I am a "Born Again" stamp collector. I retired from teaching in 1965 and was thinking about a hobby. Like many of my generation, I had collected stamps and my eldest son had continued the hobby. I unearthed his Great Britain and Canada albums and they decided for me.
When I started to assemble my first Canada album, I remembered the excitement of the "approvals" of my youth. I could afford the long awaited stamps. I could take them out of the package and stick them (with hinges!) in my Gibbons Springback Album without tweezers or thoughts of "ruining" an investment. I enjoyed the thrill of watching my collection grow and I enjoyed sharing and swapping with friends. It was quite easy to collect both used and mint then, (because of the limited issues), and I put together a nice album of "British Commonwealth".
Today, I look at some of my peers who hardly dare open the album of Hockey Cards or Canadian Tire money with each piece sealed hermetically in plastic. The "kids" are soon taught not to "play with them" and can only take them to school in their pristine package. What price Barbie Dolls in their original plastic box? We played "cigarette cards" and marbles and no-one told us not to, in case their value as a collectible would drop. The true worth of a "mint" card or an "alley" was that it could be swapped for more "used" ones and your chances of winning were increased. O Happy Days!
There are a lot of stamp collectors just like the "card" collector. I only collect postally "used". (Quel horreur!) and make my own computer pages to accommodate the varieties I can afford. It is a long time since I bought a suitcase full of stamps at an auction. Thank Heavens I have retired. The suitcase is long gone, but I still bought "shoe boxes", 'kiloware', and 'job lots', otherwise I wouldn't have found
GB Scott #58 Pl 9 or Canada Scott #37d, the rare 12 1/2 perf variety or GB Scott #2
Now, the search for that elusive perforation or error or colour variety can make every day an emotional experience! {Was I outbid??}
