So you’ve decided to collect stamps?
Although often maligned as a hobby and scorned by those who have had to sit through a smartphone’s worth of stamp photos that no one else really finds that extraordinary, stamp collecting can be extraordinarily rewarding. It should be noted however that older stamps are generally more valuable than modern stamps. Practically any stamp issued in the past 40 years drops to half its face value. Stamp collectors are therefore optimists, continually hoping that time will lead to an improvement. Although nothing can prepare you entirely for stamp-collecting, a few considerations will set you on the right path.
One Penny Whoops
Debatably the rarest stamp error in British history, the One Penny Whoops is almost mythical. Serious philatelists attribute its mystique to the extraordinary juxtaposition within the subject of wisdom and mishap. Looking out through the picture, the young boy, himself so obviously immune to the vagaries of slapstick pratfalls and comprehensive face-plants from a standing start, seems to wonder how an oversight such as getting the writing upside down could have been missed at printing.
Acquiring stamps
The most common way of acquiring stamps is considered a little distasteful as a subject for polite conversation. For this reason many stamp collectors indulge in a glass of Pimms or something similarly gentile before going into the fray. There have been suspected instances of stamps being supplied directly by the postman but these are rare if not unfounded.
Proboscis Praesignis
An early example of postage, the Proboscis Praesignis predates contemporary currency by some decades. This exceptional specimen, like its subject, was preserved through a regimen of orange juice and beatings and is believed to depict a potter of international heritage, if local fame, valued equally for his utility-defying utensils as his senatorial schnoz.
The Spurious Parsnip
With rare exceptions stamps issued by self-accredited states are printed at the whim of despots, secretly desperate for inclusion. Though presumably considered delightful by the originator they have little instrinsic value and most serious collectors consider them a novelty at best.
At Least
The saying goes that the camera adds 10 pounds, begging the question in this case: just how many cameras were being used at once? The jobbing artist tasked with producing this bucolic masterpiece confessed herself surprised to find the subject wider than she was high. Undeterred and by nature innovative, the artist, whose name is lost to history, created the world's first landscape large format postage stamp, an acknowleged favourite with laconic postcard writers for its prodigious space-absorbing area.
Equipment
A few basic items of equipment are recommended for proper stamp collection. When you become a stamp collector for the first time, nobody tells you how sticky everything will get. However sure you are of the provenance of your stamps, they are liable to exude strange smells. Stamp tongs are recommended.
It is common practice to photo document a collection of stamps. The benefits of this practice are manifold, not least in providing wall-mountable decoration to cover cheesecake stains. Perhaps first amongst these is that the photos have some advantages over the collection themselves, being more consistently decorative and less subject to get wrinkly over time.
The Pigtail Commemorative
A stamp this adorable could never have been printed by accident, whatever the rumours. The last in a series of interesting, labour-intensive postage stamps, The Pigtail Commemorative was considered too cute to follow and the project was subsequently closed. The subject of the image found the attention difficult to live with and is believed to have emigrated to an undisclosed location.
Caring for your collection
It is an interesting phenomenon that stamp collections are particularly subject to ownership bias – the inclination to overvalue your own collection simply because it yours. This may cause embarrassment if you choose to sell your collection on. What seems like a reasonable price for your collection of misfits is likely to seem highly inflated by your prospective buyers. Even with no reserve price there have been many examples of collectors who thought to pass on their collection to a new home, only to find them stuck as if self-adhesive. As such, stamp collectors tend to collect for life.