How to Collect

As we have seen from Chapter 2 there are a greatmany different kinds of postage stamps. The problemarises just what should you, or I, as individuals decide tocollect? Shall we collect the stamps of the world withoutdiscrimination? Or should we limit our fields of endeavor?In a previous chapter where we have outlined the stepsin starting a collection, we have advised that the beginnershould start out collecting "the world." This is goodadvice, for the tyro needs to learn about stamps and notjust about some particular kind of stamp. The first fewthousand stamps should be world wide in variety andcover all kinds of issues. They will, of course, be stampsof very low cost. Indeed their individual cost may not bedetermined. But they will supply the basic knowledgethat every advanced collector has to have before he canbuild a worth-while collection of any description. Theterm "worth-while" is used for lack of a better descrip-tion. Every collection is worth while no matter how