Post by bgh61 on Aug 6, 2023 9:33:01 GMT
Hi my name is Brian Hickling. I am British born in Nottingham England in 1961. I am 62 years old working for a Intrernational Organisation based in Paris France. I have now lived in Paris for 34 years but plan to retire back to England at the end of the year.
I started collecting stamps at an early age when a local post office was gifted for charity a hoard of stamps that they sold for charity at 1d each to the local children (I was about 8 at the time and this was where I spent my pocket money rather than on sweets like my freinds). My favorite stamp was the 6d Orange Tree of South Africa and still to this day I love that design.
As I grew up I started several little businesses, organising the local kids mowing lawns, baby sitting and collecting and delivering shopping to the elderly in our town. This got me enough money to regularily visit the stamp dealer in Nottingham to improve my little collection. As an adolecent I worked for ATARI and EMI writing games software for arcades and after leaving University worked in London for Raytheon first as a analyst and eventually as a consultant to the DOD (working for periods in the US). Then I left them and joined EUROCONTROL the international orgnisation for Aviation Safety where I am still working as a Safty Specialist for airlines, aircraft manufacturers, airports and air traffic control.
My collecting habits expanded exponentially as I got the resources needed for my hobbies. Philately for me is my main collecting passion but I also collect ancient coins, art, antiques, old toys, cigarette cards and have built up a 65,000+ volume library of works back to 15th century incunables. I have a Philatelic section of over 4000 books and thousands of auction catalogues and philatellic journals going back to the 19th century.
I started generally collecting rather randomly but concentrating on older materials mainly from the British Commonwealth. This turned into collecting classics and postal history over the years as gradulaly the remaining stamps and covers to find all became more and more difficut to obtain without costing me an "arm and a leg" so to speak. So I started to specialise in local and private postal services and in postal history. In the 90's thse were not areas where the prices of items really did not yet reflect the rarity or desirability and so opportunities existed to build up remarkable collections. I could not afford much of the items I purchased back then in todays market!
I have built up extensive exhibition level collections of many countries and I have exhibited at a few shows (I stopped this in 2006 due to my wifes long term illness and the time needed to prepare exhibits but still attend important exhibitions). I am well known to many dealers and auction houses in the stamp community and my specialist knowledge has gradually grown to the level that I have been asked on many occassions to examine and appraise collections or rare individual items as an expert. I have an excellent visual memory remembering nearly every stamp and postal history item I have ever seen which helps tremendously in identifying and classifying philatellic material as well as separating fakes from original items (as well as in my other collecting activities).
Some of my major current stamp collecting interests are the Zemstvo local posts of Russia, Mixed franking postal history and Early British commonwealth such as the first Mauritius, British Guiana and Indian states "primative" issues especially complete sheets. I now mainly lose at the big auctions but I still try my best...
I have never traded in Stamps or any of my collectibles since for me its an hobby not a business drawing a line between work and fun. Unfortunately niether my daughter nor my nephews have any interest whatsoever in my collections (other than a "why do you not sell them?" and live it up response) this is despite my encouragements when they were children. I have literally spent a fortune (most of the income from my work) over the last 40 years on my collecting "mania" and have often get the response from top dealers when I ask if they have any obtained new interesting items that I already have most of the best they have found over the years in my collections!
I never collected as an investment but due to the nature and desirabilty of much of my collectables many have in fact increased massively in real value over the years. However I would never advise anyone collecting stamps as an investment since the market depends upon completely unpredictable demand and the average age of collectors in our hobby seems to be ever increasing with the young tending to take up more "dynamic" pastimes. I say have fun do not speculate!
Although I have studied many aspects of my collections throughout the years I still learn new things everyday and love to share my knowledge and help others hence me joining this forum. I am a regular contributer to Reddit AskAStampCllector and Philately groups and I especially like to help novice collectors and encourage them.
Looking forward to being an active member.
Brian
I started collecting stamps at an early age when a local post office was gifted for charity a hoard of stamps that they sold for charity at 1d each to the local children (I was about 8 at the time and this was where I spent my pocket money rather than on sweets like my freinds). My favorite stamp was the 6d Orange Tree of South Africa and still to this day I love that design.
As I grew up I started several little businesses, organising the local kids mowing lawns, baby sitting and collecting and delivering shopping to the elderly in our town. This got me enough money to regularily visit the stamp dealer in Nottingham to improve my little collection. As an adolecent I worked for ATARI and EMI writing games software for arcades and after leaving University worked in London for Raytheon first as a analyst and eventually as a consultant to the DOD (working for periods in the US). Then I left them and joined EUROCONTROL the international orgnisation for Aviation Safety where I am still working as a Safty Specialist for airlines, aircraft manufacturers, airports and air traffic control.
My collecting habits expanded exponentially as I got the resources needed for my hobbies. Philately for me is my main collecting passion but I also collect ancient coins, art, antiques, old toys, cigarette cards and have built up a 65,000+ volume library of works back to 15th century incunables. I have a Philatelic section of over 4000 books and thousands of auction catalogues and philatellic journals going back to the 19th century.
I started generally collecting rather randomly but concentrating on older materials mainly from the British Commonwealth. This turned into collecting classics and postal history over the years as gradulaly the remaining stamps and covers to find all became more and more difficut to obtain without costing me an "arm and a leg" so to speak. So I started to specialise in local and private postal services and in postal history. In the 90's thse were not areas where the prices of items really did not yet reflect the rarity or desirability and so opportunities existed to build up remarkable collections. I could not afford much of the items I purchased back then in todays market!
I have built up extensive exhibition level collections of many countries and I have exhibited at a few shows (I stopped this in 2006 due to my wifes long term illness and the time needed to prepare exhibits but still attend important exhibitions). I am well known to many dealers and auction houses in the stamp community and my specialist knowledge has gradually grown to the level that I have been asked on many occassions to examine and appraise collections or rare individual items as an expert. I have an excellent visual memory remembering nearly every stamp and postal history item I have ever seen which helps tremendously in identifying and classifying philatellic material as well as separating fakes from original items (as well as in my other collecting activities).
Some of my major current stamp collecting interests are the Zemstvo local posts of Russia, Mixed franking postal history and Early British commonwealth such as the first Mauritius, British Guiana and Indian states "primative" issues especially complete sheets. I now mainly lose at the big auctions but I still try my best...
I have never traded in Stamps or any of my collectibles since for me its an hobby not a business drawing a line between work and fun. Unfortunately niether my daughter nor my nephews have any interest whatsoever in my collections (other than a "why do you not sell them?" and live it up response) this is despite my encouragements when they were children. I have literally spent a fortune (most of the income from my work) over the last 40 years on my collecting "mania" and have often get the response from top dealers when I ask if they have any obtained new interesting items that I already have most of the best they have found over the years in my collections!
I never collected as an investment but due to the nature and desirabilty of much of my collectables many have in fact increased massively in real value over the years. However I would never advise anyone collecting stamps as an investment since the market depends upon completely unpredictable demand and the average age of collectors in our hobby seems to be ever increasing with the young tending to take up more "dynamic" pastimes. I say have fun do not speculate!
Although I have studied many aspects of my collections throughout the years I still learn new things everyday and love to share my knowledge and help others hence me joining this forum. I am a regular contributer to Reddit AskAStampCllector and Philately groups and I especially like to help novice collectors and encourage them.
Looking forward to being an active member.
Brian
Brian
.... Ludwig
