Philately For Fun Vs Philately For Blood

There seems to me to be two broad subcategories most philatelists fall into - collecting for fun and fellowship; and, collecting for prestige and profit. Some folks seem to try to keep a foot in each group.

Philatelic Economics 101:
The true value of a philatelic item is relative to the person doing the evaluation. They have value in terms of factors beyond dollar and cents to most collectors. The dollar and cents of the situation come down to the price at which a willing seller will part with an item to a willing buyer.

That being said, philately for fun will endure well into the future as long as interested folks can find correctly described affordable material of interest available in the marketplace. The challenge is to facilitate this being so.

There was time when I would have steered well clear of "Fellowship" as I could not have imagined enjoying being in the company of people like myself. Its only in the last two years that I have warmed to stamp collectors. We are not as bad as golfers and on a par with fishermen and pigeon racing enthusiasts.
Nor do I think is there "fun" in any addiction and collecting is an addiction...more or less harmless.
Profit? well they aren't really collectors.
I have never really thought that there was much "prestige" involved. I might add "stamp collecting" to my profile on dating sites but I cant see it making a difference.

In his book THE FOUNDATIONS OF PHILATELY, published in 1955, Winthrop Boggs issues "A Word of Caution" on page 3. Here is a quotation that should be committed to memory if one is to truly enjoy the hobby. He states"We cannot emphasize too strongly that there is only one valid reason for collecting philatelic material, i.e., for your personal pleasure. Anybody who collects for any other purpose is inviting disappointment."

As in any other hobby, there is a cost to participate but, unlike most other hobbies, a stamp collection may have a residual value that may be considered as a bonus.

GJP

Count me in the fun group -- not a bad kind of addiction.

that might not be such a good move. My good lady wife says she would not have gone out with me if she'd realised what "being interested in stamps" entailed

Whilst I have have a foot in both camps, my heavier footprint is in the fun side of things.

Shameless capitalist here that analyzes the potential outcomes of every purchase, counts mounts as overhead, installed an electrical meter on his Ott lamp and depreciates his tweezers. He has also found that it is very possible to recoup and even make a profit on his stamps which in turn can be used for more stamps or to make charitable contributions to silly causes and hopeless political follies.

The reality for me is that I always seem to buy high and sell low. Thank God for my stamp club.

Jack Kelley

You would have to place me in the "fun" camp. When someone asks me about the value of my stamps, I reply: priceless -- they are my stamps in my collection.

Dan

i think most collect for fun and the thrill of the chase. it is a wonderful education for those that prursue it. however deep down wee all hope for finding a homer.

Hi all,

For me, the fun in collecting comes from building up detailed knowledge such that I would be able to spot the "homer" mentioned above. I then get a warm finders feeling.

I think there is a large difference between a collector, who in the example above would keep and cherish that special stamp, as opposed to the investor who would buy it and lock it away in the hope of distant profit.

Me, I do it for fun, and never cease to be amazed by the different philatelic avenues down which my interest takes me.

There was a talk a the Collectors Club last year by Charles Shreve who described a number of types of collectors. I don't remember the list but it included "completists" who like to fill every spot on the page, people who go into very narrow areas but very deeply, those who focus on topics etc. So, both the "fun" and "profit" types can I'm sure be divided in different ways. On the Reddit philately group I see mostly young collectors who find the simple things "cool" - like a portrait of their favorite vegetable or rocket. Personally I am a completist who enjoys learning as I go. I find both the fun and profit aspects pleasurable. I will never make a "living" at it but by buying and selling I can make progress in completing pages and also learning. For me, the learning aspect is more about what countries value - is it rockets and train stations or abstractions like freedom and liberty. I know some people are more interested in learning about the stamp production and mail delivery processes. All in all I guess there are as many ways to enjoy stamp collecting as there are collectors.

I've been collecting for about 50 years, and I'm at it just for the fun. I Love going to a stamp market and search through the covers or cheap stamps or cinderellas, hoping to find that elusive (some times, cheap) item, that completes a set or an album page. Going through aproval books and finding something new.
Profit? Just the one that you get from drinking a good bottle of wine or staring to a wonderful landscape... Just the pleasure.

May be I'm taking an hedonistic view of our hobby; but, I Love it!

I have rarely met a hobbyist whose collecting interests have not evolved over time; some may always hold on to an original interest, but they pick up new interests along the way.
Don

For me it's largely just a compulsion to collect. Hunting for things I want/need, filling in the blank spaces in an album, marking things off on a checklist — that's all part of it. Unfortunately, this compulsion isn't just limited to stamps, so my focus and my finances get split off into a number of different directions. (I've recently been distracted by Japanese telephone cards of topical interest, for example.)

I don't expect to turn any sort of profit on my collection as a whole, though of course I'm thrilled when I get something for a bargain price. A postcard written in an obscure artificial language like Bolak or written by some important figure in the international language movement like Waldemar Rosenberger or Charles E. Sprague (i.e. someone completely unknown to over 99.99% of the world's population) is far more valuable to me than something that may be more common but simply demands a high price tag because a lot of people want it in their collection. If I can get a good deal on some obscure item because nobody else wants it, GREAT! If that means that its resale value will be virtually nil, so what?

This may be of interest. In, inter alia, Slavic Esperanhto

https://www.institut-francais.org.u...ainted-bird/