quotations about stamp collecting
Synonyms for collectable postage stamps: "sticky treasures," "collection of paper heads," "pretty bits of paper," and "colorful scraps."
ALAN BRADLEY
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Stamps are fragile collectibles. Good collecting habits are critical to minimize, or hopefully erase completely, the factors that can ruin stamps in your collection.
WILLIAM F. SHARPE
"Keeping & Maintaining a High-Quality Stamp Collection", Linn's Stamp News, August 25, 2016
The nature of stamp collecting is partly con-consumerist, as we safeguard artefacts that previously would have been used up and thrown away, but in the twenty-first century collecting ultimately always means buying things.
SIMON GARFIELD
The Error World: An Affair with Stamps
It's interesting to see that stamps have retained such a strong place in the local consciousness, since the sending of snail mail that's their true purpose is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
DOUG YOUNG
"Stamps may be for the elderly, but aren't a hobby of the past", Shanghai Daily, January 9, 2016
Rare stamp sold for record $9.5 million. Last owner was crazed killer.
FRED BARBASH
headline on the sale of the British Guiana 1 Cent Magenta, The Washington Post, June 18, 2014
The philatelist will tell you that stamps are educational, that they are valuable, that they are beautiful. This is only part of the truth. My notation is that the collection is a hedge, a comfort, a shelter into which the sorely beset mind can withdraw. It is orderly, it grows towards completion, it is something that can't be taken away from us.
CLIFTON FADIMAN
Any Number Can Play
Acquiring the stamp you've been searching for and placing it into your album might be the most thrilling part the stamp collecting hobby, but properly maintaining your collection might be the most important part.
WILLIAM F. SHARPE
"Keeping & Maintaining a High-Quality Stamp Collection", Linn's Stamp News, August 25, 2016
The industry survives on a cycle of stamp turnover driven by the death of older collectors and the buying by younger ones whose economic well being allows them to expand the scope of their collecting activity. The survival problem comes from the fact that the rate of collectors dying is greater than of new collectors joining or increased buying by existing ones. Add to this the fact that the quantity of existing stamps remains fairly static and you have an industry where available supply is increasing at a faster rate than demand. As a result for the vast majority of stamps, their value does not increase at more than the rate of inflation, if even that.
RICHARD LEHMANN
"The Future of Philately", Forbes, August 28, 2016