How Do You Decide What The Limits Are For Your Collection?

I think we as stamp collectors are alike in some ways. We, first of all are "collectors". My stamp collection is totally undefined.I have no self discipline at all. If I have a stamp in my hand... any stamp, then I want to collect it and anything associated with it. I like to buy bulk lots and collections on ebay as well as mail auctions so anything may show up and when it does.. I collect it.

He's tempting me with the same! My current focus (at least dollar-wise) is Germany and all related areas. At some point, probably within 3-5 years, the only items left on my want list will probably cost north of $50-$100 per stamp and up. While I will probably continue to plug away at those as conditions allow, my collecting bug won't be satisified with just a stamp or two here and there. I'm not sure what I'll do at that point, whether I'll want to specialize further into Germany (postal history, booklets and se-tenants and the like), start on a new country or region, or just start a WW classic collection. I'm far from exhausting the more affordable German-area stamps, however, so it's going to be a little while yet before this decision is forced upon me.

Not to get off topic, but I will reply - I think stamps are used for propaganda and do distort history. If you see Chinese stamps covered in red flags, then you're seeing state propaganda. And you see Soviet stamps with images of Marx and Lenin, and German flags from the 30s with swastikas - it's all using them for political propaganda. Likewise you see American stamps with the US flag and the Statue of Liberty, and in my country, the monarch's head on every single stamp - it's just the same.

But collecting stamps isn't a political act. As it happens, I do collect Trucial States, also Persia (Iran), British Commonwealth - even a small set of international revolutionaries - so pick the politics out of that lot! It's just stamps, not a belief system.

Satan collect stamps??

Well, postal administrations are always going to put that country's best face on its stamps. I think that almost goes without saying. While I suppose stamps "commemorating" the slave trade, lynchings, labor riots, and the My Lai Massacre, among other things, would provide a bit more balance to the historical picture painted by US stamps, we won't be seeing those subjects depicted anytime soon. Stamps are always going to give a superficial (at best) picture of the issuing country. If stamps were the only thing we looked at for Nazi Germany, for example, we'd come away with just the idea that they liked famous people, horses, mothers, soldiers, buildings and opera, among other things. Now, if one were to then look up additional information on the people or events pictured on those stamps, one would then get a more complete picture, but stamps themselves are never going to be much more than a springboard from which to learn more. The fact that stamps are just propaganda is not bothersome as long as people don't just take it at face value.

Can we let go of the absolutizing? It is not a fact that stamps are just propaganda. Things can be more than one thing at a time. They can be propaganda and at the same time truthful history, depending on how much critical, thoughtful mindset one brings to them.

Making distinctions, thinking carefully about what may not appear on the surface is supposedly one of the rewards of collecting stamps from places unfamiliar. I tried the reductio ad absurdum to point out how unwise it is to make things all or nothing.

After all the nuanced advice to OP about "there are no absolute limits, you can collect what you want, don't let anyone tell you otherwise," a refrain I have seen on dozens of SCF threads, here are are, right back at the beginning with the claim that "its a fact that stamps are nothing but propaganda." Which is an awfully limiting sort of thing to assert.

I very seriously doubt that Artful even meant to say that stamps are nothing but propaganda. But that's what the quoted phrase means.

Words mean things.

I should have said "even if" stamps are nothing but propaganda. I was humoring Ringo for a second there, but I don't believe that stamps are "nothing but" propaganda. Best foot forward? Sure, and there's nothing wrong with that. "Propaganda" is probably too strong a word.

I started collecting stamps when my best friend show me some "Tin Can" mail covers his uncle had given him. When I mentioned that to my father, he said he had been a collector and give me his collection.... all US in boxes of unsorted stamps and envelops from the 20's and 30's. I eventually bought a couple of albums... Harris Liberty Album and Harris Statesman.

The unintended consequences of working on the two albums made me the one of the smartest kids in class in civic (no longer taught) and world geography and counties. While I couldn't read, write or figure, I did know my history and geography.

Without the limitless borders of stamp collecting, who knows what I might have done and where I might have wound up. We moved a lot and frequently. Stamp collecting became my best friend and was always there when we moved to a new location.

Trying to distinguish between "commemorating" and "propaganda" is a very fine line to walk... it all depends on the perspective of the viewer.

My limits are self-defined and always changing. I generally collect the world used and limit myself to one example of each stamp that is easily affordable. Oh, and varieties, if I find any. And shades, yes, different shades. Oh, also interesting cancels, including bullseyes. I avoid CTOs and wallpaper, just because they are less interesting to me.

And I collect 7-1-71 covers, limited to the 3 states in which I have lived, just to keep it affordable.

I limit the size of my albums by printing my own pages (thank you, Bill Steiner), and I only print the pages for which I have stamps.

So, some limits, not many, and still having lots of fun, especially comparing overall cost to entertainment value. Limit yourself to things that make you happy.

Alan

Yeah, but just HELLenic.

...but seriously, thanks for sharing. I'll just add that if wasn't for budgetary restraints I'd be buying tons of kiloware and just go nuts.

Terry

mmm... kiloware!
Yes, good times. I prefer to buy lots that come from other collectors. Especially the lots that have been donated, so they are much cheaper by comparison.
My albums are limited by what pages I have. My overall collection has no bounds beyond budget. However I have no budget, so I'm not really sure how I ended up with all these stamps. The stamp fairy must have left them.

I try to keep to only issues that I really enjoy and that I know alot about. I know alot about early Canada so I only collect that. WHen I need something new, I am very specific about what I collect.

I do like all stamps but for my own collection, it has to be something that I enjoy very much.

I also like looking through large quantities of stamps, sorting them and trying to find scarce stamps and printing errors. So I might buy a large Worldwide lot that has been just accumulated and not picked. Just a bunch of cartons stuffed with stamps. albums, etc.

The worldwide temptation comes in many forms, but the most insidious are the occasional overstuffed big blue albums for auction. The classic European colonies, Australia, or South America are a potential gateway to further sinning. The giant bust of St Stephen, a cross, and cloves of garlic strung about my desk are keeping me sane for the moment.