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Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Kids Caught Daddy’s New Bug…
…and would you believe it’s stamp collecting?!
Hubby wanted a hobby. Turned out he just had to rediscover something that brought him joy when he was a kid.
We inherited a huge stamp collection from my husbands grandparents which apparently includes some stamps from his great grandparents as well. We haven't even begun to look at it yet due to the holidays. (We got it shortly before Thanksgiving.)
Does your husband have any recommendations for resources for new stamp collectors and ways to store the stamps? (Ours are in a large box at the moment.)
Hubby's response: There are different ways to store stamps, depending on how valuable they are, and how you want to display them. I would say first sort through what you have, grouping stamps by country and by face value, and by unused/used. Then decide whether you want to put any of the groups into an album, if they're nice enough, or complete enough, of if you like them enough. You might like to set limits to your collection by country, by year (my collection is US only, and stops at 1989, for instance), or by subject.
There are a lot of stamp albums out there, but I think it's best to start small (cheap). You could just 3-hole punch some graph paper, and buy a set of hinges (for used stamps), arrange them on the pages you like, and put them in a binder.
The Linn's website is a good one to explore, if you want to know more about the ins and outs of stamp collecting. For equipment, I would say you don't need much more than a pair of tongs, which you can buy for under $10. A magnifier is nice, but not necessary (I bought one last week with a gift card, but I collected stamps for years without one.) Also, perhaps a ruler marked in millimeters, for measuring stamp sizes: this might be important for buying stamp mounts or establishing the identity of a particular stamp.
If there are any stamp dealers in a city near your home, you might check in with them, too. Just don't spend too much money before you know what you have and where you want to go with it.
We inherited a huge stamp collection from my husbands grandparents which apparently includes some stamps from his great grandparents as well. We haven't even begun to look at it yet due to the holidays. (We got it shortly before Thanksgiving.)
ReplyDeleteDoes your husband have any recommendations for resources for new stamp collectors and ways to store the stamps? (Ours are in a large box at the moment.)
Hubby's response:
ReplyDeleteThere are different ways to store stamps, depending on how valuable they are, and how you want to display them. I would say first sort through what you have, grouping stamps by country and by face value, and by unused/used. Then decide whether you want to put any of the groups into an album, if they're nice enough, or complete enough, of if you like them enough. You might like to set limits to your collection by country, by year (my collection is US only, and stops at 1989, for instance), or by subject.
There are a lot of stamp albums out there, but I think it's best to start small (cheap). You could just 3-hole punch some graph paper, and buy a set of hinges (for used stamps), arrange them on the pages you like, and put them in a binder.
For online resources, here are a few starters:
http://www.linns.com/howto/albumselect/albumselecting.aspx
You could also consider a stockbook, but I don't know how much those cost. I've never used one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockbook
http://www.linns.com/howto/stockpage/stockpage.aspx
The Linn's website is a good one to explore, if you want to know more about the ins and outs of stamp collecting. For equipment, I would say you don't need much more than a pair of tongs, which you can buy for under $10. A magnifier is nice, but not necessary (I bought one last week with a gift card, but I collected stamps for years without one.) Also, perhaps a ruler marked in millimeters, for measuring stamp sizes: this might be important for buying stamp mounts or establishing the identity of a particular stamp.
If there are any stamp dealers in a city near your home, you might check in with them, too. Just don't spend too much money before you know what you have and where you want to go with it.
Good luck!