From: (mike)
Organization: http://groups.google.com/
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Date: 9 Sep 2003 03:44:21 -0700
Subject: I Learned About Stamp Collecting from That!

long snip

Oh yes - my old collection....well, its practically worthless - I was
amazed at the junk I collected back then. Some of the items were nice
but none of them will pay for the wedding Anyone want some CTOs
from Hungray?

All the best
Mike

It's interesting how so many of our stories reveal our lessons about the
value of stamps in the marketplace. Well, it's a valuable lesson.

As I related in my first post in this thread, I sold my childhood collection
for a disappointing pittance after I was married. It was the requirements of
buying Christmas gifts that got me back into collecting, at about age 38 or
39, I decided that my son was ready to start stamp collecting, and I went
searching for a basic collecting outfit. The shop (I don't recall the name)
was in a small house that had been preserved somehow in the middle of
downtown Prince George, British Columbia. The owner, Gary Gagin, happily
supplied an album, tongs, hinges, etc., and I spent a few minutes browsing
the interesting, mostly Canadian stamps he had on his display boards. I also
spent time explaining why I myself wouldn't ever collect stamps again -- I
had just lost interest in them -- but that I hoped my son might catch the
bug.

Christmas Day came, and Paul and I sat at our kitchen table for a couple of
hours looking at stamps and finding their places in the album, and sticking
them in with hinges. He seemed mildly interested, but after an hour or so
said he wanted to play with the electronic "Star Wars" game that his
grandmother had given him. He left, but I continued pouring over the stamps.

As soon as possible after the Christmas holidays, I went back to the stamp
shop with money in my pocket, and bought a Canadian album for myself. From
that time, I have always looked forward to the next stamp to come into my
possession. Paul? He fooled around with the stamps a couple of more times,
but he had been hooked on electronic games, the precursors*of computer
games. I learned about stamp collecting from that!

A note about the value of your collection, Mike. You said it was
"practically worthless," but that's only by one measure, the one that seems
beloved of bean counters, economists, politicians and chambers of commerce.
By any other measure, especially the sort with direct ties to your heart,
your stamps obviously were never worthless, but worth a great deal. It
looks, in fact, like they have helped build your relationship with your
fianceé, and that is of inestimable value.

About those Hungarian stamps: Wait! Don't get rid of them! As I've mentioned
in this group before, among the stamps in my first collection was a set of
Hungarian airmail stamps. When I started collecting again, I realized that
I never should have gotten rid of that particular set, not to mention quite
a number of others. I searched through Linn's for a Hungary dealer, and soon
had the airmails stamps in my hands again, and now they reside happily in
one of my albums. See a scan at
http://www.ingraham.ca/bob/hungaryalbum.html.

For a tale of my earliest stamp collecting days, see my signature.

Bob Ingraham

-------
When I was almost a teenager, I got hooked on stamps.
Read "Box 28," my memoir about the New Mexico post
office that became the source of my addiction:

http://www.ingraham.ca/bob/arenasvalley.html
-------