Old Collector Say Hi, And Have A Simple Question.

First of, short (yes, that was the plan) about me.
I started collecting stamps at a young age, 7 or 8 I think... but, eventually came to the age where girls was more interesting than stamps, so I sold / misplaced / threw away my stamp collection (2-3 stock books if I remember correctly), and started dating, drinking and all that stupid stuff teenagers do.
That was about 30-35 years ago... but, got married, got a steady job, got kids and loan on the house, I started collecting stamps again about 10 years ago... what I collect? mostly everything, have at the moment 115 stock books with stamps, some sorted, some not so sorted, have registred stamps from 347 different places (or epokes of places).
I like to buy big lots with a lot of "everything" and "i dont know"
I don't care to much about stamp value or types, never checked for watermarks (check for illuminated stamps for sorting them out), I am more interested in finding stamps that I like, places I never heard of and history I forgotten.
That said, I have many rare / valuble stamps, many old (penny black, penny red, first stamp from many contries and so on).

Well... My question is actually very simple... which tweezers do people in here prefere?
I have a few tweezers that I use, but was thinking of buying a new one (my favorite tweezers vanished into thin air), and would appriciate any good suggestion, as I think none of those I have had was actually designed for stamps

https://goscf.com/t/82849

Welcome. Some topics, like best hinges, best mounts, best stock books, best watermark detector, etc. keep coming back for more discussion. This is a link to a recent one....If you use the 'search' tool here you will find other debates going back years.

Welcome


Most philatelists might not agree with me, but I don't think I always need specially designed tools.
I use eyebrow tweezers, nail polish UV lamp, everyday dishes and kitchen adsorbant paper to soak off and dry stamps.
In my experience many times "specially designed" just boost the price.
But, with expensive stamps, one might want to be extra careful.

Welcome!

My "weapon" of choice are the Showgard 902 tongs. Nice and sharp, so you have to be careful especially when new. I've drawn blood a couple of times before I learned to use them properly.

Dale

Probably not the best habit. The main difference between real stamp tongs and beauty tweezers is that the tong tips surfaces are highly polished so as not to have tiny sharp protrusions that can easily damage paper.

Tweezers made specifically for collectors can damage paper and card if your handling isn't spot-on. Pointed tweezers are the riskiest. From the occasional bitter experience, I now use rounded tweezers, known, I think, as the "spoon" type.

The tweezers I bought were a mixed set of 10, some pointed some not.
Examples that I find now on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/394353825705
https://www.ebay.com/itm/403989129346
I keep the pointed ones for accidental self-made hand-made perfins. ;)

Welcome,

Your favorite old tweezers will reappear within 1-4 weeks of buying a new pair....jus' sayin'!

Greg

I was advised by a veteran collector me that once you decide the type of tongs you like, go out and buy three of them!

Thanks for many good advices

Regarding my old favorite tweezer, it was bendt, and a bit sharp, so I guess it is somehow similar to some of those described above.
Regarding it reappearing, I highly doubt it, as wify borrowed my office for a few weeks, never seen it since, and asking her about it, it's like "why you suspect me to misplace it, I did not see it there", meaning, "sorry, I broke it when using it for something else, and threw it away before you see it, so you can blame yourself for misplacing it".
Anyways... not something I cant get new and better :-) and looking at the suggestions, I start getting an idea of which one I will buy three of :-)

But... best advice I got here (in the link from paddle_more) is simple... stupidly simple, use a piece of paper for lifting the stamps and sleeves I have been using the tweezer for getting hold of the first stamp, then that stamp to get the other ones, and the stamp for lifting the sleeve
Now I will start using paper when lifting, and a paddle tweezer or similar for handeling it.
Again... thanks for all the good advices

kenfil,

Enjoy having fun with stamps! That is the name of this game.

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby.

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ