Your Stamps Are Gone!

Through some natural disaster, or robbery, or maybe you just sold them, your entire stamp collection is wiped out. You are, for some bizarre reason, able to select one item (stamp, cover, pane, plate block, etc.) to keep. What do you keep, and do you rebuild or give up and become a coin collector?

Prophet of doom???

Are you selling insurance by any chance?? lol If all my stamps was gone I'd probably be sick over it and just be done all together. Who knows? If I did re-start I'd jump heavily into early classic covers and foreign rate usages on cover, ship covers, etc...

I would give up and continue being a coin collector. There is almost no interest in stamp collecting in the youngest generations, and that is driving down values, and will continue to do so.

WELL, NOW I'M DEPRESSED!

Not really. I think if all my stamps suddenly disappeared, I'd walk away and focus on painting again. I love my stamps too much, and they have become a huge distraction. Just ask what's her name, my wife.

I get to save one item------------------------. Marylin Monroe Sheet she just lights up the room, ha!

On a serious note my usa album I put in the hours on it and I am still not done-have all stamps 1923-1995 and working on beginning of the book and all those dang sheet stamps and strips at the end from 1995-2000. How could I pass up all that fun and expense no matter what acts of God or man, a mother bear protecting her cubs comes to mind, ha lol...

all I need for the Colombian series are the dollar ones and looking around for place holders cheaply is going to take some time- everyone wants your first born for those even if they are trashed. naw I change my mind I will stick with Marylin.

I don't think I could pick just one item I'd want to keep. My collection is insured for full replacement value, so I'd just enjoy rebuilding it again. It would be fun. With a big insurance check, I'd start off buying a few collections then fill in the remaining stamps and sets as needed. There's nothing truly rare or irreplaceable in my collection, so I'd be able to rebuild the parts I really care about within a few months, more than likely.

I would save my Canada #15, five cent beaver. This was the stamp that my Dad and Uncle bought for me for 6 bucks in 1978 at the Woodwards department store in Vancouver. My first stamp I ever collected.

I would save my cover from Manomin, Minnesota. It would remind me of why I save Postal History. It has a statehood era manuscript cancel. I have never seen another one. When Floyd Risvold's collection was auctioned off he had a territorial one and there are only two of that known to exist. He told me that my statehood one was very rare and that he did not know of another one. When it comes to Minnesota Postal History, he wrote the book, literally.
I got it years ago and it has a fascinating letter from a man telling of his perilous journey from Illinois to Minnesota.
I started collecting Postal History in my quest for a cancel from my home town of Fridley, Minnesota. The Fridley Post Office became a branch of the Minneapolis post office in the 1920's. Before Fridley became a city it was the town of Manomin.
So, this one little cover is not something I will likely ever find again. Most everything else I have I could probably find again or at least something as interesting.

James said:



Exactly!

I would parrot a few of the responses above in that there is really nothing of any great rarity and most everything could be easily replaced with similar junk.

It would be frustrated to loose my collections but if I have money i'd start over again. Probably different collections. I like the hobby and it's not a bad event that will change that. I love so many stamps it's hard to choose on to save from the disaster.

I'd start over. And since values are declining I could apparently catch up pretty quick.

I would either begin again and focus more on covers, Since no one would steal those. Or focus all my hobby energy on my N scale trains.

Im not sure what I would do except I would not be a coin collector. My father thought stamps was a waste time and pushed coins since I was young. He passed away several years ago and now his coin collection sits in the closet of my stamp room.

Since I carried insurance on my collection, I have thought about this in the past. I don't have any single items of real value, but if I could save one item it would be my pre-decimal Australia album. I would most likely purchase a larger collection and build a new one from there.

BTW - I did let my insurance lapse as prices have generally trended down

I think I would keep my most valuable item, US scott #500. With my love of stamps and probably at least 50-60 years ahead of me, I'd definitely start over. It wouldn't be that much of a loss too me anyway... I've got about 4000 stamps - 99% of them are common.