Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
I thought you might like to see this list, from an article in the May issue;
TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
1. USA
2. CHINA
3. GERMANY
4. Great Britain
5. FRANCE
6. CANADA
7. AUSTRALIA
8. ITALY
9. RUSSIA
10. INDIA
I can only assume that this list is representative of the US market area,
as there is no mention of that one way or the other.
However, this is only MY assumption.
In any case, I thought it an interesting list.
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This is what I think from my standpoint. (Norway)
1. Norway
2. Germany
3. GB
4. Denmark
5. Iceland
6. USA
7. France
8. Italy
9. Sweden
10. Finland
My own priority now is:
1. Portugal
2. Switzerland
3. Spain
4. Finland
5. Italy
6. Denmark
7. Iceland
8. Hungary
9. France
10. Greenlan
I'm completely out of the collecting "main stream" and that suits me fine. Lot's of cheep collections at auctions now. I can hoard GB and Germany later 
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That's definitely US based list. On this side of the globe the list would be something like this:
1. Finland
2. Aland Islands
3. Sweden
4. Estonia
5. Germany
6. UK
7. Russia (Imperial)
8. Iceland
9. Norway
10. Denmark
Collectors of US or Canada or China or India only are very rare breed in these parts of the world.
-k-
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While he has not listed the (far too) many UK stamps he has upstairs, this collector - bearing in mind the nature of his obsessions - offers the following order:
1. USSR
2. France
3. Germany (including 3rd Reich, BRD, DDR, Berlin and unification)
4. German Occupations
5. Belgium
6. Romania
7. Poland
8. Albania
9. Yugoslavia
10. Croatia
These are the top 10 countries being collected at this address - I have no figures for the rest of South-West Essex! 
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And up here in Bucks, the countries being collected are
1 France
2 Sweden
3 Iceland
4 Finland
5 Denmark
6 Eire
7 Newfoundland
8 Latvia
9 Laos
10 And engraved and recess printed stamps that I like, wherever they're from.
To be honest, there's been a lot more action lately in the first 5 and the last (10) than in numbers 6-9.
And I've collected engraved stamps from Austria, Liechtenstein, USA, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Faroes, Greenland, Germany (all), Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, China and Japan - as well as from 8 of the countries above. And some from Central and South American countries that I haven't yet sorted out.
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Musicman's list looks about right for the United States collectors. As for myself, I will continue to collect the Scandinavian countries.
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Wow! I am REALLY out of the mainstream:
1. SWITZERLAND
2. FINLAND
3. IRELAND
4. NORWAY
5. LUXEMBOURG
6. THAILAND
7. LIECHTENSTEIN
8. HONG KONG
9. PAPUA NEW GUINEA
10. DENMARK
BOB S.
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1) french offices in China
2) Dahomey
3) Ethiopia
4) Belgium
5) Belgian Congo
6) British Honduras
7) Iceland
8) Saar
9) French Colonies
10) U.S. Including back of book
Pretty much a WW hoarder :-)
The first two are serious specialties though
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1. United States
2. Canada
3. International I-V for 1840-1963 worldwide
4. Great Britain
5. France
6. Japan
7. Laos (stamps are beautiful)
8. Newfoundland
9. Australia
10. Germany
and for a challenge, a beginner world-wide album just to see if I can complete it with only the stamps pictured in the album as a kind of ultimate, simplistic album filling exercise. 
Somehow I have been given some special opportunities with collections for Venezuela, Denmark, and Brazil as well as a fascination for Korean stamps which I am trying to figure out how to satiate.
Currently I am reading a book about Leopold II of Belgium and the Congo and watching the Last Post from Amazon Prime about the British in Aden so there may some additional motivations in my collecting life as well. Watching a series of TV shows and movies about Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II motivated my Great Britain collection tremendously. I will lay the blame for the Japan and Germany collections on watching The Man in the HIgh Castle. Does anyone sense a theme here? 
Just bought a new book today, King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, at a bookstore that I happened upon while taking a rest stop on the drive back from picking up my son from college for the summer. It starts off mentioning Natal and Zululand so I will look into these countries for my International album set. Reading can be dangerous! 
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I should perhaps add that the list I posted is not my personal one, but more of whats collected generally here in Finland.
My personal interests as (semi-advanced?) worldwide collector are very far off from that list. Possibly the line "the more exotic the better" describes my interests best.
-k-
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I think that the only way to definitively determine the ‘Top 10 Countries Being Collected’ would be to compile the revenue and marketing data from the entire philatelic industry.
Short of this, I guess a person could compile all the various eBay divisions (in each country they have servers in) and extrapolate under the assumption that eBay listings reflect the entire philatelic industry. (In my opinion this would be a reasonable assumption but it could certainly be debated.)
We would need to analyze both the number of listings and revenues to get an accurate picture. One potential pitfall is the data being skewed by the fraudulent listings. We do know that the revenue numbers for US classic stamps is definitely being impacted (skewed) by the ‘cartel’ person in Great Britain. (Someone over on SCF forum ran these numbers one quarter.)
Don
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i seem to recall Japan being HOT at one point...and Everyone collected Germany !
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Panama has a small but avid following. It will never figure in any top ten list, though.
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Some years ago Stanley Gibbons had the Stamps Of the World Catalogue online at www.allworldstamps.com.
Regrettably this has long since gone, and although the domain is still registered to SG it no longer resolves.
Full access was via paid subscription, however non-subscribers still had access only sans images. As a new collector still finding my feet I found it an invaluable resource.
One of the features of the site was a countries top ten list. If I recall correctly the list was based on popularity by catalogue lookup.
Even though the site was accessible worldwide, I guess it was probably skewed by the SG customer base as Great Britain was number one by a fairly large margin. I was pleasantly surprised to find South Africa, my then main collecting interest remained somewhere in the middle of the list during the period I used the site.
Clive
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Sigh.
I guess I'm the only one who would but Haiti on a list.
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"I guess I'm the only one who would but Haiti on a list."
No, Haiti is one of my favorites too.
As a classical era (1840-1940) and "Semi-Classical" (1940-1969) WW collector, my "top ten" countries varies by the month or the year, depending on what feeder albums I am pillaging.
The recent "Top Ten"
Japan
Mexico
Scandinavian Album (Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway)
Austria
Brazil
Bulgaria
France
Gilbert & Ellice islands
Great Britain
Puerto Rico
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10:34:05pm
Based on the ten choices provided by those who offered their ten best, and a confidential algorithm known only to Druids and the Electoral College;
France
Finland
Iceland
Germany
Great Britain
Denmark
USA
Sweden
Norway
Russia
Italy
Switzerland
Portugal
Japan
Canada
Belgium
Eire
Newfoundland
Australia
French offices in China
Aland Islands
Chi'na
Dahomey
Mexico
Ethiopia
Spain
World wide
Austria
Estonia
German Occupations
Luxambourg
Belgian Congo
Brazil
British Honduras
Bulgaria
Romania
Thailand
Liechenstein
Poland
Albania
Hong Kong
Hungary
Latvia
Saar
French Colonies
Gilbert & Ellice Islands
Papua New Guinea
Yugoslavia
Puerto Rico
Croatia
Greenland
One surprise is Greenland dead last, considering how many times I have been outbid.
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Well I couldn't just do ten so I picked the countries I most like and tried to put them in order as to favorites,top to bottom. I did not include colonies. If a country is not on the list I probably would not call it a favorite.
Us
Germany
France
Great Britain
Italy
Portugal
Greece
Belgium
Newfoundland
Canada
India
Brazil
Peru
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Baltics)
Egypt
Monaco
Austria
Switzerland
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Spain
Japan
San Marino
Liberia
Russia
Iceland
Greenland
New Zealand
Netherlands
Uruguay
Argentina
Venezuela
Romania
Denmark
Sweden
Puerto Rico
Guatemala
Costa Rica
Mexico
Bulgaria
Australia
Norway
Finland
Ecuador
Panama/Canal Zone
Cuba
Chile
Bolivia
Hungary
Poland
Thailand
Tannu Tuva
Vatican City
Turkey
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Difficult, but here it goes (based on my focus at the moment):
Canada,
Norway,
Denmark,
Netherlands (incl. colonies except Surinam and Neth. Antilles after 1948),
South Africa (incl. states and SWA but excl. homelands)
Australia (incl. states and dependencies like AAT, Christmas, Cocos-Keeling)
Papua New Guinea,
Peru
Brazil
Baltic States (until 1940)
special mention: Belgian precancels and Danish Christmas seals
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I find this very difficult to do as well. I am interested in Canada, the US, most European countries, most Latin American countries, and most colonial African countries. I pretty much only collect up to 1952 for all areas of interest. I have no interest in the Asian countries (with the exception of Malaya and States), and little interest in the commonwealth countries aside from Canada and Great Britain. I also find Mexico and Brazil very time-consuming to work on, so I don't bother with them. I guess the best I can do is the following.
1. Canada
2. Italy
3. Finland
4. Chile
5. Ethiopia
6. Baltics
7. Malaya and States
8. Belgium
9. United States
10. Peru
Eric
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I'm a little bummed being so pedestrian in my tastes ...
1. France (aesthetic choice)
2. Canada (my homeland)
3. Netherlands (my wife's family)
4. Italy (my dad's family)
5. Austria (my cousins live there)
6. Belgium
...then I can't decide.
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I am an all-world collector and my top ten is informed by how many unsorted stamps of each country I have on hand at any one time.
Purely on volume of envelopes of junk- Great Britain is number one always, but for the other 9 choose any 9 from 100+ !!
Malcolm
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I find it a bit amusing that this thread began as a Top 10 list
of the most-collected countries here in the US, but has turned
around to become lists of what each individual responding here
chooses to collect.
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Hi Randy,
Your original post stated
"I can only assume that this list is representative of the US market area,
as there is no mention of that one way or the other.
However, this is only MY assumption."
I have read the article several times and I agree that it is unclear whether this is just the US market.
The author, Richard Lehmann uses this chart to compare the countries listed as to their investment value, mint versus used. It is very confusing for me. I don't collect for investment other than my own enjoyment so it is hard for me to wrap my brain around his chart. He doesn't say where he found any of this information.
My experience with collectors here in the US is that they don't represent his top ten countries on his list.
The title of his chart is "Top Ten Countries - By Value." If this is the top ten countries by value than they are not listed that way.
Since you started this thread I tried to figure out what the chart means. So far I don't know.
My top list by country
US
US postal history
Canada
Iceland
several Scandinavian countries
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I think most of us decided to put a personal spin on most popular countries being collected. It has been fun seeing the areas of emphasis. I liked the way Antonius Ra chimed in with his list as it is quite obvious that his collecting emphases are quite broader than most. 
The article itself probably indicates the highest volume of sales occurring in the USA market to stamp collectors. My assumption is loosely based on what I hear collectors purchasing at stamp shows over the past year (or requesting to see from dealers) and the number of bids that occur for items on eBay by a rather casual level of observation.
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Vince,
I agree with what you said -
his entire article is quite difficult to understand.
But I did find it an interesting list.
And I'm also interested in seeing where, on a personal list, some of us
are putting certain areas of their collecting interests.
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01:33:20am
Being an old fashioned world wide collector there are many interesting areas that I seek out. When asked at a show or when starting a trading or buying relationship, I usually just answer "Postaly Used World Wide" but that seems to not satisfy anyone. It just happens that I have been working on the list of favorite nations for the topic in this discussion group. It took a while and involved trying to assign different countries into a fair place on the list that follows.
So now I have a list and have been moving countries up and down all afternoon;
Great Britain esp Machins
Channel Islands
Isle of Man
Norway
Iceland
Danmark
Eire
Canada
Sweden
Finland
Japan
Australia
New Zealand
Netherlands
Sri Lanka
India
Philippines
Republic of Chi'na, pre '49 & Taiwan
Greenland
Faroes
Papua New Guinea
Spain
France
Portugal
Italy
Greece
Egypt
Aland Islands
Belgium
Switzerland
Newfoundland
French offices in China
Thailand
Malaysia
Indonesia. malaya
Brunei
Tokelau Islands, a strange favorite driven by the fact that I once visited the three atolls that make up what is really a contrived postal service.
Gilbert & Ellice Islands I do have an actual envelope that carried a genuine letter to me from Tarawa.
Nigeria
Mexico mostly Exportas.
Latvia
Estonia
Lithuania
Independent Ukraine
Ethiopia
Germany
German Occupations
Austria
Luxembourg
British Honduras
Liechenstein
Hong Kong
Hungary 1918 to 1940
Saar
French Colonies
Croatia and former Jugoslavia
Add South Africa and the tribal territories as well as the early Dutch and British provinces.
As well as a few other places that escape me at the moment.
I better stop here. I left the USA off because I work with the US almost as a matter of duty. It is fairly complete other than recent years. Just for the record I started playing with stamps when I was four or five years old at the kitchen table behind blackout curtains during WW II, along with my mom and dad.
He was a part time vest pocket dealer and collector.
I learned to soak and sort, set into glassines and eventually mount stamps in the right place with the hinges that were available at the time.
As many others have experienced there was a sort of interlude while I experimented with young girls and college, but resumed with a passion in early 1965.
Many of my recollections are described in other threads here at SoR that can be found by using the search feature.
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Was a WW collector until my home burnt down in 2012. lost 90% of my 55 year old collection. Too old to start over. Have narrowed my collection field to the following in order of favorites.
1. Great Britain & Isles
2. Canada
3. US ( my largest but 3rd only because of modern crappy stamp designs)
4. Australia
5. New Zealand
6. Hong Kong (British)
7. Br. Virgin Islands
8. St. Lucia
9. Jamaica
10.Bahamas
11.Bermuda
12.Ireland
13.All other Br. Caribbean
Why 13? my lucky number.
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I have my own doubts about the list being representative of the American collecting market. I don't see how China can land the number two spot on the list. I do think it's possible if the list is including stamp sales in Asia, where collecting China stamps is a hot investment right now. But your average American collector isn't probably collecting China enough to make it number two. I also doubt India showing up in the top 10 list. I don't think a lot of American collectors are that keen on it. Now if the list is including Indian collectors from India, then I can see that. I know for a fact there are lots of collectors of China and India stamps, but not so much in the U.S.
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01:46:55pm
It is silly to take any of the top ten countries lists
offered by members since such an evaluation is so personal.
Why the article chose thing like " ...investment value,
mint versus used ...." and what ever else as indicators
is a mystery.
"Most collected" is not the same as "Favorite"
as one may apply to enjoyment and someone may enjoy accumulating
a common inexpensive area, or one where all remaining missing issues
are too expensive but just looking for an item brings great pleasure.
Most collected could mean the countries where the collector
has the most individual stamps, or the countries most often put up
and successfully sold.
There is also a major difference between what a collector feels is
most popular among his contacts and what he, or she,
is most willing to spend money on.
Too many variables to take our top ten lists seriously.
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Mine would be
1. Hong Kong prior to 1997 handover
1a. British Treaty Ports in China and Japan
1b. any non-HK cancel on a HK stamp
2. Foreign Post Offices in China
3. Mauritius
4. Macau
5. Indian Mail to China
6. Maritime Mail
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I guess mine would be:
USA, (pre 1994)
Australia, (pre-decimal)
Papua, (British, German, Territory Of)
Great Britain, (pre-QE)
Germany, 1868 to Federal Republic
Papua New Guinea
Australia Kangaroo stamps on covers.
Presidential Inauguration Day Covers
A lot of odds and ends that make happy
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Good to see Thailand makes a few of the lists including the first seeing that so much of the older Thai material for various reasons has been repatriated. It's always worth remembering that higher value stamps of foreign (that is not your own) countries were more likely to be used in overseas postage rather than internally in their own country. (OK that may not be totally accurate, but certainly easier to find used at a reasonable price outside of their country of origin.)
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My favourites at present are:
1. Crete & Foreign Post Offices / Administrations
2. Ottoman Turkey & Foreign Post Offices
3. Norway
4. Denmark
5. Germany
6. Bulgaria
7. Orange Free State
8. Egypt
9. Hungary
10. Finland
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Not much mention of either but it seems Portugal is more popular than Spain, at least in this discussion.
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Art postage stamps from:
USA
France
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This is an interesting discussion. It just goes to show that one of the things that makes the hobby so great is the diversity of our collective interests. So to add to the discussion I thought I'd offer Stamporama's top ten countries taken from what members have won in the Auction. This count is taken on what people have bought not what sellers have offered for sale.
1. United States - 1946 to 2000
2. Germany
3. Great Britain
4. Canada
5. France
6. Algeria
7. Sweden
8. United States - 1901 to 1945
9. Austria
10. Australia
With a second best 10 countries:
11. Italy
12. Switzerland
13. Iceland
14. United States - Back of the Book
15. Belgium
16. Germany - Democratic Replublic
17. Germany - Berlin
18. Japan
19. Ireland
20. Russia
Another thing that I found interesting is that members have bought stamps from 475 countries in the Auctions. These statistics are only from when I implemented the "Countries" enhancement in the Auction. I can't remember how long ago that was.
Regards ... Tim.
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05:27:57pm
"I can't remember how long ago that was."
Easy enough to check:
SELECT min(start date) FROM Auction Lots WHERE country IS NOT NULL
(Field names changed for security)
Answer is:
2016-04-27
Nearly 4 years.
Roy
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Thanks Roy. Boy has that time gone quickly.
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I find it very amusing how people are saying the most collected stamps are either USA or Great Britain. China, with a population of 1.4 billion souls, many of whom are collectors and they do not have access to eBay, Stanley Gibbons, Mystic, et al must be the number 1 most collected country in the world.
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"I can only assume that this list is representative of the US market area"
I definitely will not fit on that list. However it will be a surprise if the list , in fact, is representative of most collectors.
My interests are more like this:
1. Middle East - Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria etc.
2. South / Central America - recent Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador etc.
3. Africa - Swaziland, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, French Africa etc.
4. Caribbeans - BVI, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad etc.
5. Oceania - PNG, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu etc.(except Australia)
6. Asia - recent Nepal, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Japan etc.
7. Eastern Europe - recent Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia, Croatia, Macedonia etc.
8. Scandinavia - Sweden, Norway, Finland etc.
Holly smokes! Isn't my list just the opposite of what they published in that magazine.
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I was I was young living in Germany I started a worldwide collection but the collection got lost in the move back to the US. When I restarted again, I focused solely on US. After not wanting to pay $$$ for older US, I decided to collect outside US
I now collect British Commonwealth.
Major Holdings (not meaning worth)
1. US
2. Great Britain especially Machins
3. Canada
4 to ?. British Commonwealth into early Independence. For some reason, British Africa has some special interest.
Since I put all stamps in mounts, I have a nice investment in mounts too.
For more specialization, it has been US tagging and Machins.
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07:02:28am
" .... I have a nice investment in mounts too. ...."
I suspect that many have spent more, or almost more,
on mounts and gum than stamps.
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".... I have a nice investment in mounts too. ...."
I tend to buy collections which I then sell of piece by piece. However I keep all the mounts since about 90% are still usable
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I collect all stamps (postal and fiscal) from all years from:
1. USA
2. Panama
I collect through 1940 or for British areas, through the reign of KGVI
3. Canada
4. Australia
5. Spain
6. Mexico
7 France
8. Italy
9. India
10. Great Britain
I also more loosely collect stamps of the British Colonies/Territories/Etc. through the reign of KGVI of which the above (Canada, Australia, India, Great Britain) are of greatest interest.
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auldstampguy: That list, too is only good insofar as it reflects the number of stamps listed for sale from each country. My searches for particular countries often turn up from 0-4 listings. And, though they may not be top-10 countries, they're not oddball and obscure areas either. For example, Argentina, as I write this, has only 1 listing, Costa Rica - 1, Lithuania - 1, Ukraine - 4.
Algeria is at #6 because it consistently has 100s of listings (thank you foudutimbre) from which I myself have purchased hundreds.
Other than for Algeria, nobody is listing what I want to buy.
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Hi Ted(youpiao),
I looked at those statistics a little differently. I saw them as from all the stamps that are listed in the Stamporama Auctions, these were the stamps that members chose to buy. I agree that if the stamps aren't listed buyers can't buy them and hence their not included in the statistics. But this was just our own little snapshot of what we have collectively bought in the Auction from 2016(thanks Roy) to now.
Regards ... Tim.
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I understand, Tim, and I hope I didn’t come across as argumentative, because I certainly don’t have any arguments with anything anyone has said. I appreciate everyone’s input in the discussion.
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It will be extremely difficult to get any meaningful information about what we collect by looking at sales figures by country. The stamps year of issue, quality, topic, relative scarcity and price will be critical in whether a stamp sells or not.
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For those of you who do not subscribe to the American Stamp Dealer & Collector magazine,
I thought you might like to see this list, from an article in the May issue;
TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
1. USA
2. CHINA
3. GERMANY
4. Great Britain
5. FRANCE
6. CANADA
7. AUSTRALIA
8. ITALY
9. RUSSIA
10. INDIA
I can only assume that this list is representative of the US market area,
as there is no mention of that one way or the other.
However, this is only MY assumption.
In any case, I thought it an interesting list.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
This is what I think from my standpoint. (Norway)
1. Norway
2. Germany
3. GB
4. Denmark
5. Iceland
6. USA
7. France
8. Italy
9. Sweden
10. Finland
My own priority now is:
1. Portugal
2. Switzerland
3. Spain
4. Finland
5. Italy
6. Denmark
7. Iceland
8. Hungary
9. France
10. Greenlan
I'm completely out of the collecting "main stream" and that suits me fine. Lot's of cheep collections at auctions now. I can hoard GB and Germany later
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
That's definitely US based list. On this side of the globe the list would be something like this:
1. Finland
2. Aland Islands
3. Sweden
4. Estonia
5. Germany
6. UK
7. Russia (Imperial)
8. Iceland
9. Norway
10. Denmark
Collectors of US or Canada or China or India only are very rare breed in these parts of the world.
-k-
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
While he has not listed the (far too) many UK stamps he has upstairs, this collector - bearing in mind the nature of his obsessions - offers the following order:
1. USSR
2. France
3. Germany (including 3rd Reich, BRD, DDR, Berlin and unification)
4. German Occupations
5. Belgium
6. Romania
7. Poland
8. Albania
9. Yugoslavia
10. Croatia
These are the top 10 countries being collected at this address - I have no figures for the rest of South-West Essex!
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
And up here in Bucks, the countries being collected are
1 France
2 Sweden
3 Iceland
4 Finland
5 Denmark
6 Eire
7 Newfoundland
8 Latvia
9 Laos
10 And engraved and recess printed stamps that I like, wherever they're from.
To be honest, there's been a lot more action lately in the first 5 and the last (10) than in numbers 6-9.
And I've collected engraved stamps from Austria, Liechtenstein, USA, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Faroes, Greenland, Germany (all), Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, China and Japan - as well as from 8 of the countries above. And some from Central and South American countries that I haven't yet sorted out.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Musicman's list looks about right for the United States collectors. As for myself, I will continue to collect the Scandinavian countries.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Wow! I am REALLY out of the mainstream:
1. SWITZERLAND
2. FINLAND
3. IRELAND
4. NORWAY
5. LUXEMBOURG
6. THAILAND
7. LIECHTENSTEIN
8. HONG KONG
9. PAPUA NEW GUINEA
10. DENMARK
BOB S.
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10:05:18pm
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
1) french offices in China
2) Dahomey
3) Ethiopia
4) Belgium
5) Belgian Congo
6) British Honduras
7) Iceland
8) Saar
9) French Colonies
10) U.S. Including back of book
Pretty much a WW hoarder :-)
The first two are serious specialties though
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
1. United States
2. Canada
3. International I-V for 1840-1963 worldwide
4. Great Britain
5. France
6. Japan
7. Laos (stamps are beautiful)
8. Newfoundland
9. Australia
10. Germany
and for a challenge, a beginner world-wide album just to see if I can complete it with only the stamps pictured in the album as a kind of ultimate, simplistic album filling exercise.
Somehow I have been given some special opportunities with collections for Venezuela, Denmark, and Brazil as well as a fascination for Korean stamps which I am trying to figure out how to satiate.
Currently I am reading a book about Leopold II of Belgium and the Congo and watching the Last Post from Amazon Prime about the British in Aden so there may some additional motivations in my collecting life as well. Watching a series of TV shows and movies about Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II motivated my Great Britain collection tremendously. I will lay the blame for the Japan and Germany collections on watching The Man in the HIgh Castle. Does anyone sense a theme here?
Just bought a new book today, King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, at a bookstore that I happened upon while taking a rest stop on the drive back from picking up my son from college for the summer. It starts off mentioning Natal and Zululand so I will look into these countries for my International album set. Reading can be dangerous!
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I should perhaps add that the list I posted is not my personal one, but more of whats collected generally here in Finland.
My personal interests as (semi-advanced?) worldwide collector are very far off from that list. Possibly the line "the more exotic the better" describes my interests best.
-k-
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I think that the only way to definitively determine the ‘Top 10 Countries Being Collected’ would be to compile the revenue and marketing data from the entire philatelic industry.
Short of this, I guess a person could compile all the various eBay divisions (in each country they have servers in) and extrapolate under the assumption that eBay listings reflect the entire philatelic industry. (In my opinion this would be a reasonable assumption but it could certainly be debated.)
We would need to analyze both the number of listings and revenues to get an accurate picture. One potential pitfall is the data being skewed by the fraudulent listings. We do know that the revenue numbers for US classic stamps is definitely being impacted (skewed) by the ‘cartel’ person in Great Britain. (Someone over on SCF forum ran these numbers one quarter.)
Don
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
i seem to recall Japan being HOT at one point...and Everyone collected Germany !
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Panama has a small but avid following. It will never figure in any top ten list, though.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Some years ago Stanley Gibbons had the Stamps Of the World Catalogue online at www.allworldstamps.com.
Regrettably this has long since gone, and although the domain is still registered to SG it no longer resolves.
Full access was via paid subscription, however non-subscribers still had access only sans images. As a new collector still finding my feet I found it an invaluable resource.
One of the features of the site was a countries top ten list. If I recall correctly the list was based on popularity by catalogue lookup.
Even though the site was accessible worldwide, I guess it was probably skewed by the SG customer base as Great Britain was number one by a fairly large margin. I was pleasantly surprised to find South Africa, my then main collecting interest remained somewhere in the middle of the list during the period I used the site.
Clive
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Sigh.
I guess I'm the only one who would but Haiti on a list.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
"I guess I'm the only one who would but Haiti on a list."
No, Haiti is one of my favorites too.
As a classical era (1840-1940) and "Semi-Classical" (1940-1969) WW collector, my "top ten" countries varies by the month or the year, depending on what feeder albums I am pillaging.
The recent "Top Ten"
Japan
Mexico
Scandinavian Album (Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway)
Austria
Brazil
Bulgaria
France
Gilbert & Ellice islands
Great Britain
Puerto Rico
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
28 May 2018
10:34:05pm
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Based on the ten choices provided by those who offered their ten best, and a confidential algorithm known only to Druids and the Electoral College;
France
Finland
Iceland
Germany
Great Britain
Denmark
USA
Sweden
Norway
Russia
Italy
Switzerland
Portugal
Japan
Canada
Belgium
Eire
Newfoundland
Australia
French offices in China
Aland Islands
Chi'na
Dahomey
Mexico
Ethiopia
Spain
World wide
Austria
Estonia
German Occupations
Luxambourg
Belgian Congo
Brazil
British Honduras
Bulgaria
Romania
Thailand
Liechenstein
Poland
Albania
Hong Kong
Hungary
Latvia
Saar
French Colonies
Gilbert & Ellice Islands
Papua New Guinea
Yugoslavia
Puerto Rico
Croatia
Greenland
One surprise is Greenland dead last, considering how many times I have been outbid.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Well I couldn't just do ten so I picked the countries I most like and tried to put them in order as to favorites,top to bottom. I did not include colonies. If a country is not on the list I probably would not call it a favorite.
Us
Germany
France
Great Britain
Italy
Portugal
Greece
Belgium
Newfoundland
Canada
India
Brazil
Peru
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Baltics)
Egypt
Monaco
Austria
Switzerland
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Spain
Japan
San Marino
Liberia
Russia
Iceland
Greenland
New Zealand
Netherlands
Uruguay
Argentina
Venezuela
Romania
Denmark
Sweden
Puerto Rico
Guatemala
Costa Rica
Mexico
Bulgaria
Australia
Norway
Finland
Ecuador
Panama/Canal Zone
Cuba
Chile
Bolivia
Hungary
Poland
Thailand
Tannu Tuva
Vatican City
Turkey
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Difficult, but here it goes (based on my focus at the moment):
Canada,
Norway,
Denmark,
Netherlands (incl. colonies except Surinam and Neth. Antilles after 1948),
South Africa (incl. states and SWA but excl. homelands)
Australia (incl. states and dependencies like AAT, Christmas, Cocos-Keeling)
Papua New Guinea,
Peru
Brazil
Baltic States (until 1940)
special mention: Belgian precancels and Danish Christmas seals
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03:27:38pm
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I find this very difficult to do as well. I am interested in Canada, the US, most European countries, most Latin American countries, and most colonial African countries. I pretty much only collect up to 1952 for all areas of interest. I have no interest in the Asian countries (with the exception of Malaya and States), and little interest in the commonwealth countries aside from Canada and Great Britain. I also find Mexico and Brazil very time-consuming to work on, so I don't bother with them. I guess the best I can do is the following.
1. Canada
2. Italy
3. Finland
4. Chile
5. Ethiopia
6. Baltics
7. Malaya and States
8. Belgium
9. United States
10. Peru
Eric
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I'm a little bummed being so pedestrian in my tastes ...
1. France (aesthetic choice)
2. Canada (my homeland)
3. Netherlands (my wife's family)
4. Italy (my dad's family)
5. Austria (my cousins live there)
6. Belgium
...then I can't decide.
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01:46:44pm
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I am an all-world collector and my top ten is informed by how many unsorted stamps of each country I have on hand at any one time.
Purely on volume of envelopes of junk- Great Britain is number one always, but for the other 9 choose any 9 from 100+ !!
Malcolm
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I find it a bit amusing that this thread began as a Top 10 list
of the most-collected countries here in the US, but has turned
around to become lists of what each individual responding here
chooses to collect.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Hi Randy,
Your original post stated
"I can only assume that this list is representative of the US market area,
as there is no mention of that one way or the other.
However, this is only MY assumption."
I have read the article several times and I agree that it is unclear whether this is just the US market.
The author, Richard Lehmann uses this chart to compare the countries listed as to their investment value, mint versus used. It is very confusing for me. I don't collect for investment other than my own enjoyment so it is hard for me to wrap my brain around his chart. He doesn't say where he found any of this information.
My experience with collectors here in the US is that they don't represent his top ten countries on his list.
The title of his chart is "Top Ten Countries - By Value." If this is the top ten countries by value than they are not listed that way.
Since you started this thread I tried to figure out what the chart means. So far I don't know.
My top list by country
US
US postal history
Canada
Iceland
several Scandinavian countries
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I think most of us decided to put a personal spin on most popular countries being collected. It has been fun seeing the areas of emphasis. I liked the way Antonius Ra chimed in with his list as it is quite obvious that his collecting emphases are quite broader than most.
The article itself probably indicates the highest volume of sales occurring in the USA market to stamp collectors. My assumption is loosely based on what I hear collectors purchasing at stamp shows over the past year (or requesting to see from dealers) and the number of bids that occur for items on eBay by a rather casual level of observation.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Vince,
I agree with what you said -
his entire article is quite difficult to understand.
But I did find it an interesting list.
And I'm also interested in seeing where, on a personal list, some of us
are putting certain areas of their collecting interests.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
09 Jun 2018
01:33:20am
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Being an old fashioned world wide collector there are many interesting areas that I seek out. When asked at a show or when starting a trading or buying relationship, I usually just answer "Postaly Used World Wide" but that seems to not satisfy anyone. It just happens that I have been working on the list of favorite nations for the topic in this discussion group. It took a while and involved trying to assign different countries into a fair place on the list that follows.
So now I have a list and have been moving countries up and down all afternoon;
Great Britain esp Machins
Channel Islands
Isle of Man
Norway
Iceland
Danmark
Eire
Canada
Sweden
Finland
Japan
Australia
New Zealand
Netherlands
Sri Lanka
India
Philippines
Republic of Chi'na, pre '49 & Taiwan
Greenland
Faroes
Papua New Guinea
Spain
France
Portugal
Italy
Greece
Egypt
Aland Islands
Belgium
Switzerland
Newfoundland
French offices in China
Thailand
Malaysia
Indonesia. malaya
Brunei
Tokelau Islands, a strange favorite driven by the fact that I once visited the three atolls that make up what is really a contrived postal service.
Gilbert & Ellice Islands I do have an actual envelope that carried a genuine letter to me from Tarawa.
Nigeria
Mexico mostly Exportas.
Latvia
Estonia
Lithuania
Independent Ukraine
Ethiopia
Germany
German Occupations
Austria
Luxembourg
British Honduras
Liechenstein
Hong Kong
Hungary 1918 to 1940
Saar
French Colonies
Croatia and former Jugoslavia
Add South Africa and the tribal territories as well as the early Dutch and British provinces.
As well as a few other places that escape me at the moment.
I better stop here. I left the USA off because I work with the US almost as a matter of duty. It is fairly complete other than recent years. Just for the record I started playing with stamps when I was four or five years old at the kitchen table behind blackout curtains during WW II, along with my mom and dad.
He was a part time vest pocket dealer and collector.
I learned to soak and sort, set into glassines and eventually mount stamps in the right place with the hinges that were available at the time.
As many others have experienced there was a sort of interlude while I experimented with young girls and college, but resumed with a passion in early 1965.
Many of my recollections are described in other threads here at SoR that can be found by using the search feature.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Was a WW collector until my home burnt down in 2012. lost 90% of my 55 year old collection. Too old to start over. Have narrowed my collection field to the following in order of favorites.
1. Great Britain & Isles
2. Canada
3. US ( my largest but 3rd only because of modern crappy stamp designs)
4. Australia
5. New Zealand
6. Hong Kong (British)
7. Br. Virgin Islands
8. St. Lucia
9. Jamaica
10.Bahamas
11.Bermuda
12.Ireland
13.All other Br. Caribbean
Why 13? my lucky number.
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I have my own doubts about the list being representative of the American collecting market. I don't see how China can land the number two spot on the list. I do think it's possible if the list is including stamp sales in Asia, where collecting China stamps is a hot investment right now. But your average American collector isn't probably collecting China enough to make it number two. I also doubt India showing up in the top 10 list. I don't think a lot of American collectors are that keen on it. Now if the list is including Indian collectors from India, then I can see that. I know for a fact there are lots of collectors of China and India stamps, but not so much in the U.S.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
03 Jul 2018
01:46:55pm
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
It is silly to take any of the top ten countries lists
offered by members since such an evaluation is so personal.
Why the article chose thing like " ...investment value,
mint versus used ...." and what ever else as indicators
is a mystery.
"Most collected" is not the same as "Favorite"
as one may apply to enjoyment and someone may enjoy accumulating
a common inexpensive area, or one where all remaining missing issues
are too expensive but just looking for an item brings great pleasure.
Most collected could mean the countries where the collector
has the most individual stamps, or the countries most often put up
and successfully sold.
There is also a major difference between what a collector feels is
most popular among his contacts and what he, or she,
is most willing to spend money on.
Too many variables to take our top ten lists seriously.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Mine would be
1. Hong Kong prior to 1997 handover
1a. British Treaty Ports in China and Japan
1b. any non-HK cancel on a HK stamp
2. Foreign Post Offices in China
3. Mauritius
4. Macau
5. Indian Mail to China
6. Maritime Mail
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I guess mine would be:
USA, (pre 1994)
Australia, (pre-decimal)
Papua, (British, German, Territory Of)
Great Britain, (pre-QE)
Germany, 1868 to Federal Republic
Papua New Guinea
Australia Kangaroo stamps on covers.
Presidential Inauguration Day Covers
A lot of odds and ends that make happy
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Good to see Thailand makes a few of the lists including the first seeing that so much of the older Thai material for various reasons has been repatriated. It's always worth remembering that higher value stamps of foreign (that is not your own) countries were more likely to be used in overseas postage rather than internally in their own country. (OK that may not be totally accurate, but certainly easier to find used at a reasonable price outside of their country of origin.)
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
My favourites at present are:
1. Crete & Foreign Post Offices / Administrations
2. Ottoman Turkey & Foreign Post Offices
3. Norway
4. Denmark
5. Germany
6. Bulgaria
7. Orange Free State
8. Egypt
9. Hungary
10. Finland
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Not much mention of either but it seems Portugal is more popular than Spain, at least in this discussion.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Art postage stamps from:
USA
France
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
This is an interesting discussion. It just goes to show that one of the things that makes the hobby so great is the diversity of our collective interests. So to add to the discussion I thought I'd offer Stamporama's top ten countries taken from what members have won in the Auction. This count is taken on what people have bought not what sellers have offered for sale.
1. United States - 1946 to 2000
2. Germany
3. Great Britain
4. Canada
5. France
6. Algeria
7. Sweden
8. United States - 1901 to 1945
9. Austria
10. Australia
With a second best 10 countries:
11. Italy
12. Switzerland
13. Iceland
14. United States - Back of the Book
15. Belgium
16. Germany - Democratic Replublic
17. Germany - Berlin
18. Japan
19. Ireland
20. Russia
Another thing that I found interesting is that members have bought stamps from 475 countries in the Auctions. These statistics are only from when I implemented the "Countries" enhancement in the Auction. I can't remember how long ago that was.
Regards ... Tim.
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BuckaCover.com - 80,000 covers priced 60c to $1.50 - Easy browsing 500 categories
24 Mar 2020
05:27:57pm
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
"I can't remember how long ago that was."
Easy enough to check:
SELECT min(start date) FROM Auction Lots WHERE country IS NOT NULL
(Field names changed for security)
Answer is:
2016-04-27
Nearly 4 years.
Roy
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Thanks Roy. Boy has that time gone quickly.
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06:53:09pm
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I find it very amusing how people are saying the most collected stamps are either USA or Great Britain. China, with a population of 1.4 billion souls, many of whom are collectors and they do not have access to eBay, Stanley Gibbons, Mystic, et al must be the number 1 most collected country in the world.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
"I can only assume that this list is representative of the US market area"
I definitely will not fit on that list. However it will be a surprise if the list , in fact, is representative of most collectors.
My interests are more like this:
1. Middle East - Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria etc.
2. South / Central America - recent Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador etc.
3. Africa - Swaziland, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, French Africa etc.
4. Caribbeans - BVI, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad etc.
5. Oceania - PNG, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu etc.(except Australia)
6. Asia - recent Nepal, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Japan etc.
7. Eastern Europe - recent Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia, Croatia, Macedonia etc.
8. Scandinavia - Sweden, Norway, Finland etc.
Holly smokes! Isn't my list just the opposite of what they published in that magazine.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I was I was young living in Germany I started a worldwide collection but the collection got lost in the move back to the US. When I restarted again, I focused solely on US. After not wanting to pay $$$ for older US, I decided to collect outside US
I now collect British Commonwealth.
Major Holdings (not meaning worth)
1. US
2. Great Britain especially Machins
3. Canada
4 to ?. British Commonwealth into early Independence. For some reason, British Africa has some special interest.
Since I put all stamps in mounts, I have a nice investment in mounts too.
For more specialization, it has been US tagging and Machins.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
25 Mar 2020
07:02:28am
re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
" .... I have a nice investment in mounts too. ...."
I suspect that many have spent more, or almost more,
on mounts and gum than stamps.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
".... I have a nice investment in mounts too. ...."
I tend to buy collections which I then sell of piece by piece. However I keep all the mounts since about 90% are still usable
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I collect all stamps (postal and fiscal) from all years from:
1. USA
2. Panama
I collect through 1940 or for British areas, through the reign of KGVI
3. Canada
4. Australia
5. Spain
6. Mexico
7 France
8. Italy
9. India
10. Great Britain
I also more loosely collect stamps of the British Colonies/Territories/Etc. through the reign of KGVI of which the above (Canada, Australia, India, Great Britain) are of greatest interest.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
auldstampguy: That list, too is only good insofar as it reflects the number of stamps listed for sale from each country. My searches for particular countries often turn up from 0-4 listings. And, though they may not be top-10 countries, they're not oddball and obscure areas either. For example, Argentina, as I write this, has only 1 listing, Costa Rica - 1, Lithuania - 1, Ukraine - 4.
Algeria is at #6 because it consistently has 100s of listings (thank you foudutimbre) from which I myself have purchased hundreds.
Other than for Algeria, nobody is listing what I want to buy.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
Hi Ted(youpiao),
I looked at those statistics a little differently. I saw them as from all the stamps that are listed in the Stamporama Auctions, these were the stamps that members chose to buy. I agree that if the stamps aren't listed buyers can't buy them and hence their not included in the statistics. But this was just our own little snapshot of what we have collectively bought in the Auction from 2016(thanks Roy) to now.
Regards ... Tim.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
I understand, Tim, and I hope I didn’t come across as argumentative, because I certainly don’t have any arguments with anything anyone has said. I appreciate everyone’s input in the discussion.
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re: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BEING COLLECTED
It will be extremely difficult to get any meaningful information about what we collect by looking at sales figures by country. The stamps year of issue, quality, topic, relative scarcity and price will be critical in whether a stamp sells or not.
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