Sticker Shock

Nothing new here I suppose but when I first started collecting I was enamored with all of the stamp varieties in topical areas. Now I look back at my pages and I think less of my collection because it seems more a collection of stickers - I mean when is a stamp not really a stamp? I'm getting more interested in postally cancelled varieties and stamps pre WWII. Even then I am sure stamps were produced in volumes less than any expected usage - but at least they were engraved.

I agree many of new stamps are not only sticker, they are paper wall. I purchase albums to get some 1840 - 1950 stamps, the one in albums over 1950, I keep them, but they are not the reason of my purchase. I purchase stamps over 1950 on ebay, but only engraved. I even purchase things like the Eaton set, they are not stamps but they sure look better than many of new Canadian and US releases.

How many liners are there in the set and are they other colors?

Goodness, your post is so timely.........
I just finished merging a new Scotts Part 1 international pages with parts 2-4. I ended up with 7 volumes for my worldwide (ex USA) collection from 1840 thru 1960. As I went thru all the pages, I began thinking.........

- The meaningful stamps (IMO of course) were from 1840 thru perhaps 1950. As you go further into that decade, the stamps tend to represent stuff that will sell, that will attract collectors. They began to lose the identity of the country and its history, and began to place pictures of "stuff" that has nothing to do with their country.

- I'm beginning to wonder if I should just cut my World collection off at 1950. I would likely end up with 5 volumes, and would be concentrating on more historically relevant pieces. And, I would be putting my money into stamps of rarity instead of the thousands of "easy to get" later stamps.

Not trying to stir a pot here, just stating some stuff that has crossed my mind the last few days, and I'm not sure what will become of it.

Beautifull! Where did you find them? I could see a page of those in my own album.

They pop up here in discussions every six months or so. If you search for "Eaton" you will find several threads. There is a card that accompanies the 10 stamps. Sometimes you find them with the card, sometimes not.

https://goscf.com/t/11754&SearchTerms=eaton

In the above thread "Eaton's Cinderellas" wt1 posted



Wonder how difficult it is to find them on cover?

A stamp is a stamp when it intriges you the collector or interests your passions.

Beautiful can be CTO or engraved. Look at modern France or Canada or USA. Meaningful to someone somewhere.

I think the Post Offices are selling to, to make money of course, but also to sell aesthetically, pleasingly, to people who are in the economic long tail, the ~80% of ideas and things that sell to people at some time.

Not always. Not all the time. But some of the time.

I think the rule is that ~20% of the stuff produced sells to ~80% of the people most of the time. But the rest of the 80% of stuff sells at some time to some interest, to some interesting people too.

Wikipedia: Long Tail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail

Reflects my thinking which is why I collect WW Classics to 1949. However, with the Vintage Scott Brown pages in standard Scott binders, I end up with 3 times the number of volumes that you estimate.

I'm kicking around the idea of a worldwide "classic" collection and 1949/50 is the end date I have in mind. No way I'd cut it off before WWII and its aftermath, and I'd go through George VI (1952) for British Commonwealth. I agree that it was around that time that issues aimed at collectors came to predominate.

Love the thread title, Scouter!

Great thread and those are gorgeous engraved labels/cinderellas Area66. To offer some counterpoint regarding stamps of the 1950s, I think there are a lot of great stamps from that era. Most of the Commonwealth second KGVI definitives from the early 1950s were engraved as were most of the first Elizabethan definitives (1953 to about 1957). Western Europe stamps were also often engraved though there are many exceptions. I also think East Asia from the period was mostly very collectible- Japan, Korea, China, Malaya, thailand, Burma, etc.

Africa is a problem especially in the late 1950s when states became independent. Food for though- maybe take another look. Juss sayin'

A sticker is something one buys for their 5 year-old child from the local Toy shop.

I do not like most modern day stamps and as I no longer collect postage stamps, many and most go unseen.

However, they are called Self-Adhesives and the recent and popular use of the term 'sticker' only demeans our hobby and puts it in a bracket with childrens playthings.

So unlike khj, I do not like the title !

Londonbus1....