Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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I have recently dug into my stamp hoard that's been saved since I was in my teens. I found a group of 1940s-1950s commemorative plate blocks I had and was about to integrate them into my new US collection... then I noticed that they were hinged! Just one small hinge mark on the back of each, then I remembered that someone gave those to me at face value because I was a kid.
At first I was going to put them aside, then I got thinking... they are worth MAYBE a quarter each? They fill a catalog number in my new collection and look just fine. So they're in! Who would ever know? Who cares?
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06:53:13pm
I love this thread! Thanks for starting it Phil. I am not a perfectionist and I am too much a realist to think I can fill all the holes (even the cheap ones) in my pre 1940 WW collection - just too many stamps and not enough time. So if I have a stamp that fills a spot, and it has a flaw or two, it goes in the hole - not saying I will not replace it if a better one come along, but I am not saying I will either.
That which I love most about this hobby is its diversity. There are niches for perfectionists (who only save the best of the best), the historians (who "just (want) the facts, ma'am"), the topical collectors (where are all those tsetse fly stamps?), bottom feeder/hoarders like me (might have to evict my kid so I can use her bedroom for more stamps), and just about any other variation you can think of.
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I have been thinking about this as well. Last year I added many stamps from Uruguay to my collection. I passed over many used stamps from the earlier issues. The values for used and MNH are usually the same. I asked myself if I should leave the spaces empty while waiting for MNH, or go ahead and fill the spaces with used and replace them with MNH later. It isn't easy finding early MNH stamps, and I didn't find many unused either. I have moved on to other areas, but those spaces still sit empty.
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My challenge was to look at other folks' exhibits ... learn to be grateful that they did all of that good work ... and not fall into any of my own traps.
Some of those traps included: I could never do anything like that (period) ... I could never do anything like that because ... what is the point of doing anything at all if I will never be able to work at that level ... how can I seriously collect anything like that when this guy has already been-there-done-that ... how can I pick what to seriously collect when there are so many choices and I could never do them all ... yikes!
Its nice to soften with age.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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Age tends to mellow us all. I used to feel like I needed a brand new album for any collection I started... now I've learned to value and appreciated older albums with toned pages and shop worn binders... evidence of a loving previous owner and tend to view my new albums as sterile and cold. I'll add anything I don't have to my collection now. I maintain a 'Magpie" collection for those things which don't fit my main categories. I used to be very fastidious in what I collected but over the years I have learned to appreciate 100 1 dollar stamps much more than 1 one hundred dollar stamp. Less stress, more fun... what can I loose? The hobby is supposed to be for fun... I'll let the more "serious" collectors, a term I hate, worry about codition and certificates... I'll continue to enjoy my collection like it was still 1963 and I was in highschool! I view my expenditures like theater tickets... expect entertainment but no financial return,,, my heirs will have to sort that all out although I've told them all that my collection's main value is the enjoyment it hab brought me and to expect little return on my investment.
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Pathman, sounds good...i have a nice worldwide representation of stamps to 1969 in 9 Scott Internationals...lets just say the binders have pretty much seen their day..its what inside that counts.
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01:52:05pm
I also find that my Minkus Supreme Globals have worn a lot at the bottom from being drawn out or slid onto the shelf.
There was a stamp store I frequently visited at Bayonet Point (Yes, that is a town along Florida's Rte19 ) that had a pile of empty Minkus binders some in very nice condition. I selected a few several times to replace worn ones.
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Now, THIS is what I like to read about -
collectors who collect to please themselves.
Randy
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What I really enjoy is taking cheap stamps or covers and creating beautiful album pages from them... sort of "re-purposing" a common item into something which I consider to be a work of art... to me at least!
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My favorite local dealer who retired told me to collect what you like. Perhaps the best collecting advice I ever got!
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About 30 years ago an old fogey in our club told me the only countries worth collecting were the United States,Great Britain and Germany. Of course he was just looking at what monetary return he could get.
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I kind of like it when the old guys although I'm not sure what old guys means as I am 73, knock any collecting interest besides US and Great Britain as I get better buys on the foreign in the club auction and quite often run up the bidding on US and Great Britain as I collect it to. I will on occasion put a lesser quality stamps in especially if it is a more costly issue but with definite notes as to what is wrong and with intention of replacing it if ever possible.
As a buyer, I like to see notes about damaged or less than standard stamps. If I skim through a collection and find damaged with n notes, I start to wonder about the ones I can't look at. I have more confidence when purchasing a collection where the owner discussed or noted flaws.
On a side note, an older lady offered me a nice looking Netherlands collection at a show last weekend and I had to turn it down. I am not an expert on Netherlands and did not have a Scott with me. It looked nice and included early Antilles also. I told her I would be happy to take it home, catalog it and make her a offer but that absent that I could offer $50 or $100 for it. She was not interested in either so she left. I saw her hit all of the other dealers and she left with the album. I assume she got the same answer from them. At $100, I would have to assume there was $1000 in it and I noticed that some of the mint was stuck down so it was a shame for her as I think I could have made a reasonable offer after looking at it closely.
Jack
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Stampman, Amen..i recently picked up Sri Lanka and Greece collections in nice Staples fancy fabric type binders for around 10 dollars each...no one else wanted them at any price..someone spent a lot of money on the stamps in those albums..what do i have to lose.. a little space on my shelves ? You are not old...i got you by 3 years ! phil
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"You are not old...i got you by 3 years ! "
Thanks, guys. You make me feel like a teenager!
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"My favorite local dealer who retired told me to collect what you like. Perhaps the best collecting advice I ever got!"
"About 30 years ago an old fogey in our club told me the only countries worth collecting were the United States,Great Britain and Germany. Of course he was just looking at what monetary return he could get."
I don't get the people who post on the board "What should I collect?" and are offered suggestions of odd and obscure countries that they have no connection with. I have always found my areas of interest through the experience of looking at other's collections, or sorting through stuff I bought in big lots and once I had some of it put aside, it became a collection. Right now as I sort I've been putting registered and special delivery covers aside, as well as the same for postage due. I'm finding that I have enough old postal cards that I should sort them out to see how complete a collection I have.
Which leads to the story of how I started collecting my Ben Franklins...
Back in the early 1970s, I was a teen and a charter member of my local stamp club. There were some other kids involved, but I was a serious sort, so I gravitated to the adult side of the club and their serious collections. These kind folks took me under their wing and would take me with them to the big shows on the East Coast. Back in those days before we suspected everyone of having bad intents, my parents didn't have an issue if I went on an over nighter with a few of the kind old gents from the club. One of them was the postmaster of our town and he treated me like a son, sharing hotel rooms and paying my way with meals and other costs.
Anyway, that gave me exposure to the big shows and the APS top award winning exhibits. I loved it and soaked in as much knowledge as I could. Of course there was the correlation between money spent on collections like "Plate Study and Usage of US 1" and other major exhibits, and what I then could afford to spend on my stamp collection. I never worked the traditional minimum wage jobs, I had a lucrative lawn mowing business during the summer that kept me in pocket money all year round. And I wheeled and dealed in stamps, buying lots and breaking them up to singles to sell. And in 1976 I started my ODDITY Cachet company which really took off.
Back to our original premise... I yearned to have an important collection, but didn't have the buying power. So I had an idea... why not do a detailed study on a cheap stamp? I had always loved the design of the 1 cent Ben Franklin from that Series of 1902, and already had a handful of Scott 300, 314 and I even had a private perf pair. So I decided to collect what I liked, as my gut told me to, and I went right over the classic line to the 20th century! (back then only 19th century was considered "serious")
Well, some of the old dogs in my acquaintance discouraged me. How could anyone seriously collect stamps that had no value? Back then I was given envelopes with 100s of used Scott 300 (the standard perforated value). I bought every postcard with a decent cancel for the average of ten cents each. And I bought mint singles of 300 and 314 for maybe a dollar or two each. I borrowed the Max Johl book from the APS Library and copied the section on my stamps, and put it in a ring binder. Armed with the above materials, I proceeded to plate my stamps and from my postcards, I put together a succession of the color changes to the stamp by year. I couldn't afford the booklet pane, so I assembled one from used stamps.
Following everything I could from award winning collections, I put my exhibit together on the then standard 12x12 pages. My parents bought me a new electric typewriter for Christmas that used a tape cartridge so my pages would look printed. I got a single frame exhibit completed in time for POMEX 1975 (Stroudsburg, PA). I was very proud of what I had accomplished and put it up for exhibit. I got very concerned during the awards presentation, as my category went by without a mention of me! Maybe the old men were right, nobody would pay attention to 20th Century junk! Then a funny thing happened. My name was called for Best of Show! I was floored!
That experience legitimized my collection in my mind. So I ran forward. I bought more stuff, and people started to help me. I added material and pages and got the exhibit up to two frames and as I looked at the APS judging sheets from each show, I continued to improve what I could. I did get the collection up to a consistent Silver Award. The hobby took notice. There was an editorial in Linn's about how I broke the value barrier in exhibiting and taught some old dogs new tricks!
Today, some 40 years later, my stamps have come of age and nobody questions the validity of my collection. I have been fortunate to find and add all the rare and expensive material that I couldn't find and afford as a kid. I still have that exhibit intact today, with all my new material filling stock books and cover albums.
Sooooo.... a long way around the park, but back to my original point. Collect what makes YOU happy no matter what others think.
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04:42:06pm
" ... . Collect what makes YOU happy no matter what others think. ...."
And thunderous round of applause rose from one end of the clubhouse to the other, spilling out onto the lawn where lurkers liked to smoke and occasionally glance at what goes on inside. (Except for the one dusky room in the dank basement where the grumpy old men huddled.)
Yes, . Collect what makes YOU happy the way that appeals to you, no matter what others think.
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"... I had always loved the design ... and already had a handful ..."
I find it is the piles that I make that tell me what I want to collect.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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I have damaged stamps in my collection - but they do go if I get a better example. My postmark collection contains damaged stamps as a matter of course - it is the cancel that is important not the stamp.
It is a fact that a relatively complete collection,whether a specialist collection of an individual stamp, a set, a period or a country is almost always worth more than the sum of it's parts.
Look at any accumulation sold on e-bay. An all world collection of 100 stamps almost always has a starting price less than a collection of 100 one-country stamps ( almost any country qualifies). By sorting and seperating a quantity of of all-world accumulations into some sort of affinity groups you are almost always increasing their desirability. Also mounting stamps properly in an album into some sort of recognisable scheme does the same.
Sorting mere accumulations into collections is what we do !!
Malcolm
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I used to be really strict with myself as to what entered my collection...if i was not sure if it were mint or used(no postmark no gum) i would discard it...if a stamp had a wrinkled corner perf...GONE..now i am starting to think..who am i trying to please anyway, myself or a prospective future owner. I voted for myself !
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re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
I have recently dug into my stamp hoard that's been saved since I was in my teens. I found a group of 1940s-1950s commemorative plate blocks I had and was about to integrate them into my new US collection... then I noticed that they were hinged! Just one small hinge mark on the back of each, then I remembered that someone gave those to me at face value because I was a kid.
At first I was going to put them aside, then I got thinking... they are worth MAYBE a quarter each? They fill a catalog number in my new collection and look just fine. So they're in! Who would ever know? Who cares?
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
17 Sep 2015
06:53:13pm
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
I love this thread! Thanks for starting it Phil. I am not a perfectionist and I am too much a realist to think I can fill all the holes (even the cheap ones) in my pre 1940 WW collection - just too many stamps and not enough time. So if I have a stamp that fills a spot, and it has a flaw or two, it goes in the hole - not saying I will not replace it if a better one come along, but I am not saying I will either.
That which I love most about this hobby is its diversity. There are niches for perfectionists (who only save the best of the best), the historians (who "just (want) the facts, ma'am"), the topical collectors (where are all those tsetse fly stamps?), bottom feeder/hoarders like me (might have to evict my kid so I can use her bedroom for more stamps), and just about any other variation you can think of.
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09:09:00pm
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
I have been thinking about this as well. Last year I added many stamps from Uruguay to my collection. I passed over many used stamps from the earlier issues. The values for used and MNH are usually the same. I asked myself if I should leave the spaces empty while waiting for MNH, or go ahead and fill the spaces with used and replace them with MNH later. It isn't easy finding early MNH stamps, and I didn't find many unused either. I have moved on to other areas, but those spaces still sit empty.
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re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
My challenge was to look at other folks' exhibits ... learn to be grateful that they did all of that good work ... and not fall into any of my own traps.
Some of those traps included: I could never do anything like that (period) ... I could never do anything like that because ... what is the point of doing anything at all if I will never be able to work at that level ... how can I seriously collect anything like that when this guy has already been-there-done-that ... how can I pick what to seriously collect when there are so many choices and I could never do them all ... yikes!
Its nice to soften with age.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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30+ year member APS; member of ATA, ISWSC, ATA, PSS, MSS, PMCC, FDCS
18 Sep 2015
01:17:09am
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
Age tends to mellow us all. I used to feel like I needed a brand new album for any collection I started... now I've learned to value and appreciated older albums with toned pages and shop worn binders... evidence of a loving previous owner and tend to view my new albums as sterile and cold. I'll add anything I don't have to my collection now. I maintain a 'Magpie" collection for those things which don't fit my main categories. I used to be very fastidious in what I collected but over the years I have learned to appreciate 100 1 dollar stamps much more than 1 one hundred dollar stamp. Less stress, more fun... what can I loose? The hobby is supposed to be for fun... I'll let the more "serious" collectors, a term I hate, worry about codition and certificates... I'll continue to enjoy my collection like it was still 1963 and I was in highschool! I view my expenditures like theater tickets... expect entertainment but no financial return,,, my heirs will have to sort that all out although I've told them all that my collection's main value is the enjoyment it hab brought me and to expect little return on my investment.
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re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
Pathman, sounds good...i have a nice worldwide representation of stamps to 1969 in 9 Scott Internationals...lets just say the binders have pretty much seen their day..its what inside that counts.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
18 Sep 2015
01:52:05pm
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
I also find that my Minkus Supreme Globals have worn a lot at the bottom from being drawn out or slid onto the shelf.
There was a stamp store I frequently visited at Bayonet Point (Yes, that is a town along Florida's Rte19 ) that had a pile of empty Minkus binders some in very nice condition. I selected a few several times to replace worn ones.
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re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
Now, THIS is what I like to read about -
collectors who collect to please themselves.
Randy
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30+ year member APS; member of ATA, ISWSC, ATA, PSS, MSS, PMCC, FDCS
19 Sep 2015
01:41:23am
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
What I really enjoy is taking cheap stamps or covers and creating beautiful album pages from them... sort of "re-purposing" a common item into something which I consider to be a work of art... to me at least!
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11:34:28pm
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
My favorite local dealer who retired told me to collect what you like. Perhaps the best collecting advice I ever got!
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re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
About 30 years ago an old fogey in our club told me the only countries worth collecting were the United States,Great Britain and Germany. Of course he was just looking at what monetary return he could get.
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04:51:04am
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
I kind of like it when the old guys although I'm not sure what old guys means as I am 73, knock any collecting interest besides US and Great Britain as I get better buys on the foreign in the club auction and quite often run up the bidding on US and Great Britain as I collect it to. I will on occasion put a lesser quality stamps in especially if it is a more costly issue but with definite notes as to what is wrong and with intention of replacing it if ever possible.
As a buyer, I like to see notes about damaged or less than standard stamps. If I skim through a collection and find damaged with n notes, I start to wonder about the ones I can't look at. I have more confidence when purchasing a collection where the owner discussed or noted flaws.
On a side note, an older lady offered me a nice looking Netherlands collection at a show last weekend and I had to turn it down. I am not an expert on Netherlands and did not have a Scott with me. It looked nice and included early Antilles also. I told her I would be happy to take it home, catalog it and make her a offer but that absent that I could offer $50 or $100 for it. She was not interested in either so she left. I saw her hit all of the other dealers and she left with the album. I assume she got the same answer from them. At $100, I would have to assume there was $1000 in it and I noticed that some of the mint was stuck down so it was a shame for her as I think I could have made a reasonable offer after looking at it closely.
Jack
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re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
Stampman, Amen..i recently picked up Sri Lanka and Greece collections in nice Staples fancy fabric type binders for around 10 dollars each...no one else wanted them at any price..someone spent a lot of money on the stamps in those albums..what do i have to lose.. a little space on my shelves ? You are not old...i got you by 3 years ! phil
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10:55:17am
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
"You are not old...i got you by 3 years ! "
Thanks, guys. You make me feel like a teenager!
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this post
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
"My favorite local dealer who retired told me to collect what you like. Perhaps the best collecting advice I ever got!"
"About 30 years ago an old fogey in our club told me the only countries worth collecting were the United States,Great Britain and Germany. Of course he was just looking at what monetary return he could get."
I don't get the people who post on the board "What should I collect?" and are offered suggestions of odd and obscure countries that they have no connection with. I have always found my areas of interest through the experience of looking at other's collections, or sorting through stuff I bought in big lots and once I had some of it put aside, it became a collection. Right now as I sort I've been putting registered and special delivery covers aside, as well as the same for postage due. I'm finding that I have enough old postal cards that I should sort them out to see how complete a collection I have.
Which leads to the story of how I started collecting my Ben Franklins...
Back in the early 1970s, I was a teen and a charter member of my local stamp club. There were some other kids involved, but I was a serious sort, so I gravitated to the adult side of the club and their serious collections. These kind folks took me under their wing and would take me with them to the big shows on the East Coast. Back in those days before we suspected everyone of having bad intents, my parents didn't have an issue if I went on an over nighter with a few of the kind old gents from the club. One of them was the postmaster of our town and he treated me like a son, sharing hotel rooms and paying my way with meals and other costs.
Anyway, that gave me exposure to the big shows and the APS top award winning exhibits. I loved it and soaked in as much knowledge as I could. Of course there was the correlation between money spent on collections like "Plate Study and Usage of US 1" and other major exhibits, and what I then could afford to spend on my stamp collection. I never worked the traditional minimum wage jobs, I had a lucrative lawn mowing business during the summer that kept me in pocket money all year round. And I wheeled and dealed in stamps, buying lots and breaking them up to singles to sell. And in 1976 I started my ODDITY Cachet company which really took off.
Back to our original premise... I yearned to have an important collection, but didn't have the buying power. So I had an idea... why not do a detailed study on a cheap stamp? I had always loved the design of the 1 cent Ben Franklin from that Series of 1902, and already had a handful of Scott 300, 314 and I even had a private perf pair. So I decided to collect what I liked, as my gut told me to, and I went right over the classic line to the 20th century! (back then only 19th century was considered "serious")
Well, some of the old dogs in my acquaintance discouraged me. How could anyone seriously collect stamps that had no value? Back then I was given envelopes with 100s of used Scott 300 (the standard perforated value). I bought every postcard with a decent cancel for the average of ten cents each. And I bought mint singles of 300 and 314 for maybe a dollar or two each. I borrowed the Max Johl book from the APS Library and copied the section on my stamps, and put it in a ring binder. Armed with the above materials, I proceeded to plate my stamps and from my postcards, I put together a succession of the color changes to the stamp by year. I couldn't afford the booklet pane, so I assembled one from used stamps.
Following everything I could from award winning collections, I put my exhibit together on the then standard 12x12 pages. My parents bought me a new electric typewriter for Christmas that used a tape cartridge so my pages would look printed. I got a single frame exhibit completed in time for POMEX 1975 (Stroudsburg, PA). I was very proud of what I had accomplished and put it up for exhibit. I got very concerned during the awards presentation, as my category went by without a mention of me! Maybe the old men were right, nobody would pay attention to 20th Century junk! Then a funny thing happened. My name was called for Best of Show! I was floored!
That experience legitimized my collection in my mind. So I ran forward. I bought more stuff, and people started to help me. I added material and pages and got the exhibit up to two frames and as I looked at the APS judging sheets from each show, I continued to improve what I could. I did get the collection up to a consistent Silver Award. The hobby took notice. There was an editorial in Linn's about how I broke the value barrier in exhibiting and taught some old dogs new tricks!
Today, some 40 years later, my stamps have come of age and nobody questions the validity of my collection. I have been fortunate to find and add all the rare and expensive material that I couldn't find and afford as a kid. I still have that exhibit intact today, with all my new material filling stock books and cover albums.
Sooooo.... a long way around the park, but back to my original point. Collect what makes YOU happy no matter what others think.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
20 Sep 2015
04:42:06pm
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
" ... . Collect what makes YOU happy no matter what others think. ...."
And thunderous round of applause rose from one end of the clubhouse to the other, spilling out onto the lawn where lurkers liked to smoke and occasionally glance at what goes on inside. (Except for the one dusky room in the dank basement where the grumpy old men huddled.)
Yes, . Collect what makes YOU happy the way that appeals to you, no matter what others think.
Login to Like
this post
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
"... I had always loved the design ... and already had a handful ..."
I find it is the piles that I make that tell me what I want to collect.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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07:59:05am
re: Adding stamps to my collection...i have softened with age
I have damaged stamps in my collection - but they do go if I get a better example. My postmark collection contains damaged stamps as a matter of course - it is the cancel that is important not the stamp.
It is a fact that a relatively complete collection,whether a specialist collection of an individual stamp, a set, a period or a country is almost always worth more than the sum of it's parts.
Look at any accumulation sold on e-bay. An all world collection of 100 stamps almost always has a starting price less than a collection of 100 one-country stamps ( almost any country qualifies). By sorting and seperating a quantity of of all-world accumulations into some sort of affinity groups you are almost always increasing their desirability. Also mounting stamps properly in an album into some sort of recognisable scheme does the same.
Sorting mere accumulations into collections is what we do !!
Malcolm
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