Looking For Ideas On What To Collect

Not that I know of, but with adhesives it is more than just acid content. Consider the condition of the first US Christmas 1974 (10-cent dove weathervane produced by Avery Dennison) that soon became discolored due to the instability of the adhesive. They have changed adhesives since those first stamps but no ones knows what today's mint stamps might look like in 25, 50, or 100 years down the road.
Don

"no ones knows what today's mint stamps might look like in 25, 50, or 100 years down the road."

The US re-introduced self-adhesives in 1989 with mass production starting in 1991, so we already have some that are 30 years old. (and of course none of us will be around 100 years from now and few of us 50)

"computer/vender postage print may fade after a number of years"

I am nervous about this.

Bank Note Guy "DM" means direct mail. But I see your profile does not allow someone to email you and I assume it's the same back. You have to set your profile to allow people to mail direct to you.

OK, thanks for the explanation of DM. I would never have guessed, EM maybe.

You could make yourself the theme of your collection. Collect covers addressed to you. Not knowing what your future holds, maybe you'll be famous one day. You could write letters to strangers, using random addresses, and include self addressed stamped envelopes and ask them to write back. Using random addresses should also result in some undeliverables that are returned with stamped messages or hand-written notations on them.

Doghunterr

Funny you should say that as I have definitely thought about doing something like that but I want to collect covers that are genuinely postally used and it seems like cheating to send people SSEs.

But I do like covers from unusual places with unusual postal marks e.g., so I have considered how to get one from places like Mount Everest Base camp or the South Pole station or maybe all the Antarctic post offices (I think there are a few). So far it is just thinking.

I'm too old to ever be "Famous" not that I ever wanted to be.

But one thing I am doing that is "me" related is building a binder of interesting covers sent to me when I order stuff, mostly stamps but other stuff also. Not so much for the stamps on the covers but I find the variation in how someone [typically a seller] packages and addresses stuff. Some are meticulously packaged and carefully addressed. However, many are horribly packaged and it seems lucky that the post office machines did not eat the envelope. I had one with an expensive stamp that was totally crushed by the post office. The stamp was bent but did not seem to be creased so rather than return it, I took a chance and soaked it and flattened it and it was fine. I might post some of these pages but I should probably blank the names/addresses of the senders but those are also interesting.

One thing that makes for an interesting collection, or even just highlights of a collection, is when things go wrong or when standard processes need to be changed.

So, maybe something related to conflicts? Mail suspended, rerouted, actually getting through places with ongoing civil or military actions?
South Sudan - the newest country only in existence since 2011 - has been a pretty hairy place.
Yemen, Venezuela, Crimea, Syria, Iraq, Kashmir, others.

I wouldn't know where to start, but with some research as to what the various countries were doing about mail routed to or through those places, you could possibly have a fascinating collection.

Good luck and do your best not to travel to any of them in search of material.
Chip

chipg

Also very interesting ideas. I have been looking for such items from US/Canada but not internationally but will consider expanding my horizons.

So far I have only found one that I would consider a conflict related item but it is one of my favorites:

https://goscf.com/t/72435