something interests me I start a collection in a 3 ring binder. My smallest collection is covers with county or postmasters names in the postmark. I only have about 30 different and there has to be 100's if not 1000's. I have a book that lists them all. I have a stack of Steiner pages that I printed in hope of putting stamps in an album again. So, it is never boring. There is more to do than I probably everhave time for and more collecting friends to meet along the way.

If it isn't fun, why do it?

I only collect U.S. mint, used, revenues, RM revenues, RN revenues, postal history, airs, coils, classics, modern (up to 2000) and the odd ball item that I think is pretty cool.

My problem is that my collection has gotten to the point where a single item may cost several hundred dollars. I can't afford that so I started down another path.

Plating the One Cent Franklin classics. Scott #7,9,20,22 & 24 but, primarily the #24 and the others not mentioned are still out of my range. I can still purchase these for a few bucks and its not breaking the bank. Besides, the #24 has so many faults and other varieties its still a joy to discover them. Another curl, a double transfer, a plate fault, plate cracks and so on. Perhaps when I have enough of these "defective" #24s I'll put them in an exhibit and see what happens. Anyone got a #24 the want to sell?

This is keeping my interest in my collection and while I'm searching for these little gems I pick up a classic that I'm missing or I find a stamp misdescribed and get a minor treasure.

Its the hunt, its always been the hunt and I suspect it always will be the hunt. Aren't we all hunters?

Art

So why do we "work" on our stamps? We work at our jobs, we work on the yard, we work on our cars and we work on our house. We don't work softball, we don't work golf and we don't work horseshoes or board games. But we "work" on our stamps Hmmm something strange going on here.

My fun stuff is in a old spring-back binder and includes things like the first issue of Ras al Khaima; probable forgeries from Annam and Tonkin; a couple pages of Epirus; a page with the British Ionian Islands; and this set from France:


They earn their position by virtue of their continuing ability to make me smile and remind me how to have fun building the collection.

I have found that the fun is in the hunt and the purchase. Once I have the stamp in hand, so to speak, the interest in that stamp wanes and I mount in an album and move on. It is only when I am adding to the collection am I having fun. It is really sad. I think back and remember the anticipation of getting that one special stamp. I wish I could duplicate that feeling whenever I am not having fun.

I am not a high roller so I don't many high dollar stamps and can't afford them so when a buddy gave me a complete mystic heirloom album it sparked an idea. I like the organization of the Heirloom album so I keep toying with the notion of moving all my "front-of-book/classics" over to it, but it seems scary because they are so exposed. I am, however using the washington Franklin sections to house my collection of them so I can more or less keep track of what I have and what I need. It's been a blast so far. I think I'm actually going to start the album there (1909-ish)to present and the classic material in the vario sheets. That is great fun to me!

I have been fascinated with the design of #14 but more specifically the #35's. I been picking these up when I see them and I'm surprised at how many times they are mis-identified! That's basically where my fun lies at the moment. Also trying to find affordable large banknotes on cover and also classic covers from/to my hometown of Jersey Shore, Pa..

I enjoy hunting for missing singles and completing sets. As I collect on a budget, I like to buy kiloware and packets. I trade off what I don't use or need. Still, if I work on one topic or country for too long, I tend to get bored and I move on to another country or topic until I get bored with that. To be honest, I collect what I like. I don't really have a cutoff date, except for the year 2000 for my US collection.

Art, I've been in the same boat, after collecting U.S. stamps for more than 30 years, I was pretty much down to the expensive stamps that, while most of them weren't hard to find, they were prohibitively expensive and I'd only be adding a few stamps at a time to the collection. I wanted to collect, not add one stamp here or there. That's when I jumped into other countries, where I could get a whole pile of stamps at once, put them into albums, really enjoy what I was doing. My U.S. collection has largely stagnated but my other collections are humming.

To be honest, like others have said, the fun isn't in the having, it's in the getting. The only thing I really like about collecting is the chase. Once I've got it, it just sits in an album and I probably never pay attention to it again. I just want to fill pages. Having holes bugs me. However, I also want to have lots of holes because that represents possibilities. It's something to get, that's why I collect.

I collect MNH, I get one and only one of each stamp, I don't do kiloware, I don't have piles of stamps all over, every stamp I buy gets mounted in an album and the album goes back on the shelf. I don't pretend my stamps are investments, I don't care what they're worth, I don't endlessly catalog them, they are something I enjoy and that's that. And when I stop enjoying them, I have no problem walking away from them for a year or two until the bug strikes again. If it's not fun, why do it?