What Do You Prefer - Mnh, Cancelled Or Something Else?

I collect MNH only for stamps issued after 1900, I do go into used for older classic stamps, mostly for cost concerns. I honestly don't care about postal history, I collect stamps for the designs, not for where they've been.

My preference depends on the area of my collection. As a general rule a lightly cancelled stamp is my preference. This eliminates gum issues (regumming etc.). I won't turn down a mint stamp though so my collection is mixed.
On the other hand there are some areas like the German Republic that had stamps used for such a short time that a genuinely used stamp is difficult to find so I collect them mint. I also collect variations of Soviet Occupied Germany stamps where gum differences matter. Here I collect only MNH.

Dan

I've always found it a bit odd that some collectors are looking for items because of their postal history but also look for perfect copies. When you really think about it, that one in a hundred stamp is an oddity. If you are looking for common postal examples, poorly centered, slightly torn and heavy cancellations are perfect.

That's not to say I don't do the same thing.

Cancelled. Cheaper and actually served its purpose.

From a collecting perspective, as a cancel specialist I much prefer used stamps, although I do have plenty of mint stamps in various country collections. Collecting used stamps has far fewer potential pitfalls. No NH vs. LH vs. HH vs. HR to deal with. No regumming to be wary of. No concerns about a bleached/cleaned cancel masquerading as unused. Fewer concerns regarding environmental conditions having an impact on your material. An errant drop of water isn't going to ruin the stamp.

I have my preferences of course, outlined below. But at the end of the day, with at least some stamps, it comes to price.

Israel - MNH tabbed and used untabbed and FDC.
Vatican - Primarily MNH.
Palestine, Haiti - Which ever, no preference.
Newspaper Stamps - I take either but prefer used.
Scouts on Stamps - Prefer used.
US - Used.

I also do not like CTO. Can't really articulate why.

My preference is postally used with a light or bullseye cancel. A readable, dated town cancel on older issues is perfect, although I don't go out of my way to look for them like that. My main collecting area right now is Germany and there are hundreds if not thousands of different stamps in the German area that catalog higher in used condition than mint. Where the difference is small, I'll still collect the higher valued used stamp. But there are many issues where the used value is in the tens to hundreds (even thousands) of dollars when the mint example is valued a few dollars to a few cents. For those issues, I do collect mint (usually LH) copies, not just because I'm a cheapskate, but as one can imagine, with a spread like that, forged cancellations are commonplace. I'd just as soon avoid the possibility (nay, probability) that I'd end up with fraudulent material.

If I collected mint stamps, I would collect LH as I refuse to pay a premium for the back of the stamp that I will in all likelihood never, ever look at. Also, I've read that regummers are getting so good that one fool-proof method to make sure your stamp has original gum is the presence of a hinge mark.

I only collect the Indian States, which ceased issuing stamps around 1950, and I keep them in stockbooks, so MNH doesn't really concern me. I seriously doubt how many of the high values could exist unhinged from that period. How many collectors would have put aside a MNH block, when the block would have cost a week's wages for an average worker?

When it comes to used, I simply love covers. Covers show so much more of the story than plain used. Take this cover from Las Bela State, now in Pakistan:





If the stamp was soaked off its cover, it would tell you nothing of its journey. On cover, I can see that the cover travelled from the Las Bela extraterritorial Post Office in the then British Indian city of Karachi to the little Las Bela village of Sonmiani.

Mint come a poor third in my collection.

I have a VERY open mind , so I accommodate in my collections ANY stamp I like (from those that I can afford), regardless of the status of the gum, postmark, etc.

But in the recent years I focused on MAXIMUM CARDS/MAXICARDS.
No more problems with the gum or hinges (I never hinged any stamp, since I always used stock albums, for flexibility of collecting).

I still collect stamps, but there are millions of collectors who own the other millions of copies of the same stamps, usually.
How many maximum cards do you think exist with a certain stamp?
How many are collector-created?
Moreover, how many maximum cards have personalized stamps?
How many were created by you for the enjoyment of the philatelic world, immortalizing you in the process?

Isn't RARITY the greatest factor in the value of a collectible item? Certain exceptions apply, of course.:)

After collecting just stamps for over 35 years, all created by others, I decided I should create :
- my own personalized stamps, from several countries
- my own postcards (even customized with text printed on the back, from Winkflash or Zazzle, for example)
- my own cancel(l)er (postmarking device), approved by the United States Postal Service (USPS); the permit is called MPP (Mailer's Postmark Permit - see USPS Form 3615).

Maximaphily is a branch of philately, or stamp collecting, that means collecting maximum cards.
Generally, a maximum card is a postcard, with a stamp and a postmark on the picture side. Ideally, all these 3 elements should be concordant, but not identical.

Anybody can collect them, just like collecting simple stamps.
But that's too passive.

The fun and challenge are in CREATING YOUR OWN maximum cards! Then you can exchange some with partners/friends from around the world!

I do that, and it's very interesting! :)

The traditional way is to comply with the rules of FIP (International Philatelic Federation). http://www.maximaphily.info ...

The non-traditional way, as I call it, is to follow nobody's rules! Unless YOU want it, of course.

I call DORINCARD (you can call it any way YOU want) any postcard that was personalized by adding a stamp and a postmark, on the picture side of the postcard. Traditional way, or not.

See more maximum cards, postcards, postmarks, personalized stamps, etc. (and links to them) in my websites.

Personally I prefer a nicely centered used copy with a fancy cork or light machine cancel preferably on cover or PC.

I like the hunt to get any and every stamp in a used condition in one form or another.

So do a lot of people who I have contact with.

To get that really difficult stamp in a used state awesome!

Its more than collecting or selling or hording its an obsession with feel good outcomes!

I still hinge stamps so used is my first choice, but I collect mint too, especially if price is a factor. My preference is a lightly canceled or CDC stamps, but sometimes a used copy is extremely pricy so I will take a mint stamp instead.

Don

It's quite humid where I live, so I collect used only. I guess I'm lucky in a way, since I don't ever have to think about gum and only have to pay attention to the "right" side of stamps

I collect MNH for my main album just for the clean neat appearance, I like to see the stamp without any marks or cancels on it for show. For my personal preference I like precancels the best. As HungryForStamps says when do you stop with used, there are so many cancels and being a collector I want 1 of each LOL
So to answer your question I collect them all for different reasons. My main collection is USA but I have a friend that likes all stamps so I also collect some world wide to enjoy some collecting interest with her.

Yep Carabop, when one starts collecting used stamps for the marks/cancels rather than for the stamp itself (e.g., the image), one has to have plenty of space. Sometimes duplicates are rare. Actually, I have no duplicates since every stamp is different, but so far I'm just considering keeping a few of the nicest examples. Yet I haven't had the heart to get rid of so-called "duplicates".

Venturing completely into collecting from a postal history perspective must be a nightmare (and I'm just getting a glimpse of it now).