STAMP COLLECTING QUOTES III

quotations about stamp collecting

One of the greatest thrills of stamp collecting is finding a rare or unusual stamp. There are old stamps waiting to be discovered in all kinds of ordinary places such as attics, trunks and desk drawers, as well as on old envelopes and packages.

DOUGLASS SANGER

A Beginner's Guide to Stamp Collecting


What do you call the stamp guys? Philatelists or something? Well whatever it is, it's some Greek or Latin root meaning 'complete nerd'.

CHRIS M. KEATING

"Stat of the Moment", Analog Nation, December 9, 2008


There is no hobby that I know of which has so many pleasant ramifications as philately. It lays open to the collector a thousand alluring bypaths, and few are the general collectors who do not stray into at least one of them.

ALVIN FAY HARLOW

Paper Chase


The fact that stamp collecting has long been the most popular hobby in the world, with over 16 million enthusiasts in the United States alone, is a good indication of how much fascination and appeal these colorful little pieces of gummed paper exert.

ROBERT OBOJSKI

A First Stamp Album for Beginners

Tags: Robert Obojski


My worldly wealth I hoard in albums three,
My life collection of rare postage stamps;
My room is cold and bare as you can see,
My coat is old and shabby as a tramp's;
Yet more to me than balances in banks,
My albums three are worth a million francs.

ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE

"Stamp Collector", Songs of a Sun-lover


Any stamp that has appreciated to $25 or more in the last 65 to 175 years deserves consideration as a good investment for the future. There is little history of such stamps suffering a decline in value, which for many investors, seeking asset diversification, is sufficient.

RICHARD LEHMANN

"Defining Stamp Investing", Forbes, September 18, 2015


Stamp collecting is looked upon by many people as a solitary hobby. Their mistake. Being a part of a stamp club or society brings together like-minded friends who help each other improve as philatelists.

WILLIAM F. SHARPE

"Keeping & Maintaining a High-Quality Stamp Collection", Linn's Stamp News, August 25, 2016


Is it the intention to establish a cheap portrait-gallery of living princes and rulers?... What curiosity can any reasonable being have to possess the commonplace effigies of the most commonplace-looking people in Europe?

CHARLES LEVER

writing on the new stamp collecting fad, Blackwood's Magazine, 1864


[The collector's aim is] to reassemble the whole of the stamps issued in one country, in a certain part of the world, or if possible, of the whole universe, and not to estimate the value of stamps according to their beauty of engraving or design.

MAURICE BURRUS

The Philatelic Magazine, October 21, 1922


Stamp collecting is rich in history and covers virtually every topic, from cartoons to famous actors, politicians, cars, trains, planes, boats, motorcycles, dinosaurs, kings and queens, princes and princesses, historical events, plants, animals, and so much more.

WILLIAM F. SHARPE

"The website devoted to getting kids into stamp collecting", Linn's Stamp News, February 17, 2017


If you've got any curious streak in you, then you should be collecting stamps. You discover how everything is interconnected. Nothing is ever separated, it's one big fusion of everything.

MIKE FRECHETTE

"Middletown stamp collecting workshop will introduce basics of philately", Middletown Press, January 4, 2016


The official designs of the Government, especially its designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors of national taste.

W. B. YEATS

remarks on Coinage Bill 1926 Second Stage, March 3, 1926

Tags: W. B. Yeats


Another value of stamp collecting is its relationship to geography and history, its current gossip of the globe we live on and its political changes.

ALVIN FAY HARLOW

Paper Chase


Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "How in a free country such as this, can we ban video games and golf, yet continue to permit stamp collecting?"

DAVE BARRY

Dave Barry's Bad Habits


When examined through a critical political-geographic lens, stamp collecting is revealed to be more than just a benign, leisurely pursuit. It is a highly politicized act that not only lends legitimacy to the modern, territorial-bounded-state paradigm but also provides a discourse and forum for the ubiquitous struggle of national secessionist and autonomy movements.

JOHN AGNEW & LUCA MUSCARA

Making Political Geography


You can collect stamps because they are beautiful, historically important, illustrate something that appeals to you, are a connection to the past, or any other reason that strikes your fancy.

JANET KLUG

Guide to Stamp Collecting


Let's not mince words -- collecting stamps is not considered the most rock 'n' roll of pursuits. In fact in many minds philately equals fusty. It's considered the domain of the anoraky obsessive who sits in their bedroom sticking "treasures" into albums while poring over catalogues with a magnifying glass. A taste for stamp collecting is something to be confided quietly not sung from the rooftops.

JULIE CARPENTER

"Philately will get you everywhere", Express, April 6, 2011


The stamp collector's progress from beginner to addict falls, like the melancholy Jacques's chronicle of man, into several stages. First usually in his teens he buys a small album and orders various ten-cent assortments "1,000 all different, catalogue value, $2.37." He haunts the display cases in department or stationery stores and outside the stamp dealers' doors. Presently he begins taking stamp periodicals and joins a club. Within a few years he is not satisfied with a used stamp detached from the envelope, but craves the envelope, too he calls it a "cover" now. He falls a victim to the first-day fad and has a cover always ready to be mailed from the point of issuance of a new stamp. He has already acquired a specialty of some sort -- perhaps two or three of them. When he begins carrying a small magnifying glass in his pocket with which to scrutinize stamps, his case may be regarded as hopeless.

ALVIN FAY HARLOW

Paper Chase


The philatelic industry is once again focused on how to grow our hobby, perhaps this time with a more determined focus. The increased focus is, in part, because the decline in the USA and Western Europe of the number of collectors is reaching an inflection point from which recovery becomes less likely.

RICHARD LEHMANN

"New Stamp Issuance's Affect On The Hobby", Forbes, May 3, 2017


Stamp collectors are not a larcenous lot for the most part. I don't have statistics on it, but I'd say my "loss" rate was much less than 0.001%.

LEWIS BURCHETT

"Attention: It's time to embrace change and move stamp collecting forward", Linn's Stamp News, July 8, 2017