Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
01:57:09pm
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
No argument there. I too like older engraved issues. You might check out Austria from the 40s and 50s; they issued many very finely engraved items, both regular and semi postal. For some reason the engraving lovers seem to overlook them often.
Login to Like
this post
11:27:11pm
" .... but why don't we all just start collecting stamps that make
us feel good? ...."
Is that a trick question ?
That is exactly what I and several (many ?) others have been saying
when we remind collectors who sometimes appear to be mired in formal
strictures; "It's your hobby, collect what you enjoy." I bet if
someone did a thorough search of this topic alone they could find
those words or similar words in twenty or more comments.
Sure it can be nice to fill in the last open box on a printed album
page, but it is not required to "feel good." And it was only the
last week or two when someone wondered where he, or she, should but
some apparent shade variety since the album had no official box
printed on it. The answer was to add the color variety in a nearby
space or even slip the hinge under the initial stamp halfway. It is
your album and your hobby. As Mark Twain wrote in his famous book
about young Tom Sawyer; "Work is what you have to do."
A hobby is what you want to do and thus should never be allowed to
take on the trappings of work.
If you find a reverse inverted watermarked Wilding with two graphite
lines and feel like it is important, put the hinge on the face and
mount the stamp where it provides the most satisfaction. Just don't
tell the Queen the hunge is stuck to her chin.
Good luck and may all your problems be as easy to solve.
Charlie
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
I find the two color engraved issues attractive such as the KGVI and similar QEII pictorials.
But note for some, just filling spaces in an album and the sense of completion makes them feel good.
Login to Like
this post
For years (decades) my wife tolerated my collecting hobby. I too, collect what I like and can afford. When I discovered the engraved stamps of Czeslaw Slania she was especially impressed, and has started collecting his work! It is remarkable stuff. I printed album pages and taught her the basics of the hobby. She got a selection of Slania stamps for Christmas (from Nordfrim). The question is, should I tell her about Martin Morck?
Geoff
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Harvey, all good ideas you have. Surprised it took you so long to add a copy of those Angola bird and animal issues (I am still missing a few birds by the way).
I do pretty much what you have decided doing - putting more emphasis on older issues that I find attractive. However I have no cut off date and I am not really into collecting the really old and really expensive stamps.
I just do not have the hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn into stamps that will be sitting in an album.
So those stamps I consider out of reach and uncollectible. I like issues that have print volumes of 100,000 to 2,000,000 that can be found in postally used condition.
I would generally not spend more than $3 per stamp, and this would be for only some high value fauna or hunting and fishing license stamps with excellent artwork.
Kings, queens and presidents from the 18th century, I can easily live without.
Login to Like
this post
"Work is what you have to do."
A hobby is what you want to do and thus should never be allowed to
take on the trappings of work
This ^
I never work on my stamps I play with them
Login to Like
this post
I like nicely engraved stamps. If they have scrollwork, even better.
Login to Like
this post
When I realized that I didn’t like many stamps that I was looking for to complete album pages, I stopped buying any stamps that I didn’t like, unless I had some sort of personal interest in or knowledge of their topic or reason for existence. Not long after that I discovered the fascinating world of postal history collecting, and I buy covers in the same way that I buy stamps. As a result, It’s a rare week that I don’t add another treasure to my collection, and it’s a rare year or country that isn’t represented in my collection.
Bob
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Like your posting A LOT, Bob.
I too, have enthusiastically made the leap into postal history. If I'm going to collect 'a stamp', it needs to show some evidence of its provenance in the markings that have been applied to it in use. My touchstones tend to be the scholarly works of people like Robert G. Stone, Victor Engstrom, Ringstrom, and Tester (just to name a few) who provide perspective not only on usages of stamps, but on how they were created. I would encourage anyone who is interested in any area of philately to dive into the work of those who have gone before us for inspiration and direction.
I also admire the work of engravers (e.g., Czeslaw Slania), and I have needed to constrain myself from wandering off into the worlds of banknotes, souvenir cards, and the like.
-Paul
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
A few years ago I started to collect Danish Christmas seals (Julmærke). I used to come across them in batches of Danish stamps but since they did not appear in the catalogue, I ignored them and tried to get rid of them. Until one day I got about 20 or so in a collection and decided to keep them. Every now and then I added one or two stamps and I even managed to find a specialized catalogue with a complete listing of all of them. I was amazed, it turned out there were thousands of them and from that moment my collection really took off. I now have three stockbooks full of them, including quite a few complete sheets which I got from other Stamporama members.
Now I managed to find a small batch containing quite a few of the classics (1904-1951), filling most of the holes on the first two pages of the collection. Very pleased with that!
Jan-Simon
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
When I was a teenager, I still had many relatives living in Denmark, who sent Christmas cards to my family every year, usually adorned with a Danish Christmas seal. I loved the designs and composition of them, and they made some of the earliest entries in my Denmark collection.
More recently, I encountered some troves of Danish Jul postcards, also adorned with seals. Now, I have a virtually complete collection, with many duplicates, spanning 1905-1958. I'm still missing the first year, 1904. Been looking for that one for years. I've also had the opportunity to select on the postcard theme, preferring windmills (my grandfather was a miller in Denmark as a young man in his 20s), architectural themes, and Larsen cartoons. There are seven of my Danish postcards, including my favorites, in this topic:
Christmas Seals
-Paul
Login to Like
this post
I have the 1904 stamp, but still missing a few from the first ten years. I liked the cards. Funny, it was a recent thread on the board that I completely missed.
Login to Like
this post
This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
09 Jan 2022
01:57:09pm
I have been trying to figure out how to expand my collection a little bit. I decided to buy what I like. Sounds obvious, but it's quite simple. I really like older engraved stamps. That's how I decided to collect stamps from The Mozambique Company and Nyassa. Lately I decided there is really no need to stick to countries as a whole. A few weeks ago I bought a couple beautiful bird and animal series from Angola, they weren't even engraved but I really liked them. I will cut off at 1955 so they will fit in my first 3 volumes of Big Blue. Today I discovered some beautiful early stuff from Liberia. I decided not to spend huge amounts on this stuff, but why don't we all just start collecting stamps that make us feel good? Sounds like a plan rather that always having to add new countries. There's excellent stuff from several African countries to get. I'm going to keep it unorganized, so rather than look for stuff I'll just wait until it pops up!!
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
02:54:27pm
re: The types of stamps I like
No argument there. I too like older engraved issues. You might check out Austria from the 40s and 50s; they issued many very finely engraved items, both regular and semi postal. For some reason the engraving lovers seem to overlook them often.
Login to Like
this post
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
09 Jan 2022
11:27:11pm
re: The types of stamps I like
" .... but why don't we all just start collecting stamps that make
us feel good? ...."
Is that a trick question ?
That is exactly what I and several (many ?) others have been saying
when we remind collectors who sometimes appear to be mired in formal
strictures; "It's your hobby, collect what you enjoy." I bet if
someone did a thorough search of this topic alone they could find
those words or similar words in twenty or more comments.
Sure it can be nice to fill in the last open box on a printed album
page, but it is not required to "feel good." And it was only the
last week or two when someone wondered where he, or she, should but
some apparent shade variety since the album had no official box
printed on it. The answer was to add the color variety in a nearby
space or even slip the hinge under the initial stamp halfway. It is
your album and your hobby. As Mark Twain wrote in his famous book
about young Tom Sawyer; "Work is what you have to do."
A hobby is what you want to do and thus should never be allowed to
take on the trappings of work.
If you find a reverse inverted watermarked Wilding with two graphite
lines and feel like it is important, put the hinge on the face and
mount the stamp where it provides the most satisfaction. Just don't
tell the Queen the hunge is stuck to her chin.
Good luck and may all your problems be as easy to solve.
Charlie
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: The types of stamps I like
I find the two color engraved issues attractive such as the KGVI and similar QEII pictorials.
But note for some, just filling spaces in an album and the sense of completion makes them feel good.
Login to Like
this post
12:05:07pm
re: The types of stamps I like
For years (decades) my wife tolerated my collecting hobby. I too, collect what I like and can afford. When I discovered the engraved stamps of Czeslaw Slania she was especially impressed, and has started collecting his work! It is remarkable stuff. I printed album pages and taught her the basics of the hobby. She got a selection of Slania stamps for Christmas (from Nordfrim). The question is, should I tell her about Martin Morck?
Geoff
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: The types of stamps I like
Harvey, all good ideas you have. Surprised it took you so long to add a copy of those Angola bird and animal issues (I am still missing a few birds by the way).
I do pretty much what you have decided doing - putting more emphasis on older issues that I find attractive. However I have no cut off date and I am not really into collecting the really old and really expensive stamps.
I just do not have the hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn into stamps that will be sitting in an album.
So those stamps I consider out of reach and uncollectible. I like issues that have print volumes of 100,000 to 2,000,000 that can be found in postally used condition.
I would generally not spend more than $3 per stamp, and this would be for only some high value fauna or hunting and fishing license stamps with excellent artwork.
Kings, queens and presidents from the 18th century, I can easily live without.
Login to Like
this post
re: The types of stamps I like
"Work is what you have to do."
A hobby is what you want to do and thus should never be allowed to
take on the trappings of work
This ^
I never work on my stamps I play with them
Login to Like
this post
re: The types of stamps I like
I like nicely engraved stamps. If they have scrollwork, even better.
Login to Like
this post
re: The types of stamps I like
When I realized that I didn’t like many stamps that I was looking for to complete album pages, I stopped buying any stamps that I didn’t like, unless I had some sort of personal interest in or knowledge of their topic or reason for existence. Not long after that I discovered the fascinating world of postal history collecting, and I buy covers in the same way that I buy stamps. As a result, It’s a rare week that I don’t add another treasure to my collection, and it’s a rare year or country that isn’t represented in my collection.
Bob
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
12:53:13pm
re: The types of stamps I like
Like your posting A LOT, Bob.
I too, have enthusiastically made the leap into postal history. If I'm going to collect 'a stamp', it needs to show some evidence of its provenance in the markings that have been applied to it in use. My touchstones tend to be the scholarly works of people like Robert G. Stone, Victor Engstrom, Ringstrom, and Tester (just to name a few) who provide perspective not only on usages of stamps, but on how they were created. I would encourage anyone who is interested in any area of philately to dive into the work of those who have gone before us for inspiration and direction.
I also admire the work of engravers (e.g., Czeslaw Slania), and I have needed to constrain myself from wandering off into the worlds of banknotes, souvenir cards, and the like.
-Paul
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Approvals
re: The types of stamps I like
A few years ago I started to collect Danish Christmas seals (Julmærke). I used to come across them in batches of Danish stamps but since they did not appear in the catalogue, I ignored them and tried to get rid of them. Until one day I got about 20 or so in a collection and decided to keep them. Every now and then I added one or two stamps and I even managed to find a specialized catalogue with a complete listing of all of them. I was amazed, it turned out there were thousands of them and from that moment my collection really took off. I now have three stockbooks full of them, including quite a few complete sheets which I got from other Stamporama members.
Now I managed to find a small batch containing quite a few of the classics (1904-1951), filling most of the holes on the first two pages of the collection. Very pleased with that!
Jan-Simon
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
09:11:35am
re: The types of stamps I like
When I was a teenager, I still had many relatives living in Denmark, who sent Christmas cards to my family every year, usually adorned with a Danish Christmas seal. I loved the designs and composition of them, and they made some of the earliest entries in my Denmark collection.
More recently, I encountered some troves of Danish Jul postcards, also adorned with seals. Now, I have a virtually complete collection, with many duplicates, spanning 1905-1958. I'm still missing the first year, 1904. Been looking for that one for years. I've also had the opportunity to select on the postcard theme, preferring windmills (my grandfather was a miller in Denmark as a young man in his 20s), architectural themes, and Larsen cartoons. There are seven of my Danish postcards, including my favorites, in this topic:
Christmas Seals
-Paul
Login to Like
this post
Approvals
re: The types of stamps I like
I have the 1904 stamp, but still missing a few from the first ten years. I liked the cards. Funny, it was a recent thread on the board that I completely missed.
Login to Like
this post