History

The practice of collecting takes its root deep in history. Antique Egyptians were already collecting books in the great library of Alexandria. French King Louis XIV, the king sun enjoyed the French Royal Coin Collection so much that he visited it every day, remarking that he could always find something new to learn.
The Medici family, in Renaissance time, made the first effort to collect art.

Collecting as a hobby

The hobby of collecting consists of acquiring specific object related to a particular interest of the collector. The hobbyist can also acquire those objects as an investment. Collections are often highly organized, very well cataloged, and attractively displayed when displayed to the public of for the interest of the owner. Since collecting depends on the interests of the individual collector, it may deal with almost any subject. The depth and extent of the collection may also vary. Some collectors choose to focus on a specific subtopic within their area of general interest. There are also individuals, who take up collection of coins as their hobby. In both the cases people try to hold on to the identities. Some collections are capable of being completed, at least to the extent of owning one sample of each possible item in the collection. Collectors who specifically try to assemble complete collections in this way are sometimes called “completists”. Upon completing, they may stop collecting, expand the collection to include related items, or begin an entirely new collection.

Collecting postage stamps

Well in fact, you can collect almost everything! It's up to you to decide. But keep in mind that everything has its own price. If you want to collect Fabergé eggs or vases from the Ming dynasty (why not?) then you better have the wallet that comes with the hobby. Not everybody has the money to collect antiques. In the other hand, there are rather inexpensive things that you can collect with very little money. Additionally, you can also collect immaterial things like for instance, collect countries you have visited, or towns you have been.

Among material collections, stamps are probably one of the most rewarding activities. By collecting stamps, you collect not only printed pieces of paper, but you also collect a part of history. The symbolism of the stamp reveals itself through history, for what it represents and for what it was issued for, but it also represents a piece of local history involving the sender and the receiver of the letter it marked. If the stamp is glued to a letter with great historical value, then it should not be removed from it. Both together probably have a much greater value than the two separated.

By collecting stamps, you are not only collecting antiques but you might also want to collect new issues from your local postage administration. You can also decide to collect stamps from all over the world, within a certain category, like animals, vehicles, personalities, etc… The themes are as vast as it is possible to imagine.

When you decide collecting antique stamps, you will expect to come across the one stamp that very few have. A stamp can be unique by its design, by the low number of copies issued, making its number decrease with the passing of time, but also by the unique flaws some stamps might have got when they were printed. The lack of some elements (in the drawing, unperforated stamps) or the error of printing (wrong colors, wrong distances between elements) in a stamp might completely change its value. It was in 1840, in England, that the first postage stamp was issued. In France the first stamp appeared in 1849. At that time, having printing flaws was much more common than it is today.

Where to get stamps?

There was a time, it was much easier: the only way to write something to someone was by sending a letter, with a stamp on it. So you just had to send letters and hope for an answer just to begin your collection! So many people were collecting that it was easy to trade. Still it is estimated that 2 million people in France are collecting stamps. With the venue of internet, habits have changed and people prefer now to send email rather than sending letters by standard mail. There are less postal stamps issued and even though postal services are editing more and more stamps for collection purposes only, I believe it's not the same thing. What was before a genuine object that you could obtained with dedication and patience by exchanging with others or by asking friends to keep the envelops they received, is now a commercial object accessible with the power of money. Internet has also changed favored the access to stamps from many other countries. If you check buying sites like for instance Ebay, you will find a vast range of stamps from all over the world. But be very careful, some are not what they look like and buying through internet can sometimes quite a disappointment.