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Stamp Collecting: A Hobby That Won’t Get You Women (But That’s Okay!)

Is stamp collecting a hobby that is cool? Will collecting stamps make you popular? Will your mint collection of Liberace stamps impress the ladies? Will stamp collecting ever make you rich?

To answer these questions (and more), we’ll be diving headfirst into the enchanting universe of stamp collecting, a hobby that has been captivating collectors for generations. Believe it or not, over 60 million people collect stamps. They like to be called philatelists. Me, I call them boring nerds (and I’m a huge comic collector, pretty much the definition of being a nerd, so that means something).

Let’s be real: If your main goal in life is to get women or strike it rich, stamp collecting might not be your golden ticket. In fact, if your idea of a pickup line is “Hey, want to see my stamp collection?” you might find yourself spending more time with your stamps than with potential dates. 

So why would anyone collect stamps?

Stamp Collecting: A Love Affair with Tiny Pieces of Art

First and foremost, stamp collecting is about love—love for history, love for art, and love for the stories that these tiny, colorful rectangles of paper can tell. There’s something undeniably charming about the world of stamps, where miniature works of art are waiting to be discovered on each little square.

Let’s be completely honest, it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll ever impress someone with your stamp collection on a first date, it just won’t happen. Chances are though, that you’ll impress yourself with the vast knowledge you’ll accumulate. Who needs small talk when you can delve into the intricacies of stamp design, printing techniques, and the fascinating tales behind each stamp’s creation?

Will Stamps Make You Rich? Not Likely, But…

Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room: money, money, money. Can stamp collecting be a lucrative endeavor? Well, unless you stumble upon a rare British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp hiding in your attic, you’re unlikely to retire on your stamp collection alone. The truth is, there’s a lot more supply than demand in the stamp world, so your investment probably won’t buy you a private island. See, that Economics class you took in college did teach you something.

But hey, don’t despair! Stamp collecting is more about the thrill of the hunt, the joy of discovery, and the camaraderie with fellow collectors than it is about making bank. Who knows, maybe one day, your collection will surprise you with an unexpected gem, like that legendary one-cent magenta stamp that fetched $8 million in an auction. Miracles do happen, right?

Stamp Collecting: Where Passion Meets Quirkiness

So, should you embark on a stamp collecting journey? Absolutely! Stamp collecting might not make you a dating sensation or a billionaire, but it will fill your life with fascinating stories, beautiful artwork, and a community of like-minded enthusiasts who understand your peculiar fascination with tiny bits of paper. You’ll become part of a community of like-minded people who get it.

In the end, stamp collecting is about the joy of pursuing your passions, even if they don’t lead to a Hollywood romance or a yacht in the Caribbean. It’s about finding beauty in the small things, celebrating history through art, and forging connections with people who appreciate the same quirks that make you, well, you.

 

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Collectibles We’re Confused By

Collecting can be a passion that brings joy and fulfillment to many, but there’s also a dark underbelly to the world of collectibles that often goes unnoticed – the objects that collectors and enthusiasts can’t help but be confused by. These are the collectibles that defy logic, reason and even common sense. Whether they’re utterly devoid of value, dangerously impractical, disturbingly grotesque or just plain offensive – these are items that leave us scratching our heads in disbelief.

NFT Collectibles

NFT stands for “non-fungible token”. NFTs are a digital “object” – a virtual item that is technically only owned by one person. These assets are considered unique. At the end of the day NFTs basically are JPEGs that someone can brag about owning, despite them not really being anything more than a virtual image. In 2022, former President Trump made at least 6 figures of income selling one-of-a-kind NFTs to his supporters. People basically buy and trade a receipt to a virtual object that doesn’t physically exist – and then hope to get rich off of it. Good luck with that!

 

 

CROC Shoes

Essentially CROCS are ugly deck shoes made of a plastic-like resin that are extremely comfortable. That said, they are really ugly.

Due to their vast popularity, CROC has entered the collector’s market with limited editions, collaborations and collections. In case regular CROCS weren’t ugly enough, they’ve made a limited edition SHREK version pair of CROCS (pictured). Do we need to say anymore?

License Plates

Keeping around one or two old license plates from your first car..  or just ones that look cool or funny, we’re ok with that. Having a garage full of them rusting away slowly..  your significant other won’t be happy. 

Franklin Mint Collectibles

The Franklin Mint was founded in the mid 1960’s to produce collectibles – everything from coins, plates, dolls, knives and LP record collections.

Truthfully, they produce some decent quality stuff.

Franklin Mint sells their products as “collectibles” first and foremost. The big problem, all their products are mass-produced items meant for the mainstream market. Finally that class you took in college on Economics pays off – it’s a situation where the supply greatly outweighs the demand. When that happens, the value goes downwards, not up. For a collectible, that means you’d be lucky to get just what you paid for the item originally (if that much).

 

VHS Movies

For those who grew up in the 80s, these chunky, plastic rectangles were an integral part of our movie-watching experience. Yet, they came with a laundry list of quirks and shortcomings that could drive even the most patient cinephile to frustration. VHS tapes were notorious for their fragility, and it seemed like a weekly ritual for your trusty VCR to chomp on your beloved movie, leaving a tangled mess of tape in its wake. Mold issues, signal loss, shredding, and wear and tear were common foes of these magnetic wonders.

Despite all this, some people really treasure their old DVDs and collect them. Somehow, the fact that they don’t even make VHS players anymore isn’t an issue, no more than it’s a format that has gladly died away.

 

 

Banana Stickers

From the “Why would someone collect that?” family – banana stickers. Those small adhesive tags or labels stuck on bananas have a sizable amount of fans that collect them, no one really knows why. Always wanted to collect garbage, here’s your chance!

 

Before we go!

As collectors, we’re a bit odd. We treasure things that other people would simply look past. Collecting tends to bring us some level of happiness that makes our day to day a little bit easier to deal with. 

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” pretty much sums it up. 

Whatever you do, just make sure it makes you happy.

Even if it’s collecting banana stickers. We won’t judge.

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Why do we collect things?

People have been collecting various items for centuries, everything from rare Pokémon cards to vintage comic books to old Coca-Cola bottles. The motivations behind collecting are as diverse as the objects themselves and they offer a fascinating glimpse into the human psyche. Collecting can be driven by a myriad of factors including the pursuit of enjoyment, investment opportunities, a sense of belonging to a community and even a deep-seated and extremely human instinct to accumulate and preserve items of significance.

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, claimed that collecting was somehow connected to a person’s toilet training. Of course, no one is really sure what it is that Freud collected. 

 

Truthfully, we’re kind of scared to ask.

 It’s rumored that Noah (of “Noah and the Ark” fame) was an obsessive animal hoarder. We’re not sure why – but it’d explain so much. He was a “crazy cat lady” way before it became a thing.

 

 

 

One thing that we do know is that in the US approximately 40% of households indulge in some form of collecting. 

So, why do people collect things?

  1. Investment opportunity: Some objects go up in value for various reasons including high demand, rarity, lack of supply and/or being highly significant in some way. 
  2. Nostalgia: The objects may have some form of personal significance to the person. For instance, people collecting toys or tchotchkes that were somehow a part of their childhood. Collecting those objects somehow connects them to this past.
  3. The Neverending Quest: The one thing that is common in most collectors of all types of things – is that collecting is a never-ending search to completing a set, even if that will never happen. It’s in all of us, this need to fill a hole that collecting something really does. This “quest” is what drives us. It’s an example of the journey being just as important as the actual destination, sometimes more so.
  4. Finding the Lost Ark (with apologies to Indiana Jones): Finding a rare comic in a flea market for $2 or an impossible to find Star Wars figure at a garage sale is the ultimate joy for most collectors. 
  5. Community: Collecting some objects (such as Pokémon cards or comic books) might help connect you to a like-minded group of people who collect that as well. It’s something that may even elevate our status within that community. For some people, what they collect can give them a social connection to others that do so as well.
  6. Fun: Some people just have fun collecting these things, searching them out, researching them, meeting up with fellow collectors and showing off their collections.
  7. Lowering stress: People who collect things often say that they are less stressed and better able to unwind.Basically, the act of collecting something gives you a safe space where we can relax and leave the stress behind us.

So why do people collect things? For some, it relieves stress, for others it gives them a sense of community or accomplishment. There’s a myriad of reasons why people collect. At the end of the day, all that matters is that it somehow makes you happy doing so.

What do you collect and why?