Where Do You Draw The Line And Stop Collecting New US Issues?

I should note that while I say I am limited by what fits in my album, my definition of "fits" might be kind of liberal. (Don't worry - I do have sheets of glasine between each pair of pages.)

That was easy for me: I never paid any mind to USA issues beyond the mid 1950s. They just never had the charm, artistry, warmth and eye appeal of our stamps of the first half of the 20th century (not including those where they merely slapped the bust of some dead guy on it. Yawn.)

After focus on danish and norwegian stamps, I right now have been moving to greenland stamps. And for a special reason: Greenland stamps are printed in a quite small number, especially stamps after 1990

Originally I stopped collecting modern U.S. stamps at the end of 2019. But a friend who was also quitting convinced me to continue for just one more year. So in reality, I stopped after 2020. The reasons for quitting ... the rising cost of new stamps (rate increases twice each year!) ... the desire to concentrate on upgrading a few old album eyesores ... the feeling that collecting modern stamps had become akin to "pasting stickers in a scrapbook" ... and, of course, the appearance of gray hair on my noggin (but thanks to good genes, I need not fear baldness).

The title of this thread implies the collection of mint stamps since most used stamps come cheap or even for free. Well, I stopped spending money on mint stamps around the end of the 1990s. It wasn't a deliberate choice, the money was simply not enough to buy postage stamps not intended for use. I still purchased covers though for my collection, even though at a very moderate pace.

A few years ago I decided to update my mint collection, especially when it comes to booklets, mini sheets and souvenir sheets, the things that are somewhat more expensive. Found an auction house that were selling what seemed to be collections from estates at very attractive prices. Ended up buying a collection of 15 complete years with all the works including binders and SAFE, Lindner glassine mount pages for 65 percent - of postage stamp face value!

1875 is as far as I can go.

I stopped collecting US new issues in 1846.

Shermae, you've aged well. Tip o' the cap on that.

Not sure how I missed this thread, but I stopped in 1993. My album stopped there and I had no interest in getting new pages. I had no interest in the increasing number of issues and since then, it's all looked like something a 12-year old did in Photoshop, plus I have zero interest in self-adhesive stamps, therefore '93 seemed like a good cutoff.

I as well stopped with the end of my CWS Old Glory United States stamps in 2004.

I stopped buying stamps in 1992, and since I got back into the hobby about 7 years ago, I made the cut off 1969. The pages for 1970-92 are in a binder in a drawer. I think the commemorative stamps issued from the 60s to present are mostly crap. I do like the Americana and Transportation coil definitive series.

> The title of this thread implies the collection of mint stamps since most used stamps come cheap or even for free.

I do enjoy the challenge of collecting new issue commemoratives, postally used, neatly cancelled. Not the flyspeck varieties of modern definitive coils though. I keep them on paper, on stock pages rather than a preprinted album, so maybe it is more of an accumulation than a collection. For my main collection, I stop at the self-adhesive issues.

Thanks very much Andy. It must be all those antioxidants!

Same here, never deviated from collecting solo usage on cover.

For the USA, my interest stops around 1980. I agree with those who feel that it has gotten to be a bit too much with pop culture and quantity.

For the rest of the world other than Czechoslovakia and France, I stop at 1970 and concentrate on what I like rather than completeness.

Unlike many, I don't have a big interest in "the classics", however. I generally stick to post-WW2 except for USA, where I'd go back to around 1920 or 1910.

I'll make exceptions to my own "rules" if I really like something.