quotations about stamp collecting
The collecting of stamps brings untold millions of people of all nations into greater understandings of their world neighbours.
FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN
while laying the foundation stone of Cardinal Spellman Museum at Weston, July 27, 1972
Things did not delay in becoming more curious when they came across Pierce's stamp collection, thousands of coloured windows into time and space, ex-rivals for her affections that would be broken into lots.
THOMAS PYNCHON
The Crying of Lot 49
In my experience most collectors and dealers have little interest in stamps that have been issued during their adulthood. Most of us concentrate on the stamps of our childhood and before. This has always been the case with collectors.
JOHN APFELBAUM
blog post, "Apfelbaum's Corner", October 7, 2013
The thrill of the quest, the desire to hunt down that really rare stamp that you read about when you were at school and there's almost the feeling that when you've got it you're not so interested any more and you move on to the next one.
SIMON GARFIELD
The Error World: An Affair with Stamps
In their stamp collecting, boys ... played within the discourse of commerce and nationalism and learned its language, learning to put the rest of the world literally under their thumbs.
LEAH DILWORTH
Acts of Possession
He was an enthusiastic stamp collector, and taught the boys to learn the history and the geography of the issuing countries, as well as to keep neat, orderly albums. And that was his downfall.
ALAN BRADLEY
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Consider the postage stamp, its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.
JOHN BILLINGS
attributed, Modern Eloquence
Rare stamps are like fingerprints: You can trace them as they've traded in auctions back almost a hundred years.
BILL GROSS
"Bill Gross On Stamp Collecting", Forbes, October 11, 2010
Today, stamp collecting, though not yet quite a century old, is the number one hobby of the globe. Uncounted millions are its devotees. No country is so backward, no isle of the sea so small and remote that it does not have its stamp collectors, and usually its philatelic club.
ALVIN FAY HARLOW
Paper Chase
Stamp collecting is not only a fascinating hobby, but also a safe and profitable means of investment -- provided you know what you are buying, and why you are buying it.
HENRY W. ROBERTS
"Fortunes in Air-mail Stamps", Popular Science, October 1945
What do you call the stamp guys? Philatelists or something? Well whatever it is, it's some Greek or Latin root meaning 'complete nerd'.
CHRIS M. KEATING
"Stat of the Moment", Analog Nation, December 9, 2008
It must not be deduced, however, from these remarks that stamp collecting is a royal road to fortune, which is far from being the case, and it is as easy to lose as to make money by it. Knowledge and discrimination are as essential in philately as in any other pursuit.
DOUGLAS BRAWN ARMSTRONG
The Boys' Book of Stamp Collecting
The best thing about stamp collecting is that the enthusiasm which it arouses in youth increases as the years pass. It dispels boredom, enlarges the vision, broadens our knowledge, and in innumerable ways enriches our life.
HARRY D. THORSEN
Stamp Collecting
Since beginning my stamp investing blog ... and my column in the ASDA journal, stamp forums on the Internet as well as email respondents have argued for and against this subject. Critics seem to feel that philately "belongs" to collectors and that investors are interlopers who threaten the hobby. What they threaten, of course, is competition. What they bring is a new group of buyers who will only drive prices higher.
RICHARD LEHMANN
"Defining Stamp Investing", Forbes, September 18, 2015
If you've got any curious streak in you, then you should be collecting stamps. You discover how everything is interconnected. Nothing is ever separated, it's one big fusion of everything.
MIKE FRECHETTE
"Middletown stamp collecting workshop will introduce basics of philately", Middletown Press, January 4, 2016
The fact that stamp collecting has long been the most popular hobby in the world, with over 16 million enthusiasts in the United States alone, is a good indication of how much fascination and appeal these colorful little pieces of gummed paper exert.
ROBERT OBOJSKI
A First Stamp Album for Beginners
One of the greatest thrills of stamp collecting is finding a rare or unusual stamp. There are old stamps waiting to be discovered in all kinds of ordinary places such as attics, trunks and desk drawers, as well as on old envelopes and packages.
DOUGLASS SANGER
A Beginner's Guide to Stamp Collecting
My mom started [collecting] in the late 1930s ... in anticipation of her three kids going to college ... and bought ... newly issued commemoratives, [paying] $3 for a sheet of 100.... She ... hid them away ... for 20 years or so, and by the time I was 17 ... she presented them to me like ... magic beans and said take these into San Francisco and sell them and whatever you get is going to pay for your college education. They must have weighed a hundred pounds. There were hundreds of them. So I hopped the train [to] San Francisco.... I took them with high hopes to ... four [stamp dealers], and none offered me more than what my mother had paid ... 20 years ago.... The magic beans weren't worth anything. The look on my mother's face was total depression. Fortunately I got a scholarship to Duke. Otherwise, I was going to junior college.
BILL GROSS
"Bill Gross on Stamp Collecting", Forbes, September 25, 2010
The question has often been asked whether stamp collecting will continue many more years? Persons who from some motive or other object to collecting the "rubbish" as they call it (probably from want of cash cannot afford to purchase stamps), say stamp collecting is now at its height and will go down as fast as it came up; they say this and know nothing of the matter, and how on earth can persons ignorant of the affair be calculated to give an answer. An experienced dealer who is daily receiving his 20 letters at a post from town, country, the continent, or the English colonies; from lady, gentleman, and schoolboy collectors, will be better calculated to give an answer.
ANONYMOUS
The National Postage Stamp Express, March 15, 1864
What we have today is a market place on the Internet which tries to emulate the old time business model of stamp shows where hundreds of dealers congregate in one place where collectors can come and peruse their offerings and haggle over quality and price. The Internet market instead offers thousands of websites where collectors can view hundreds of dealers' offerings, view images of the offerings and compare prices. The haggling can still take place electronically, albeit losing some of the charm many find in the personal interaction. Still and all, this change has been a lifesaver to an industry whose death has been predicted for the last 50 years.
RICHARD LEHMANN
"The Future of Philately", Forbes, August 28, 2016