Why Do You Collect Stamps

Although I'm a huge sports fan and have collected sport cards since the 70's, I decided to give them up and start a worldwide stamp collection this year. Why? Because as I'm getting older, I'm becoming more interested in world history and to me there's no better way than a stamp collection. I love getting lost for a few hours looking at Coat of Arms, Kings and Queens of countries, birds, mammals, etc. and the number of different stamps out there. It's definitely been better than looking at the same athlete on a card year after year. I wish I wouldn't have waited till my late 50's to get started.

I had several family members who saved stamps for me when I was a kid. Now I see none of them were serious collectors, but...

Fast forward to last year. My mom passed away, and with her all of the people I knew who had collected stamps, or saved them for me, were gone. So I find bunches of stamps here and there which I soaked off paper etc. Am taking the bits and pieces along with some stamp poundage I ordered to fill spaces in a US album. I enjoy the culture and history, but also see it as honoring the "average" collector. Does that person exist in numbers now? I am told so but there is little evidence that I can find. Most now seem to be sellers of a family members collection, or out for specialized or more expensive stuff than anyone I know would have ever considered.....

I inherited my grandfather's US collection in 1973 (age 19) and dove in as relaxation during college. I then put it away for 42 years and jumped back in obsessively in 2015 - for the learning, the art, the hunt, the ability to create miniature new worlds, the OCD satisfaction and much more. I've now reached a satisfying point and figuring out where to go from here.

A boy born in 1860 filled this 1875 Scott international volume 1 album. His grandson passed on in 2024 , 164 years span. His sister gave the boxes of albums to a college fellow professor in a small western Minnesota town where it was put into a grocery storage building. At an outdoor collectibles auction, a person saw me bidding on stamps and invited me to me to buy his. So now I also study the foreign field. YIPPEE !!!!! Two years prior,,In 2018 I got a nice USA collection from a heir,, impressively meticulous with Mnh duck. So after 50 years, back into stamps and retirement . Good times !

I used to look at my parents stamp albums, they really got into it, but not me so much. Now with my parents in heaven, I thought I would start up a collection since I have some disposable income. My collection reminds me of my parents and how much they enjoyed stamp collecting. I suppose I am trying to have some sort of connection...anyone got a Ouija Board?