Tips on Stamp Collecting

Complete?

Collection of The Netherlands

In my childhood I was happy with my collection of The Netherlands for years. My eldest stamp was the 5 cent of the second emission (1864). Later, when I am grown-up and earn a living, I will buy the first Dutch stamps and have a complete set, were my thoughts at that time. In those days I did not realise that more costly stamps existed. How plder the stamps the more expensive they were I thought, for years. I could not afford a catalogue.

Impossible to have a complete collection

Years later I realised that it was impossible to have a complete collection. Complete how? Complete with what? Postage due stamps too? Airmail stamps added? Special perforations, newspaper stamps, telegraph stamps? A catalogue helped me to enter the world of Dutch stamps, but the idea to get a complete collection seemed to vanish in future more and more.
And then I discovered the existence of airmail covers, first day covers, maximum cards and postal articles like postcards, postal stationery, postal cards for change of address and booklets. Too many to think of.

It would be impossible to possess everything

Soon it became clear to me that it would be impossible to possess everything. This could only be done if you collected a country with only a few issues. Therefore I specialised in some marginal phenomena like postal stationary, airmail letters and the first booklets. Even though I could not accumulate a complete collection. In fact: I did not even come close to it.
Only with my collection of booklets I obtained a reasonable result. Although I will probably never own the proof booklets used in Rotterdam and Utrecht. The reason is simple: a household and more fields of interest then philately solely...

Collection will never be complete

Consequently I accept the fact that my collection will never be complete. It is still my ambition, but I won't pay hundreds of guilders for a single stamp or letter. That exceeds my bounds. Still, I do have pleasure in my favourite hobby: the philately.

To avoid empty frames

To avoid empty frames in albums I soon made my own albums, wherein of course, the unreachable ideals were omitted. Sometimes I had to draw a new page, when a nice stamp which at first seemed unreachable, could be added to my collection. But in this way I have pleasure in my hobby and by using my computer it is easy and cheap to make a new page for my album. By doing so, nearly the entire philately budget can be used for buying stamps or letters.