Comparative Costs

Despite the unpopularity of its first commemorative set, the Columbian Exposition issue of 1893, the United States Post Office commemorated the 1898 Trans Mississippi Exposition with their own set of commemorative stamps in 1898.(And Expositions, which were precursors of World Fairs, were very popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, happening every few…

Perhaps the greatest change in our hobby in the last 80 years has been in the quality of the product that we collect. Stamps have gone from miniature pieces of art that reflect the skill and technological prowess of the nation that issued them to being little more than a chit indicating payment of postage,…

There are four basic tools that philatelists use- watermark trays, magnifying glasses, perforation gauges and stamp tongs. Stamp tongs began to be used by the second generation of philatelists, about 1860. These early collectors, being second generation, saw that collectors who had just used their hands to handle stamps had damaged a great number of…

It is a love of stamps that takes the collecting impulse that is found in many of us and transforms the person into an ardent philatelist. The collector reads all he can about the hobby and, in the typical trajectory, goes from a more general type of collecting to specializing. The philatelic experience involves searching (dealers stocks,…

Hoarding is not yet a certified psychological condition though its symptoms are well known and follow consistent patterns. Like most psychological orientations, hoarding exists along a spectrum, from someone who simply likes to save things to a person who is unable to get rid of anything. Most philatelists tend to be in the lower range…

Linn’s is reporting this week that a collector in Sweden bought a cheap world wide collection at an auction and there was a rare syllabic character (plate number) on a 6 sen 1875 Cherry Blossom issue-rare to the tune of being worth perhaps $200,000 on a stamp that is otherwise only a few dollars. This…