Where The Stamp Takes US 1948 -2013

My stamp collecting began in the 3rd grade..i loved the colorful stamps of Liberia but could not stand our United States single color violet or green postage ! I worked my way up..buying the Scott International albums one at a time..and now regretting it..hindsight is great..should have gone with the single country specialized albums..but I had a family to support...anyhew..i find I have a great interest in the covers of Latin America..this is where the quest has taken me to date !

I started collecting stamps when I was a Boy Scout. Only merit badge I ever got. I stopped keeping up with new issues in 1988 because the USPS was obviously turning stamp collecting into a major money making business. They really started cranking up the number of stamps issued, and the denominations of stamps. I don't think Scott could keep up with the USPS. I have from back then, supplement pages for the Famous Americans issues that don't even have Scott numbers on them. So since then, with various hiatuses, I have been working strategically to forward my "Classic Stamp" progress instead of keeping up with the times. This is where Stamp collecting has taken me from my Boy Scout start, till now.


-IBFS

Even though a childhood collector may have found the single color stamps of the 1940s and 1950s to be boring, I venture to guess that the majority of US collectors today would like to go back to those days.

Sure we have very colorful stamps today, but the engraved quality of those old time stamps have been lost in deference to today's desktop publishing and computer driven printing techniques.

And, of course, there's subject matter. In the 1940s and 1950s the US commemorated such things as ships and trains and famous Americans and US Presidents, etc., whereas the subject matter of today's stamps seem much more generic by comparison.

I didn't start until very late. About 5 years ago. My father was an avid stamp and coin collector. I can still him now ranting that Farley destroyed the stamp business. I remember I said they looked nice to me and he said that was the problem. By his reckoning Farley straitened out the post office and the printing that followed didn't have much variations or rarities. So I collected coins like he did.

I agree. I think the older stamps had a beauty in themselves. When I look at them under the magnification, I just marvel in the beauty of the lost art. Too bad today's stamps ARE probably done on a computer and printed. What a shame.

Chad

I don't even look at new stamps ..I am intrigued by the old more "boring" stamps ..hehe

As a youngster in the '50s, I began collecting worldwide. With motorcycles, cars, girls, work, I put that aside and actually can't recall what happened to that album. When I married in the '60s I started back, but only with US stamps. I could only afford used, and eventually even that was more than I could do justice to. I eventually traded them for a mercury dime collection.

Last year (after a 40 year hiatus) I suddenly got the urge to check into the hobby again, and realized I could afford to "do it right". Funny, some of the funds came from selling off that same Mercury dime collection, which allowed me to pick up a couple of Scotts National albums, and get a good start on an unused US collection. I have to say its amazing at how happy the hobby has once again made me.