The New Face of Stamp Collecting

Canada's Times Colonist reports, "These days, collectors often look for stamps that fit certain themes or topics and have expanded their collections to include envelopes and postcards that shed light on how and when the stamps were used."

Bill Bartlett, who's been collecting stamps since he was eight and a former Canadian postmaster, is quoted in the article by reporter Matthew Pearson as saying, "...it's no longer just about collecting one of everything."

Pearson writes, "Among the thousands of postage stamps Bill Bartlett has collected over the years, some of his favourites were issued by the Japanese government after a 1923 earthquake destroyed the country's existing stock. The tiny replacement stamps featuring chrysanthemum flowers were only used until 1924. Finding them today, 85 years later, isn't easy."

When asked, "So just how much is an entire stamp collection worth anyway?," another one of the attendees at a stamp show in held Victoria this past weekend said, ""The value of a collection is really the energy you put into it, the value you get out of it and the friendships you've made along the way.".

Shown above in a Times Colonist photograph by Debra Brash, Bill looking over some old covers at a dealer's table at the show.

To read the entire article, click here.