How Many Of US Expanded Into Postal History From Stamps?

Hi All

Out of just plain curiosity, how many of us started from just stamps and expanded our interests into postal history??

I started out that way and now find myself buying more of postal history at shows, ebay etc and more in stamps at the local club meetings.

I will never quit stamps but find that postal history can be quite fascinating and enjoyable and usually there are never two covers alike. This is with the exception of FDCs and FFCs of course.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I have found myself in the same situation. I am a U.S. stamp collector that has a great interest in some postal history. I think for most stamp collectors it's a natural progression.



Butch

Hello Bujutsu.......

Collecting Postal History is the easiest way to personalize a collection. Let's face it, when collecting just stamps all collections look basically alike....granted, centering and cancels create small differences.......but aside from FFC's, FDC's & Event covers, there are not a lot of covers that look alike.

For myself, it has renewed the excitement of discovery I felt as a young collector.

It all started with my mentor, Phil B. The first time I went to his house, he showed me his Guatemala collection. This got me into collecting Costa Rica. To the jist of this thread... he showed me his Guat postal history collection, and I started adding postal history to my collections.

I love the history!

David

David you call me mentor..but I believe your focus is much greater than mine..i only know when I go to a show my first stop is always at a cover dealer !

My story is much of the same. I started as a general US stamp collector 25 years ago and about 5 years ago started picking up more covers. Now I seem to be focusing more on covers and less on stamps. I wouldn't say I'm a postal history collector, but I do like FD & event covers with a topical theme. My collection has expanded into precancels, cinderellas, mobil mail covers, and designing my own cachets & local post stamps.

Guilty as charged, Your Honour.
I experimented with a stampless entire from Wales
one day when nothing to do.
Soon I found myself addicted to Eunice Shanahan's "letters from the past"
and I realised I was hooked.
I think I have my issues under control now, and avoid the costly
examples at auctions, I go and take a brisk walk, before the
banknotes in my wallett follow the same route.
I am in rehab, but somedays, in times of whimsy, I dream of purchasing
a boxed lot at Stanley Gibbons.
Perhaps in my next life....

I guess it all depends on what you term "postal history".

For example, I have a big pile of "New Issue" posters used by Canada Post in the 70s and 80s, which used to be posted on the bulletin boards prior to new stamps coming on sale. Are they postal history?

Or are we talking about interesting covers only showing rate changes, unusual uses of certain issues, etc.?

Add me to the list who now collect postal history. I sure wish I would have started sooner and not destroyed forever, some great covers with very uncommon stamps.

Marty

Just a thought:
Couldn't you describe postal history as any piece of mail, even if it is from the day before.

Stamperdude, Yes!..

Postal history collecting tends to mean collecting envolopes & post cards.
I look at it as the actual study of the history of postal usage.

Hi All

Great postings here.

I think what got me interested was an old auction catalogue I had received in the mail that listed several dozen Canadian R.P.O.s all on piece. Sometime before I received this catalogue, I bought and empty carton of what was once a 24 pack of beer loaded with stamps on piece and it took years for me to sort through them. I noticed that I had some of thoe R.P.O.s on piece and wanted to know their value.

From that point on, I was hooked on postal history.

Now I have a very large collection of Canadian R.P.O.s. M.P.O.s , Squared Circles, and covers from the district of Muskoka / Parry Sound and Algonquin Park regions - some areas larger than others of course <G>

Thanks for taking the time to reply all.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Glenn:

I would say that postal history is covers, rates, etc. Your interesting collection of Canada Post posters, etc. is Postal Ephemera... and there are a number of people who collect that, too!

David

I have also heard that those "En Detail" cards that Canada Post used to send to their subscribers are now collectible too. They are a little smaller than postcard size and easy to store.

Cheers

Bujutsu

After reading a refresher course article by Janet Klug in linn's, I became very interested in collecting covers. I had been collecting pictorial cancellations, particularly when they highlighted a certain topic such as the Buffalo Soldiers which came out several years ago, I also collected event covers around the topic of the Revolutionary War that I switched my collecting to event covers, pictorial cancellations and FDC. The Klug article talked about one-of-a-kind- country collection worldwide. And I was off and running. Why FDC's? Because the stamp commemorates an event, the cachet commemorates that event and the postmark commemorates that event. What more could you ask for? Postal History? History, definitely. If I get to point of completion then I would go back and collect the "traditonal" postal history items. Probably post cards and postal cards. I am having a lot of fun with this project as well as increasing my knowledge of world geography and history.
Joel