How To Move Forward...

I am a new collector and I had say 1500-3000 stamps or so to sort though. I am close to getting all of them organized by country. I have been moving them from the Milla escalopes to ziplock bags, and started to soak and place stamps into stockbooks. That is the easy part.

Now, I need some help figuring out what should I collect, as I am not sure how much I am biting off. as I am somewhat limited on my finances. Also, it may sound odd, but I like canceled stamps more then mint, as I like the idea that the stamp was used. It also helps with the finance side since most of the time canceled stamps are less expensive.

First I decided some countries would be "collecting" some are "Hold" as that I am not collecting, but not getting rid of stamps of a set country. And lastly, those that I plan to dispose of. (I am not going over the trading bit as I read the rules and see that I need 50 real posts and two weeks on the board to discuss that.)

So my plan is

- Collect US (It is really easy in the US to collect US issues.)
- Canada
- Finland
- Norway
- Airmail and other "Back of book" type stamps

-------------

I know I will be disposing of Modern German (Though I might keep GDR stamps and WWII era stamps I come across.) French, and dutch stamps. One of my questions leads to the "machin" series. are these stamps going to be so common that I might as well hold on to them and at some point go though and sort and study them, or is this something that better off to trade for stuff that is closer to my interests? I was going to dispose of all my british stamps I come across, but apparently the machin series is a major collection target that many find worthwile.

Also is it reasonable to just hold on to random countries stamps to make small topical collections, or are you better off just getting rid of them.

Hi Zed. Firstly, let me tell you tht I'm a middle aged (54) Western European collector. So, please forgive me if my comments sound somewhat odd for a young American philatelist.
I'll definitely keep the Machins. if you (like myself!) enjoy used stamps, you can get a lot of cheap fun looking for the different values and colour shades of the never ending Machin stamps. They're a philatelic classic, just like their Victorian forefathers.
If you like to play with used stamps, why not to give Sweden and Denmark a try? Their engraved stamps are wonderful. The older issues (up to 1950) are very nice and easy to find and classify, not like Norway's messing post-horns and lions. Modern stamps are also plentiful and not too expensive.
Anyway, I must say that I also collect pre-1950 Norway and Finland.
Well I hope that this was not too boring for you.
Keep enjoying philately! Don't hesitate on contact me if I can be of any help.

No one can tell you what to collect ... you have to decide for yourself.

However, I wouldn't be too quick to "get rid of" any stamps just yet. There are times that one may prefer to focus on one country versus another and then when one gets tired of it, they can delve into stamps of another country. Just because you may have a primary interest in one country over the other doesn't mean you have to give up your smaller collections.

There are so many numerous ways to collect stamps (by country, topic, series, postmark, etc.), that you will always have something new to look out for.

When I first started collecting I collected general foreign for a few years, as well as U.S. I didn't spend a lot of money mostly because I didn't have a lot of money. But I had fun looking at all the stamps from other countries. After a while I just started gravitating towards the stamps of Spain, and then I narrowed that down to 19th century. So I guess my advice would be to not be in a hurry to find a specific collecting area. You will probably find yourself getting interested in something specific as time goes on.

Cursus - I am holding onto the Swedish and Denmark stamps as well. My ancestors came from the area and its a good area to focus on. Just that right now I have 2 Swedish and 4 danish stamps. Hopefully I will have many more.

I decided to split my british stamps into Machins (I have 120 or so) and non-Machins. Did the same thing with my french stamps (Sower's and the more modern types. I have little intrest in the Sower french stamps). I do have some stamps I want to get rid of soon, but they are old "Dune" stamps that I do not want to collect.

Zedwardson, I agree with wt1 -


In the last year my focus has been us mint, then zeppelin stamps and covers, and now, all of a sudden I am fascinated by Newfoundland. Most of us, in time, find new areas to explore, in our hobby, and that is something that I do enjoy. I don't get rid of anything, unless they are duplicates. regards, yakboomer.

Hi,
You sound like a relatively young person, and as I am 69 years old, perhaps you can benefit from my experiences...... When I got back into the hobby, it was first to collect US stamps from 1847 thru 1950. Well, that lasted about a month and now I've extended that to 1999. Then I got the bug to collect worldwide. At first I was going to do so from 1840 thru 1940, but again extended it to 1955.

When I was collecting just US stamps, I wanted nothing to do with other countries. And when stamps were beyond my time range, I wanted nothing to do with them. Well, I was wrong (don't tell my wife).

My point is, while you may be able to only afford relatively few stamps today, and your interests may be confined to only a couple of countries, things may change tomorrow - or the next day.

The beauty of this hobby (among many things) is that you can be active in it through-out your life. And while there will be times when yu have lost enthusiasm for the hobby, just put it carefully aside - for soon enough you will pick it up again.

ENJOY!
Mobilman44

Thanks for the good advise.

Its hardly a large collection, so the stamps I have currently little intrest in I just put aside in another box as they been in storage for years.