The Business of Collectible Stamps: Labor of Love or Treasure Hunt?

I don't very often write about my work, in any meaningfully specific way. After all, selling old postage stamps to collectors is a very niche sort of thing to do. And probably not very interesting, to very many people.

Kind of interesting to write those words, considering there was a time when there were more than 100 million stamp collectors in the world.

What Happened?

Mostly, email and the Internet generation "happened."

Most stamp collections started because the "subject material" arrived in the mail when we were kids, and and it was free. You could even get a Scouting Badge for stamp collecting.

Then we stopped mailing stuff in significant volumes, and hobbies became more "action oriented" (gaming) as opposed to "static."

I guess I was one of the few who didn't trade in my stamp albums for a game controller and — in time — I developed a significant degree of expertise in certain areas of stamp collecting.

Part of the appeal for me was always the "treasure hunting" aspects of the hobby.

Where most people tended to buy (or trade for) very specific items for their collections, my preference was to buy a whole box of loose stamps and albums at estate sales and flea markets... and then go "treasure hunting."

Of course, it was an approach that left me with lots of stuff left over at the end, and that's how I got into being a seller of stamps, as well. According to my old tax certificate — which also has "my first dollar" attached to it — I formally became a business in 1988.

It used to be pretty much be my full time gig — or, at least, the gig I made the majority of my income from.

These days, it's more of a sideline... as most things I've been involved with have become. Seems I have a remarkable talent for picking lines of work that become obsolete shortly after I become good at them!

Section of my home office, in our basement

Unexpected Treasure

Every now and then, I get lucky and surprise even myself. Which is more or less what inspired this particular post.

Feeling somewhat disgruntled by the whole crypto meltdown, I decided to work stamp related things yesterday... and discovered that a book filled with stamps I'd set aside as "the valuable stuff picked out" back in 2014... actually contained good stuff I hadn't gotten around the processing!

Although selling anything is a much slower proposition than it used to be, it none-the-less was like "finding a $500 bill" where you didn't think you had one!

Some people are more interested in the POSTMARKS on stamps, than the stamps themselves!

And that element of surprise is definitely one of the things that keeps me interested, even though this "profession" has become more of a labor of love than a true profession, anymore.

Occasionally, I do get asked things like whether I ever had "one of those upside-down airplane stamps" and that's basically our of my league.

But I have sold a few stamp for more than $1,000. And that's not too bad for a tiny old piece of paper!

Thanks for visiting, and have a great weekend!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2023-08-18 23:59 PDT
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