What to Collect and How to Collect.


The questions, "What to collect?" and "How to collect?" are much more
easily asked than answered. Each individual will differ in taste, in
inclination, in method, in time at his disposal, and last, but not
least, in the depth of his pocket. The most that can be done is to
outline a general plan, founded upon general experience.

Collectors are divided into two classes--the general collector and the
specialist. The general collector takes everything that comes in his
way, and knows no limitations, no exclusions of this country or that.
The specialist, on the other hand, confines his attention to the
stamps of one or more particular groups or divisions, or even to one
particular country.

The most experienced collectors, whether general or specialist, almost
invariably advise the beginner to start as a general collector. As a
beginner he will have no experience to guide him in the choice of a
particular group or division; and until he has travelled over the
ground as a general collector it will be difficult for him to make a
choice which he may not have cause to regret. As a general collector
he will gather together a general knowledge of stamps in all their
peculiar varieties, which can scarcely fail to be immensely useful to
him even should he subsequently drift into specialism. Indeed, it is
an accepted truism that the man who starts as a general collector
invariably makes the best specialist in the end.

Starting, then, as a general collector, the beginner purchases an