My Journey as a Stamp Collector
Part I
Well, everyone likes story time, especially these days when we are stuck at home with boredom :)! So, I thought I will share a little bit about my journey as an avid 'Stamp collector' in multiple posts as reading sooo much at once sucks, trust me. I will also be sharing some tips and guides to becoming an amazing Stamp Collector.
My stamp-collecting journey started 8 years back when I was in 6th grade. I had recently then come across the small collection of used stamps that my mom and dad had collected as teenagers. I was mind blown when I saw a page full of butterfly and animal stamps. Being a layman as I was in this hobby, I just took it as a fun pastime job to sort, organize and store them. About a year later, my parents took me to a philatelic club to nurture my interest. Initially, it was just me attending meetings and listening to the experienced philatelists speak about their collections. I was also given a packet of used stamps, mostly colourful ones from Australia since I was a youngster and a beginner.
TIP 1: During the early stages of your journey, I would highly recommend you'll to join philatelic clubs and discuss with experienced philatelists. They will guide you to the right path.
By the end of that year, I had gathered some new information and tips to start a proper collection. One of the biggest turns in my journey came right then when I attended an exhibition and won way toooooooooo many used stamps and also learnt what special cover and pictorial cancellation was!! I also posted about this stamp exhibition and this was the first post and beginning of this blog!
http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/01/chenspex-2014-kicked-off-today.html
SPECIAL COVER : They are colourful covers released to commemorate an event or someone or something. They are usually matched with apt or related stamps and a pictorial cancellation representing/commemorating the event.
PICTORIAL CANCELLATION: Permanent, regular date cancellations that generally features tourist attractions of a place, or pictures depicting or related to an event etc.
TIP 2: Attending philatelic exhibitions and going through other's exhibits gives you an insight of how things are done!
After attending the exhibition, I also learnt that it was time I started to collect philatelic materials theme wise rather than generally collecting anything. Once back home, I sorted all the stamps based on themes I could think of. The rest that I couldn't label, I sorted them country wise. I decided to collect "People at Work" and also make a "Stamp a day" kind of exhibit (find special days of the year and apt stamps).
That idea lead to this
Stamp a day
http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/02/
http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/03/
People at Work
http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/04/people-at-work-nurses.html
http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/05/people-at-work-post-men-and-women.html
TIP 3: Don't collect anything that comes to your hand. Narrow down to the theme/topic that you like or have more materials of. Preferably the former I would say!
Then, on the side I started collecting PPCs (Permanent Pictorial cancellations).
This was my first PPC, the PPC of Sri Rangam Temple!
http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/05/sri-rangam-temple.html
Then, after coming across a Sri Lankan odd shaped miniature sheet and silk stamps of Thailand, I decided to change my theme to odd and unusual stamps which has now grown into a vast collection!
MINIATURE SHEET: Sheet consisting of one or more postally valid stamps with which the issue concerns.
Beginning of my Odd and Unusual journey
http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/05/silk-stamps-thailand.html
I started off by buying some odd and unusual materials from WOPA and also buying stamps and other materials whenever I go abroad .
A small glimpse into my odd and unusual collection now
http://philateli.blogspot.com/2017/07/my-odd-and-unusual-stampsms-collection.html
TIP 4: Buying is not the only option to grow a collection. Swapping/Exchanging materials with friends around the world helps too. Both have an equal role to play.
This is all for this post! Stay tuned for the next part!
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