Where do you get stamps?

I have no idea why I started because absolutely no one in my family ever collected stamps, or anything else for that matter. I just started soaking the stamps off of mail back in the early 70s and then, there were stamp shops, but the one I remember was a stamp counter on the second floor at a local retail store and I started riding my bike over there as often as I could, just to stand at the counter and look at the stamps and I started buying mint sets from the 30s-40s. That's how I got started. After that, it was going to shows and eventually, buying online and while today there aren't a lot of stamp shops out there anymore, you can get anything you want online, even very cheaply. Everything from kiloware to country-specific sets, if you want it, you can probably find it.

Similar to eggdog , earlier in this thread, I like to go to stamp shows/bourses and browse through old and abandoned collections. That is why I have 4 HE Harris Ambassador albums that I am currently going through, country by country and pulling out the stamps I need to add to my collection and the ones I will giveaway in my 2000 posts giveaway.

Most of the time I go to a stamp show with the intention of looking for a specific country or countries. There is one particular dealer who pulls country pages from old albums and sells the stamps as they are, on the pages, stapled into manila folders. I like buying this way because I can focus on one country or a couple of countries and buy all the manila folders for that country. I also get a lot of duplicates this way but that is trading/selling and giveaway material.

I like to occasionally buy a kiloware lot on eBay and, if I am really interested in a country for a while, I will look at buying lots and collections online.

I have a couple of friends also, who save mail for me and give me a stack every couple of months. One of these friends is the president of an organization that receives annual membership subscriptions. She gives me quite a stack of mail every year.

I also have been the recipient of more than a few giveaways and generous gifts from other members of this forum. I am very grateful to all of these members...thank you.

Finally, I have started trading stamps, something that I have not been very good at and/or reluctant to commit to but I am finding it fruitful and am trying to be better at it and it is prodding me to get my stamps more organized than what they are currently. If you only knew....

If you are still a student an your school has an international unit and see if they will save you stamped envelopes.

I started in the 80s as a kid but then inherited my grandfather's and uncles' and aunt's collections just a few years ago when my grandma finally passed at the age of 99! We cleaned out her home and no one wanted the collections, so I took them all and now have the responsibility to sort through them. I've got stamps from all over the world from the 1800s-1990s, but I think I am only going to keep Hong Kong stamps (that is where my family is from).

I find people giving away collections online for super cheap or free - stamp collecting isn't a hot hobby any more so there is an excess of stamps out there looking for homes. I would definitely recommend narrowing your focus because it can get overwhelming quickly!

Welcome and happy collecting!

SwapBot online also has a group called International Stamp Colllectors. They exchange envelopes of 20-40 and sometimes 75 stamps. It's a good way to get rid of your duplicates and get new stamps for your collection for just the cost of a postage stamp or two.