Has Anyone Besides You Looked At Your Collection?

My wife, who tried to collect when we were first married but couldn't hold interest. My kids, all three of whom collect and exhibit. Occasional people at work if I happen to have something at the office, with a full range of reactions.

I'm also a regular exhibitor (first exhibited competitively in 2003) at the club and WSP level, with six different multi-frame exhibits and 4 or 5 single frame exhibits, and an occasional presenter at stamp clubs and shows.

As regards not telling anyone I collect out of worry about theft, boy would that thief be disappointed if he went to sell my collection. I'm not at the point in collecting where anything has a value above a few dollars yet.

I've shown my mom (who collects fairly casually) and my dad (who doesn't collect stamps but does occasionally work on his coin collection; he tried to get my brother and I into coin collecting when we were kids, so I think he's pretty pleased that I've gotten into stamps. Close enough). My best friend knows I collect, and he's the sort of person that is interested in anything for at least a few minutes if it's got a good story attached. I don't think he'd ever collect, but he'd definitely look at the collection and be interested in anything unique.

One of my other good friends collects as well, and when we lived closer we'd have stamp nights where we'd drink wine and sort through mountains of kiloware. I miss that.

I've had very similar results with my local branch and my letter carrier. One of the clerks is now doing first day covers using multiple tie in stamps or using old first day covers and having them cancelled again. My family has no interest to speak of.

Hi!
I'm 72, and got back into the hobby about 5 years ago. IMO, I've managed to put together a nice USA collection and an 8 volume world collection. The hobby has brought hours and hours of interesting fun and happiness to me, with no end in sight.
That said, no one I know is interested in it. My wife is very supportive, but only notices the "pretty" new stamps - if that.
My adult kids have no interest to speak of, although I suspect they wonder what the collection would sell for on ebay.

Oh, of course there are others that snicker at the idea of collecting stamps, something that to them went out of vogue 60 years ago. To them, its an "old man's" hobby and a waste of time and money.

My other main hobby - model railroading - is similar in this regard.

my cats

My cats can be destructive, so I try to keep them away from the stamps. My wife has looked at some new stamps, usually ones fresh from the post office, but never looked through an album. My kids have looked, but seem more interested in coins than stamps. That's about it.

My pastor says on his next visit he wants to see it. Perhaps he said it just to be polite, but he is a bright and curious guy.

Don

I've had a couple of friends look at my collection. I don't think it was due to an interest in stamps but rather curiosity about what I spend so much time and money doing.

Dan

Nope, no one has ever seen them. I don't know a lot of people, and my family I always assumed wasn't interested. I did show my boyfriend some of my paper/ephemera collection, and he commented on all the letterheads showing buildings with smokestacks. "INDUSTRY!" he said, noting how most of those businesses are all gone now...

Yes; sounds like I'm one of the fortunate ones who have had two or three knowledgable collectors look at specific parts of my collection. They seemed to enjoy it and I liked showing it off; not that it's particularly valuable but there is enough completeness in some areas that they seemed to enjoy it. I don't bother trying to show it to non-collectors.

I tried to get my daughter interested when she was young...it didn't take. My mom has seen it, and enjoys helping me get new stuff. She's pleased that I've continued with it since I began when I was 10 (I'm 53 now). My current wife is mildly interested. She's a scrapbooker, and I compared what I do to an unending scrapbook project. So she gets that. She's respectful of the time I spend on it, but she doesn't have much interest in really flipping pages. I did bring an album to work once. The office manager sorts the mail and saves stamps for me, and she expressed interest. She was quite fascinated with the album I let her browse through. I have freinds and family who travel and bring me stamps. If they ever asked to see, I'd show them, but none really seem interested is seeing what they've contributed to. One friend in particular I've told that I should have a special album of just what she's brought me, and she liked that. Same for my sister who's retired military. She's brought me some great stuff from overseas (quite a haul from Iraq).

I thought I was unique in never having anyone to share mu stamps with. Guess I'm not.

Don

Have to add.........
When a fellow retiree and former coworker (he an accountant, me a business analyst) heard about my renewed passion for the Hobby, he didn't say "that's nice" or "wow, I'd love to see what you have" or "its great that you have something interesting to keep you occupied"........... No, he didn't say anything like that.

What he did say was "Bill, you need to be careful not to throw your money away on that"...........

Nobleman44 -

Caught in action: My brother (alias 'Barbu') and me (right), looking at each others collections from Egypt. At the same time trading between us as we go.

Just two bros doing some stamping!


Good stuff man.

I haven't had anyone look at my collection. As a matter of fact, not many people even know that I do collect stamps. The girl next door (landlord and my best friend's wife) knows about my collection/addiction. The only thing she ever says to me about it is "how much did you spend on ebay last month?" My daughter knows, but she is more interested in my dormant coin collection.