How To Collect Stamps Today
So you think you'd like to collect stamps?
Great!
A lot of people do.
It might not be the popular hobby it once was. And you might not want to talk about it unless you're among collectors, but stamp collecting is a quiet, relaxing hobby that can take the edge off a hectic, even troubling day. There is something soothing about sorting through a bunch of stamps and something pleasurable about placing them into an album and watching your collection grow.
At one time, shops offering stamps for sale to collectors were everywhere. Even Gimbel's had a stamp department. As a kid, I can remember going into Woolworth's and seeing stamps and stamp collecting supplies for sale and buying packets of stamps -- the more colorful and exotic the better -- for my collection.
My grandmother worked at an office building downtown, and faithfully brought back stamps salvaged from incoming mail for many years. And I exchanged letters and stamps with a Korean pen pal and fellow collector, regularly.
Stamps also came through the mail in other ways. Mail order stamp companies had ads everywhere for "stamps on approval" from which desired items could be selected and purchased. And once you got beyond the beginner stage, stamp exchanges allowed you to trade your duplicates with other members by mail -- all you needed was a recent edition of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue (found in many libraries) so that your stamps could be valued as the basis on which the exchange could be made.
Beyond that, there was the American Philatelic Society (APS) and the philatelic press whose tabloids, Linn's, Western Stamp Collector, and Mekeel's opened one to both the intermediate and more advanced world of philately as did stamp shows, if you lived near a city large enough to warrant one, where dealers from near-and-far set up tables from which they sold their stamp inventory to collectors.
Today, with the Internet and email, inexpensive telephone communication, and so much metered postage being affixed to mailed pieces in lieu of stamps, even the current commemorative issues are hard to find unless you go to the post office and purchase them mint, as they are issued.
White Ace and others still make pages for U.S. commemoratives if collecting stamps purchased at the post office interests you. But the pages can be expensive, as are the stamps at going postage rates, and while they look nice, doing this may not be as relaxing and exciting as building a good-old-fashioned world-wide album collection. But that's a personal preference.
Actually, a world-wide collection is an ideal place to begin if you don't have very much knowledge or understanding of the hobby. With the overview that comes from starting with a more general collection, you might find a special affinity for stamps issued by a certain country or countries or for stamps of a particular period, such as the "classics" of the "First 100 Years Of Philately," 1840-1940, covered by Part I of the Scott International Postage Stamp Album -- something that seems quite popular today, though the albums are no longer published and can be hard to find.
As an example, I began with a general collection, moved and expanded it to a second, larger, album, then decided to collect British Colonies because I liked the designs, the style, and the content of the geographical sets that came from the many exotic locations throughout the globe. It was said that "The sun never set on the British Empire" so this wasn't too limited a choice, and both Scott and Minkus published specialty albums that covered British America, British Oceania, British Africa, British Asia, and British Europe. British America with all the Caribbean Islands, and British Oceania with its Pacific Island counterparts, covered most of the more exotic places I liked, so that's where my collecting interests went, at least for a time.
Just because you don't see that many stamps on the mail, today, doesn't mean they're not out there. It's just a matter of finding them or finding sources for them. In fact there a more stamps available than there ever were, because more and more stamps are issued over time, and once stamps get into the hands of collectors, they are seldom lost, except maybe to fire or flood. Most stamps will resurface somewhere, whether it's at an auction, at a thrift shop, or recycled through one of the many dealers who buy and sell stamps and stamp collections. Because of news stories about certain valuable issues, most people who come across a stamp collection left behind by a loved-one seem to overvalue it's worth in their mind, and will not just throw it away.
Stamps collected during what might have been stamp collecting's hay day, say WWII through Vietnam, continue to fill the market with older and interesting material. You can enter this market and find these collections and much more through our Store Navigation Links at the left.
In addition, stamp dealers can be found online and through ads in Linn's Weekly Stamp News and elsewhere. Check the phone book, you might just find one in your area. The American Philatelic Society (APS) sales division is another source of stamps that is available to its members.
Where you go and what you do with your collection will depend on where you want to take the hobby. Yes, the more valuable items are sold by auction houses through printed catalogs, but the less expensive items, of which there are plenty, can be a lot of fun, too. Especially if you have an album in which to collect them.