Stamp Collecting Techniques : My Lucky 8 Guide

You have just started a stamp collection.

You already got a few stamps in your album.

Now what?

The next thing you should do is increase your stamp collection!  Collect! ..and collect! ..and collect!

I'm not best stamp collector in the world.  I got no authority to teach you a full course on this hobby.  But I do have some useful techniques which help me increase my collection.  And i am very much willing to share them with you.

Here are some easy stamp collecting techniques i do so i could increase my collection:

My Lucky 8 Easy Stamp Collecting Techniques

1) Swap stamps with fellow collectors in your vicinity. 

This is pretty basic. But how to you find them? You cannot just knock on anybody's door and ask them if they collected stamps, can we? Easiest way I know is, ask your town Postmaster. He should know better.  


2) Join stamp exchange websites.

I believe this is self explanatory. I bet you have done this already. Join, register and post some ads on the exchange offer/want that you have in the stamp exchange/swap section of the website post. Sometimes, there's no need to register. You can just email them ads poster/advertiser about your stamps exchange intention. 

3) Let everybody know that you are collecting stamps.

Yeah, this is also basic but effective. For me, my family knows about this. Even my two little daughters helped me increase our collection. My close relatives, my very distant relatives, friends, my boss, officemates... everybody! 

Just a few weeks after I started this hobby, later did I knew that I got an Auntie in Hongkong, i got a Cousin in Japan, a Grand Father in Canada, a Tita in Saudi Arabia! This is amazing! If I didn't start this hobby, I wouldn't know! And they all gave a share in my collection. The best was my Auntie in Hongkong. She always travel to other countries with her boss. So everytime she lands in a new country, she would be a small pocket of stamps from the flea market for me! 

There was also one surprising incident i had with this hobby. I received an envelope full of used stamps from one of our hardware suppliers. She was my counterpart in the Accounting Section to which i always talk to regarding payment & collection matters. She knew about my hobby too! 

Not bad huh!  


4) Join an online forum and start a thread about Stamp Collection.

It’s easy. Just register on an online local or international community. Once registered, start a thread about stamp collection. Offer free stamps first. When you get the others to jump in, start to request for stamp swaps! 

5) If you are a school professional, I would say you are in a good advantage. Have the students start a stamp collection. 

I know what you are thinking and I tell you, it's not what you think it is. I’m a real man of principle! You may have thought of having the students start a stamp collection and keep all the stamps as the teacher/adviser. Sorry, if I were in the teaching profession, I won’t do such a thing! 

When asking for this project, the teacher must explain what this project is all about and how to go along with it. The students must be fed with info so that they would happily do it. 

There is a "however" though. Let say you have 30 students in the class, and all of them have passed their stamp collecting projects. When the teacher returns all the collections, all the students would actually accept them back. The fact is, most of them had just done the project for the sake of passing. After complying with the requirement, they don't give a damn. Except for the “handful few” of course. 

The honest way of doing this is, after returninSg their projects, ask the whole class if they are willing to give these to real stamp collectors. To be fair, don't mention that you are one of them. 'Cause most students would give the teacher anything they ask in order to have good impressions (grades). Collect back the projects from those who are willing. And for those who decided to continue the hobby, I'm sure they're just a handful of them, let them be and encourage them. The following week, you as the teacher must give 1 or 2 of the returned projects to these “handful few” newbie stamp collectors. And you made a better contribution to the world of stamps collecting. 

Guess where the rest of the returned projects went! He-he-he!  


6) Trade a collectible item for some stamps.

Aside from Philatelic Clubs, join other groups or clubs having a different collecting hobby. 

Everywhere around the globe, some people somewhere have maintained some collections. Famous for this are those who collect coins and currency bills. Others collect phone cards, marbles, postcards, bottle caps, letterheads, cigarette packs, ball pens, key chains, pencils and cellphone straps to name a few. Of course there are those big time collections of paintings, vintage cars, jewelleries.... but let’s skip those big time collectors. 

How do you find them? Try to ask around the community. Ask the guy selling newspapers in the corner. Ask a cab driver. Check the web, you can do the search on a global scale! Just Google it! 

On my personal experience, i took advantage of the cigarette pack collectors of South America, mainly Argentina: the CPCCA. I was in Philippines back then. Cigarettes are cheap and it sells a lot. I could just asked empty cigarette packs from a convenience store and they could give me a plastic bag full of it! I traded cigarette packs for used stamps at the ratio of 5-10 pcs stamps for every cigarette pack. Trading rate is very high, so why not?! I'm not afraid to initiate the trade. I usually send the cigarette packs first and received the stamps later. Among my trades with CPCCA members, i only got "one missing" mail case. I expected it anyway, so i couldn't be bothered. 

Be creative! Be innovative! Take the initiative! 

The later you'll realize that you have done great! 


7) Let the world know about your hobby! 

"Let the world know" i mean is that I urge you to create a blog about your hobby and go global. Blogger and Wordpress are the famous ones i know. Dont worry, signing-up is free. You also got tons of options aside from these two. Just Google it!  


8) Visit my newbie blog often! Click here: Jack’s Blog

This is the reason why I had thought of putting “Lucky 8” in the ebook title. So pay attention. J 

I want you to visit my blog to see how lucky you are! 

Whenever I feel like giving out some stamps, I just do. So I put the free stamps notice in my blog. As of today, 1st of October 2010, I already published two notices. Here, click this to see one of the notices: Free Stamps for the Real Hobbyist. Read the notice. To receive the free stamps from me, you MUST write you intention in the comments page and leave your email address behind too. The comments page is found at the bottom portion of each blog page. I have enabled the posting of anonymous comments so that anybody can leave a brief message. 

The free stamps will be sent to you via ordinary mail. If you want it to be mailed-out to you by registered mail, I will ask you to pay for postage. You can pay me via Paypal, or telegraphic transfer. Depending on which country you come from, if the cost is not that much, I will pay for it myself and send it by registered mail. 

When I feel like giving out free stamps, I just do. And when I feel like closing the free offer, I just do also. So hurry up and write your intentions in the comments page now! 

Happy Stamping!