At What Point Does A Country's Postage Stamps Just Become Stickers?

Bobby De La Rue - I did not insult topical collectors."CTO - great for topical collectors is not an insult" If topical collectors follow the same rules as a WW collector IMO it makes for a boring collection depending on what you are collecting. LOL stamp collectors are more sensitive than the the young teenagers and college kids. Most of you all need to get a grip on CTOs as well. They have a place in philately whether one likes it or not.

LOL Becker you made a huge assumption that I don't have topical collections as well. I have quite a few with CTOs to boot in them.

Let's break down the difference between a topical collection and a WW collection. You are all entitled to your opinion. A WW collection should be a celebration of a countries history and culture. A topical collection is different. CTOs that I would keep in a topical collection would not make it in a WW collection. It's not just CTOs. Cinderallas as well. A Topical collection is an exhaustive theme of anything you can find. A WW stamp collection looks weird when you have say Elvis or Marylin monroe on a stamp from a country where those iconic characters are not from. However, if you have a topical collection with say music singers or actresses, then who cares what country they come from. Again, you can decide for yourself what you would put in your collection.

I never said, nor implied, that you did.

Bobby De La Rue - you have my apologies. Misread what you wrote.

A worldwide collection should be what the collector wants it to be, not what you decree it should be.

I wonder how many worldwide collectors that celebrate a country's history and culture are aware what those stamps that celebrate a country's history or culture depict and are not just adding to their collection. Some will, but there will be worldwide collectors who cannot point at some of the countries on a map if they are highlighted.

I just want to thank Geoff for sending that link explaining the bird stamps from Haiti. Those are the exact stamps I have. Interestingly enough, not CTO either. But the history behind them is so much more interesting than the birds themselves. I'm willing to bet lots more "stickers" have some historical value if we find out the stories behind them. All part of the fun.

nsk please read more carefully - " Again, you can decide for yourself what you would put in your collection." - I did not decree anything. Please see this comment here. You can decide what you would put in your collection means that you get to decide what you put in your collection. Why on earth would I care what you put in your collection. My statement was just an opinion of course. For example, some people's goal is completeness, so that Elvis stamp from xyz country has to go in. I just gave my opinion of how I do it. And the original post was about stamps and wall paper. The poster is asking for people's opinions and viewpoints. Some one will read my post and think about how I have done it and they may or may not follow. Everyone has to answer for themselves what are wall paper stamps. You can get into the weeds with a formal definition of a stamp like others have or not or you can do what I do which is to weed out things that don't fit. But you "decide" what fits. I am unsure how to be more clear here. Remember Wall paper is taken in context. For a topical collection where I have more flexibility, that wall paper stamp becomes part of my collection if it fits.

Does not really say: my ww collection only contains.




in between, then signals a rejection of the validity of a different opinion.

Organisers of displays and competitions can post Stamp collecting rules that you have to obey if you want to display and compete in their territory. Everyone is allowed to collect what they want, but there are things that I and others cringe at and think "that ain't proper stamp collecting" . There are almost as many definitions of what can go in a stamp collection as there are stamp collectors. Out of politeness I don't shout out my feelings about some fields to people who enjoy those fields. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second as well as nominally having one of the best stamp collectons in the world had her own personal collection of First day covers. When these were shown to the royal philatelist his comment was "if it gives you pleasure it is a good collection ma'am."
I would still agree there are too many stamps produced,but I have some of them just because they are so fantastically tacky and novel. They can be difficult to collect because almost no reputable dealer has them

When folks in China are selling millions of counterfeits that are so close to the real stamp that most people can't tell the difference.

When I first read this thread last night, maybe around 9-10PM, my reaction was that this topic, and the discussion around it, was very similar to the questions and discussions around CTO stamps. Now this morning, I see that CTO's have entered this discussion as well, confirming my initial thoughts.

These discussions can be beneficial, (as long as they remain cordial), helping a collector to consider various aspects from which the issue can be viewed, as an aid in deciding what they may want to do with their own collection.

In the end, there is no definitive answer to the OP's original question, nor to that of CTO's , for that matter. In our present world, there is probably no postal administration in existence which doesn't issue more stamps than are needed for the functioning of their system. Each collector will need to make their own informed decisions. Often, how much of a purist one is regarding postage stamps and their uses, and considerations of possible resale value, become important factors for some in these discussions and decisions about one's collection.

In a forum for another hobby in which I am involved, the following statement was made: "If you're having fun, you're doing it right." Good advice, I think, for us in the stamp hobby.

I don't either and that's one reason. The second is self-adhesives, I detest them as a collector and the third is that most modern issues are just ugly and look like an 8 year old made them in Photoshop. I stopped my U.S. collection in 1993, which is when my album at the time stopped. Other countries have different end dates, depending on their production values, but none of it is modern, up-to-date. If I was going to do it all over again, I'd probably stop at the end of engraved stamps. At least then, they weren't shoveling garbage out to pay the bills.

Thank you stampgreendragon - no harm no foul

Just quickly on CTO stamps, those from New South Wales and early Australia are very highly collectable, although I'm sure we're not talking about that angle of CTO stamps. Worth pointing out though, in that blanket statements can sometimes look like something that wasn't intended.

Did the post office sell the Aussie CTOs direct to the public, or just via dealers, Bobby?