What's Stamp Collecting All About?

Columnist Barrie Hudson writes on Britain's Swindon Advertiser website, "DO YOU think stamp collecting is about trotting down to your local post office counter every few weeks to pick up a couple of quid’s worth? You’re right. Or perhaps you think it’s about buying three rare stamps a year at hair-whitening prices from obscure dealers or frantic auction houses? Right again."

This weekend the Swindon Philatelic Society held SWINPEX - one of the biggest collectors’ fairs outside London. The Society was founded in 1943, and collectors during WWII sometimes had to dive under tables with their albums when air raid sirens sounded according to Barrie.


When asked why people collect stamps, David Gibbon, a 66-year-old retired Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer and member of the Swindon Philatelic Society is quoted as saying, "It's probably because of the sheer variety to be found within a single hobby. It’s geography, it’s history. It’s truly an international hobby with thousands of collectors in every country. Collectors are both young and old. Their interests vary from filling spaces with the cheapest stamps that they can afford to the serious philatelists who spend thousands of pounds building up valuable collections.”

To read the entire article, click here.