Start Stamp Collecting

Why does a collector collect? That’s the real question, and the answer, well; it is something that really cannot be explained.

Collecting is a passion. And collecting, like most passions, has the capacity to let you live in another world for a while. If I could tell you why passion allows us to inhabit another world, I would stop collecting my stamps. I just wouldn’t need to any more. Passion is as inexplicable as magic, and magic is just one of our names for the inexplicable.

Like a child, the collector absorbed by their stamp collection “dreams their way not only into a remote world, but at the same time into a better one.” This means that an object, no matter how individually important, can never be as significant to a collector as one.

The collector alone with their stamp collection can sometimes be a spooky thing to see. They stare at it as if in a trance, transfixed and blissfully absorbed, oblivious to the external world. They have entered the dream world, the “better world” that only their collection can inspire. They think about reconfiguring the collection in some way or other, a way of renewing its magic and enhancing its power.

The stamp collector feels something similar to satisfaction and relief when they obtain something for their collection. The object is then theirs, a part of them and an extension of them. A collection of borrowed objects is impossible, about as ridiculous as renting your friends. You would never do that, so how could you possibly just “borrow” stamps for your collection? Simple. You can’t. A new object in a collection functions like a child’s security blanket or favorite doll. It compensates, as they do, for needs harbored but not met. Perhaps this is why collectors number among the world’s true unique people. What is truly fulfilling for the collector, of course, is finding and obtaining a rare stamp. It is the rarity which confirms the collector’s sense of their own worth, their taste, their initiative, their power.

The thrill of obtaining a stamp that one does not have however insignificant it may be in the eyes of the world–arises from the stamp collector’s sense that the new object is just one less fragment that needs to be marshaled in the quest to complete their dream of wholeness.

Completion is both the greatest aspiration and greatest apprehension for the collector because after completion there is a possibility that there is nothing. And nothing is what collectors fear most. But with stamp collectors there is not much to worry about, for as long as stamps continued to be used for mail all around the world, then there will always be stamps to go in search for. From the time that they first decided to start collecting stamps, to the point where they have reached the end of their lives, a stamp collector will have built quite the collection that not only they can go back and look through and enjoy, but that other collectors can appreciate and enjoy the dedication the collector took to building their number of stamps they have in their possession.

I have a secret desire…for collecting stamps. Not just any stamps, but postal stamps. I think about them constantly, I have dreams of finding the most incredible rare stamp that everyone else has been looking for, for years. I have joined dozens of different online groups in the hopes of finding that one person who has the same strong desire for this hobby as I do. I don’t openly talk of my hobby to other people face to face, I know that collecting stamps is very popular with everyone of all ages, and has been for many years, but I don’t look like your typical collector. Most stamp collectors also may have a secret desire to make a living selling stamps. And what could be more fun? It could prove to be quite valuable to do that, but that also takes extra time in your collecting of stamps. Read the rest of this entry »