One or Ten - The Collector's Budget

I am not the full context of the question but I moderate my buying. I do not do impulse purchases nor buy something to just sort through to find something.

Fun idea for a thread, Vince (stanley64)!  At some point, I will need to learn how to do one of these "poll" threads.  At the moment, no clue.

I have also read with interest the responses already from Xavier (hrdoktorx), Alex (vikingeck), and Al (angore).  My answer echoes a bit of what has already been said:  my buying philosophy has changed over time, and it continues to change.

At the moment, I am lucky enough not to have any financial issues, so in theory, I could spend what I want to on stamps.  But in practice, I need to be sure that my savings remains intact for my retirement years, and I have to provide for my wife and myself, so I don't go crazy spending thousands on rare stamps.  That said, I am at the age when I am starting to feel my "philatelic mortality" as it were.

It means that I realize that I will never have the classic WW collection that I would like to have, because there just isn't enough time or financial resources to do it.  So, while I am still a WW classic era collector, I have decided to make my purchases much more focused on areas that I really like.  Some of those include Hong Kong (especially QV, KEVII, and KGV eras), Straits Settlements, Cape of Good Hope (especially triangles), Lagos, Orange Free State & River Colony, Australia (especially Kangaroo & Map issues), Australian States, Canada & Provinces, Danish West Indies, etc.

The list keeps getting longer, and perhaps I will end up right back where I started as a WW collector, but I hope to put the emphasis on countries or regions that I like, for whatever reason it may be.  So, my vote in the poll was that I would probably not buy anything with the fixed sum for the moment; I would set it aside and put it towards a really special item, either a tough single stamp or set of stamps that I really want.

Frankly, because of the availability of relatively inexpensive "box lots" from the local stamp auction, I already have a ton of other material to go through, so no point in spending my money on more of that sort of thing.  It's time for me to save it and be selective for some really special items.

Thanks again for a very nice thread, Vince! 

I agree with the "All of the above" comment by gmot !

For me, it all depends. For now, it is all I can get. But when September arrives, it'll be less as I'll be losing one-third of my pension. So then it'll be fewer. It also depends a lot on what I can find. I surf here & there looking (avoiding Ebay like the plague,) but if it isn't easy to find, or takes far too much clicking, I don't bother.

I have enough to keep me busy for a while as it is, without buying more. But then more is what we all want!

I was not sure of my answer beacuse for me it's a little different situation, I don't get a fixed amount of money to spend on stamps and since I'm not yet in the working class category I don't earn money.

So I try and find stamps which fit in my budget and I try to buy maximum but take into account quality and quantity.

I haven't bought anything this year actually, was busy with exams. Was planning to buy something from my favourite dealer but with the current situation I don't think that's going to be possible so soon.

BTW I've seen my nice 'Box Lots' on ebay, but shipping to India would not be worth it😞

I agree, this is an interesting question and not so easy to answer. In my early collecting days, I was eager to fill the holes in my collection and could consider to spend my budget on relatively few stamps. The postmark bug then hit me and it became more or less impossible to aim for completeness, since I wasn't keen on restricting myself to a certain period or a very small geographic region. Also, I tend to be drawn to areas where most of the stamps are relatively cheap, but possible to dive deep into variants like paper, perforations, phosphor bands etc. That's why I have a few pounds of GB kiloware waiting to be sorted. 

At this point acquiring one really nice stamp or cover would be far more satisfying than buying a bunch of them.

I remain a worldwide collector despite having made the attempt to narrow down my collecting habits about 20 years ago or so when I returned from Korea. I sold off a lot at that time but I find that I keep drifting back to the habit of saving and being interested in whatever I save. So, here I am...I just gave up on limitation and collect what I want and focus on different countries at various times.

I am attracted to the idea of specializing in something or focusing on a specific area and I will probably do so, but I really enjoy large lots with lots of stamps to go through. The last several times I have been to the local stamp bourse I have bought country collections of pages separated from an album and stapled into manila folders, or whole albums, usually worldwide, so I can remove stamps from pages depending on my interest at any given time. I also like buying old albums because there are a typically many unusual or oddball items like cinderellas or minor varieties, etc....

I try to refrain from using money for stamps from our household budget and try to accumulate money by selling books and stamps on sites such as eBay and I set that money aside for the stamp bourse. I occasionally will purchase stamps on eBay if I am looking for something specific but also like the idea of giving and receiving like here on The Stamp Forum.

I love to buy collections at a fraction of catalog and fill multiple empty spaces all at once and ( hopefully) upgrade the quality of others. I can often buy entire collections CHEAPER to get a single stamp than the price of buying that stamp alone.

For example, while I SWORE I wouldn’t buy anything else until I got what I have organized, I couldn’t pass up a collection that I bought this week. My Faroes collection was missing a nice used copy of Scott number 6 - catalog used - $250, 60o on 6o orange overprint, I won a Faroes collection (complete through 1990s) that includes 2-6 used on piece for around €100 including fees and shipping. All those mint complete sets are frosting on the cake and will be easy to trade.  Hey anyone want a bargain lot of mint Faroes?? LoL!

sorry for blurry image - pic of a pic. The lot hasn’t arrived yet. 

If you have any questions about postage stamps of the USSR and Russia, please contact us.I can always help with this topic.

For me, the answer really depends on the sum of money involved. If it was £100, the answer is likely to be 1, if £1,000, the answer is likely to be 10 as I would not normally spend that much on a single stamp.

At one time, not too long ago, I was down to picking off single items to add. But that became too hard since the single items didn't make themselves available, or the cost was more than I could handle.

Since then I've changed gears and no longer focus on any one area, but rather went full on worldwide. So now, no purchase is a wasted purchase. I try to incorporate as many duplicates as I can, including cancels and postmarks, shades, varieties and anything else I can find or use.

To answer the question..... I am very opportunistic and will buy whatever presents itself to me, that I think I can use, if it's at a decent price. If that means buying single stamps so be it. But I will also buy duplicates in bulk, if I see an opportunity to work them into the overall collection.

As an example, I recently purchased about 4 lbs of German von Hindenburg stamps, on paper. Why? Because I saw an opportunity to create a nice cancelation study of the period, but also perfins and whatever else I can glean from the piles.