Shopping For New US Album

If I had to pick a logical stopping point for US material, it would be the start of the self-adhesive era. It took some of the fun out of collecting but I still collect all.

angore,

Agreed, or else the end of the engraved era.

Jack Kelley

I recently got back into stamp collecting after a very long hiatus, and I have settled, for now, on collecting mint U.S., Scott nos. 614-1632, roughly the years 1924 to 1976. I chose these years because, to me, the stamps are beautiful, mostly engraved, and not too expensive. I stopped at Scott 1632 because, after that, there are, to me, too many non-engraved stamps, too many stamps with frivolous themes, I don't like collecting full sheets with all different stamps (e.g., 50 State Flags, Scott 1633-82), and, well, I had to stop somewhere. My favorite period for U.S. stamps is the Scott 1030-1354 period, roughly the years 1954 to 1968. To me, that was a period of outstanding stamp designs. But everyone has their favorite periods.

Very well stated, Paul78703. I couldn't agree with you more.

Jack Kelley

> You can buy lot of good quality stamps instead of that one $15,000 invert!

This is the reason why people have the same set of stamps. Maybe not at the 15k range per se, but I wish I bought less stamps and better ones as a kid instead of filling a collection.

I picked the end of the 20th century (2000) as my stopping point. While I do have to deal with some self adhesive issues, so far it hasn't been too irritating. YMMV.