Define A "Good Topical Collection"

Hello! A newbie here, sorry if it's the wrong place for the topic.

I am starting a topical collection (food related, still narrowing down). I watched the basic videos from americantopical and others on youtube, browsed the forum and googled, but I didn't manage to find an answer to my question.

Everyone says "Just have fun!". I'm not looking to earning any money, but I'd like someone to be happy to inherit my collection after I die (hopefully, not soon) or if I decide to sell it some day. I'd like a person to look at my collection and say "Oh, this is a nice topical collection, I would be glad to own it". instead of it just being donated or thrown away.

My question is, what makes a good topical collection for you?

What characteristics should it have? Should it have ALL stamps of the topic? Should it be well catalogued? Should the stamps be of a particular quality? Should it be just the same topic you are interested in? Do birds and ships have more chances to be adopted than some narrow "Food - Apples" collection?

Thank you!

In my opinion, as a part-time dealer at in person shows, if someone came in with a topical collection to sell, for me to consider it good: it would need to be all MNH, clean, organized into full sets (emphasis on this. Many topical collectors fall into the trap of breaking up sets to only get the stamp with their topic. If you choose to go this route, please don't dispose of the rest of the set), on nice album/stockbook/various pages, with better stamps mixed in. Not every topic has winners, but for example let's say fish. If you want to collect fish, there's a good Lebanon set that I might look for. I've never seen a food topical collection, I can imagine you might include paintings of food? Good topical collections (that are desirable and have value and would be worth buying) would be butterflies, birds, and animals in general. Olympics is popular but quite honestly they are the UGLIEST stamps. You can be super narrow in your scope if it makes you happy. Don't collect for selling later down the line, the market for topicals only continues to fall. Buy for your enjoyment.

https://goscf.com/t/13846

In the past, most stamps issued were permanent stamps. Commemorative stamps were rarely issued. Some of those stamps may be included in thematic collections. European colonial powers issued enough permanent stamps with 'views' and similar focus.

You might find some native food, a native preparing food, or eating utensils on such stamps. Very few countries will have considered issuing a stamp for depicting a Wiener Schnitzel, a fabada asturiana, a Bismarckhering, a shashlik, or a pizza. Most such stamps have been issued in the past decades when countries started to issue many stamps for which there was no demand. Then came the countries issuing thematic stamps to lift on the popularity of a theme and generate income. This will be the case for almost any thematic collection unless you limit yourself to stamps issued before ca. 1950 – 1960.

Almost any thematic collection will mostly include modern wallpapers. There is little chance they will be an investment.

Stop considering stamps as an investment. Enjoy the hobby. Then "good" is what gives you enjoyment.

Organization will make it "good." The conventional way would be by country then chronologically, but there are other ways, of course. Also, it should at least appear to be thorough: while I'm not a topical collector, I'm pretty familiar with the breadth of designs across nations and decades, and would expect to see that reflected in the album(s).

I agree with oldbold that collecting in complete sets is important, even if not all stamps in the set are "on topic." It will make things better later on when someone sells the collection- collectors look for complete sets in most cases.

I also agree with oldbold about MNH stamps though I realize many prefer to collect used and CTO. The overriding key is to collect quality. Don't give in on stamps that have problems in order to save money. Always add sound stamps to your collection. Once a potential buyer sees any flawed stamp in the collection, they will assume there are other hidden problems in the collection and reduce their monetary offer. It's much better to have fewer stamps and no problems than lots of stamps with problems.

Something to make topical collection presentation more interesting is including essays/proofs, errors and oddities, covers with related cancels/slogans.

Excellent point orstampman. In fact today on HipStamp, for this very reason, I just picked up a plate block signed by the designer, the picture engraver, and the letter engraver. Common stamp, but a lot more interesting with the original artist's signatures.

Though personally I disagree with the comments about keeping complete sets mixed in with the topical collection. Fine to keep the remainder of the sets in an ancillary stockbook that is sold with the topical collection, but to me, it distracts from the topic, for example in a topical collection of "Einstein" or "Scientists" if there are other stamps in a large set that are picturing doctors or politicians. I just keep the one topical stamp in the topical collection, and the rest of the set in the back of the stockbook or a separate stockbook.

I would say that the most important in thematic collection is the write up. State clearly what will be the development of your collection and start looking for the items that you'll need to do it.
But don't stick on just stamps. Look for stationery, postmarks, meters, pre-philately... Variety is very important and adds fun to collecting.
You say, you want to start a collection on "food". You might talk about what is the meaning of "food", components of food (proteins, fats, sugars, additives...), the history of human food, nutrition and cooking, food industry, food and art, fodd and religions..
Being myself a food technologist, I've since many years ago, an ice cream thematic collection "in the oven" (or, I should say, "in the fridge"), that I'm not sure I'll ever finish. But... it's fun.

I would advise to go to stamp exhibitions or try to find thematic collections on line. But, if you want to see a wonderful collection, go to the forum "stampboards" and have a look at Jean Wang's exhibit "Blood, the gift of life". No words can describe it. Just, enjoy it.

While I agree with what Cursus wrote, my only qualification would be that he is describing a fairly or very advanced level of collecting. Not every collector, including myself, aspires to build an exhibit-deserving collection. The OP may become interested in exhibiting several years from now, but as a newbie an exhibit may be down the road quite a bit.

As others have said, the key is to find a subject that gives you pleasure, then spend some money on it in the expectation that you won't make a profit, and will probably make a loss. However, the "loss" is offset by the fun you have and the knowledge that most of what we spend money on - cinema, holidays etc - costs us cash that may or may not be well-spent.

Any auction will give you a snapshot of what thematic stamps might return. As an example, if you look at these lots, those with higher estimates are the ones where the stamps have greater intrinsic collectability. Others can be had cheaply.

https://www.warwickandwarwick.com/a...ns/catalogue

IMO if the goal is for broad appeal the topic needs to be one that most people connect with but is not mundane.

Example: The topic is flowers and that opens up thousands of choices. Find a subset of the topic that includes stamps with a bit of wow factor whether it be scarcity or backstory. Build the collection around those items. Kind of like what automakers and others do with "halo" products that draw people to the brand. The "wow" car or watch or whatever elevates the entire brand.

Londonaddict, Welcome to the Stamp Community!




I think that this statement is key to your question.

A collection of ALL stamps of a topic would be repetitious and boring.

To get the reaction you want, you should present your collection in a way that compels you, yourself, to page through it and enjoy what you have created.

A collection of food stamps that you found interesting, and the reason you found them interesting, could also be a real page turner for someone else.

I also collect "food" as one of my many topics ... and, as a subtopic I have Breakfast. You cannot possibly collect all the food stamps out there ... it's very much expanded in past 15 years (the annual Europa sets - which means many countries - have included food in the annual choice of topics) ...

Keep it interesting ... I include covers ... yes, keep the stamps that make up the set, but do not include them directly in the collection / exhibit. Just have them in a stockbook so the set can be rejoined at some point.

Good luck.

I would say aesthetic and technique are two aspects to optimize in most or thing having to be done... In collecting, there must be a story through the way to arrange items. Some documents can be very efficient, especially if you consider to give it to younger generation. If they are interested in the collection, they will be interested on who made it, why it been made that way, and it gives an idea on how to continue it. Complete sets is maybe like completely finish a part of a job, but for thematic, I think it would saturate pages with noise. If you have the set, keep it, if some want to convert collection in future, but I would focus on items relevant to the theme. It is like French fries, it is not the ingredient that make it good, it is the way it's cooked. Same potato will be good on one's kitchen output, and awfull in other's!

Fun is the key, but it need to make sense too. If it interest you and you find it nice, it is enough. If not, make it the way you'll like it!

Money spent isn't a concern on a hobby, since if you would like let say watching sport as hobby, and go see baseball match, nothing remains after the 100$ spent, maybe memories, maybe people you met there, it lasts a day or so, and that's it!

Have fun as I try to!

Marc

I would like to add : define a complete set :D

A complete set makes it easier for the dealer to sell and make a margin. However, there is a good probability the collector loses even more money. If you can buy the stamp for $ 1 and the set for $ 5, on ebay, you are better off tossing the $ 1 stamp than selling the set to a dealer for $ 3 because that suits the dealer who will sit on the single but can sell the set for $ 4.50.

Those other stamps do not belong in the collection. So, you will have a broken set sitting in a stock book that may give you no joy. It only works if the money in a set is in the stamp you need. And if you are talking expensive sets for which it might be good advice, you might be spending your budget on filling that stock book rather than on your collection.

It is a dealer's argument.

By the way, do not expect to get $ 3 on a set a dealer will sell for $ 4.50.