What's Next? Need Some Advice

Hello everybody, my first serious post in the forum will be to ask you some advice.
I collect mainly Spanish African Colonies and I have a decent-advanced collection.
It is very fun and I am very interested, but I am open to start with a new country, again to collect it in the most serious way as I can (As complete as I can) and if it becomes a challenge, it will be better.

I know that it is very difficult, and the most probably is that I will never have an almost complete collection but I was thinking about CHINA.

Also, I thought about a more humble one, but still beautiful, FRENCH POLYNESIA.

I am open to recommendations and opinions.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP,

Stay safe!

One possibility would be the French colonies or protectorates that were next to the Spanish areas, such as Morocco or Guinea. Most of the French colonies have attractive stamps, although there were quite a lot of less interesting omnibus issues. I'd vote for Czechoslovakia as having issued the most attractive stamps of the modern era.

I guess that depends on your preferences. What attracted you to the Spanish African Colonies to begin with? Was it an interest in Africa or Spain? Spain also had interests in the Pacific and of course south and middle America. On the other hand. other countries also had colonies in Africa. Or are you looking for something to break away from both?

Malaysia and its various permutations could be fun.

Thanks for your answers:

GeoffHa, I will check Chechoslovakia, don't know much about their stamps.

jconey, I was born in Melilla, so the topic of the Spanish Africa was interesting to me. I was atracted by the classic look-like of the stamps.
Maybe I need to break away from Africa and Spain and look for something new, that's why China came into my mind.

If you go with China, realize that you would be entering a popular country with current high demand.

China is seeing an explosion of 'middle class' folks who now have the resources to invest in their history and heritage. More demand equals higher prices. Where Chinese stamps stamps are in the overall price curve I'll leave for others to argue over; but few would disagree with the opinion that there is currently higher demand and higher prices than anyone has seen over the last 50 years.
Don

China is hot at this time. Just note that the mint issues from the last couple of decades are commanding high prices at the moment.

I collect the mint and used french colony of St. Pierre and Miquelon, as they still issue engraved stamps with many having a wide variety of thematic subjects. Most issues are reasonable to purchase excluding a couple earlier issues, an airmail or two and the FNFL overprint issues. They stopped issuing in 1976 and the French Postal System, La Poste started reissuing again in 1986.

Have you ever thought about someplace like Malta? Mediterranean, small island country with an interesting history.

Small Island country with interesting history. The world is your oyster with that. Thats what attracted me to SPM. Rich history, France's next door neighbour to Canada. Also Crristmas Island, but it is under Australian post office now. SPM issues several a year, CI a couple yearly but not too many unlike St. Vincent, and some others. The # of issues put out by some is just staggering.

Malta I like.

I started as a general worldwide collector, so mostly would purchase mixed lots but from time to time I'd also make a dedicated purchase of lots for a single country.

Early on during the pandemic I picked up several lots of Turkey stamps in 102 cards. In all I ended up with nearly 600 different stamps in all. This is just a drop in the bucket for Turkey, but I'm looking at buying a very large lot in the near future that would give me a good amount of completion. As a related area, I'm also looking to pick up some Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus issues.

I also picked up several lots of Austrian issues last year that gave me nearly 2000 different stamps. I decided Austria would be an area of focus and purchased a few parts of the Scott "Specialty" album. I recently picked up the remaining Austria pages to take me through 2008.

As a related area, I'm planning to start a country collection of Hungary since its early history is linked to Austria's. It doesn't hurt that its stamps are plentiful and mostly cheap.

Long story (not at all) short, there are benefits to expanding to a related area. You could also go with something completely unrelated.

Decisions, decisions.

Dale

"China is hot at this time. Just note that the mint issues from the last couple of decades are commanding high prices at the moment."

Huh??? China issues from this century are not commanding high prices. You have to go back earlier to hit the high price era.

70s and 80s China or bust

If I had to start a new collection right now I would go with Italy. Prices are in the basement for even quality material and the subject matter and designs for the first 50 plus years of the 20th century are quite beautiful. Lots of latitude for specializing, a deep pool of back of the book and Italian colonies if you want to expand. Italy has it all AND is not overpriced.

PS: Probably my next stop after I sell my Russia collection.

Just a suggestion/alternative: Since you are already familiar with this area, what about extending into postal history or revenue/fiscal philately of the same area?

I always suggest Australia, but that is just me.