Let's Hear From Contrarians

It seems we act a certain way with stamp collecting because that's the way it has always been done - or that's what the catalog says. I enjoy reading Forum members who take the "contrarian" view on things and don't follow the crowd. So here is a spot to share any "contrarian" thoughts you have about the hobby.

Here's mine for the day: Everyone seems to dislike self adhesive stamps - and I did too. But I find trimming a stamp off and leaving it on paper is easier than soaking, it protects the edges, gives a nice border and safer to put in the Vario pages. If all we ever had was self adhesive we wouldn't care and we never would soak - so I say.

Any other contrary thoughts out there?

Well, that's the ONLY rational point of view; you can always attempt to soak them later. It's related to the issue of removing extra selvage (which I think is a bad idea, even though the stamps then require larger mounts).

I say collect them mint, then you can just stick them on the page where you want them

I hate self-adhesive stamps. Not only are the a pain to remove, I have booklets I can't get rid of due to the fact that I need only one stamp from each booklet but I do not know how to remove them or how to sell them. I'd rather go back to old fashioned stamps.

I take issue with the Scott catalogue of US stamps and covers.

Several things have always bugged me:

1) Anachronistic listings. Scott numbers 3 & 4, for instance, were 1875 reprints and not even valid for postage.

These two reprints should have been back-of-book items (along with any other special-issue that's not valid for postage) and #3 should be the 1c Franklin imo.

2) Giving multiple major catalogue #s to a single issue. While I freely admit that I have not studied this stamp, I think it's ridiculous to call numbers 5-9 "different" stamps. These are the same stamp, but with different varieties because of differences in the dies on the same plate.

In my book, the 1c Franklins are now numbers 3, 3a, 3b, and so on.

3) Grills of the 1860s.

What a confusing mess. 85 is a 3c with 'D' grill, but 85a is a 1c 'Z' grill, 85b is the 2c 'Z' grill, and so on.

When Scott had the opportunity to correct this mess, they dropped the ball. They eliminated the Trial Color Proofs from major postage, gave airmail it's own back-of-book section, but ignored some of the more glaring issues.

4) Semi-postal as back-of-book issues? Seriously? Someone should have been fired ...

Contrary enough for you? THAT is why it's dangerous to pass around the soapbox!

Brian

One of the nice things about stamp collecting is that there are no "stamp police" to tell you that you are collecting wrong.

So here are some of my "contrarian" ways of collecting:

1.I agree with Brian. The Scott catalog is a mess. So I collect US 1847 -1947 by design type as my main collection. Now, hunting for and successfully finding different grills, paper types, perfs, and watermarks is part of the fascination of stamp collecting for me. I do collect them but I consider them variations and they get placed in a separate album. The foreign countries I collect are on Steiner pages until I get around to making pages for them. Then the stamps are put in an order that makes sense to me, not by catalog number.

2 I don't have a problem with CTO's. They are a part of philatelic history. As one of the few active collectors of DDR stamps, there are some variations (Five Year Plan and Officials) that can only be collected as CTO's. To find a similar situation with CTO issues of other countries wouldn't surprise me. Besides, if the USPS issued a CTO and Scott assigned it a catalog number, how many of us wouldn't get one??

3 I collect FDC's with addresses and without cachets. Most cachets are beautiful works of art by themselves and I certainly wouldn't turn one down. My interest, though, is in the postmark, not the art.

4 I won't toss a stamp that is "junk." I remember as a newbie how excited I got when a senior collector would toss me a stamp that I didn't have. I didn't care if it had pulled perfs, abysmal centering and thins. I needed it! It kept me interested in the hobby. I like to do the same with my cast-offs when I can.

There really aren't stamp police, are there???

Dan

Where to start?

I mix mint and used on the same page.

I am an unrepentent user of hinges and take the greatest delight in hinging any MNHs that come my way. I've paid for them - so I can!

I always use stamp tongs to handle other people's stamps. But I use fingers on my own.

I use cheap paper which probably contains not only acid and bleach, but over 20% horsemeat.

I NEVER consult a catalogue price when deciding what to bid for a stamp; I use the 'Blimey! Not another one'/'Cripes! You don't see many of those around' method of pricing.

I have absolutely no idea how many stamps I've got, nor how much they are worth.

I don't go out of my way to buy stamps with thins, tears, clipped perfs, lousy centring, foxing or leprosy but if they're cheap and interesting - what the hell?

I'd rather chew a leg off than go back to Stanley Gibbons.

Somewhere I've got an album full of Manama Dependency of Ajman;and while I don't wear the T shirt, I'm not particularly ashamed of it either.

And that's just the ones I'm conscious of.

I have tears rolling down my face that was so funny!

Bamra1, you just killed me!! What a hoot!! I needed then laugh, Thanks.

Bamra1, you just made my day! I'll be chuckling in my sleep all night.

Bamra1,
That was priceless!
Dan

I just collect what ever I find appealing - no rationale - no reasoning - no structure - and as to organization will get around to it one day - maybe or maybe not

I've repeatedly read the complaint that Scott lists the semi-postal stamps in their own category separate from the general listings. I like it that way, so I guess that makes me the contrarian. The first thing I want my stamp catalogue to do is to allow me to find the stamp in its listings. I can find a semi-postal stamp much more quickly in the Scott / Unitrade listings than I can in a Michel catalogue because there are simply fewer pages to go through. I can find the listing for the Canadian mental health semi-postal as quickly as I can turn to the semi-postal page in my Unitrade catalogue. If I had to find it among the general listings, I'd be thumbing through page after page, trying to find the stamp among all the other modern issues.

Ryan

Pretty much everything Bamra said, especially

I am with Bamra1 on most of his list.

I do

Use good archival grade paper.
Lay out and write up my own pages using a dip pen and black India ink.
Mix mint, MH and used stamps, cut-out postmarked stamps on piece, and interesting stamped and addressed envelopes in the same album. Same page sometimes.
Use stamp hinges for some items ( I have a stock of original Dennison's.)
Make up pages with stamps out of catalogue order where there is some relevant connecting theme or topic.
Include photographs and cuttings ( scanned and printed ) where these add interest and information to the stamps.

I do not

Collect modern stamps ( anything after 1945 generally, though there are the odd well designed exceptions.)
Get too bothered about perfection; off centre printing, slightly short perf here and there, hinge marks, gum ripples, or unused no gum stamps are all ok. I would sooner have the stamp than not.
Collect manufactured and over embellished cachet adorned first day covers. Or unaddressed plain FDC envelopes plastered with a whole stamp issue.
Buy stamp magazines which are mostly advertising content. We have three in the UK which consistently seem to feature the same topics each month. Why?
Intend to buy anything, ever, from Stanley Gibbons. ( From what I have read on here, Mystic seems to be the comparable USA outfit.)
Buy the latest, up to date, expensive catalogues. Recent, out of date, cheaper issues are fine for me.
Mind telling people I collect stamps. Most seem interested, if not a wee bit wistful that they themselves don't.
Subscribe to the completist passion for collecting every stamp issue, especially the increasing number of issues put out by Royal Mail and the US Postal Service.

Terry

Hi

I am not sure if this fits the thread.

1. I never use stock sheets like Vario. I have a few hundred Hawid 3 row cards where I store stamps until I have enough to mount. These are stored in a metal file box.

2. Duplicates always go into #2 glassines which are stored in business card files (the reason for #2 as they fit nicely).

3. What is an album? I used one when I first started but after the first year I started using blank pages.

4. Larger pieces which do not fit on standard size pages are stored in Sheet files. Eventually I will make reduced color copies of the sheets and mount the copy.

Jerry B