Greetings From A Casual Stamp Enjoyer

Hello, I'm salmonderella. My name comes from salmon and Cinderella, both of which I like.

I found this forum while looking up information on stamps. I mostly use stamps for postage, but there are some themes I've started keeping for myself. When I was a kid, I really liked stickers. Maybe it's not surprising I found myself interested in stamps eventually.

I collect stamps with unique shapes or materials, space stamps, some popular culture, some nature and animals, or whatever catches my eye with the design. I quite like mini sheets and se-tenants.

I'd like to display my stamps in my home rather than have them in an album, so if anyone has some neat display ideas please let me know. Hearing how my stamps are stored now would probably be a horror story to some of you. Looking forward to participating here and there.

Howdy!

Welcome.




That is what they are for. One day, your stamps may fill those annoying gaps in someone's album.




Your hobby is for your enjoyment.




You could use album pages with pockets, cut those to shape, and frame them.
You could use a blank album page and hingeless mounts. Take a second blank album page, cut out the spaces corresponding to the hingeless mounts on the first page and cover the first page to show the stamps on the first one and create depth. Again, you can frame the pages.



When you hang them from your wall, keep them out of the sunlight and bright lamps. Do not hang them in hot or damp places.

salmonderella,

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

Welcom salmondrella! Glad you have have found a way to enjoy stamps that works for you.

Good suggestions from NSK about how to display them.

Can't emphasize enough the importance of keeping them away from sunlight. I have seen stamps on display that were so exposed, they weren't a pretty sight after enough time went by.

NSK, thank you for the display ideas. I hadn't thought of how to add depth to stamps when framing, so that js very helpful.





Russ, I agree. That's a good way to put it. Maybe this is why I like receiving it on mail so much more.


TNPhil, thanks for the reminder as well. I keep my stamps out of the sun now only by chance, but I'll have to actively remember that when trying to display them.

Welcome.
Even not in sunlight, they will light fade. You may want to consider scanning them and putting printed copy in frames. Otherwise assume that over a year or two they will become damaged, and you can use them as postage sometime in the future.

You can find and use UV glass in the frames, but it is costly and only filters out around 98% of the light.
Don

Some excellent info for u there. Keep having fun and check in now and then with us.

Best to scan and print then post the print.