How many members started as stamp collectors?

barbershopper · October 20, 2008 9:27AM

This may only be of interest to the senior members but I've always wondered.

I heard of a Stamp & Coin club in a neighboring town in 1954.
I drove there for their next meeting and joined. There were about a dozen members.
I was only the third coin collector. The rest, of course, were stamp collectors, commonly known
as Philatelists.
Within a year after I joined, you couldn't see a stamp anywhere at a meeting.
For some reason, everyone had switched to coins.
I've never understood why this conversion happened.
Maybe you can shed a little light on this subject if you or someone you know
made this switch, either back in the '50s or later.
Thanks for your time.
JET

coincollector1989 · October 20, 2008 9:32AM

I started stamps after I started coins. Come to think of it I have started post cards as well. Coins are still number 1 in my collecting adventure.

GrumpyEd · October 20, 2008 9:36AM

In the 60s stamps must have been more popular than now, the market nearby sold stamp books and bags of old stamps. I remember getting bags of stamps and looking for interesting ones and putting them in the book. I don't remember what became of the stamps, I started looking for wheat cents and forgot the stamps.

Bustman · October 20, 2008 10:24AM

I grew up collecting stamps in the 70's.
Converted to coins in the 90's

Swampboy · October 20, 2008 10:29AM

Stamps big time in 6th grade. Got an album for Christmas.
I can see it right here on my bookshelf. By the time I got to seventh and had a paper route it was all coins.
For years my Aunt who worked for an international law firm in Manhattan would clip the stamps off envelopes and mail them to me.
I've still got them all.

lasvegasteddy · October 20, 2008 10:33AM

i always thought the engraving was amazing but never collected them as coins were cool

OnlyGoldIsMoney · October 20, 2008 10:52AM

I collected coins from ages 8 to 11. Then I switched to US stamps from 12 to 16 years old. Back to coins at 17 and ever since.

ziggy29 · October 20, 2008 11:03AM

I started out collecting both equally around age 7 or 8. I was mostly done with stamps on a hard-core basis by the time I was 12 or so. I still am a casual collector of stamps now and then, but not all that much. And not with the bigger bucks I've thrown at coins. I don't think I've ever paid more than about $30 for a stamp.

NHSBaseball · October 20, 2008 11:03AM

I started as a coin collector, then got this huge stamp album for the Bicentennial when I was 8. I used to send away for those bags of stamps, too- maybe from the back of "Boy's Life" or comic books. I was pretty into it for about a year, but it never really took the place of coins for me.

After I had gone off to college my stepmother put a bunch of my books, yearbooks, and the stamp album out in our storage shed. This being Louisiana, by the time I found where they were a couple of years later the books and school yearbooks were all mildewed and the stamps had "glued" themselves to the pages.

DoubleEagle59 · October 20, 2008 11:07AM

Started coins and stamps together about age 6.

Stamp was big in the 60's and has experienced a steady decline ever since.

About 10 years ago I attended a stamp auction for the first time in a long while and I swear the average age in that place was about 70!!

Unfortunately, stamp collecting is a dying hobby.

Russ · October 20, 2008 11:20AM

Russ, NCNE

fcloud · October 20, 2008 11:22AM

Wow, Russ a whole case of L&M?

OneCent · October 20, 2008 11:40AM

I collected stamps for about two years. My uncle who was in the Phillipines during WWII was an avid stamp collector that had albums and albums of them. Always found the Morgan Dollars that he occasionally gave me more appealing then the stamps though.

There was this one stamp that I thought was way cool...I think that it was an airmail with a Zeppelin on it.

RYK · October 20, 2008 11:46AM

I did

COALPORTER · October 20, 2008 12:12PM

I collected stamps and coins on an equal basis from age 6 to 12,
but i always thought coins were more interesting and important. Visiting the Gold Rush areas of California on many occasions formed my desire to collect coins from that era. Even at that age, l knew my coins were junk, and good coins were way too expensive, so I switched to baseball cards for about 6 years. I knew I'd have to wait several decades to really get going, but I never lost the desire to obtain the great coins I read about in Coins Magazine or saw at the San Francisco Mint. (come to think of it, has anyone ever been on a tour of a stamp "mint" ?- I'm not sure where they even make stamps.

mozin · October 20, 2008 12:33PM

I started collecting pennies when I was five. Kept at it until around twelve, then moved to the prettier stamps, where I could order stamps for not too much money. Coins were not accessible to me by mail order. Around age 15 I discovered much more interesting things --- GIRLS!

Looking back, spending any money on stamps was a total waste of time and money.

pennyannie · October 20, 2008 12:38PM

I had a boring childhood, school, chores, chores and more chores. The quarter i got every week went to the local candy store. I got into coins 7 or 8 years ago and started buying stamps a few months ago. I bought part of 2 HUGE collections and bought the stamps and book at face value for the stamps. Some go back into the late 1800's. Someone probably had a lot of money in those stamps. I bought about 10 books and folders for less than 100 dollars. If another deal like that comes around i will buy some more. If not i have enough to satisfy me.

garsmith · October 20, 2008 12:39PM

I collected stamps along with my father from 1970 to 1985 kind of lost interest after he died.

Than I collected casino dollars from 1986 until 1998.

And started collecting coins in 1999.

Millertime · October 20, 2008 12:43PM

I'm guilty. I have about 13 albums, thousand and thousands of world stamps, a couple hundred gold stamps and a bunch of others stuff that I've probably forgotten. My first collectible purchase was $15 for a couple of partial albums and a bunch of world stamps when I was in 4th or 5th grade from a classmate who was selling her grandfather's old collection. One of my best friends also collected stamps so we did a lot of trading in elementary school. Damn I was a geek.

Millertime

ziggy29 · October 20, 2008 12:46PM

<< <i>Wow, Russ a whole case of L&M? >>

I don't think he found much accented hair in that stamp album.

pitboss · October 20, 2008 1:21PM

My mother got me started in stamps in the late 40's but switched to coins in the 50's and never looked back.

ProofArtworkonCircs · October 20, 2008 1:30PM

As a child I collected both but could afford neither. An old lady at church gave me her stamps (1902-1903 vintage commemoratives) and gave her coins to my nephew. (He was 1 year younger and is now deceased these past 4 years). Early on coins were my favorite.

The last straw was when the local stamp club gave me a free membership when I was in high school. I hate free memberships that come with no benefits whatsoever. I have not been speaking to my university alumni association these past 51 years. They also gave me a free 1 year membership. The very next time I heard from them was a dues notice 1 year later.

How many members started as stamp collectors?

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