Has Anyone Besides You Looked At Your Collection?

My wife..who appreciates the design and art of many stamps.

Only close family members. My wife has been midly interested but I think out of politeness.

I remember showing a part of my US collection to a girl I was dating back about 1988. same mild interest. Years later after my marriage to someone else I ran into her and one of the first things she asked me was if I still collected 'little pictures'? It was clear she'd had no idea what she had looked at.

My son says I missed a chance to invite her up to my place to look at little pictures.

When I was about 10 I showed what I had to one of my friends. He thought I was nuts to have spent any money on used stamps (especially a whole $2 for a Black Jack). I've never shown my collections in their entirety to anyone since. I will show my wife the occasional piece of interest that I receive (usually an cover with contents).

We had a couple over for dinner one day who looked at one of my albums - I think it was El Salvador, of all places, because I'd been working on it that day and it was convenient. (Not a bad choice, since Salvador does have some attractive and intriguing-looking stamps.) They were actually more than mildly interested, but they haven't asked to see anything else since.

A handyman noticed a stack of German stamps I'd been sorting and was very interested. He wasn't into Nazi regalia at all (I don't collect that era anyway) and didn't ask how much they were worth; it was more like he didn't realize that there were so many stamps and that people could collect them, and thought it was really cool.

Yes. I was hoping to sale it to him!

Like some previous commenters, I am very wary of letting too many people know that I collect stamps, for understandable security reasons. I've invested too much mentally, physically and financially to have folk think they can help themselves to any part of my collection.

I do, however, exhibit regularly at my two local PhilSocs. My partner, whose eyes normally glaze over when presented with "wow, you're not going to believe this stamp/cover/postmark..." really enjoyed my recent Estonia postal history display (180 sheets) because, in her own words, "it finally put everything you've been doing into context."

I have never shown my collection to anyone. My immediate circle knows that I like stamps. There are known drug addicts in the neighborhood and I am afraid they might think they could make a quick buck, so I don't talk my collection up. This also applies to my US coin collection. It is at even larger risk of being stolen if it were generally known I have it.

My wife collects worldwide, I collect US, so we do look at each other's from time to time. I have one friend who is big into coin collecting. We exchange stories, similarities and differences. So he has shown a lot of interest and has looked at my collection occasionally and I look at his coins. I occasionally show my sons but they basically nod politely and leave...

Not since I was in the Stamp Club at grammar school in the sixties. Part of the problem is the lack of general interest compared with other paper matter. Cigarette cards or postcards on themes of interest to friends - horse-racing, the stage, football etc - work much better, and are much more easily brought together, than stamps. Lots more going on - usually text on the back of cigarette cards, and period messages on the back of postcards.

It seems I am one of the few that have someone that is really interested looking at my stuff regularly. I'm privileged as my twin brother is just as crazy about stamps as myself. We are sharing the same focus for our collections and have adopted an identical storage solution. So, when we have time to meet, I can bring with me example given album no 155-160, and then my brother will find his similar albums 155-160. Then we flip through each others collections, admire each others nice stuff. The best part is that we both have out collections duplicated, so it makes it very easy to trade between each others stuff one has in duplicates and the other is missing. I guess we meet for trading 4-5 evenings every year, and it's something we both cherish. Our wives, on the other hand, have not the least interest....

Jon, that sounds like my younger brother and myself with our record collections. We have thousands between us and an encyclopaedic knowledge of them. It's rubbed off on my nephew as well! Neither of them care a jot about stamps

Cool Tim, guess you have some good and long nights with those records then. A shame he's not into stamps

I forgot to mention that my brother and me also meet for doing 'office work' as well. We'll hang out a weekend and agree on a few easy countries that we will work on simultaneously - and then trade after. We seldom get much sleep at these weekends

Interesting question. The short answer is no. Here's the longer answer:

What first interested me when I was a kid, was my grandad's collection. When we went to visit he'd get one of his precious albums down from some hiding place upstairs, take it out of its original carboard box, and talk me through page by page. I was spellbound.

Somehow in my mind, I still collect and arrange my albums on the basis that I could some day be doing the same. I think along those lines - what my collection "means" and how I rationalise the things I include and the things I don't. Maybe when my son is older he'll enjoy going through it all with me. At age 6 he's already a collector, so it could yet happen!

Funny story but my moms Boss I showed it to cause he collected stamps aswell. He is getting back into it kinda . Next time I meet him we will trade some :)

These are some great Questions IBFS.


Over the years surprisingly yes.
Friends and acquaintances that have been over for Dinner/BBQ regularly and through conversations have asked and looked at my collection. ( I usually have stamps spread out throughout the house)


Yes my children, Dragged them to many stamp shows, Lucky they dragged me out when I was spending above my budget Paid them an hourly rate to sort out my stamps and using their advanced computer knowledge to print out identification labels for my collection.
Most occasions was do we have to,!


Yes Being a part of a stamp club every month a member had to present a display.
At first this is daunting but it gives you the opportunity to show write up parts of your collection.
Some of my collection has also been displayed in our local library