So I took the plunge into stamp collecting! UPDATE: 70s/80s decades completed + 1990-92 comm's

Estil

So I've been a veteran baseball/football/basketball/non-sports card set collector for pretty much all this century and last year I decided to do coin collecting in (mostly) the old fashioned coin roll hunting style. But what kept me away from stamps until now was how confusing it all seemed...it wasn't like sports cards or coins where you can easily identify what year/brand/denomination/etc and collect as big a sequence of years as you could. I am in fact a history and political science major so I am in fact especially drawn to things that are released annually or monthly such as the above as well as World Book/Britannica yearbooks, Kentucky Wildcats media guides and Cats Pause yearbooks, among other things.

So a few days ago I was on YouTube and saw an ad for Mystic Stamps (apparently the stamp world's version of BBCE?) and as it turns out you CAN in fact collect by year and each stamp is sequentially identified by "Scott number" (no not the toilet paper/paper towel brand). Another thing that was holding me back was that I did NOT want to do any of that hinging stuff as it can be hard to get them to stick properly and it can easily damage the stamps seeing as how you have to lick both the short and long part of the hinge...yuck!!

But as it turns out, Mystic has hingeless albums that show a small b/w picture of the stamp and its year/Scott number plus the page on the left gives you info about the stamps that go in the page on the right. I'm definitely not happy about spending $400 just for albums (1967-84, 1985-94) but if you're gonna do something you better do it right, no? And it's kinda appealing that it's sorta like doing a Pianini sticker album from back in the day (NO I'm not gonna actually treat stamps like stickers, I'm not stupid) as well as video games where your game objectives are shown as dimmed b/w symbols that turn color when you complete that task!

So now the next step is to figure out what kind of tongs are best as every stamp collector knows the first commandment is Thou Shalt Not Handle Stamps With Thy Fingers. But how do you know which kind is the best?

So at the moment, I'm not exactly collecting stamps yet, I'm only "preparing" to collect them :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jebnwpvL1E

So once I am financially ready to get started on the stamps proper, what will I start with? Well, seeing as how I was born in 1980 naturally I'm gonna do the 80s/70s Commemorate Decade sets first (yeah some here might think (to paraphrase Mr Garrison from South Park) it's a little boring to do it that way but it's tried and true), then 80s/70s regular decade sets, in that order. I am quite impressed at how affordable the 60s/50s/40s decade sets (my next targets after the above) are even in mint (unused/unhinged) condition! And yes doing mint sets will cost more and means I'll have to progress my collection that much more slowly but they will look a LOT better in the album but you know what they say about slow and steady wins the race. As for the 90s...yeah for those I'll have to do like Johnny Cash and do those one year at a time.

PS: Is there anyway to find out how many US stamps feature cats (man's REAL best friend and my FAVORITE out of all of God's creatures)? Maybe I could also do a separate "side quest" mini collection (in a smaller separate album from my main collection) focusing on those as well.

291fifth

I suggest you purchase a set of Showgard Soligen stamp tongs #s 902, 904 & 909. They are not expensive and should be easy to find.

Go to your local library and see if they have copies of the Scott Stamp Catalogs. They will probably be in the reference section. Look them over carefully before you spend any more money.

Estil

@291fifth said:
I suggest you purchase a set of Showgard Soligen stamp tongs #s 902, 904 & 909. They are not expensive and should be easy to find.

Why these and not any of the others? And why three? Isn't one pair good enough?

bigmountainlion

You can probably buy complete album, plus stamps in mounts below face value.

291fifth

@Estil said:

@291fifth said:
I suggest you purchase a set of Showgard Soligen stamp tongs #s 902, 904 & 909. They are not expensive and should be easy to find.

Why these and not any of the others? And why three? Isn't one pair good enough?

These are the ones I used for my own collection. They served every purpose because the shapes of the tongs differ. I've had them for many years and never needed to worry about having any others. If you start buying collections you will quickly find out what I mean, especially if the stamps are in the album with old fashioned stamp hinges, sometimes piled one on top of the other.

291fifth

@bigmountainlion said:
You can probably buy complete album, plus stamps in mounts below face value.

This especially true for stamps issued between 1960 and 1991. After 1991 many collectors had died or stopped collecting and quantities overhanging the market seem to have shrunk.

Estil

@bigmountainlion said:
You can probably buy complete album, plus stamps in mounts below face value.

For me it's no fun if I don't put the stamps/coins/cards in the album myself.

Estil

@291fifth said:
I suggest you purchase a set of Showgard Soligen stamp tongs #s 902, 904 & 909. They are not expensive and should be easy to find.

Go to your local library and see if they have copies of the Scott Stamp Catalogs. They will probably be in the reference section. Look them over carefully before you spend any more money.

Luckily there's a bunch over at archive.org

291fifth

The current editions of the Scott catalogs are VERY expensive.

Estil

@291fifth said:
The current editions of the Scott catalogs are VERY expensive.

All the more reason I'm glad archive.org has some of the back issues! And maybe if I look hard enough I can download a pdf version or something like I have for vintage video game magazines. If only someone came along and did that for vintage Beckett and Sport magazines...

Gansetttime

Welcome to the hobby! You will find it very relaxing and enjoyable.
Mystic has a sports equal-- Larry Fritsch.
Have had experience with Mystic hingeless binders, I am currently converting a collection that was housed in them to a set of Palo albums. Once empty I will have no need for them.
I use a gold plated Showgard tong, rounded tip. I'd avoid the pointed or slanted tip types. Just my preference.
Plenty of dealers offer stamps from decades more reasonable than Mystic. Mystic tends to sell lower quality stamps for higher than normal prices. If you shop around on e-Bay or Hipstamp you will find many nice stamps at reasonable prices. As you gain experience you'll find dealers, with whom you'll get comfortable with and then will become your regular go to guys.
As for your cat question, check out the American Topical Association:

https://americantopical.org

They have checklists for any topic you can think of.
Good luck!

Estil

@Gansetttime said:
Plenty of dealers offer stamps from decades more reasonable than Mystic. Mystic tends to sell lower quality stamps for higher than normal prices. If you shop around on e-Bay or Hipstamp you will find many nice stamps at reasonable prices.

So you're saying Mystic's mint stamps aren't really mint or something? And what other dealers can I get year and decade sets?

Gansetttime

Mystic's stamps are generally lower grade. Centering is the main issue. You never get to see the actual stamp you're buying. Much like Fritsch for sports cards.
There's a ton of dealers selling sets on e-Bay. With pictures of actual stamps. And cheaper than Mystic.
Just use "year set" or "commemorative year set" in subject line under US stamps.

Estil

@Gansetttime said:
Mystic's stamps are generally lower grade. Centering is the main issue. You never get to see the actual stamp you're buying. Much like Fritsch for sports cards.
There's a ton of dealers selling sets on e-Bay. With pictures of actual stamps. And cheaper than Mystic.
Just use "year set" or "commemorative year set" in subject line under US stamps.

Well are there any other major dealers out there offering year and preferably decade sets?

291fifth

You will probably be better off looking for collections that come up through stamp auctions. The market is flooded with collections that heirs of stamp collectors are selling and many will bring only a very small fraction of catalog value. You may also want to see if there are any stamp clubs active in your area. If there are, join. The old timer members can bring you up to date on the stamp field very quickly and may have material to sell as well. They can also direct you to any local area stamp shows. Those shows often have dealers present who are offering collections. Learn before spending.

The American Philatelic Society website should have a listing of stamp clubs. You may want to join it as well.

Gansetttime

@Estil said:

@Gansetttime said:
Mystic's stamps are generally lower grade. Centering is the main issue. You never get to see the actual stamp you're buying. Much like Fritsch for sports cards.
There's a ton of dealers selling sets on e-Bay. With pictures of actual stamps. And cheaper than Mystic.
Just use "year set" or "commemorative year set" in subject line under US stamps.

Well are there any other major dealers out there offering year and preferably decade sets?

I'd check out Fort Pitt stamps. I've had success with them.

Estil

Okay so at long last I got the 1970s and 1980s commemorative stamps! They were pretty much in near perfect condition and I was always careful to handle them with my round tip tongs...unfortunately I often had to carefully separate the "excess" off one or more sides (or sometimes had to break up a 'setant") so it'd fit in the album (remember I'm using the hingeless albums that have b/w pictures of where to put the stamps which meant I sometimes had no choice but to use my fingers but I did make sure they were clean. All-in-all I think they look real good in the albums and I like how they're set up where you have the stamps on the right side and info about them on the left.

My next target is the 1990s commemorative stamps (that's gonna be quite expensive though in terms of how much the whole decade costs...), then afterwards I'll do 70s/80s/90s regulars.

Estil

@Gansetttime said:
Mystic's stamps are generally lower grade. Centering is the main issue.

Not the ones I got. I got the 70s and 80s complete commemorative decade sets and they were pretty much near flawless.

291fifth

As you move into the 1990's and later you are going to have to decide just how you want to handle the many issues that come in small sheets with multiple issues. Do you want just singles or the whole sheets. If you want the whole sheets you should probably make your own hingeless pages. Get some quadrille sheets of the album type you are using and use india ink to define spaces for the various issues (some collectors also use their computers to make such pages). Showgard mounts come in many sizes so try and buy sizes that match the sheets.

Your next challenge will be to determine how you want handle the self-stick issues once you reach the point where those begin. Since 2002 most US stamps have been self-stick. There were a few issues earlier than that.

Estil

@291fifth said:
As you move into the 1990's and later you are going to have to decide just how you want to handle the many issues that come in small sheets with multiple issues. Do you want just singles or the whole sheets. If you want the whole sheets you should probable make your own hingeless pages. Get some quadrille sheets of the album type you are using and use india ink to define spaces for the various issues (some collectors also use their computers to make such pages). Showgard mounts come in many sizes so try and buy sizes that match the sheets.

Your next challenge will be to determine how you want handle the self-stick issues once you reach the point where those begin. Since 2002 most use stamps have been self-stick. There were a few issues earlier than that.

Actually after I finish 70s/80s/90s I'll next do 40s/50s/60s as it's amazing how surprisingly affordable they are! If only baseball cards from that era were that affordable! But yeah I reckon at some point I'll want to do the 2000s decade...how DO I in fact handle the self-stick issues?

291fifth

Because there are so many issues during the self-stick era you may have to become selective on which issues actually appeal to you and which you don't really care about. If you collect the full sheets just the cost of the stamps face value will be substantial. This is especially true since the start of the Forever stamps (April, 2007). Each first class Forever stamp now has a face value of 66 cents.

pruebas

Does anyone know how the modern self-stick stamps hold up over time? I hate to use the word archival, but do they deteriorate over time?

The reason I ask is my 1975 self-stick Christmas stamps (I believe the first US self-stickers) are all “foxed” (as book dealers call it—brown spotted) and generally look awful.

I’m wondering if modern self-stick stamps will look this way after 50 years? And if so, maybe it’s better to just stick them directly to the album pages!

JBK

The 1975 ones are in a different category - the adhesive was not very stable. I am not 100% sure what will happen with modern self-adhesive stamps, but if kept stored in a moderate environment I would expect much better results than with the 1975 issue.

Estil

@291fifth said:
Because there are so many issues during the self-stick era you may have to become selective on which issues actually appeal to you and which you don't really care about. If you collect the full sheets just the cost of the stamps face value will be substantial. This is especially true since the start of the Forever stamps (April, 2007). Each first class Forever stamp now has a face value of 66 cents.

Well like I said, that's thinking REALLY far ahead. You know maybe the cost of those hingeless albums isn't all that bad...I mean for $200 how many boxes of baseball card sheets/binders will that get you? And each of those can only hold ONE year (well most 80s/early 90s sets anyway)!

JoeMama

thanks for sharing, I start off a few years back with coins,I now have over $10,000 in graded coins,tip I was able to buy pcgs coins as low as $3 a few days before christmas, I'm a artist and do love stamps little works of Art, however, when I'm long gone are my kids going to know what a Z-grill stamp is? I try to keep the receipts, yes a lot to learn.......please don't laugh, I alway knew that there was a market for marbles, and can be profitable.....but Oh Brother that is a lot to learn also

Estil

Well at long last I was finally able to make an addition to my collection (early Christmas present for myself...which sadly is the only way I'll get any presents aside from lottery tickets from my grandma) and I now have two full decades completed (70s/80s)...regular/definites and commemoratives! I should probably do 60s/50s/40s before I move on to the 90s, right? I'm quite surprised how affordable the 60s/50s/40s are!

Gansetttime

I'd go with the 40s-60s. I really enjoy the designs from this period.

Estil

@Gansetttime said:
I'd go with the 40s-60s. I really enjoy the designs from this period.

Like I said I'm very pleasantly surprised how affordable those are! But I'm gonna be tapped out for quite sometime sadly.

291fifth

Make sure you pay very little for the 1940s-1960s issues. They are very common. Buying collections is probably the way to go.

Estil

@291fifth said:
Make sure you pay very little for the 1940s-1960s issues. They are very common. Buying collections is probably the way to go.

Like I said, and this is true for cards and coins as well, it's no fun for me unless I put them in the album myself. If only baseball cards from that era was anywhere near that affordable!!

Overdate

I collect modern self-stick stamps as First Day Covers. Most have attractive cachets and I don't need to deal with the adhesive on the back of the stamps.

Estil

@291fifth said:
Make sure you pay very little for the 1940s-1960s issues. They are very common. Buying collections is probably the way to go.

How is it that they ARE "very common" even in mint/mostly flawless condition? Where there a lot of stamp dealers/collectors who knew how to be very careful with condition? As opposed to baseball cards when condition/protecting them wasn't all that common until what, late 70s at the earliest?

Estil

@JoeMama said:
please don't laugh, I alway knew that there was a market for marbles, and can be profitable.....but Oh Brother that is a lot to learn also

Oh I'd NEVER laugh at that! Happy 35th anniversary to the Kentucky Headhunters' most famous song/video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTBWiUkR69w

291fifth

@Estil said:

@291fifth said:
Make sure you pay very little for the 1940s-1960s issues. They are very common. Buying collections is probably the way to go.

How is it that they ARE "very common" even in mint/mostly flawless condition? Where there a lot of stamp dealers/collectors who knew how to be very careful with condition? As opposed to baseball cards when condition/protecting them wasn't all that common until what, late 70s at the earliest?

Stamp collecting was a very popular hobby during those years. Many, many full mint sheets were saved.

Estil

@291fifth said:

@Estil said:

@291fifth said:
Make sure you pay very little for the 1940s-1960s issues. They are very common. Buying collections is probably the way to go.

How is it that they ARE "very common" even in mint/mostly flawless condition? Where there a lot of stamp dealers/collectors who knew how to be very careful with condition? As opposed to baseball cards when condition/protecting them wasn't all that common until what, late 70s at the earliest?

Stamp collecting was a very popular hobby during those years. Many, many full mint sheets were saved.

If only people thought at the time to do the same with baseball cards!

Gansetttime

@Estil said:

@291fifth said:

@Estil said:

@291fifth said:
Make sure you pay very little for the 1940s-1960s issues. They are very common. Buying collections is probably the way to go.

How is it that they ARE "very common" even in mint/mostly flawless condition? Where there a lot of stamp dealers/collectors who knew how to be very careful with condition? As opposed to baseball cards when condition/protecting them wasn't all that common until what, late 70s at the earliest?

Stamp collecting was a very popular hobby during those years. Many, many full mint sheets were saved.

If only people thought at the time to do the same with baseball cards!

Stamp collecting then was far more popular than collecting baseball cards. Kids collected cards, everyone collected stamps.
Print runs were crazy high also.

291fifth

Another factor as to why stamps of the 1940s-1960s are so common:

The number of stamp dealers. Most large cities had dozens, or in the case of New York, hundreds of stamp dealers active. Some of these dealers would buy full pads of mint stamp sheets.

Today it is difficult to even find more than a few stamp dealers with stores in large cities.

Estil

@291fifth said:
Another factor as to why stamps of the 1940s-1960s are so common:

The number of stamp dealers. Most large cities had dozens, or in the case of New York, hundreds of stamp dealers active. Some of these dealers would buy full pads of mint stamp sheets.

Today it is difficult to even find more than a few stamp dealers with stores in large cities.

Still you can't count on it being like this forever so it'd be very wise of me to get the stamps I want (40-60s, 90s) while I can! BTW, if anyone here feels like giving little ol' me any gift certificates from mysticstamps.com as a Christmas present I'd appreciate that very much!

Estil

At long last I now got the early 90s (1990-92) commemoratives! See my childhood years are 1985-92 (K-5th grade; 5-12 years old) so naturally I'm nostalgically drawn towards that decade next...I even remember a few of the stamps my grandma used when she used to send me letters/$5 every other week or so! Next stops will be the regular/definite 1990-92's and 60s/50s/40s (though that will require an extra album...as well as if I want to go past 1994).

originalisbest

@Estil said:

@291fifth said:

@Estil said:

@291fifth said:
Make sure you pay very little for the 1940s-1960s issues. They are very common. Buying collections is probably the way to go.

How is it that they ARE "very common" even in mint/mostly flawless condition? Where there a lot of stamp dealers/collectors who knew how to be very careful with condition? As opposed to baseball cards when condition/protecting them wasn't all that common until what, late 70s at the earliest?

Stamp collecting was a very popular hobby during those years. Many, many full mint sheets were saved.

If only people thought at the time to do the same with baseball cards!

Had they, the cards would be much more commonly available than now, and not as expensive.

BigDotDon

@Estil saw you are a Wildcat's fan... I picked a random poster from a collection I picked up at a garage sale in Louisville. I think this is circa 97-98...

Estil

@BigDotDon said:
@Estil saw you are a Wildcat's fan... I picked a random poster from a collection I picked up at a garage sale in Louisville. I think this is circa 97-98...

Very nice!