What Country Do You Wish You Were Collecting And Why?

For me, it has to be Germany. My grandmother was German, and I still have 2 cousins living over there. Stamps give me an insight into a country and it's culture and history over time. Collecting Germany would help me connect to my German roots.

I started with worldwide stamps as a little kid in Cub Scouts thanks to my mom's urging. When I found out I could get Latvian stamps, that was it and I never looked back. It gave me a connection to my parents and their life 'back home' before they were forced to flee in WW 2. Unfortunately I didn't branch out into postal history and postcards until after my dad was gone. I would have loved to have heard his stories about some of the stuff I picked up.

I already collect Germany for a lot of reasons, one of them being that I am of German heritage on my mother's side. My father's side came from Luxembourg, one of the few countries in Western Europe that I don't collect on some level. I often think I should just print myself off some Luxembourg Steiner pages, but I've got so many binders and pages already that I've been very hesitant to start a new country. I probably will someday, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

If I collected another country, it would be either British colonies or French colonies. Both have very attractive colonial postage. Much more attractive than the mother county issues. Good question.

But on the other hand, I started out collecting as a kid, Worldwide, which was an education in itself that turned me from being in average grade school student into being a geography and history whiz....unfortunately they don't teach geography as a specific course in high schools anymore.

Interestingly enough may of the Worldwide counties no longer exist and many new countries are not in my old albums..... who knew.... the world changes.... I guess that is history......

I've made a start on Venezuela but have just scratched the surface. The primary attraction for me are the Arms and Industry sets of 1951-1954. I believe the entire group comprises more than 150 stamps. They would make a stunning display in a definitives collection but I am not sure I will ever be able to complete the entire group.

Starting in 1976, Venezuela launched a very nicely engraved series of definitive stamps picturing Simon Bolivar. Not many countries were still producing engraved stamps in 1976 (Scott 1121-1144C). The set persisted until around 1994 although later printings were litho. Redrawn stamps of the same design were issued starting in 1993 and continued on until at least 1997.

The majority of early Airmail stamps from Venezuela were also engraved.

A few years ago I wished I collected Ukraine, since my parents came from there, and I am fluent in the language. I went a little overboard...

For me the American Cut squares and full envelopes are a favorite .Something about the imprint and looking for all the different Dia and paper interest me. I am still working on the collection of all of them.One day at a time.

Zemstvos, old Russian & Ukraine stamps.

Italy since both of my parents are from there. My dad still has his stamp colllection from when he was kid growing up in italy in the mid 1950's. I think I will go over to the house and pick up his old collection and start working on it.

My interests are topical -- U.S. airmail and aviation themed -- so it is hard to answer this question. I suppose if I were to move abroad, it would be to collect the airmail stamps of the U.S. territories (like Canal Zone and Philippines). Beyond that, I wouldn't know where to begin. I peruse the "Let's go flying" thread in the Topical Collecting forum here, and the number of beautiful world wide stamps with aircraft on them is huge. Because the number of U.S. airmail and aviation themed stamps is finite -- 218 by my count -- I am much more into collecting covers now related to these stamps.

Well, I belong from India and started by philatelic journey with Post-Independence India starting from 1947-till date. When, I finished collecting all the stamps in mint condition, I felt and looked myself into another country collection.
I was in a hurry to complete the Indian collection and finished it in about an year or so.

I started seeing a few Australian stamps and it interested me, and I began the Pre-decimal period from 1913 onwards. Quite a leap it was for me getting a good copy of the 5 Shilling Sydney Harbor and a few other Kangaroos as well as KGV's. Recently added a few KGV's to the collection.
This road is too long...

Why wish? Just spend a few $s or £s on an auction lot of somewhere different and see if you like it!

I don't have to wish...I collect worldwide

apastuszak - I see several ways of answering your question, and it is a good one!

I have small, inactive collections from Thurn and Taxis, Prussia and Cape of Good Hope. The reason for not "collecting" and wishing that I was is purely financial. As I am neither doctor, lawyer nor fallen royalty, it just isn't feasible for me to add anything else to these collections.

I wish I was collecting Canada.
With sincere apologies to my Windsor kin, I just... can't... get... excited... about... Canada...
I have tried on at least three occasions, and finally gave up. I worked material into topical collections (hockey, WWI, WWII), kept my Bluenoses and my 1870s Queens as a mini-collection and traded/sold the rest.

I wish I was collecting China.
There is definite interest, but problems with Chinese collecting are legion. The market demand is volatile and remains artificially inflated. I feel that Classic material is overpriced and rife with fakes and forgeries which I don't know enough about to identify (Washington-Franklins are hard enough!). Wartime-period material is nearly all suspect. Maoist material is readily available - if you want "similar to real" that is! Even Modern material is a market tightly controlled by the government, both availability and market-price! I graciously accept philatelic gifts from my wife's business associates and so I do have Yearbooks from the past ~10 years and my childhood collection but that's the extent of things.

For me I wish I was collecting Irish or British stamps.

Jack Kelley

By and large, I'm collecting where I want to be: Portugal & colonies, Poland, Mexico. But also collect world wide through 1965 (Parts I through V of the blue Scott International album). I'll add to other countries, mostly British colonies or St. Pierre/Miquelon, when I see something interesting.