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Stamp Collecting

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Del.Monte
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Stamp Collecting

#1

Post by Del.Monte »

Very much a Cinderella hobby these days and one wonders will it survive at all with the proliferation of self-adhesive stamps and the huge decline in letter writing. We've come a long way from the days where every small boy collected stamps and sent away for approvals advertised in the back of various comics to the Universal Stamp Company in Eastrington, Nr Goole, Yorks
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These approvals consisted of a number of free stamps for the enthusiastic schoolboy together with a booklet of marginally more expensive stamps - costing a few shillings - which could either be purchased or returned.

Anyway, when I collected as a schoolboy back in the 1960s I always hankered after 1st day covers - envelopes with stamps postmarked with the date of first issue - but I never actually owned any. Latterly I inherited my grandfather's quite valuable British Empire collection in two large volumes but long since sold off for a song and it was only today that I finally returned to stamp collecting. Whether it will work out this time, or will I collect as an investment only time will tell, but I am going to restrict myself to just collecting British & Irish 1st day covers.

I made my first purchase this evening - four 1st day covers for a massive €9.11 including p+p - two shown below. I think I will stay away from the more recent stuff which is mass produced for collectors. Anybody else collecting these forgotten gems?

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kadman
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#2

Post by kadman »

I used to collect when I was a school boy. But even then I found it a much too sedate hobby.
I found that girls were a far more interesting thing to be pursuing, and this new hobby had an element of danger attached
that you could never get from stamps.. :lol:
CelticRambler
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#3

Post by CelticRambler »

Del.Monte wrote: Thu Nov 18, 2021 9:45 pm I think I will stay away from the more recent stuff which is mass produced for collectors. Anybody else collecting these forgotten gems?
I graduated from bog-standard collecting whatever crossed my path to making a pilgrimage to the GPO to buy FDCs, and then signing up to receive them automatically ... but eventually I saw the writing on the wall for that, as it was obviously becoming nothing more than a scam.

As the proud owner of a Stanley Gibbons catalogue, I also made a pilgrimage to their HQ in The Strand, London, once, for no reason other than to go there (and buy a set of three penny somethings from the lat 1800s.

Once I opted out of the FDCs, I added nothing to my collection (which I hope is still untouched in my parents' attic) but I had an almost complete collection of every stamp issued by the Republic, alonng with a fair few from the Free State years.

My most valuable stamps were (in keeping with my feline nature :mrgreen: ) from the packaging of Christmas presents sent by my aunt in Australia. For a while, I tried to re-create the same "added value" when sending parcels to young family members overseas, but none of them cared any more about real stamps than they did about a black-and-white barcoded label. :-(

kadman wrote: Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:04 pm I used to collect when I was a school boy. But even then I found it a much too sedate hobby.
I found that girls were a far more interesting thing to be pursuing, and this new hobby had an element of danger attached
that you could never get from stamps.. :lol:
The danger comes with the delayed gratification! I learnt more about the world's geography through my stamp album than any Leaving Cert book ... and was inspired to go looking for adventure in places with really cool stamps! :D
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Del.Monte
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#4

Post by Del.Monte »

CelticRambler wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:45 pm
The danger comes with the delayed gratification! I learnt more about the world's geography through my stamp album than any Leaving Cert book ... and was inspired to go looking for adventure in places with really cool stamps! :D
It's funny what we pick-up unintentionally as it was my grandfather's collection of British Empire stamps that led to my interest in the Empire, my origins etc. Like so many things to do with the British their stamps, coins and banknotes are head and shoulders above the rest - the sheer range and quantity of them is staggering.

Funnily enough stamps have never inspired me to world travel. I've done most of Western Europe (in the traditional American way) with the addition of a month in Spain and a month in France; spent lots of time in the mother country and often wanted to search the deep south of the USA for my maternal grandmother's roots but know that I never will.
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Del.Monte
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#5

Post by Del.Monte »

Bought three more tonight for less than £5 including p+p.
I've no time for the more recent, horribly commercial ones, or ones that have not been through the postal system.

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Del.Monte
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#6

Post by Del.Monte »

Here's a massive and very useful forum for stamp collectors.

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https://www.stampboards.com/index.php

Lots more useful philately sites here:
https://collectireland.com/numismatics/
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#7

Post by Del.Monte »

Tell me they aren't pretty! I bought these two, plus another, this morning for €6.06 including p+p.

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490808
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#8

Post by 490808 »

But How the that "European Conservation Year 1970" work out ;)
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Del.Monte
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#9

Post by Del.Monte »

Latest addition to my collection last night - a massive €6.20 including p+p. Funnily enough when I collected stamps as a pre-teen I could never find or afford the two higher denominations on this FDC!

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Cobham
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#10

Post by Cobham »

I donated large collection of stamps to some charity. I still cannot bin stamps that come in post but save them and a meagre collection these days makes its way to the charity via an intermediary.
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#11

Post by Hairy-Joe »

I think there's some old stamps here somewhere from someone who started collecting years ago. I'm slow to feck them out as I think the "collector" stopped his stamp collecting about 60 years ago.

I must go dig them out
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#12

Post by Del.Monte »

Throw up some pictures if you find them.
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#13

Post by 490808 »

Hairy-Joe wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:10 pm I think there's some old stamps here somewhere from someone who started collecting years ago. I'm slow to feck them out as I think the "collector" stopped his stamp collecting about 60 years ago.

I must go dig them out
I have my fathers stamp set along with my own. He has loads of fancy looking British colonial stamps from around the second world war. Had them checked out by a friend who was Sotherbys stamp director and one of the worlds experts (friend of the family) and he said there was nothing there of any value.
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#14

Post by CelticRambler »

The Continental Op wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:29 pm I have my fathers stamp set along with my own. He has loads of fancy looking British colonial stamps from around the second world war. Had them checked out by a friend who was Sotherbys stamp director and one of the worlds experts (friend of the family) and he said there was nothing there of any value.
"Value" is in the eye of the beholder! I would imagine someone from Sothebys would be looking for that exceptionally rare overprinted penny red with a spelling mistake, or the one stamp in every ten thousand where Britannia only has one eye. But (to cite Del.Monte's St. Patrick series as an example) one or more of them could be quite valuable to someone who was trying to complete a colonial collection from a certain era.

When I stopped collecting First Day Covers, I decided that I would instead try to make up a collection of every stamp issued by the Irish Free State and the Irish Republic. I think there are still a few gaps to be filled, so I'd pay over the odds to get those last specimens.
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#15

Post by 490808 »

CelticRambler wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:28 pm "Value" is in the eye of the beholder! I would imagine someone from Sothebys would be looking for that exceptionally rare overprinted penny red with a spelling mistake, or the one stamp in every ten thousand where Britannia only has one eye. But (to cite Del.Monte's St. Patrick series as an example) one or more of them could be quite valuable to someone who was trying to complete a colonial collection from a certain era.

When I stopped collecting First Day Covers, I decided that I would instead try to make up a collection of every stamp issued by the Irish Free State and the Irish Republic. I think there are still a few gaps to be filled, so I'd pay over the odds to get those last specimens.
Don't think he was looking at massive priced ones. When we moved over to Ireland he gave us a set of all the curent UK stamps that were only worth face value but he did say hang on the them.
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#16

Post by Hairy-Joe »

I'm not interested in their monetary value. When the time comes to get rid of them, if they are not worth a while pile, I'd rather that they went to someone who would appreciate them
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#17

Post by 490808 »

Can I tempt anyone?



These are genuine UK post office stamps.
Last edited by 490808 on Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#18

Post by Del.Monte »

Nothing there - or is it my laptop?
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490808
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#19

Post by 490808 »

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08L83TPCX

Seems those auto generated Amazon links don't work for everyone?

And something else I'd never seen on Amazon before https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/RoyalMa ... 18FC1782DA
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Del.Monte
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#20

Post by Del.Monte »

Thanks - saw them now and wish I hadn't. I absolutely detest items produced for the purpose of being collected. Even the more recent First Day Covers which are mass produced, stamped and franked but never even been through the postal system turn my stomach. Even when it comes to collecting ceramics and suchlike by say Arklow Pottery I'm much happier collecting some obscure survivor from a long defunct hotel than a mass produced dinner service that would have been widely sold.

I'm just odd. :mrgreen:
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CelticRambler
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#21

Post by CelticRambler »

Del.Monte wrote: Sun Dec 12, 2021 1:14 pm I absolutely detest items produced for the purpose of being collected. Even the more recent First Day Covers which are mass produced, stamped and franked but never even been through the postal system turn my stomach. ...

I'm just odd. :mrgreen:
Not at all - that's precisely why I opted out of Zn Post FDC subscription service ... thirty years ago!

Unless I'm odd too ... :?
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#22

Post by Del.Monte »

Just purchased another pretty one this afternoon - a massive £2.45 including p+p. More the envelope than the stamps as I never liked those particular definitives but they are nicely arranged and the postmarks are good.

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Re: Stamp Collecting

#23

Post by CelticRambler »

Del.Monte wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2021 3:01 pm More the envelope than the stamps as I never liked those particular definitives but they are nicely arranged and the postmarks are good.
I loved those definitives. They were among the first that I collected ... And arising from that, it was a real thrill to see the original "sitting dog" in the National Museum several years later (especially as it's so tiny - they had great eyesight, those monks of old!)
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Re: Stamp Collecting

#24

Post by Del.Monte »

Two more tonight from an Irish dealer - €7 including p+p. I'm such a rabid nationalist that I had to have the Fenian rebellion one with the other far inferior one just to keep it company. :D

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Re: Stamp Collecting

#25

Post by CelticRambler »

Well :shock: this was a bit of a Throwback Thursday (even if it arrived on Friday)

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Real stamps! Real lick-to-stick stamps!

But ... really old stamps, as in francs-and-centimes old! :o

Quite the juxtaposition with the replacement LED screen for a tablet contained within the pack.
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