Hello, I Am New To Stamp Collecting And Where To Start. Help Appreciated. :d

Hello, I am brand new to stamps and collecting them. But, I do apologize if this is a less then smart questing. So, I am wondering where/what is considered the better way to start acquiring and learning about them. Thank you in advance

JH,

Welcome to this forum.

There are many "better" ways to proceed. If I could start over again, I would buy a large box of off-paper stamps (5.000 to 20,000 for $20-$70) on ebay and dive right in. The immersion will generate hundreds of questions and provide a sharp learning curve. And surprisingly, you will be able to find almost all your answers by reading the histories on this site.

Sincerely and good luck,

Greg

What has your interest? There are so many ways to collect stamps. You can collect all world, a geographic area, a country or a country and its colonies, countries that once were a single country, a theme, a series with all its variations, airmail, etc., etc..

How best to start depends on what you want to do and what quality you want to collect.

And, by the way, picking up any stamp you find and sorting them by colour is just another way of collecting. If that is what gives you most pleasure, that might be the best thing to do.

How to build your collection will depend on what you want to collect.

Hi johnhenry9009,

Greg offers excellent advice. Buy the biggest bulk lot you can afford, off paper!

Buy a stockbook so you have somewhere to put the stamps as you sort them out. I'd suggest a 64 page white page stockbook but there's lots of options. Black pages will cost more but they show off the stamps better.

Buy a pair of tweezers - they're very important. They'll feel weird to use at the start but you'll get the hang of them soon enough.

Go to your local library and have a look at the stamp catalogs. In the USA you'll be looking for Scott catalogs.

A second hand set that's a few years old should be pretty easy to pick up, but buy them local as the postage from overseas will be huge!

Ask any questions you have here. There's lots of us happy to help

Welcome John Henry


Peter

I suggest that you search around and join a national or local club in your area. when you feel comfortable attend a local show to get a feel for where your interests are. then what has been suggested will make more sense. there is no set way to collect, it's whatever makes you feel good about doing it, relaxing and learning in the process.

Hi John Henry - In addition to the good suggestions others have made already, there are a number of YouTube videos on starting a stamp collection, beginner's guide to stamp collecting etc. Like anything, you have to pick and choose among all the different things out there - some are better than others but you can get a sense for how people approach it. The American Philatelic Society (APS) has a two part "Stamp Collecting 101" video that's part of their Stamp Chat series also on YouTube. Good luck!

Thank you all for the responses and if I may ask, what is the difference between On and Off paper?

"On paper" means still attached to a section of envelope, card or other wrapping. So more work to remove by soaking.

I agree, a great way to get immersed is to buy a bulk mixture and dive in. Once you have decided on a focus, whether it be a country / region, or a topic, or the entire world, you can get a head-start by buying a used collection that someone has already started to build. Great advice about going to a local stamp club or stamp show, if available. You will find there are as many ways to collect as there are people.

One last thing about on/off paper, most of the world's stamps used before the year 2000 could easily be soaked off their envelopes in warm water. On-paper mixtures are cheaper to buy than off-paper, but it can take a lot of time to soak them and dry them before they are sorted into an album. Some people enjoy this process and find it a relaxing thing to do while watching TV. Others find it a boring and tedious step before getting to the fun part of sorting the stamps.

But many countries in recent years have switched to self-adhesive stamps that are not water soluble and do not soak well off their backing, so they are usually collected while still on paper (cut off the corner of the envelope, leaving a border of paper 1-2 mm all around the stamp). Modern stamps received on the mail should probably be kept on paper until you know which ones can be soaked and which will disintegrate in water.

Okay, thank you for the responses. I will be posting more once I get a half decent set-up and understand it slightly better.

Diving into an inexpensive bulk lot is indeed a good way to start. Pretty soon you'll then have a question of how to store the stamps and that will be one of your next steps. There are lots of alternatives including mounting them in an album or using a "stock book". Since I got restarted in the hobby about five years ago I've gone in about a dozen different directions on this question. Sometimes you have to try something to learn if that is the way you want to go.

Agree with what has already been posted .

Don't spend a lot of money ,try spending a small amount and see how you enjoy your time with stamps , don't run out to buy a lot of stamp supplies or on a album . If your enjoying your time then and only then buy a few more mixtures or collection lots . Work with them and learn ,no need to speed up your buying take your time .

If I was starting out again, I would purchase a hingeless album from the start. Don't waste your money on mounts. Also, the hingeless albums look so much cleaner.

Here's a tip (my opinion) collect 1847-1935 anything past 1905 is low value. 1936 and up are common and easy to find cheap everyone has them, and there really not worth much. Save your money for the harder to find ones, most of us have budgets so put the money where it counts.

With that said my collection goes from 1847-1999 I am missing 163 stamps, my goal is to get one each for that time frame. Also I have everything mint from 1934 to 1999

First decide what country do you want to collect. Your home country or World Wide. If world wide, then a few stamps from every country or do you want to collect deeply. Try stockbooks, hinges and mounts, hingeless albums, vario stock pages etc... See what you like. Most beginners prefer a stock book first. why - because you have total control and it's easy to insert a stamp.