I didn’t realize until this weekend that I have looked at this board for the past 2 months. It’s not my lost sense of numismatics - I still collect and I bought a nice MS65 Standing Liberty Quarter last weekend. I’m still passionate about coins. The problem is that my brother and I agreed to split costs from selling my late father’s stamp collection. Thus for the past 2 months I took a deep dive learning about stamps and researching the value of the collection. It’s huge and there are nice stamps but nothing rare. I sold some parts but hope to sell the rest this week. I can see why folks get interested in stamps, and they are beautiful and interesting, but I will remain a coin dude. These albums take too much room and it is hobby on the downswing - especially compared to the enthusiasm at coin show last weekend. I will return once this is done.
My mom was really into stamps. Sadly as she got older she became more of a stamp hoarder. After she passed we had a group of family and friends help us with clearing out the house. One person, who happened to be a stamp collector dealt with the stamps. There over a hundred stamp albums many without stamps and cigar boxes full of canceled stamps. Her early efforts at collecting had some neat stuff, plate block albums, USA singles etc. We sent two palettes worth of the stuff, gratis, to the friend who was helping us sort through everything. He lived in Texas. I kept a small box of items that I ultimately traded to a stamp and coin dealer for a Krause catalog. I did keep a few single stamps from the USA and Canada. I have started a small collection that currently has ten stamps in it. My focus in on the the Trans Mississippi, Pan-American, and Panama Pacific issues. I also have some of the early airmail issues. Like coins, there are grading services for stamps and I only buy graded examples. There are too many nuances for a novice to risk money buying ungraded examples.
My father was a huge stamp collector and in the past month I created an inventory which tool about a month. The collection is well maintained and beautiful and he really enjoyed the hobby. Unfortunately he bought an insane amount for Mystic Stamp Company, synonomous in the stamp world as Littleton Coin is for coins - it gets you started and enthused, but not a place where you want to spend much long term.
I still have a fairly large stamp collection but I haven’t looked at it in years. I have up when the stamps went to self stick.
This should tell why people are no longer interested in stamp collecting. I started stamp collecting in 1948 at the same time I started coin collecting. I quit when the USPS started issuing wallpaper (too many stamps). I am including here a summary of the issues: USPS Stamp Issues. The first two lines represent about 50 years each. The following lines are by decades. 1847 to 1899 293 1900 to 1949 693 1950 to 1959 152 1960 to 1969 247 1970 to 1979 408 1980 to 1989 643 1990 to 1999 931 2000 to 2009 1065 My collection consists of about 90% of the US issues. I am also attaching photos of my albums lying flat. The first album is 1847 to 1975. The second is 1976 to 1995. The third is 1996 to 2002, when I quit. The US Mint is trying to catch up with USPS and I quit new coins also.
The only stamp I got was a 2 by 2 of the 1877 Indian Cent. I put it in one of my coin 2x2. I feel for the one(s) that have to divvy up the coins. My father collected quite a few coins. I was chosen to inventory them and make an equitable division. It was quite a challenge. It was easy when their were 2, but odd amounts.. I had to be created. When there was three, I would give him 2 and keep 1. On the next 3, I kept 2 and he got 1. I got interested in coin collecting and his is still in a jar. What a life!
I sold the stamp collection and can now focus on coins. Looking for nice SLQs to finish a set is a challenge
The nice thing about stamps is you can go on those alternative to eBay websites like Webstore and buy stamps for like 5 or 10 cents a piece. I know nothing about stamps but I spent some time just buying ones with animals, nature, space program or anything else that interests me and I spent very little. They're kind of a pain to organize though.
