Want To Start Collecting World Stamps

My suggestion is to collect what you like - whatever catches your eye - and not worry about completeness - worldwide is too huge for that.

Then, after gathering up a decent number of things you like, make your own pages or modify Steiner pages to suit what you have collected. This way, the album itself will not dictate what you do and you won't have the annoying open spaces to make you anxious or unhappy. I think this method could easily lead to more enjoyment of what you're doing.

Plus it will be much more personal and unique and more pleasing to your own eye. A collection rather than an accumulation, as you may often hear.

I think it is always problematic when one collector has to ask another collector what to collect. Ultimately the collector has to figure this out for his or herself. I' sure you did this with your US collection. It's really no different with the world, only there's more to choose from.

My advice to you if you are really in a quandary is not to do anything until you have given it some thought. I would take a look at a Scott catalog that was printed in color and then decide what countries or issues within a country appeal to you aesthetically and fit your budget. If a friend has a world collection you can look at there and world collections have been posted on line.

If you are interested in world issues of 1940 or earlier the Classic Scott catalog can do that in one volume. A cheap older used one (in color) from any year would suffice

Much good advice. I only suggest you start with most countries stamps issued after WW2. These tend toi be cheaper although there are affordable world stamps to find before WW2. Current stamps from most countries are especially attractive as they usually provide the date of issue and the name of country in their native script as well as the one used for English. This helps immensely in identifying stamps.

How I started collecting Worldwide stamps was to simply buy what I liked from a variety of countries and then have narrowed my focus (although it doesn't prevent me from getting a few outside my focus!). The countries below are some of my favorite offering stamps at an overall high standard of design and beauty and quite affordable are:

Namibia
Austria - issues after 1960 are especially affordable and you can get some before 1960 under $75.
French Polynesia - some beauties with once in awhile a corny one but the country doesn't issue many stamps each year and most extremely affordable -- only when you get to the first years when Fr. Polynesia became independent do you have stamps running over $50 but rarely have seen one at $100 or more. Most are well under $20.
France - only drawback is output is huge, larger than the US in my view but some gorgeous stamps.
Poland
Sweden
Greece
French and Spanish Andorra
Greenland
Japan - only drawback is output is very large
China - same drawback as Japan and France
Iceland - and they stopped issuing stamps in 2021. Many going back to the 1910's are affordable.
British Mandate of Palestine-mid century Jordan-Israel offer some nice stamps with a very rich and fascinating history at low cost.

Canada offer packets of stamps issued during certain quarters (so Jan - March 2018 as one example) and the prices can vary but a good deal.

Finally a great area where you can find stamps at all price points with many early 20th century stamp with gorgeous designs are those from the British Commonwealth. For under $50 and even much less you can obtain beautiful designed, engraved stamps from various reigns of British monarchs. Very popular area to collect and I think most collectors can say they have at least a smattering of British Commonwealth stamps.

A lot of good comments.
There still are other good ideas to be considered.

I'll write a book later, but here is my summary.

Why EXACTLY do you want to collect (worldwide) stamps?

How much time and money you want to commit?

Why not start with a SAMPLER collection?
Like at least 1 stamp from very country (especially current, if not some obsolete countries, too)
At least 1 stamp from every topic of interest, such as 1 stamp about every sports discipline, etc.

Why not collect some circulated covers?

Why not create some maxicards, that you can even mail as postcards without envelope, if you prepare them properly?

Why not design your own personalized stamps (valid for postage), in over 60 countries?

I started collecting worldwide as a teen in the 70's, but became extremely overwhelmed trying to fill my Harris Ambassador album. Then I became solely US focused. Then later in life, mint stamps only. I still don't think I'll ever fill all the spaces in my US albums. Between Regulars, Commemoratives, Plate Blocks and back of books, it can surely be daunting.
That being said, I like a lot of the comments here. From collecting only one country, to collecting whatever catches your eye. Maybe just build your own album with blank pages? Mounting any cool stamps you find, from any country. If you're wanting to fill spots only, on a big ol' world album, I respect that. Enjoy your collection however you choose.

Agreed, 'A Stamp For Every Country' is an approach that many folks enjoy. Here are two free, printable sets of 'A Stamp For Every Country' album pages which you can download;

https://stampsmarter.org/learning/F..._SSHome.html

https://stampsmarter.org/learning/F...SECHome.html
Don

I started collecting recently. Because I don't have a real focus yet, I started gathering used worldwide. It has quickly become an accumulation.

Once I get them all better sorted I will make some guidelines for myself based on what I like best. I am US-based so will likely target some specific series to collect.

Regarding other countries, I could follow my heritage. Any experienced members have overall thoughts on:

- Puerto Rico
- Scotland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Germany

For fun I also like the "dead countries" idea

"I started collecting recently. Because I don't have a real focus yet, I started gathering used worldwide. It has quickly become an accumulation"

What to collect?
First figure out your budget.
The old adage of collect what you want and don't worry about the money will send you to the poor house quick.

1) Decide if you want to buy whole collections
2) collect better singles
3) collect rare stamps
4) countries - you could try a stamp or set from every country including dead countries. However, I like country collections with a cut off date.
5) Buy albums and not stamps. Looks for collections where you get the albums for free. Look for albums in good condition. Then collect to the album
6) go with a stockbook
7) go with Steiner pages
8) Try to collect a few countries from every part of the world deeply
9) Here is how you go to the poor house. If you buy a stamp collection for 200. It is likely that you can sell it close to that. However, if you buy a stamp collection, fill it with cheap singles, then youi
will still sell it for 200. How you acquire and how you sell in the future is something to consider.
10) Try to focus on a few countries early as to not get overwhelmed, rinse and repeat.


These are just some ideas to consider.
Try to not make your collection too hodge podge if you can help it.
Good luck.

Re Scotland: definitives for use in Scotland (they can also be used elsewhere in the UK) have appeared over the last sixty-five years or so. They're pretty dull, especially if one has page after page of them - although others may demur!

Well, what is dull to one person may not be dull for another. Some people might find Machins boring. I opine they are technically among the most exciting stamps. There have been so many developments in stamp production that affected those stamps.

Scotland stamps, as GeofHa wrote, are British stamps printed to be put on sale in Scotland but valid throughout the UK. There are 'Wildings,' 'Machins,' and 'Emblems.' All three types have varieties. The most basic sets are not too expensive to acquire. Then, there are local carriage labels issued on many Scottish islands, and there are Scottish-themed stamps. So, there are many ways to approach that area.

Ireland is quite popular because many people that descend from the Irish feel connected with the country. Except for the provisional and 'free state' overprints on British stamps, a complete basic collection is affordable, as it starts in 1922. Collecting Ireland comes with a health warning. At some stage, you might catch the Hibernian bug and start to collect the many varieties of otherwise simple permanent series.

As for 'Germany,' what Germany are you talking about? It is highly complicated and has many sub-categories with the old states, and the division after the 1939-1945 war. There can be quite expensive sets even post-1945 that should be bought with a BPP (German) certificate if mint and might be very difficult to find used unless bought from a dealer (again, consider certificates for some).

German and Italian states are some of the most interesting areas to study and collect.

They can be expensive and are fraught with dangerous forgeries. Probably best to focus on the cheaper stamps here if you're starting out, or seek a tried and true dealer who specialises in these areas.

Thanks for all the great feedback so far. To provide some context: this is purely for sport, not for "investment". I likely wouldn't seek out full collections, because that defeats the "purpose" for me personally. I love the thrill of the hunt and the fun of curating my own collection over time. I enjoy the time spent sorting, researching, and cataloguing. I have a young family to support so my budget is negligible.

In my brief exposure to worldwide, I can tell that Germany (and all its iterations) may be a can of worms. Rather than trying to tackle whole countries, I may decide to get more specific. Maybe focus on specific engravers whose work I especially like, maybe something topical, maybe narrow spans of time. I like that there is really no wrong way to go here.

World stamp collecting is fun and can be interesting.

You can print your album pages and do it that way, and if you want you can create some yourself.

There are a few good Scotts world albums. Those are the ones I use.

It comes down really to the album style you like.

I highly recommend you stick to old stamps or stamps for only a few countries.

The Scott International album (not comprehensive coverage but most regular stamps) was 1 volume to 1940, one more to 1949, 2 more to 1959, and probably 2 dozen since then. If you get a bag of kiloware (kilograms of stamps on paper) you'll get tons of recent stuff and will need a room full of albums to be able to place them.

I had on old crap Harris international album with hardly anything in it. What I did when I decided to collect international was buy old stamp albums with ~1000 stamps in them up to the year I decided to stop at (for me, 1960). The paper isn't quite as white as a new album would be, but these albums, with stamps, cost less than a new album would. Continue this a few ore times and you'll have a fine world collection. You can even sell the albums again if you want after you've gone thru them.

Now if you dont want to fill an album, but prefer stockbooks you can collect whatever and however you want.

Many good points in this post.

One thing I forgot to mention in my reply, If you are just starting to collect in general or looking at expanding, you can always pick a country that interests you, and fill out an album for it, and you can add to it as you go along. You do not have to go for every country at once. If you buy a world album, they may give you a taste or sample of each country, and you may decide that you want to explore more than you have a starting point.