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General Philatelic/Newcomer Cnr : Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

 

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JohnnyRockets
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26 Jul 2018
09:38:43am
Hi all,

Well, I've been collecting now for 7 months and have accumulated a lot of cool stuff!

I think my interests are narrowed down to:

- Perfins
- Ship Stamps (topical)
- Folklore Stamps (topical)
- Covers (less FDCs and more traditional covers with a slant towards covers from Michigan)
- Miscellaneous - "Weird" items
- Postal Stationery

Now that I write this list, maybe it is not so narrow! Surprise

I suppose "narrowing down" ones collecting interests is (could be?) a lifelong process? LOL! Happy


Thanks,



JR

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michael78651
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26 Jul 2018
10:01:15am
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I'm a worldwide stamp collector. Many years ago I was also a coin collector. I narrowed down my collecting interests by selling my coins and buying stamps! Big Grin

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JohnnyRockets
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26 Jul 2018
10:09:39am
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi Michael,

I also have a tiny, growing (like a weed) interest in coins as well...

...I'm trying to fight it though and focus only on stamps...


It's hard though! LOL!!!


JR

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lemaven
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26 Jul 2018
12:38:50pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

OK, wait until you discover (or rediscover) classic comic books. Then you will be truly f%*%&*d.

As a kid, I started collecting Daredevil, Iron Man, Superman, etc - and had a really comprehensive group. Then I sold a bunch for a coin collection - and in turn sold them for a stamp collection - and the addiction continues...

Stamps got me more interested in history, so I turned to the "Classics Illustrated" comic books, which lead me in turn to the actual books.

I haven't owned a comic book in 40+ years, but when I'm at the mall on those vendor-display days and see them, it does bring back a twig of positive emotion and an urge to buy a few for old times sake...

Dave.

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Pogopossum

26 Jul 2018
05:49:59pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

My only real collection are my stamps, but watch out if I am at a Flea Market or antique store and see some oil company road maps...

Geoff

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TuskenRaider
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26 Jul 2018
05:56:56pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi Everyone;

I also have a couple distractions from my stamps as well. As long as the rest of you are coming out of the closet, here are some of mine.

Books about building wooden model ships in the plank-on-frame style. Old magazines like; "Outdoor Life", "Sports Afield", "Popular Electronics" from the 40s thru the 70s, to name a few. Also like to collect older adventure stories from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s. Also technical and engineering books from the same period.

Just today I got a copy (for $1) of "Never Sniff A Gift Fish" by Patrick F McManus. He was a contributor of humorous short stories to magazines like "Outdoor Life".

Most of these side hobbies, do not take up too much time, but help me out, when stamps get a bit boring.

Someday I'll try my hand at building my own model ship, and maybe use some ideas from all the other books to illuminate and animate that model. In this new online club I just joined, a member built a Egyptian Galley. He used servo-motors and electronics to make all the oars move in unison. He also uploaded a photo build-log showing how he designed and put together this great model.

Still just sortin'....
TuskenRaider

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JohnnyRockets
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26 Jul 2018
06:51:13pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi Dave,

Love Daredevil!

Love comics!

Have to fight not buying them the same way when I see them! LOL!!!


JR

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JohnnyRockets
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26 Jul 2018
06:53:03pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi all,

Love those old Popular Science also!

The covers were just so great, and made a youngster really dream big!


JR

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larsdog
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APS #220693 ATA#57179

26 Jul 2018
07:25:13pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I do stamps and coins, but focus mainly on US.
I have an OFEC (One From Every Country) collection in both coins and stamps, but limited my coin OFEC to a specific point in time.
I switch hobbies when I get stuck on something. Sometimes I will drop stamps and work on coins for a few months and when I get back to stamps that elusive item I was looking for is now available!

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"Expanding your knowledge faster than your collection can save you a few bucks."

www.larsdog.com/stamps
JohnnyRockets
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26 Jul 2018
08:17:00pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi Larsdog,

Do you collect coins (as you said) or paper money also?

I'm thinking about starting to collect paper money!


JR

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BenFranklin1902
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Tom in Exton, PA

26 Jul 2018
08:39:50pm

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re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Don't get me going! Big Grin

Remember. One piece is an item. Two pieces are a pair. Three or more is a collection!

I've been an avid model car collector and builder for the past 30 years. A common thread on one of their websites is "what's the most money you ever spent on a model car?" Mine was $350 on a scarce one. But my usual response is, "Ha! my model cars don't even compare to what I've spent on stamps!"

I have a ton of the old Popular Science magazines. My grandmother's neighbor gave me much of the 1950s back around 1972 when I was a kid. They were only 20 years old then, but I thought they were ancient. Today I probably have shirts that old!

My favorite part was "Ideas From The Inventors" that invited people to write in. My all time favorite one was someone who said he needed a device that would record his favorite TV shows so he wouldn't miss them! The hand drawn illustration had what looked like a movie projector with two large reels on it, with a camera on the front of it, sitting in front of a television! Little did they know!

My other favorite was the plans to build your own used car oil disposal system. You needed a pipe 6 foot long, and then you needed to dig a hole and bury it horizontally, with just the top sticking above the ground. You were to put a cap on this. So when you changed your oil you just pour it into the pipe and create your own oil super fund clean up site! I wonder how many people did this one?

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smauggie
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27 Jul 2018
11:09:04am
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

There are so many things you have yet to discover.

Here is one . . .

Revenue Stamps.

Image Not Found

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canalzonepostalhistory.wordpress.com
StampWrangler
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27 Jul 2018
12:53:26pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Love Revenues!
Love Patrick McManus!

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JohnnyRockets
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27 Jul 2018
02:42:34pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Ooooh!!!

Very cool! Happy

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Bobstamp
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27 Jul 2018
07:58:58pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I cannot "narrow down" my collecting interests. If I say to myself, "Bob, you've got to cut back. You know you're not going to live long enough to 'do anything' with all the stuff you already have," sure as shootin' I'll decide to browse lots on eBay or Delcampe and find something that I just can't live without. It just happened with a complete set of the first Pitcairn Island stamps. I already had a complete used set, then I found a complete MNH set at a good price, and now it's on its way to me! Just what I needed, another set of stamps to put in a stock book, and maybe create an album page for, or a web page, or not....

boB

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BenFranklin1902
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Tom in Exton, PA

28 Jul 2018
08:58:33am

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re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

You cannot logically decide what to collect. You cannot force a passion! It happens all by itself over time.

Collect as many areas as you wish. Enjoy! Soon enough you will find yourself ignoring some of the collections and focusing on one area. That's how it happens!

For me my main focuses are 1.) My USA collection which encompasses singles, multiples, plate blocks and covers. 2.) My New Jersey cover collection and 3.) George Washington Bicentennial.

I tend to focus on each one for a bit and then something for one of the others pops up and I'm on that collection. For instance, I recently finished the album pages for the New Jersey collection. I was going through Hipstamp looking for NJ postmarks and came across a nice group of George Washington Bicentennial covers. That got me looking at that album and I think I'm ready to create pages for it!

I also just purchased the last postage lot that Roy offered on the board. It's all low value 3 and 4 cent commemoratives. So I'll be back focused on my USA collection, adding blocks and such to my pages. It's good to have a few different collections.

That's how it goes!



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angore
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Collector, Moderator

28 Jul 2018
10:36:29am
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Narrowing down is not a necessary goal. Your tastes will likely change over time. Some like the thrill of the hunt and completeness while others like diversity.

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StampWrangler
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28 Jul 2018
04:10:36pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

One of my "one of these days" projects -- type and sort all those George Washingtons -- I put a ton of them in my album at about age 12 -- they can't possibly be right --

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Henpatch
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12 Aug 2018
06:28:59pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Do I call collecting things "Collections" or just a compulsive hoarder.?

Won't bore you with all the things I have collected over my lifetime - we did downsize a few years ago and a FEW things got binned.

I have all sorts of lovely collections (including letters from my dear mum as I moved interstate MANY years ago) My main worry is what will the kids do with them all????

None of them are stamps collectors of course and my problem withe stamps there is always one more for sale that I don't have! ALSO now we are retired we have visted many countries around the world.....so then I have to collect stamps of that country!

At last count - 26 countries - but no, I don't collect World Wide - not planning to vist South America and all her countries, Italy etc. Hubby collected as I did, stamps when a teenager and so combining his and my collection when we married started the stamp collecting.

I am happy hoarded and when I am gone I can't worry at what happens to my collections!)

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StampWrangler
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12 Aug 2018
09:26:21pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

After cleaning out my parents home when they were both gone - stuffed from the attic to the garage with 60 years' worth of useless stuff that was saved (job applications from the 1950's?) - I have taken to dustbinning many items due to just exactly what you are saying - when I am gone, the kids are going to toss it anyway, and I'm just storing it for no one but myself, so OUT it goes.

If I'm not using it, or interested in working on it, and I'm just storing it, I am trying not to be sentimental - though I don't always succeed.

I've not been able to get them interested in stamps Worried, so I keep with my collection the information for them to sell it all, and maybe at least get a few $$ out of it.

Downsizing is in our near future and I will have to get really tough then!

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Mulhall
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Plate Blockhead

31 Aug 2018
09:59:31pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

When I was young, I collected everything. Which was too much. I was spread so thin that I was constantly buying less than optimal items because of finances. But I still had about five nice collections.

The idea was that I'd sell them off when I retired. I'm in the process of doing that and let me tell you, despite my shortcomings as a collector, it worked! I'm made enough selling those collections to postpone taking Social Security for a full year. Which means an 8% raise for the rest of my life. Collecting really paid off for me.

So yes, try to narrow it down. You get a better quality collection that way and you master the knowledge better. But collect what you enjoy.

And to those on the verge of being a hoarder with the thought of passing it on, trust me, your kids don't want your stuff! They don't want that dinning room suite, or the stamp collection, etc. In most cases, all that stuff will be thrown out or sold for pennies on the dollar.

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BenFranklin1902
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Tom in Exton, PA

01 Sep 2018
09:53:46am

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re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

"In most cases, all that stuff will be thrown out or sold for pennies on the dollar. "



Welcome to our herd! Big Grin

A few years ago a friend of mine's wife's mother died and they were cleaning out the house. Her father died 10 years earlier. My friend gave me two large black garbage bags... her father's stamp collection. She had already bagged it when he rescued it for me!

I can only imagine how much stuff gets tossed every day!

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malcolm197

17 Sep 2018
01:34:31am
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I collect all the world, but some "subjects" are more intense than the others. My major collection is postally used GB Machins. Fascinating as these are I can only take so much at a stretch, then I have to go look at something else.


It as not so much boredom as concentration levels. While collecting Machins is satisfying, it is definitely not relaxing, - and light relief is necessary, hence my other interests. The problem is that I easily get sidetracked into intense study of something else, whereupon more light relief is necessary.

Malcolm

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Harvey

I think, therefore I am - I think!

24 Apr 2019
01:30:18pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I'm afraid some of never narrowed our collections. I collect Silver Age Marvel comics, old English Porcelain teapots & platters, Victorian child's plates & mugs, various pottery, several types of glass, oil lamps and stamps. My four bedroom house is full and since I was an antique dealer for 30 years collecting comes naturally. I love stamp collecting but I enjoy my other collectibles. I recently started looking for collectibles from the 1950's to 1970's because it brings back memories from childhood. My advice - if it feels good and you can afford it, buy it! I don't pick up "stuff" as an investment, I pick up "stuff" because it makes me feel good to look at it and play with it. That's the reason anyone should collect anything!

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Greaden

25 Apr 2019
12:45:45am
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Every time I think I have narrowed my collecting areas down, I find some tangent, some quirk in a stamp, that leads me into a whole new collecting area.

If I specialize at all, it is because of the usual limitations on time and money, but the lure of specialization is that if you do manage to focus on one small area in one limited period of time, you can discover some truly rewarding depths.

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Opa
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26 Apr 2019
05:05:18pm
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I had a Comic collection at one time. Some were as old as the late 60´s. I used to buy them , read them and then put them away, I think there were at least 3 banana boxes full. Naturally I stopped buying comics when I got a bit older and forgot about them. Visiting my parents some years back, I helped my father move some junk in the cellar and remembered that under the stairs were my prized comic books. So I went to have a look , with no luck finding them. I asked my mother about the boxes that I put under the stairs. I will never forget what she said. " I sold all the comics at the flee market for €1 a piece, they sold really fast." They thought I didn´t want that kids stuff anymore.

Like my father always says " Money comes, Money goes."

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Harvey

I think, therefore I am - I think!

27 Apr 2019
10:58:01am
re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

About mothers getting rid of stuff. My mother thankfully didn't do that since I made it clear that I didn't want her to. Also, we were poor and I really treasured the things I had and she knew that. But, let me share a story about what happened to a friend. He had a very valuable collection of baseball cards that, for some reason, he left at home. He had great stuff, even a Mickey Mantle rookie card - at least ( by his estimation ) about $100 000 worth of cards in great condition from the 1950's and 1960's. When he went back home about 20 years ago they were gone - thrown out! He was devastated,but I blame him. IF YOU REALLY WANT SOMETHING KEPT DON'T LEAVE IT AT HOME! Anyway, I'm glad my mother listened to me, I still enjoy building on to my comic collection even though stamps are starting to take over! Also, it's no wonder your comics sold well at the flea market!!!

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JohnnyRockets

26 Jul 2018
09:38:43am

Hi all,

Well, I've been collecting now for 7 months and have accumulated a lot of cool stuff!

I think my interests are narrowed down to:

- Perfins
- Ship Stamps (topical)
- Folklore Stamps (topical)
- Covers (less FDCs and more traditional covers with a slant towards covers from Michigan)
- Miscellaneous - "Weird" items
- Postal Stationery

Now that I write this list, maybe it is not so narrow! Surprise

I suppose "narrowing down" ones collecting interests is (could be?) a lifelong process? LOL! Happy


Thanks,



JR

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michael78651

26 Jul 2018
10:01:15am

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I'm a worldwide stamp collector. Many years ago I was also a coin collector. I narrowed down my collecting interests by selling my coins and buying stamps! Big Grin

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JohnnyRockets

26 Jul 2018
10:09:39am

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi Michael,

I also have a tiny, growing (like a weed) interest in coins as well...

...I'm trying to fight it though and focus only on stamps...


It's hard though! LOL!!!


JR

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lemaven

26 Jul 2018
12:38:50pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

OK, wait until you discover (or rediscover) classic comic books. Then you will be truly f%*%&*d.

As a kid, I started collecting Daredevil, Iron Man, Superman, etc - and had a really comprehensive group. Then I sold a bunch for a coin collection - and in turn sold them for a stamp collection - and the addiction continues...

Stamps got me more interested in history, so I turned to the "Classics Illustrated" comic books, which lead me in turn to the actual books.

I haven't owned a comic book in 40+ years, but when I'm at the mall on those vendor-display days and see them, it does bring back a twig of positive emotion and an urge to buy a few for old times sake...

Dave.

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Pogopossum

26 Jul 2018
05:49:59pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

My only real collection are my stamps, but watch out if I am at a Flea Market or antique store and see some oil company road maps...

Geoff

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TuskenRaider

26 Jul 2018
05:56:56pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi Everyone;

I also have a couple distractions from my stamps as well. As long as the rest of you are coming out of the closet, here are some of mine.

Books about building wooden model ships in the plank-on-frame style. Old magazines like; "Outdoor Life", "Sports Afield", "Popular Electronics" from the 40s thru the 70s, to name a few. Also like to collect older adventure stories from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s. Also technical and engineering books from the same period.

Just today I got a copy (for $1) of "Never Sniff A Gift Fish" by Patrick F McManus. He was a contributor of humorous short stories to magazines like "Outdoor Life".

Most of these side hobbies, do not take up too much time, but help me out, when stamps get a bit boring.

Someday I'll try my hand at building my own model ship, and maybe use some ideas from all the other books to illuminate and animate that model. In this new online club I just joined, a member built a Egyptian Galley. He used servo-motors and electronics to make all the oars move in unison. He also uploaded a photo build-log showing how he designed and put together this great model.

Still just sortin'....
TuskenRaider

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JohnnyRockets

26 Jul 2018
06:51:13pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi Dave,

Love Daredevil!

Love comics!

Have to fight not buying them the same way when I see them! LOL!!!


JR

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JohnnyRockets

26 Jul 2018
06:53:03pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi all,

Love those old Popular Science also!

The covers were just so great, and made a youngster really dream big!


JR

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larsdog

APS #220693 ATA#57179
26 Jul 2018
07:25:13pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I do stamps and coins, but focus mainly on US.
I have an OFEC (One From Every Country) collection in both coins and stamps, but limited my coin OFEC to a specific point in time.
I switch hobbies when I get stuck on something. Sometimes I will drop stamps and work on coins for a few months and when I get back to stamps that elusive item I was looking for is now available!

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"Expanding your knowledge faster than your collection can save you a few bucks."

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JohnnyRockets

26 Jul 2018
08:17:00pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Hi Larsdog,

Do you collect coins (as you said) or paper money also?

I'm thinking about starting to collect paper money!


JR

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BenFranklin1902

Tom in Exton, PA
26 Jul 2018
08:39:50pm

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re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Don't get me going! Big Grin

Remember. One piece is an item. Two pieces are a pair. Three or more is a collection!

I've been an avid model car collector and builder for the past 30 years. A common thread on one of their websites is "what's the most money you ever spent on a model car?" Mine was $350 on a scarce one. But my usual response is, "Ha! my model cars don't even compare to what I've spent on stamps!"

I have a ton of the old Popular Science magazines. My grandmother's neighbor gave me much of the 1950s back around 1972 when I was a kid. They were only 20 years old then, but I thought they were ancient. Today I probably have shirts that old!

My favorite part was "Ideas From The Inventors" that invited people to write in. My all time favorite one was someone who said he needed a device that would record his favorite TV shows so he wouldn't miss them! The hand drawn illustration had what looked like a movie projector with two large reels on it, with a camera on the front of it, sitting in front of a television! Little did they know!

My other favorite was the plans to build your own used car oil disposal system. You needed a pipe 6 foot long, and then you needed to dig a hole and bury it horizontally, with just the top sticking above the ground. You were to put a cap on this. So when you changed your oil you just pour it into the pipe and create your own oil super fund clean up site! I wonder how many people did this one?

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smauggie

27 Jul 2018
11:09:04am

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

There are so many things you have yet to discover.

Here is one . . .

Revenue Stamps.

Image Not Found

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StampWrangler

27 Jul 2018
12:53:26pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Love Revenues!
Love Patrick McManus!

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JohnnyRockets

27 Jul 2018
02:42:34pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Ooooh!!!

Very cool! Happy

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Bobstamp

27 Jul 2018
07:58:58pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I cannot "narrow down" my collecting interests. If I say to myself, "Bob, you've got to cut back. You know you're not going to live long enough to 'do anything' with all the stuff you already have," sure as shootin' I'll decide to browse lots on eBay or Delcampe and find something that I just can't live without. It just happened with a complete set of the first Pitcairn Island stamps. I already had a complete used set, then I found a complete MNH set at a good price, and now it's on its way to me! Just what I needed, another set of stamps to put in a stock book, and maybe create an album page for, or a web page, or not....

boB

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BenFranklin1902

Tom in Exton, PA
28 Jul 2018
08:58:33am

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re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

You cannot logically decide what to collect. You cannot force a passion! It happens all by itself over time.

Collect as many areas as you wish. Enjoy! Soon enough you will find yourself ignoring some of the collections and focusing on one area. That's how it happens!

For me my main focuses are 1.) My USA collection which encompasses singles, multiples, plate blocks and covers. 2.) My New Jersey cover collection and 3.) George Washington Bicentennial.

I tend to focus on each one for a bit and then something for one of the others pops up and I'm on that collection. For instance, I recently finished the album pages for the New Jersey collection. I was going through Hipstamp looking for NJ postmarks and came across a nice group of George Washington Bicentennial covers. That got me looking at that album and I think I'm ready to create pages for it!

I also just purchased the last postage lot that Roy offered on the board. It's all low value 3 and 4 cent commemoratives. So I'll be back focused on my USA collection, adding blocks and such to my pages. It's good to have a few different collections.

That's how it goes!



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angore

Collector, Moderator
28 Jul 2018
10:36:29am

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Narrowing down is not a necessary goal. Your tastes will likely change over time. Some like the thrill of the hunt and completeness while others like diversity.

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StampWrangler

28 Jul 2018
04:10:36pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

One of my "one of these days" projects -- type and sort all those George Washingtons -- I put a ton of them in my album at about age 12 -- they can't possibly be right --

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Henpatch

12 Aug 2018
06:28:59pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Do I call collecting things "Collections" or just a compulsive hoarder.?

Won't bore you with all the things I have collected over my lifetime - we did downsize a few years ago and a FEW things got binned.

I have all sorts of lovely collections (including letters from my dear mum as I moved interstate MANY years ago) My main worry is what will the kids do with them all????

None of them are stamps collectors of course and my problem withe stamps there is always one more for sale that I don't have! ALSO now we are retired we have visted many countries around the world.....so then I have to collect stamps of that country!

At last count - 26 countries - but no, I don't collect World Wide - not planning to vist South America and all her countries, Italy etc. Hubby collected as I did, stamps when a teenager and so combining his and my collection when we married started the stamp collecting.

I am happy hoarded and when I am gone I can't worry at what happens to my collections!)

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StampWrangler

12 Aug 2018
09:26:21pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

After cleaning out my parents home when they were both gone - stuffed from the attic to the garage with 60 years' worth of useless stuff that was saved (job applications from the 1950's?) - I have taken to dustbinning many items due to just exactly what you are saying - when I am gone, the kids are going to toss it anyway, and I'm just storing it for no one but myself, so OUT it goes.

If I'm not using it, or interested in working on it, and I'm just storing it, I am trying not to be sentimental - though I don't always succeed.

I've not been able to get them interested in stamps Worried, so I keep with my collection the information for them to sell it all, and maybe at least get a few $$ out of it.

Downsizing is in our near future and I will have to get really tough then!

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Mulhall

Plate Blockhead
31 Aug 2018
09:59:31pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

When I was young, I collected everything. Which was too much. I was spread so thin that I was constantly buying less than optimal items because of finances. But I still had about five nice collections.

The idea was that I'd sell them off when I retired. I'm in the process of doing that and let me tell you, despite my shortcomings as a collector, it worked! I'm made enough selling those collections to postpone taking Social Security for a full year. Which means an 8% raise for the rest of my life. Collecting really paid off for me.

So yes, try to narrow it down. You get a better quality collection that way and you master the knowledge better. But collect what you enjoy.

And to those on the verge of being a hoarder with the thought of passing it on, trust me, your kids don't want your stuff! They don't want that dinning room suite, or the stamp collection, etc. In most cases, all that stuff will be thrown out or sold for pennies on the dollar.

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BenFranklin1902

Tom in Exton, PA
01 Sep 2018
09:53:46am

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re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

"In most cases, all that stuff will be thrown out or sold for pennies on the dollar. "



Welcome to our herd! Big Grin

A few years ago a friend of mine's wife's mother died and they were cleaning out the house. Her father died 10 years earlier. My friend gave me two large black garbage bags... her father's stamp collection. She had already bagged it when he rescued it for me!

I can only imagine how much stuff gets tossed every day!

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malcolm197

17 Sep 2018
01:34:31am

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I collect all the world, but some "subjects" are more intense than the others. My major collection is postally used GB Machins. Fascinating as these are I can only take so much at a stretch, then I have to go look at something else.


It as not so much boredom as concentration levels. While collecting Machins is satisfying, it is definitely not relaxing, - and light relief is necessary, hence my other interests. The problem is that I easily get sidetracked into intense study of something else, whereupon more light relief is necessary.

Malcolm

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Harvey

I think, therefore I am - I think!

24 Apr 2019
01:30:18pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I'm afraid some of never narrowed our collections. I collect Silver Age Marvel comics, old English Porcelain teapots & platters, Victorian child's plates & mugs, various pottery, several types of glass, oil lamps and stamps. My four bedroom house is full and since I was an antique dealer for 30 years collecting comes naturally. I love stamp collecting but I enjoy my other collectibles. I recently started looking for collectibles from the 1950's to 1970's because it brings back memories from childhood. My advice - if it feels good and you can afford it, buy it! I don't pick up "stuff" as an investment, I pick up "stuff" because it makes me feel good to look at it and play with it. That's the reason anyone should collect anything!

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Greaden

25 Apr 2019
12:45:45am

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

Every time I think I have narrowed my collecting areas down, I find some tangent, some quirk in a stamp, that leads me into a whole new collecting area.

If I specialize at all, it is because of the usual limitations on time and money, but the lure of specialization is that if you do manage to focus on one small area in one limited period of time, you can discover some truly rewarding depths.

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Opa

26 Apr 2019
05:05:18pm

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

I had a Comic collection at one time. Some were as old as the late 60´s. I used to buy them , read them and then put them away, I think there were at least 3 banana boxes full. Naturally I stopped buying comics when I got a bit older and forgot about them. Visiting my parents some years back, I helped my father move some junk in the cellar and remembered that under the stairs were my prized comic books. So I went to have a look , with no luck finding them. I asked my mother about the boxes that I put under the stairs. I will never forget what she said. " I sold all the comics at the flee market for €1 a piece, they sold really fast." They thought I didn´t want that kids stuff anymore.

Like my father always says " Money comes, Money goes."

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Harvey

I think, therefore I am - I think!

27 Apr 2019
10:58:01am

re: Newbie - Narrowing down collecting interests - it's a process...

About mothers getting rid of stuff. My mother thankfully didn't do that since I made it clear that I didn't want her to. Also, we were poor and I really treasured the things I had and she knew that. But, let me share a story about what happened to a friend. He had a very valuable collection of baseball cards that, for some reason, he left at home. He had great stuff, even a Mickey Mantle rookie card - at least ( by his estimation ) about $100 000 worth of cards in great condition from the 1950's and 1960's. When he went back home about 20 years ago they were gone - thrown out! He was devastated,but I blame him. IF YOU REALLY WANT SOMETHING KEPT DON'T LEAVE IT AT HOME! Anyway, I'm glad my mother listened to me, I still enjoy building on to my comic collection even though stamps are starting to take over! Also, it's no wonder your comics sold well at the flea market!!!

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