Generally Speaking Which Country Stamps Are Rare For The Average Collector

I'm only guessing but in relatively modern times, North Vietnam covers would surely be difficult to come by?

As promised yesterday, some pics of stamps which we discussed yesterday which could be hard to obtain or maybe not. Myanmar or Burma, moldova ,Libya,Malta,Mali etc and a page of Saudi Stamps. Going to open another thread to show my collection on Libya.

North Vietnam covers (-1975) are hard to find. Maybe they are easier to find in countries that had political ties with North Vietnam. Modern ones are easier to be had. A lot of things are fairly relative to location and also what's available comes and goes. As one dealer put it, "It's either feast or famine".

@Battlestamps - Concur good sir, it really does depend on where the collector is located. Also, what may be common for a dealer is far from what is common to a general collector. Dealers, due to the very nature of their business, are exposed to a massive flow of philatelic material and opportunity that normal collectors will never be.

Wouldn't "common" be better used in this context to represent the larger issuing countries like the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Italy, India, Spain, etc.?

I might have wrongly assumed that the O.P. was referring to current active countries and not all countries that ever existed as that puts a completely different spin on the ball.

"Harder to acquire" aka "harder to come by" countries Myanmar, South Sudan, Albania, North Korea, and even Saudi Arabia are typically low-issuing countries with other varying political/geographical/economical circumstances that impact the availability to collectors outside those countries.

Now "hard to acquire" doesn't mean impossible nor does it mean that one or even two stamps can not be had and found in a timely fashion but rather it does mean that it may prove difficult for certain collectors to acquire a particular country's full year stamp issuance in both unused and postally used examples.

Some of the previously listed "hard" countries" are notorious for being difficult to collect in full... especially "postally used" items that are not CTO. In fact, used examples are sometimes more costly than mint! Case in point...

Myanmar since 1990 has had only 131 stamps issued to date... 131 in almost thirty years! Last year there were only four stamps issued and I am STILL hunting for normal postal usage examples (non-CTO) for a fellow new collector who is collecting Myanmar/Burma; Thailand/Siam; Laos/Indochina; and Cambodia/Kampuchea/Khmer Republic/Indochina. Used Myanmar is by far the most challenging an costly for him (recent issuance that is) and we live right next door!

Hi.
I would not call Moldova a low-issuing country,with nearly 900 stamps (not very hard to acquire) issued between 2009 and 2018

@vayolene - you are right, corrected ;-)

That's old school

If your talking about hard countries to find stamps from please list really hard places like NEW REPUBLIC ,The Black Flag Republic and Long Island .

There is no "average" collector and so there is no answer.

Most worldwide collectors often will start to look at those blank album pages in their collection and make a extra effort to get a stamp for each country.

@floortrader - a brilliant and most valid point... necessity certainly does push one to overcome. And in this case to hunt out and fill those elusive blanks!

Is this same as south sudan some of you mentioned earlier in this thread?

No, South Sudan was a new state created when the country was divided.

The blue stamp you posted is Sudan. I have a few as well. But none from South Sudan, that got independence from Sudan.

Here is the first stamp issued by South Sudan.
CTO,of course