Hi everyone After many years of collecting on and off (mostly off) on my own, I finally decided to join my local philatelic club. Well, not exactly the most local, 'cos that one meets on a Thursday which is our bridge night (best not to go there). Anyway, I turned up and they were all very friendly. I wasn't the youngest there, but nearly so, I think. I sat next to a bloke who told me he collects Indian Feudatory states (I think) and then another who collects Malay States. I collect engraved stamps and also Sweden (Gustav V) and France (1900-1940). Anyway, I joined the club. At the second meeting members displayed a few sheets of their choosing (letters F to N). Each introduced their sheets with some explanations about the material. It was quickly apparent that some of the members have a lot of knowledge and some impressive postal history material about some very recondite subjects, and also that everyone else in the room (except your reporter) knew all about these interests - there was a good deal of good humoured banter. I sat next to a rather quiet bloke who eventually told me that he just collects stamps - not covers and not these obscure specialist areas. He said he collected GB (QE2) and Nigeria. At the end of the meeting I was told that the next meeting - which will be in a few days from now - will be a competition - any 6 pages of your own choosing. I was quite interested and came home all fired up. I decided to give it a go - I'd present some pages of my collection of engraved stamps - I have stuff from about 20 different engravers, mainly from the 50s to the 70s. So I headed off to the stamp shop in Hemel and discussed the matter with the shop keeper there. He sold me some blank album pages (I've always collected in stockbooks), some black mounts, and some clear plastic envelopes to protect the stamps. About £35 worth. Next two weeks, choosing the stamps and experimenting with layout on the blank pages. I bought a guillotine for the mounts 'cos my scissor cutting wasn't very accurate. That was another £23. I then wondered how much time I'd be allowed at the meeting to present my pages to the other members. I rang another member who said no, you don't get to present your pages at all - they're displayed anonymously and the members all mark them on the basis of certain criteria, inc presentation, quality of stamps, information on the sheets, and your general knowledge about your subject. I have now decided not to enter the competition, but to go along next Wednesday and see how it goes. I think I could come off very badly by just showing some stamps that I think are really attractive and interesting. Spent an hour replacing the stamps in my stockbooks this morning. Roll on the next members choice evening - presumably letters O - Z or whatever. Maybe I can find an O-Z reference to hang a presentation on. So I'll go along next Wednesday to see what the others present, and I may feel brave enough to have a go next time around. Am I a bit weedy? Or is caution at this stage the best policy?
With great admiration and empathy I read your report. I know you have approached the decision to join a stamp club but WHY. Not a trick question but having met a few collectors in our area not keen to join the club. Our club has a similar senario regarding the lettering sequence and we call it 'items of interest' This is the time space anyone can show his particular pages or items and give a short relative detail to the members. 'Religiously' the stalwarts show their items. Some show uninteresting items, some new issues, some picture postcards, some items one has never seen, some pages opf thematic contend that a 6 year old would be proud of ( most members are 65 plus) and then now and then some gems. A while back a new member (his second visit) displayed a few blocks of 4 Hong Kong KGVI top values MNH and the '48 RSW set. Nobody oohed and aahed about them or asked a question. They are not often seen in blocks of 4 anywhere but here they were at our local club. Turned out to be an advanced collector of many years with obviously a fine collection. THE HK items were totally disregarded bar my having noticed them. The sad ending to date is that he has not shown anything else of exceptional collected value. Other side of the coin. Another advanced collector well known for many year in the club showed postal history of some UK town where his sister lived which was of immense interest to him and totally boring to hear detail, looking at them was enough for me anyhow. Faith - in ourselves is what matters. Who cares really what others think, at our advanced age we just pass it by. We go to clubs to get away from whatever you want to get away from and if it is in some way rewarding even just to be in a different setting it warms the soul. I for one find that our club is too rigid in an old tradition routine governed by a group of old hens. To change, putting new ideas forward is expelled. The powers that be delight in exhibiting which is wonderful to those involved but those who are not are treated with disdain and because we are wise old adults pass it by. Exchanging stamps or even selling stamps is a totally private matter and not encouraged at our meetings - saddly very restrained. Our committee prides itself to getting speakers to show off their collection which are invited from other towns. This can also be very interesting or boring depending what your disposition is. In 10 years I have one club member friend with whom I go to live auction. He looks for some NZ rarities I for African rarities but it always a lively day out in the philatelic cloud. Of course we spend some money much to the disapproval of family members ( they spend theirs in a different but same manner) So to sum up. Faith to do what you wish before your time is up.
And truer words were never spoken! Time and money are variable yet finite entities which everyone has to spend in their own manner. After family obligations are met (food, clothing, shelter, all other expenditures decided by the group), disposable income should be spread as agreed to and each individual should do something that makes them happy without any reasons to alibi why they did this or that. Glad to say that is one of the things the wife and I agree to!
I think it is a good experience to meet other collectors and join a club. Have not done that since a local/near stamp club is not available here in my area.
Good on you! I'm glad you found other people that share your hobby around you. I've always found that hobbies get a lot better when you have people to talk about them with and maybe even compete. I've been trying to find one in my local area, too. Maybe I'll start one with my friends.
I can understand your hesitation about entering the competition because you are leery that you might not win, but what if you do win? It could happen. Since the stamps are shown anonymously, it would not be a total embarrassment to you if you lose. And so what if you lose, losing is part of winning. If you lose, at least you will be part of the competition, you can learn what the judges are looking for, you can learn certain rules of the competition that you might not know. I would say go for it, but of course it's up to you.
I do not think it is about winning or losing. It is really about something you want to do. Why would one be embarrassed doing what you want to do. I would like to think that humanity, the level it has reached, was due to winners and losers and were all on the same highway as a species. Some Allien may disagree although.
VERY important point and one that I alluded to some time ago... you need to please yourself first and, if someone joins you 'for the ride', then you have pleased 2 people! THAT is what personal success is all about... being happy with what you yourself decide to do.
I have not encountered anyone yet here who also collect stamps. I also do not have the time to spend for it, maybe when I get older and working/earning become just a word to me.
Well, the club competition happened this week, and I decided not to enter my pages of engraved stamps from 6 countries. On the whole this was a good decision, but it was interesting that the entry that won was quite like my stuff, but a whole lot better. Six members entered, putting up 6 album pages each. We all then scored them, either using a points system (presentation, condition of items, completeness, knowledge of the subject, etc) or just a ranking without specifying criteria – in effect, “how much do you like this display?” The entries were John James Audubon’s visits to UK – stamps showing the man himself and lots showing his bird paintings, with plenty of info about Audubon and the visits to Britain. Uniform Penny Postage before 1840 – covers, post paid marks – very erudite stuff West African air mail services 1937-9 – postal history, photos of the planes, route maps and lots of postmarks Covers 1822-1910 – local postal history from the town, with explanations of the markings Great War POW postcards, with related info Hong Kong POW mail and Japanese censor marks – maps of the countries where the camps were located, etc. I laboriously scored each display in the limited time available – it was clear later that most people just gave a ranking on gut feeling. There wasn’t time to read every word on the pages shown, particularly as some members had filled their pages with hugely detailed explanations. The club chairman seemed unperturbed when looking at my scores for what I knew was his entry, and several members were keen to explain to me details of postal history that I was unaware of. The level of information provided was pretty impressive, and there were quite a lot of very fine items on display – the members really know their stuff. It would be interesting to know if the individuals have other areas of interest as well as the one they presented yesterday evening. The results – the Audubon stamps won, followed, by a short head, by Uniform Penny Postage. If I do have a go next time, I’ll need to find out a lot more than I now know about the engravers whose stamps I show. I know a bit about Pierre Gandon, Jules Piel, Albert Decaris and Czeslaw Slania, but to be a contender I’ll need to do a lot more work! But it was fun and as I’ve said, generally impressive.
Very impressive it must have been to have a philatelic dig-in and lots to discuss by the salted collectors. Too advanced collections may also put-off the budding starter, so a balance with the tryers should be kept in mind - not to overpower.
It is a great idea to join a club with people who are interested in the same things that you are and what a good way to collect and swap with other collectors.
Here I am again - but things are not quite the same. An unexpected development has happened. On the way home the day after the competition, I crashed the car. I had a blackout and hit a telegraph pole - luckily no other vehicle and no person involved. But the car's a write off (as is the pole) and my doc says I mustn't drive till tests and investigations have been done. I'm relieved by this - I don't feel safe at all, and wouldn't feel able to get behind the wheel. I consider myself incredibly lucky that this happened without harming anyone. Anyway, I'm beginning to learn how to live without a car - and getting to the stamp club will be difficult in the future. I'd like to keep going - next meeting has a speaker from one of the big stamp auction houses here in UK. Can I get there by public transport? Long walk! Or can I persuade my wife to take me and collect me? Or find another member to help? This last idea is the obvious one, but I'm a newbie and don't really know the other members well at all. Maybe I have to move to the more local club - but that clashes with the bridge night. I'll let you know how it all pans out.
I wish I had the courage to join a Stamp Club. I was only ever a member of a club once...largely postal (although I did attend two Annual meetings). In fat the membership was worldwide. It was based on an interest in collecting one country. It was in the mid 1980s. I was in my mid 30s and making the transition from being a fairly unfocussed average collector into the world of sensible adult collection (and obsession). I guess I was a member for about five years. And at the end of the five years, I knew a lot more than I did at the start. The thing about Stamp Collecting is that "knowledge" is important and the best source for knowledge is fellow collectors and good dealers (the type of dealers who are prepared to spend some time looking after customers). I was always a bit isolated geographically from the main membership who could meet up more regularly. So I found the social side of it quite hard. I always seemed to be a stranger with people who knew each other, thru meeting more often or simply over a longer period of time. There is pf course a different kind of dynamic in a "local" club...with a membership drawn from a specific area and collecting "the world". I have never really been motivated to join a local club. I have always liked to maintain a distance from other collectors. It maybe sounds like I am anti-social but its just a matter of balance for me. I just like to stay focussed.
Maybe you just do not have enough time for clubs for now and I do not think that it is being anti social.
