There’s probably better people to be taking advice from. I’m really a beginner myself. Well, really, I’ve been collecting stamps since I was 5, then paused for a while in the 80s, and really just started up again a couple of years ago. Since then, however, the philatelic landscape has changed quite dramatically. When I started collecting there were coin and stamps stores and hobby shops I could go to find supplies, even way out where I lived in rural Maine. You could even find stamps and albums at KayBee Toys at any shopping mall (KayBee was once the second largest toy store chain after Toys R Us. It closed for good in 2009).

Returning to stamp collecting in the 21st century I found it a whole lot more perplexing, and I don’t think that’s just because time has age-addled my brain. It seems as if there have been virtually no new stamp collectors since the 80s. Everyone left collecting stamps already knows what they need to know, and where to find it. They know the difference between a se tenant and a tete beche. They know when to use a hinge and when to use a mount. Maybe I knew all these things as a kid, but I’d forgotten them by the time I was an adult. The entire philatelic world seems to cater to experts now, and I had a difficult time starting out again. I made numerous mistakes, created a lot of work for myself, bought a lot of things I wouldn’t have, if I’d had just a little more knowledge. So, I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned in hopes I can keep you from making the same mistakes.

Really, collecting stamps is one of the easiest things in the world to do. Numerous how-to books are available to tell you how to do it, but I’ll sum it all up right here:

How To Collect Stamps

1. Get a bunch of stamps

2. Organize them in some logical fashion

3. Repeat

Simple, right?

It should be, and yet it rapidly turns into a kind of alchemy. A stamp collection grows rapidly into thousands, even tens of thousands of stamps without a lot of effort. These span 160+ years, hundreds of different countries, thousands upon thousands of different subjects. Trying to organize that into some sort of logic can be a lifetime endeavor!

Fortunately, there are a variety of tools to help you do it. I’ve put together a beginner’s shopping list of things you should buy soon after starting:

Stamp Tongs
Glassine envelopes
Stock books/stock pages
Drying book
Stamp Albums
Hinges & Mounts
and, least importantly, Price Guides

In upcoming posts I’ll explore each of these in depth.

If you lack any these things, don’t let that stop you. Empty cigar boxes and ziplock bags are fine for storing your stamp collection in the mean time!