Collectibles
Dateline: 05/31/99
When my uncle died a few years ago, my aunt discovered his stamp collection was worth $70,000. They lived in Holland and he collected primarily Dutch and other European stamps. He had been collecting for years, but my aunt had no idea that this hobby that he spent his spare time on would end up being so valuable.
I'm not the avid collector my uncle was, but when I was in my teens, I spent many long hours poring over stamps, putting them in albums, trading with friends, and learning a little about the culture, history, flora and fauna of other countries. Some of my collecting friends and I loved to pop over to visit this Catholic priest who lived in a small house near his church. He was a treasure trove of stamps for us youngsters. He had thousands and thousands of stamps, most of them in duplicates, and he would trade or sell us stamps.
We followed up on the ads - 100 free stamps for trying out a stamp company's mail order system. I even bought a fair number through these companies. But the most fun was discovering you could buy stamps straight from foreign governments without any markup. Wow!
Most early Japanese stamps were rather dull, but in the sixties they started issuing some truly magnificent commemoratives. I wrote to the Japanese Postal Service and bought a bunch. Besides Japanese stamps, I liked Russian stamps from the fifites and for some reason I fancied stamps from the Vatican. (And I'm not even Catholic!) Maybe because it was one of the smallest stamp issuing countries and nobody ever seemed to have very many stamps from there.
So I wrote to the Vatican Postal Service for some stamps. The procedure was easy. I didn't have a clue who to write to, so I just sent a money order for five dollars to the Vatican Postal Service, Vatican City, asking them to send me as many stamps as the money would buy. They replied and sent stamps and a list of upcoming stamp issues.
A friend and I had gotten into the practice of buying First Day Covers, so I sent away some self-addressed envelopes and a money order and asked them to send me the First Day Covers for the stamps, or if they didn't have first day covers, to send the stamps on the day they came out. Which is what they did. I sent away for the next issue and this time they were postmarked with official First Day Cover postmarks. So I may have ended up with some of the very first official First Day Covers issued by the Vatican.
When I got to university I gave up stamp collecting, except occasionally. I still tear off the stamps from every letter we get and every once in a while, soak the stamps off and put them away. But I don't pursue it with the intensity of youth. (That intensity goes into this website!)
Usually people who pursue collecting as a lifelong hobby, like my uncle, end up with valuable collections. Trading, buying, building up a collection, is, in some respect, like building up a portfolio of stocks. You buy assets that appreciate in value over time.
Stamps, however, have a better track record than stocks. It is rare to lose money on a stamp investment. And it is quite possible to make a good return. Canadian stamps in particular have a healthy appreciation rate.
If you're looking to invest in stamps, not just collect them, here are some tips. Buy higher denomination stamps in mint condition from Canada Post. Stamps denominated $1 and up are scarcer and gain in value more quickly. Buy souvenir sheets. These always appreciate well.
Buy the annual sets that Canada Post puts out. They come complete with an album and stamp mounts. The album gives detailed descriptions of the stamps and what they are depicting. Every stamp issued during the year, including souvenir sheets, is in the collection.
The Canada Post annual supplements are interesting if you want to collect the stamps as a hobbyist, not just as an investment. They help you organize the stamps as the works of art they are. There is premium for this collection, but it is modest. And it is a better album than you'll find anywhere else.
This column marks my first in the field of collectibles and I have launched a new Net Link category called Collectibles as well. For now I have included stamps, coins and a few miscellaneous items. More will be added in time. If I missed links you think I should include, please email me with the URLs.
E-mail me!
Stamp Collecting Resources - An extensive collection of links to stamp dealers from around the world from NerdWorld.
Linn's Stamp News Online - An excellent weekly online newsletter on stamps including new issues and market info.
1999 Canadian Stamp Program - A list with descriptions of the stamps being issued by Canada in 1999. Includes pictures of the stamps as they become available. From Linn's.
Stampsites.com - The ultimate search engine for stamp collectors. Almost 20,000 stamp-related websites compiled into their database.
Canada Post Philatelic Counters - A list of all the postal stations selling philatelic material.
Stamp Stories - Canada Post gives detailed background stories on recently issued stamps.
Collectibles: A new category of Net Links, Collectibles includes Coins, Stamps and a few other interesting items as well.
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