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"Growing" a Stamp Collection, Pt. 2

© Michael A. Weatherford

This is part 2 of a multi-part article on how stamp collectors can "grow" or "build" their stamp collection. This article, and the next, will discuss the many different ways collectors can purchase postage stamps. This article will explain the different ways stamp dealers group their material for sale. The next article will discuss the different ways stamp dealers market their material.

The marketplace for postage stamps for collectors is phenomenal. There are more than 20,000 full- and part-time dealers in the United States alone. Most of these dealers are congregated in the larger cities, which limits access to materials and supplies by those living in rural areas somewhat, but mailorder and the Internet reduce this to more of an irritation than a stumbling block.

In fact, the sheer size of the marketplace is one of the biggest problems new collectors experience. These new collectors have to decide what is the best way to increase the size of THEIR collections. They also have to make this decision with very little or any prior knowledge of the marketplace and its complexity. The following paragraphs will try to bring some order to this chaos!

How Dealers Sell Stamps

What may look like a rhetorical statement is actually the crux of the matter. Different dealers and companies sell stamps to collectors in a myriad of different ways. Each dealer may sell the material he has in one or more of these different ways. The following list is not complete, but covers the most common ways collectors can buy stamps:

• Individual stamps
• Complete "sets" of stamps - all the stamps issued at the same time, with a common theme, or over a period of time with a common theme or design.
• Packets of stamps, either of a single topic, or of a country, or of an area.
• "Accumulations" and "job lots" - large groups of stamps, old album pages, small lots in glassine envelopes, etc., lumped together and sold "as is".
• Collections

Many collectors buy stamps in all these different ways to increase the size of their collections. Others limit themselves to a few of the different areas, depending on what best suits their collecting needs. Also, the way a collector purchases stamps may change over time, as his collection grows and his needs change. Let's look at each of these, and discuss the pros and cons of purchasing stamps in this manner:

Individual stamps

Purchasing individual stamps is perhaps the best way to insure the collector gets exactly what he wants. It is, however, also the most expensive way to buy stamps. The dealer has to spend a LOT of time getting the stamps ready to sell, and his labor is factored into the cost of the material. This method of adding material is best for filling in a hole in a set (if possible), or completing a year group, or adding a special stamp that is otherwise difficult or impossible to get any other way.