I collected coins avidly when I was ~10-13 and the hobby just re-ignited itself with me again, now 30 years later (I can't exactly explain how or why, but here we are).
I went to a coin show today on a whim and what I discovered was that there are ALL types of collectors, and everyone should really understand that:
* There's 10 year old me that was obsessed with finding the rare die varieties hidden in the $1 bins,
* There's 42 year old me that is now getting deep joy buying the rare gems (1790s silver dollars, $20 gold pieces, etc.) that were beyond out-of-reach of 10-year-old me
* There's folks who obsess over filling every date of a specific series
Etc. etc. etc.
Find your joy and run with it, and definitely don't try to tell someone that their joy is the wrong one.
Coins are a great hobby. Something at every price point, with art and history to appreciate.
My current “serious” collecting project is to assemble an AU quality US half dollar type set, but I also have a few themed collections (sailboats, trees) composed of mainly dollar bin world coins. Both ways of collecting give me a lot of joy.
Funny to see this - had a similar situation recently (sort of) with a train shop. I couldn’t care less about collecting trains - I bought a train a few years ago for xmas and my kids loved it so I bought a year round one as well. Lionel trains are not cheap and easy to repair. Both have already broke where a significant repair was needed.
I watched videos and tried to fix one that wouldn’t fire up at all. Took it to the shop and the proprieties seemed kind of annoying with me as I asked for their help to repair (of course intending to pay). They gave me a lecture about letting a four year old play with a train like this. Usually I’d lose my temper and start arguing but my son really missed the train.
They ended up replacing the engine board ($120 bucks) and took forever to get it back to me.
I get that people have sacrosanct hobbies like coding, sports, etc. They have to understand that dilettantes like me may want to dabble!
Also I am a self taught DBA and never ever use keys. I’ll take in any incoming fire as probably deserved :).
I was nodding along with you (though I'm not into trains anymore) until this:
> Also I am a self taught DBA and never ever use keys. I’ll take in any incoming fire as probably deserved :).
... that's like saying "I'm a self-taught programmer, but I never use functions."
I mean, yeah, you can still get some things done that way, but if you spent a little time learning what's possible, you might be a lot happier with the end product.
I went to a train store a few years back, and yes there was definitely a "trains are serious business" vibe about the place.
Maybe it's because most of the customers have white hair and extra money.
Thing is, it's hilarious how seriously trains are done!
You buy a DCC locomotive and it has lights that light up in the direction of travel. The engine spools up with a delay like a real locomotive with sound increasing, the air brakes releasing and only then does it move. And they have 20 horns to choose from - pick the right one for the regional line you're simulating. Sort of nuts.
I was talking to another customer though and he balanced it all out. He said he had too many trains. He told me it was really relaxing to go downstairs after dinner with a glass of wine and run his trains or work on his layout.
I'm glad rock-collecting isn't like this. There's obviously the people who travel to localities to hand-collect their own samples and the people who just think rocks are pretty. But everyone has been very welcoming since I got back into it and even the most knowledgeable and serious dealer will talk to you at your level. You want a sample of malachite because it's really neat-looking? Great. You want to sit and talk about the composition, formation conditions, and what other minerals form alongside it? That's great too! Also, I have these samples I haven't put out for sale yet, but you seem interested and I really want to show them to you.
Having spent so much time in the horse world, the "You like rocks? Me too! Look at this one!" Attitude is so refreshing.
LEGO makes (made) trains that are roughly Lionel size and they're much more durable (and though some of the parts are older and expensive, they're available).
Yeah, I took my kids to a train show (having had them as a kid myself) and someone started telling my seven year olds that they have to pick an era and a location so they could make sure they got appropriate stuff.
My daughter just wanted the rainbow painted grain hopper. Steered them away before he could ruin the whole thing for them.
I really see the moral of the story here is to simply not care so much what other people think. You do you. There are always these kinds of people who think their way of doing the hobby/passion is the right way or even the only way. You see this in cycling where you have to have a carbon fiber road bike and fancy lycra to be a cyclist, you obviously can't be having fun on an old bike just leisurely riding around the neighborhood!
If you want to collect stuff and organize by country go for it! Don't let people take away the joy because they are narrow minded.
Honestly, this is a problem with everything. Snobs are sort of a double edged sword. They are great because they are very passionate and likely spend a lot of time on the topic at hand (could be anything. Maybe it's running, classical music, Buddhism, beer etc.). You can learn a lot from them. On the downside, since they are so opinionated they can be frequently insufferable. I think you have to learn to not take their opinions too seriously and continue to have fun.
> You see this in cycling where you have to have a carbon fiber road bike and fancy lycra to be a cyclist, you obviously can't be having fun on an old bike just leisurely riding around the neighborhood!
I’m
Confused. Who exactly cares what you ride?? Someone has actually said something to you??
When I was a kid in the 70s I had a small stamp collection. We'd trade them with my friends. Bought a few. A friends Mom worked at a university and would get a lot from overseas stamps to bring to us.
They're like little pieces of art and are pretty cheap. They're a window into history.
They have a brief overview of the museum. Its a targeted a little at the younger set, but a decent overveiw. (They have boxes of stamps they sell to kids for a couple cents each according to the video). They show the first stamp, an owl stamp collection (hedwig included) a box for mailing eggs, and a dress made of stamps.
What? You're just coding for fun? Where's your helm charts? If you're going to be serious about this, you'll need to learn three languages. HTML isn't a language. Make sure it works across platforms, too. Also, you have make it multicloud.
> It takes me several years to actually accept that the stamp album is gone, not hiding in a box somewhere or shelved away in some dusty corner of my mum’s garage.
I lost my comic book collection. I was sure it was stolen. I looked everywhere for it.
About 20 years later it reappeared in the back of the closet. I have no explanation.
I think OP failed to realize there are 0011 kinds of people in the world.
0001) your average joe. He just wants a stamp.
0010) You. You want some stamps, but you are not "into it".
0011) Those guys at the store. 0001 and 0010 are rubbish and should not be speaking to them, for they are elite stamp collectors, just like everyone else should be.
It is getting harder to just find people "into it". I am a hi-fi enthusiast. I also have advanced degrees in EE and Physics, but I try to not let that get in the way. Talking to people on hi-fi forums seems MUCH harder than say, 10 years ago (and I never left the forum). Now I am one of the silent lurkers.
My point is not to go "forums now suck", but I think that "real collectors" are too extreme now... hrm, perhaps just like everything else? Polarized?
A friend recently pointed out that fandoms are like a fractal, and as you zoom in it becomes increasingly hardcore and dedicated.
The next layer on your list is probably the stamp collector that only loves a certain kind of stamp with some obscure feature and will talk your ear off about it. Probably something like how only the stamps made in a specific year by one company are any good because they use a highly specialized glue which really makes it the pinnacle of stamp technology. A real "they just don't make em like they used to".
People become obsessed with things to such an extreme degree that they end up drowning out anyone without an equivalent level of dedication. It becomes a problem when people chose to play status games instead of just enjoying their hobby.
Some forums exemplify the long tail of hobby fanaticism. What used to be a couple people in the back of the convention that were hardcore is now a large group of those disparate people in a forum.
Sometimes you have to find a different forum. That's also why you'll see multiple subreddits for the same thing. They embody different aspects of the topic and draw people that associate with that aspect. Sometimes some of the same people in both, but the purport themselves differently depending on where they are.
I remember how forums used to always have a few extremely knowledgeable individuals that would post and give insights but for the most part would be pretty nice and humble. Sometimes they even worked in the industy. And a lot of times they wouldn't even comment until another user called them out.
Then the psuedo experts started showing up. They either overestimate their experience or just spent some time on wikipedia and think that they're an expert, and they make a point to pick apart every post they can. And even less knowledgeable posters will back the pseudo expert because they are relentless and are able to sound smart.
It is the same thing in synth and guitar circles. Maybe now we have just discussed all of these things as nauseum for so long the only way to move the discussion forward is this extremeness.
there are people who are super into things and will discuss fine grades of distinctions and super snobby sounding criteria with fellow enthusiasts, but will also appreciate and encourage someone who just wants to dabble.
If anyone is interested in stamps as more of a casual hobby where you get more joy in seeing a wide variety than a pristine, ordered collection, I highly recommend https://www.postcrossing.com/. It's an international postcard exchange program, most certainly low-tech in this day and age, but I find it immensely satisfying. I buy as many combinations of stamps as I can (the US's international stamp is boring) and love choosing the perfect ones for my postcard's recipient.
List in your profile that you like stamps or even say the type you're interested in. You'll be amazed at some of the ones you'll get from all over the world.
It took me decades to chat in bars about things I have a lot of detailed knowledge about. Learning to listen to stories and not automatically correct took some time.
Maybe because generally men have a lot of trouble identifying their self worth in society, maybe because few people are actually that sympathetic to men and their struggle to find meaningful fulfillment within their lives.
Every struggle is seen as a negative, some "toxic" side of masculinity that needs to be eradicated rather than embraced and understood. We are positively hostile to it.
And somewhat strangely we also attack femininity, though in a less openly hostile manner, more killed with compassion. We seem to feel sorry for outward femininity which appears to be having the effect of pushing women towards a more masculine outlook. I feel we no longer adore femininity like we once did.
Some may argue that this is all for the best, and that we need to push us all to some more less defined state, but I'm not so sure that the cost in diversity is worth it.
Is it really just a "fight for status among males"?
If you don't correct someone, I only see two possibilities:
1. The topic is so worthless (to you) it doesn't matter if they're wrong.
2. They are so worthless (to you) it's not worth correcting them on an important topic.
2b. They lack the intelligence (IQ or EQ) to grow from being corrected.
Of course, a some of the time this is right.
Yes there's also a chance that you're wrong (in which case correcting them may result in you being corrected, or at least a potentially fruitful discussion), but the same would apply - is the topic and person worthwhile the chance of upsetting a thin-skinned idiot?
I’ve taken it a step further and play along with spiritual and astrology talk from women.
About 2/3rds of guys and 1/3rd of other women act very confused that I’m not immediately denigrating the person talking about signs and dietary restrictions. Turns out all you have to do is not do that, and a lot of things open up with very visually attractive people. Yeah, I’ll talk about higher vibrations with the fun lean vegan woman.
They're used to people pedantically challenging their belief system, but many can amplify their interest in you if you simply don't do that.
I think a lot of collectors collect specifically for the same reason people grind in RPGs: to get the mental and emotional satisfaction from the "complete set" (of stamps, or rare armor, or whatever).
Collecting without such a goal would, to people like that (who I assume comprise the large majority of collectors) would seem like a colossal waste of time. Why grind out the dungeon to get the greaves and the chest plate and then not spend a few more hours to get the helm?!!
Most human behavior is not very rational, and I say that referring to both parties in this story.
-The problem, of course, being: What do you do when the collection is complete? (I ran into that problem once - I collected stamps fairly seriously during my childhood and youth, spurred on by my father who was and is really into it.
However, I narrowed my collection to two themes - Norway and scout-themed stamps and letters from all over the world.
Once the Norway collection was complete to the current date, it was a massive 'meh' moment - just obtaining new stamps as they were issued wasn't much of a challenge, so the Norway albums were put on the shelf, and interest in stamp collecting withered quickly.
The HN analog to the Australian album experience is a new acquaintance telling a software engineer about their idea for an app.
The stamp shop people were professionals, that's why it looked like an office. They showed the author how their business worked. Showed what it would be like to do business with them.
That's not what the author wanted. There wasn't anything personal about it. They didn't string the author along. They didn't provide ambiguous social signals. The author was just a little slow on the uptake. A little slow to say thanks for your time.
Educating potential customers is part of a professional's life. The author learned something about stamp collecting. It's no more exclusively what he does than it is exclusively selling Australian collections.
Just to add some context for why the dealer probably acted that way.
Stamp collectors for exploration are quite a bit different from the kinds of collectors that tend to go to stamp dealers (I am one of those collectors).
You end up focussing on extremely narrow areas of the hobby to the point where you are hunting down which library has a painting a stamp is copied from or trying to track down an envelope sent by a particular person from a particular city.
You can have 10 different variations of a stamp that look all the same except under a magnifying glass.
There are collectors who have hundreds of thousands of dollars in their collections and all of the same single stamp. Just 1000 different copies of it.
The premier component of my collection is an exhibit on the 1982 Canadian Philatelic Youth Issue, a single stamp series (about stamps).
So for a lot of collectors (including the ones willing to spend thousands a year) it’s less an accumulation hobby and more a specific research project.
Not excusing the behaviour of the dealers, but meeting someone who collected so widely could be unusual for them.
The problem is that some of those collectors don't realize that there are any other ways of approaching a hobby.
A while back on BGG, someone new dropped a question in a forum about designing a game based on a web comic. He was told immediately that he'd never make money, that he'd never be successful without more experience than he'd be willing to get, and to top it off, got a long lecture from one grognard about how the game---based on a comic---would be a total failure unless he dropped the concept and rebased it on said grognard's own ideas.
The newbie concluded, rightly, that it wasn't a welcoming community.
I have collected stamps as a kid and I have been collecting Postal History for decades on and off, focusing mainly on research and writing up the covers that I have managed to collect. Kept me sane during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Philately is not about 'chasing madly a missing stamp', but a journey for those interested in history, especially local history. It is still a great hobby and to anyone interested to start, start from buying a small collection. Most collectors will either buy from a dealer, but most often from an auction. See https://stampauctionnetwork.com/ as an example. You can build a collection with very little money or spent hundreds of thousands.
It inspires me to hold an old letter (cover or wrapper in philatelic jargon), that has travelled through a ship across continents and has survived for 200 years and now is in my collection. Pre-stamp letters go for very little, especially North American, British and really for a song for most European countries.
The bitcoin of the early eighties was 'getting into hard assets'. Lots of funds invested into stamps and drove prices to levels that collectors couldn't buy. They burnt their fingers, while collectors waited. It is still a huge market possibly 3-5 billion USD a year. As an investment I would not recommend them, but as a nice indoor hobby and to socialize outside your own circle is worth it.
Lots of discussion about collecting (and in seeking to own a complete set of stamps, coins etc) vs exploring. I wonder though if for most if the pleasure is in a combination of the two.
When I was very young I collected the stamps of my country - which I guess will be fairly common. Seeking out issues that I was missing was appealing and there was definitely a thrill in tracking down missing items.
At the same time I learned about history (albeit in a superficial way) both from knowing about the era in which the stamps were issued and, for more recent issues, from the topics depicted on the stamps. That knowledge seemed to stick too and more so than just from reading books. I guess I also learned a little about markets and scarcity.
I wonder if that knowledge would have stuck without the effort of seeking and the reward of finding and whether we have lost something in the ease of access to information today.
This resonates with something I've thought about as a surfer, which is that humans have a really perverse tendency to overvalue scarcity and undervalue what is good but common and easily accessible. In the surfing context, humans cluster very densely on waves that are deemed "good," and then complain about crowds, while endless miles of coastline with different waves go totally unridden. We all want that "rare" wave, and have trouble being happy with the sort of waves that are commonplace.
I know what I am meant to think and feel in response to this article, but I don't. Keeping in mind that this was written by the one of the three people in the story, who took it upon themselves to post about the experience online later, I can only assume there is some level of bias and quite possibly exaggeration. Put simply, these are the facts of the interaction: 1. An inexperienced individual enters a highly specialized area. 2. Someone who we can assume is highly experienced takes time out of their day to explain to them their (probably popular) conception of how the specialized area functions. 3. This experienced individual gives them something of value relating to the highly specialized area (I do not know what the cash value of this thing is, but it is nonzero), likely in hopes of future business. 4. The inexperienced individual is upset and posts about the interaction online, tagging it with "jerk".
I understand the point of the article, but the characterization of the shopkeeper seems unfair. If you're unwilling to learn from someone because they don't understand what exactly you're trying to do, or because they speak condescendingly, or because they smell bad, or because you disagree with their opinion on X, Y, or Z, you will not learn very much.
Perhaps it is honest rather than embellished. I have had similar experiences with bike shops. Some seem to be more interested in converting or repulsing customers who don't fit their definition of serious.
That being said, the author did walk into the shop with a rather difficult request. How do you recreate something personal?
I thought this was written in an open enough way to leave room for a wide range of takeaways, and it also seems fair to say the shop keeper was acting like a jerk. Not that he's obliged to serve a client who's looking for something so different from what the shop provides, but he could have been more pleasant, and just let the customer know he doesn't have what he's looking for.
I think there is a place in the world for people with specialized interests to have a shop that caters exclusively to other people who are deep into the hobby, and to be a little brusk to normies who wander in looking for something else. It sure would have been a lot nicer if the shop keeper just understood the situation and kindly explained "That's not what we do here", but, hey, not everybody's gonna be super nice. It's part of life.
It's definitely bizarre to focus ONLY on "complete collections". WTF! It kind of speaks to making EVERYTHING about money and some bizarre and screwed up ideals as well.
I have a pretty decent stamp collection that I inherited from my father who collected stamps since 1940 up to shortly before he died. He picked up stamps partially based on historical relevance (so NOT 100% from any one country - but for example he liked the inter-war stamps of countries involved in WW2) and then because he thought some were simply pretty. He easily spent $200K on stamps over his lifetime.
The obsession with 100% of everything seems OCD to me - not healthy.
I also collect rocks and minerals - I don't try to collect "one of everything" but rather simply what either looks cool or that is chemically/geologically fascinating to me.
As a seven year old I was a member of my schools philately club. I could buy mixed bags for 20p each, the local police superintendent was a very knowledgeable member as well. I would talk about stamps and countries with my fellow members, it was wonderful.
After leaving primary school I kept collecting, but slowed down as a teenager.
Then as an adult I got serious again. I visited a few philately shops to buy the missing pieces in my UK and Ireland stamp collections. The owners were totally disinterested. They were more interested in knowing about what I had. I did have some very rare stamps, worth about 4-figures. I didn't want to part with them because family members gave them to me. But the way those dealers were obsessed with money over simple enjoyment bothered me.
Some people care about the enjoyment more than the money.
Reminded of the scene in the movie Unbreakable when Samuel L Jackson's character refuses to sell the rare drawing to the man after he reveals it was going to be a gift for a young child, who would be unable to fully appreciate it.
Stamps are one of the most portable collectibles. (Along with bugs.) Moves forced the loss of other collections ... but I've kept the collection of "only about 6000 or 7000 stamps" I made as a kid (I counted once).
It went with me to stay at grandma's, on babysitting jobs, on summer trips that went to nowhere to do nothing. Open the book, get out the hinges, dive in.
I learned a lot about world geography, culture, arts and crafts, and political BS from those revealing little bits of 'official' history. The 'most valuable' stamp I found (nothing printed on it) taught me -nothing-.
You missed an opportunity to learn from that blank stamp, I think. It probably could have taught you something about the manufacturing process of stamps.
[+] [-] nlh|5 years ago|reply
I went to a coin show today on a whim and what I discovered was that there are ALL types of collectors, and everyone should really understand that:
* There's 10 year old me that was obsessed with finding the rare die varieties hidden in the $1 bins,
* There's 42 year old me that is now getting deep joy buying the rare gems (1790s silver dollars, $20 gold pieces, etc.) that were beyond out-of-reach of 10-year-old me
* There's folks who obsess over filling every date of a specific series
Etc. etc. etc.
Find your joy and run with it, and definitely don't try to tell someone that their joy is the wrong one.
[+] [-] jurassic|5 years ago|reply
My current “serious” collecting project is to assemble an AU quality US half dollar type set, but I also have a few themed collections (sailboats, trees) composed of mainly dollar bin world coins. Both ways of collecting give me a lot of joy.
[+] [-] Agentlien|5 years ago|reply
I think there's a charm to finding how you yourself best enjoy a niche hobby.
[+] [-] bernardv|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Vaslo|5 years ago|reply
I watched videos and tried to fix one that wouldn’t fire up at all. Took it to the shop and the proprieties seemed kind of annoying with me as I asked for their help to repair (of course intending to pay). They gave me a lecture about letting a four year old play with a train like this. Usually I’d lose my temper and start arguing but my son really missed the train.
They ended up replacing the engine board ($120 bucks) and took forever to get it back to me.
I get that people have sacrosanct hobbies like coding, sports, etc. They have to understand that dilettantes like me may want to dabble!
Also I am a self taught DBA and never ever use keys. I’ll take in any incoming fire as probably deserved :).
[+] [-] ansible|5 years ago|reply
> Also I am a self taught DBA and never ever use keys. I’ll take in any incoming fire as probably deserved :).
... that's like saying "I'm a self-taught programmer, but I never use functions."
I mean, yeah, you can still get some things done that way, but if you spent a little time learning what's possible, you might be a lot happier with the end product.
[+] [-] m463|5 years ago|reply
Maybe it's because most of the customers have white hair and extra money.
Thing is, it's hilarious how seriously trains are done!
You buy a DCC locomotive and it has lights that light up in the direction of travel. The engine spools up with a delay like a real locomotive with sound increasing, the air brakes releasing and only then does it move. And they have 20 horns to choose from - pick the right one for the regional line you're simulating. Sort of nuts.
I was talking to another customer though and he balanced it all out. He said he had too many trains. He told me it was really relaxing to go downstairs after dinner with a glass of wine and run his trains or work on his layout.
I think the best train guy was Gomez Addams.
[+] [-] msrenee|5 years ago|reply
Having spent so much time in the horse world, the "You like rocks? Me too! Look at this one!" Attitude is so refreshing.
[+] [-] bombcar|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ceejayoz|5 years ago|reply
My daughter just wanted the rainbow painted grain hopper. Steered them away before he could ruin the whole thing for them.
[+] [-] karaokeyoga|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] s0rce|5 years ago|reply
If you want to collect stuff and organize by country go for it! Don't let people take away the joy because they are narrow minded.
[+] [-] Emphere|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] megablast|5 years ago|reply
I’m Confused. Who exactly cares what you ride?? Someone has actually said something to you??
[+] [-] tectonic|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acomjean|5 years ago|reply
They're like little pieces of art and are pretty cheap. They're a window into history.
For example 2020 US stamps cover a range of topics: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2019/1022-...
There is even a Stamp Museum we'd visit from time to time (Its still there in Wellsley Ma).
http://www.spellmanmuseum.org
They have a brief overview of the museum. Its a targeted a little at the younger set, but a decent overveiw. (They have boxes of stamps they sell to kids for a couple cents each according to the video). They show the first stamp, an owl stamp collection (hedwig included) a box for mailing eggs, and a dress made of stamps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giZs2ZNkbXU&t=4s
I stopped collecting in high school. One wonders if stamp collecting will continue to be a thing?
[+] [-] humaniania|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lordnacho|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gamacodre|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] WalterBright|5 years ago|reply
I lost my comic book collection. I was sure it was stolen. I looked everywhere for it.
About 20 years later it reappeared in the back of the closet. I have no explanation.
[+] [-] readingnews|5 years ago|reply
My point is not to go "forums now suck", but I think that "real collectors" are too extreme now... hrm, perhaps just like everything else? Polarized?
[+] [-] TheAceOfHearts|5 years ago|reply
The next layer on your list is probably the stamp collector that only loves a certain kind of stamp with some obscure feature and will talk your ear off about it. Probably something like how only the stamps made in a specific year by one company are any good because they use a highly specialized glue which really makes it the pinnacle of stamp technology. A real "they just don't make em like they used to".
People become obsessed with things to such an extreme degree that they end up drowning out anyone without an equivalent level of dedication. It becomes a problem when people chose to play status games instead of just enjoying their hobby.
[+] [-] kbenson|5 years ago|reply
Sometimes you have to find a different forum. That's also why you'll see multiple subreddits for the same thing. They embody different aspects of the topic and draw people that associate with that aspect. Sometimes some of the same people in both, but the purport themselves differently depending on where they are.
[+] [-] bpcpdx|5 years ago|reply
So that's where you guys went.
I remember how forums used to always have a few extremely knowledgeable individuals that would post and give insights but for the most part would be pretty nice and humble. Sometimes they even worked in the industy. And a lot of times they wouldn't even comment until another user called them out.
Then the psuedo experts started showing up. They either overestimate their experience or just spent some time on wikipedia and think that they're an expert, and they make a point to pick apart every post they can. And even less knowledgeable posters will back the pseudo expert because they are relentless and are able to sound smart.
[+] [-] tjr225|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zem|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TheBolivianNavy|5 years ago|reply
List in your profile that you like stamps or even say the type you're interested in. You'll be amazed at some of the ones you'll get from all over the world.
[+] [-] kingsuper20|5 years ago|reply
It took me decades to chat in bars about things I have a lot of detailed knowledge about. Learning to listen to stories and not automatically correct took some time.
Nobody loves a pedant.
[+] [-] Guthur|5 years ago|reply
Every struggle is seen as a negative, some "toxic" side of masculinity that needs to be eradicated rather than embraced and understood. We are positively hostile to it.
And somewhat strangely we also attack femininity, though in a less openly hostile manner, more killed with compassion. We seem to feel sorry for outward femininity which appears to be having the effect of pushing women towards a more masculine outlook. I feel we no longer adore femininity like we once did.
Some may argue that this is all for the best, and that we need to push us all to some more less defined state, but I'm not so sure that the cost in diversity is worth it.
[+] [-] wisty|5 years ago|reply
If you don't correct someone, I only see two possibilities:
1. The topic is so worthless (to you) it doesn't matter if they're wrong.
2. They are so worthless (to you) it's not worth correcting them on an important topic.
2b. They lack the intelligence (IQ or EQ) to grow from being corrected.
Of course, a some of the time this is right.
Yes there's also a chance that you're wrong (in which case correcting them may result in you being corrected, or at least a potentially fruitful discussion), but the same would apply - is the topic and person worthwhile the chance of upsetting a thin-skinned idiot?
[+] [-] vmception|5 years ago|reply
I’ve taken it a step further and play along with spiritual and astrology talk from women.
About 2/3rds of guys and 1/3rd of other women act very confused that I’m not immediately denigrating the person talking about signs and dietary restrictions. Turns out all you have to do is not do that, and a lot of things open up with very visually attractive people. Yeah, I’ll talk about higher vibrations with the fun lean vegan woman.
They're used to people pedantically challenging their belief system, but many can amplify their interest in you if you simply don't do that.
[+] [-] sneak|5 years ago|reply
Collecting without such a goal would, to people like that (who I assume comprise the large majority of collectors) would seem like a colossal waste of time. Why grind out the dungeon to get the greaves and the chest plate and then not spend a few more hours to get the helm?!!
Most human behavior is not very rational, and I say that referring to both parties in this story.
[+] [-] lb1lf|5 years ago|reply
However, I narrowed my collection to two themes - Norway and scout-themed stamps and letters from all over the world.
Once the Norway collection was complete to the current date, it was a massive 'meh' moment - just obtaining new stamps as they were issued wasn't much of a challenge, so the Norway albums were put on the shelf, and interest in stamp collecting withered quickly.
Oh well. It was great fun while it lasted. :)
[+] [-] pugworthy|5 years ago|reply
Socializers enjoy talking about stamps, reading about stamps, engaging in online forums about stamps, etc.
Explorers like to just find new stamps - anything new.
Achievers want to maximize their stamps - all of a given time, given type, country, value, etc.
Killers? Well that one I'm not so sure about. Maybe they just want to screw others out of good collections.
[+] [-] brudgers|5 years ago|reply
The stamp shop people were professionals, that's why it looked like an office. They showed the author how their business worked. Showed what it would be like to do business with them.
That's not what the author wanted. There wasn't anything personal about it. They didn't string the author along. They didn't provide ambiguous social signals. The author was just a little slow on the uptake. A little slow to say thanks for your time.
Educating potential customers is part of a professional's life. The author learned something about stamp collecting. It's no more exclusively what he does than it is exclusively selling Australian collections.
[+] [-] MattGaiser|5 years ago|reply
Stamp collectors for exploration are quite a bit different from the kinds of collectors that tend to go to stamp dealers (I am one of those collectors).
You end up focussing on extremely narrow areas of the hobby to the point where you are hunting down which library has a painting a stamp is copied from or trying to track down an envelope sent by a particular person from a particular city.
You can have 10 different variations of a stamp that look all the same except under a magnifying glass.
There are collectors who have hundreds of thousands of dollars in their collections and all of the same single stamp. Just 1000 different copies of it.
The premier component of my collection is an exhibit on the 1982 Canadian Philatelic Youth Issue, a single stamp series (about stamps).
So for a lot of collectors (including the ones willing to spend thousands a year) it’s less an accumulation hobby and more a specific research project.
Not excusing the behaviour of the dealers, but meeting someone who collected so widely could be unusual for them.
[+] [-] mcguire|5 years ago|reply
A while back on BGG, someone new dropped a question in a forum about designing a game based on a web comic. He was told immediately that he'd never make money, that he'd never be successful without more experience than he'd be willing to get, and to top it off, got a long lecture from one grognard about how the game---based on a comic---would be a total failure unless he dropped the concept and rebased it on said grognard's own ideas.
The newbie concluded, rightly, that it wasn't a welcoming community.
[+] [-] yannis|5 years ago|reply
Philately is not about 'chasing madly a missing stamp', but a journey for those interested in history, especially local history. It is still a great hobby and to anyone interested to start, start from buying a small collection. Most collectors will either buy from a dealer, but most often from an auction. See https://stampauctionnetwork.com/ as an example. You can build a collection with very little money or spent hundreds of thousands.
It inspires me to hold an old letter (cover or wrapper in philatelic jargon), that has travelled through a ship across continents and has survived for 200 years and now is in my collection. Pre-stamp letters go for very little, especially North American, British and really for a song for most European countries.
The bitcoin of the early eighties was 'getting into hard assets'. Lots of funds invested into stamps and drove prices to levels that collectors couldn't buy. They burnt their fingers, while collectors waited. It is still a huge market possibly 3-5 billion USD a year. As an investment I would not recommend them, but as a nice indoor hobby and to socialize outside your own circle is worth it.
[+] [-] ISL|5 years ago|reply
* at least in capital cost. I imagine he expended plenty of time and travel on the subject.
[+] [-] klelatti|5 years ago|reply
When I was very young I collected the stamps of my country - which I guess will be fairly common. Seeking out issues that I was missing was appealing and there was definitely a thrill in tracking down missing items.
At the same time I learned about history (albeit in a superficial way) both from knowing about the era in which the stamps were issued and, for more recent issues, from the topics depicted on the stamps. That knowledge seemed to stick too and more so than just from reading books. I guess I also learned a little about markets and scarcity.
I wonder if that knowledge would have stuck without the effort of seeking and the reward of finding and whether we have lost something in the ease of access to information today.
[+] [-] borepop|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobsled|5 years ago|reply
I understand the point of the article, but the characterization of the shopkeeper seems unfair. If you're unwilling to learn from someone because they don't understand what exactly you're trying to do, or because they speak condescendingly, or because they smell bad, or because you disagree with their opinion on X, Y, or Z, you will not learn very much.
[+] [-] II2II|5 years ago|reply
That being said, the author did walk into the shop with a rather difficult request. How do you recreate something personal?
[+] [-] bittercynic|5 years ago|reply
I think there is a place in the world for people with specialized interests to have a shop that caters exclusively to other people who are deep into the hobby, and to be a little brusk to normies who wander in looking for something else. It sure would have been a lot nicer if the shop keeper just understood the situation and kindly explained "That's not what we do here", but, hey, not everybody's gonna be super nice. It's part of life.
[+] [-] xyzzy21|5 years ago|reply
I have a pretty decent stamp collection that I inherited from my father who collected stamps since 1940 up to shortly before he died. He picked up stamps partially based on historical relevance (so NOT 100% from any one country - but for example he liked the inter-war stamps of countries involved in WW2) and then because he thought some were simply pretty. He easily spent $200K on stamps over his lifetime.
The obsession with 100% of everything seems OCD to me - not healthy.
I also collect rocks and minerals - I don't try to collect "one of everything" but rather simply what either looks cool or that is chemically/geologically fascinating to me.
[+] [-] DoubleGlazing|5 years ago|reply
After leaving primary school I kept collecting, but slowed down as a teenager.
Then as an adult I got serious again. I visited a few philately shops to buy the missing pieces in my UK and Ireland stamp collections. The owners were totally disinterested. They were more interested in knowing about what I had. I did have some very rare stamps, worth about 4-figures. I didn't want to part with them because family members gave them to me. But the way those dealers were obsessed with money over simple enjoyment bothered me.
Some people care about the enjoyment more than the money.
[+] [-] temp0826|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 8bitsrule|5 years ago|reply
It went with me to stay at grandma's, on babysitting jobs, on summer trips that went to nowhere to do nothing. Open the book, get out the hinges, dive in.
I learned a lot about world geography, culture, arts and crafts, and political BS from those revealing little bits of 'official' history. The 'most valuable' stamp I found (nothing printed on it) taught me -nothing-.
[+] [-] coins_r_fun|5 years ago|reply