Bob Ingraham wrote in article
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I learned about stamp collecting from that!

Over to you.

This is one of the most enjoyable threads ever on this NG and shows how
much camaraderie it creates apart from the knowledge gained. I have shared
some of the experiences recounted but here are a few more.

My first stamp `collection' was as a schoolboy 70 years ago. It was a poor
thing of many duplicates and mostly in poor condition, large parts of it
having been kept in my jacket pocket. I swapped it with another schoolboy
for some marbles that I fancied. I learned the `investment' potential of
stamps from that.

I returned to collection 30 years later and joined in the free
distribution of foreign mail received by my then employer. I elected to
receive Commonwealth stamps. There were, as you might guess, many gaps in
the resultant collection and I began to try and fill them from the stock
of a local dealer. He was very friendly and willing to spend time talking
to me about stamps and how I should mount them. I learnt a lot from him.

I couldn't afford to buy the `high values' in the sets (a young family to
care for) and when the time to sell came along my collection didn't fetch
the price I was hoping for as it was short of these `key' values. I learnt
from that.

A dealer had an item that I really wanted but he would not name a price,
asking me how much I would pay for it. I named a price which, had it been
in an auction would be my top bid but hoping to get it for less. He sold
it to me for my price with alacrity. The following week I received his
price list and the same item was offered there for about a quarter of the
amount I had paid him. I really learnt from that.

Not to ramble on with these reminiscences, there is one source that is
still around and from which I am still learning. I refer to Len Williams'
book `Fundamentals of Philately'. This was originally published in parts
in The American Philatelist by the APS from 1954 and for several years
after that. The first bound edition was published by the APS in 1971 with
an index by my friend James Negus through whom I obtained a copy. It was
published in a revised edition in 1990. This majestic work covers much
much more than the modest `fundamentals' of its title. 862 pages of sheer
authority. Get yourself a copy if you can. You too will learn a helluva
lot from that!

Douglas