Selecting A Collection Focus?

How did those of you with a focus to your collection go about deciding what and if you wanted to collect a certain type of stamp?

I am faced with 8 binders of stamps in stock pages from all over the world and wondering how to put order to it, and what to sell and what to keep.

I'm tempted to just collect Canadian, because that's where I live, but I somehow feel I might be taking the easy way out.

I like to collect used, but wonder how realistic that is in this era of email. I rarely receive an envelope in the mail with a real stamp on it. If I do, it's usually a typical definitive.

So how do/did you decide? What was your reasoning?

PEANUT ----Welcome to the board ,what ever you collect ,only you can decide . Try something simple first and see how it goes and then find something nobody is collecting or there is very little interest and you develop that area . But always start small and buy a reference book or two as your interest grows .

I have a very narrow collecting focus: US airmail and aviation topical stamps and covers. It is related to a life long interest in aviation. I grew up as a Navy "brat" and getting from place to place by aircraft was a big part of that. Topical collecting is one way to narrow your collecting focus.

Don't worry about choosing a collecting focus. In this sort of matter, the collecting focus chooses YOU.

I will not reply with « what was my reasoning », but more what is my reasoning now, budget budget budget . If you have as example $ 100 a month, it's ok to collect Canada, it will be tight when you gone reach the Jubilee and the "Province of Canada" ( this it not the Newfoundland , Nova Scotia and co. this is the first Canadian Pence issues) USA, forget with $ 100 a months, they are way too much expensive stamps. I the world, I mainly want to fill the Scott Int. 1840 to 1950, it's about 50,000 stamps, even if you have many of them that cost .05 cents, you will have to spend way more to get many of them. I paid $ 20 for a .05 cents missing stamp yesterday because it come with other that I will probably just get $ 1 for them on ebay. Was the first time I see one in 10 years. So check your budget, fix a goal in time and then check what you can get for your budget in the time you want.

Thanks everyone. Area66, that is a good point. My budget will be limited. Better to stick to something close to home.

peanut, Greetings:

Some self-qualifying questions, off the top of my head:

Q/ Where else have you lived? Visited?

Q/ Where else would you like to live? Visit?

Q/ Where were your favorite movies set? The Riviera? Colonial India?

Q/ What sort of jobs have you done?

Q/ What were the subjects of some of the best things you've read?

Q/ Do you have room for bulky/messy things like covers? Or, do you need to albumize?

Within the universe of the stamps, themselves:

Q/ Which stamps do you find evocative, eg, make you stop & day-dream?

Q/ Do you care about production (perfs, plates, printing)?

Q/ Do you care about design?

Q/ Do you care about the subject?

Q/ Do you want a collection you can 'complete'? Or, does open-ended really suit you best?

Q/ Do you care about the purpose (registered mail, air mail, revenues, etc)?

Q/ How're your eyes? (Lately, I've found I like big, pretty stamps. Period. Easier to look at, easier to see.)

Want it in a one-liner? "The stamps that get you day-dreaming are the stamps you ought to collect."

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

General used worldwide stamps can be collected avidly on a limited budget. Common worldwide stamps are so cheap they are practically free on a per-stamp basis. However, it sounds like you're looking for a country, region or area to settle on. The bulk (90% or better) of almost any country's stamps are obtainable by collectors with limited means and a little patience. If you're OK with 90% (or thereabouts) completion, I wouldn't let budget stand in the way.

If that other 10% is important, then others are correct that you'll want to take a closer look at the costs of filling those last spaces. There are some countries in Europe that come to mind (Denmark, Netherlands, Bulgaria, probably more) where there isn't a single stamp (or at least no more than a couple) that will cost over $100, and not very many between $50 and $100. And most of the "easy" 90% can be had for pennies. The last 10% of a US collection, however, gets very expensive, with a large number of $100+, $1000+ as well downright unobtainable rare stamps.

There's no real hurry in settling on a focus area and this may change over time. I'd recommend giving some thought to what you find appealing about stamp collecting. In my case, I'm mostly interested in the historical aspects of collecting. I don't like perfing and watermarking and all that - I do it to correctly identify the stamp, but I consider it a necessary evil. Germany is my collecting area and I find the historical aspects of German philately fascinating. I love the fact that I can own a small piece of a German state from the 19th century, something from the Third Reich, or something from occupied Berlin. Others may not care about that kind of thing at all and they enjoy perfing, watermarking, "flyspecking" where they look for tiny details, etc. Others collect stamps picturing a certain topic, like hot air ballons, penguins or dogs. And there are still a few who try to collect every stamp ever made until the present day. The important thing is that you get enjoyment out of it, whatever it is. To me, that's the only "right or wrong" in stamp collecting. If you enjoy it, you're doing it "right", if you don't, you're doing it "wrong".

Focus??? I am the wrong person to comment on a focus...lol. I inherited a collection some time ago and have since then collected everything stamp I got my hands on. Now, half of one of the spare rooms, (no longer spare) is full of Stamps, covers, catalogs, books, Binders full of stock pages, and old desk with drawers full of modern on paper, every piece of mail that ever came to my address with a stamp, from any country, any period, with no rhyme or reason to the piles of future sorting and soaking.
As for a budget, I dont have one. I know people that are in business that I can have save stamps for me, for the modern stuff. I'll check with the local 2nd hand stores for recent donations. I've scored some good deals from time to time.
Some of the guys in our stamp club specialize in certain countries. But I couldn't decide on a country...lol
I just focus on collecting what I can.

2 cents.

Thanks everyone. I've given this a lot of thought over the last 24 hours. I do not have a lot of room to store stamps and stamp related tools/equipment/resource books. I borrow catalogs from the library.

I used to be like you guykickinit. :) I collected everything that came my way. But then I had children - no time and no room that was safe! Now they are in their late '20s and financially independent of us, I can afford to take up a hobby or two, as long as it doesn't take much space. Hubby keeps talking about buying down into a condo when he retires in a couple of years. I'm thinking a narrowly defined topic/collection would work best for me.

I am into all kinds of arts and crafts, and have been all my life. So I've decided that is going to be my area of focus. If I have to pick a secondary focus, it will be Canadian used stamps just because I live here and they're easier to acquire.

Look for the older threads on here entitles

You Know You're a Stamp Collector if . . .

Hi,
As a returnee (after 45 year absence) to the hobby 3 years ago, I've got some understanding of the OP's situation. After a lot of soul searching, I decided to collect USA thru 2000, and WW thru 1960. That was what I morphed to 3 years ago.

However, if I were to start over, it would be USA thru 1960 and WW thru 1950. That's a personal choice, and not one I would push on anyone.

My advice is to study what you are interested in. Is it country or countries, or is it a time frame, and once you figure that out, what is the "combination" of the two elements? And then you can decide on whether you will collect all the stamps of your choice, or certain types, or ???

In any case, before you go off on a direction, really give it some serious thought and big picture consideration.

If you want a real challenge, try finding them all GPU (Genuinely Postally Used) on cover:

https://goscf.com/t/38387 .. Textile and weaving of cloth

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Peanut, if you ever find a way to narrow your focus, please share your secret!

I've been chasing bright & shiny objects my whole life. My claim to be a specialized collector is nothing more than an excuse to purchase more and more stamps!

Brian

I've just recently returned to stamp collecting after a long hiatus and have decided to focus on stamps meeting one very specific criteria...they must appeal to me asthetically. For me that usually means earlier engraved issues in full mint sets. I heavily collect pre 1960ish British commonwealth and Europe mostly, but will also collect more modern issues as long as I find the set appealing.

I keep my stamps organized by country in leather Lighthouse stockbooks, and when I fill one I just buy another with which to split up the full one. I have absolutely no preoccupation with completing any part of my collection and there are no empty spaces...I just keep looking for good deals on beautiful engraved mint sets.

Dave

I am a worldwide collector but also learning databases using my collection as the database.
This means I can manipulate the data in many crazy ways.
One query I just did was to pull up all the items with a print-run of 100,000 or less. I currently have only 60 of these that I know about - don't have the print-run data for most of my collection. The really crazy thing I just spotted is that most of those 60 items are at minimum catalogue value.
Would this make an intriguing and somewhat offbeat collection focus? I am pondering it for myself right now, if I can find an efficient way to gather the data for numbers printed.