Who here collected any of these?

[Hardbopjazz]

I have none.

[JSngry]

I bought one sheet, it's around here somewhere.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I stopped collecting stamps decades ago. I used to have quite the collection too. I think I sold it shortly after the whole industry went nuts when the Scotts price guide devalued nearly every stamp one year. They killed the value of most collections. I think I used most of my later stamps for postage, which is the only way I use postage stamps to this day.

[Peter Friedman]

I bought one sheet when it was first issued.  Had it framed and it is on the wall in my house.

[Brad]

21 hours ago, bresna said:

I stopped collecting stamps decades ago. I used to have quite the collection too. I think I sold it shortly after the whole industry went nuts when the Scotts price guide devalued nearly every stamp one year. They killed the value of most collections. I think I used most of my later stamps for postage, which is the only way I use postage stamps to this day.

Sounds like my story. I collected when I was a kid and typed up my own pages with the stamp description, etc. Stopped years ago but couldn’t sell the collection.  Just no value anymore. Stamps used to be beautiful works of art. Now, the designs are shlock. 

[Dmitry]

Don't have any of the jazz stamps, but like you, used to collect when I was growing up. Stamp collecting was a window to the world. Now it's probably just another manifestation of  OCD.

And yes, I still have my stamps. My topic was world flora and fauna.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Canada honoured Oscar Peterson with a stamp on his 80th birthday, August 15 2005...

[Brad]

Here's an example of the quality US stamps used to have.

[felser]

3 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

I bought one sheet when it was first issued.  Had it framed and it is on the wall in my house.

My wife did the same for me.

[Chuck Nessa]

In 1986 my mother gave me a sheet of these for my birthday and I still have it somewhere:

[Kevin Bresnahan]

It looks like the market correction I talked about was in 1988: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/24/style/stamps-just-how-much-should-it-cost.html

The gist of it is that most dealers were buying stamps at "50% of Scotts" and when Scotts adjusted their value to reflect what dealers were actually paying, dealers still said "50% of Scotts". I actually had more than one dealer offer me less than face-value for a majority of my stamp collection. I finally said, "If they're worth less than their value as postage stamps, I'll just use them for postage". It made for some cool mail back then.

One thing I couldn't mail were those postage due stamps. I had a bunch of those because I found out that my local post office had old, old stock. I thought they might still have value. Nope. Not worth much over face. It was a bummer.

I should have stuck with coins like my brother. He made a bunch of money when he sold his coins.

Edited May 22, 2019 by bresna

[mjzee]

I still buy commemoratives when I go to the post office, and use them when I mail bills, etc. It’s just a fun thing to do.

They still issue stamps with musical figures.  Just bought a sheet of Marvin Gaye stamps; in the past year, I’ve bought ones of Sarah Vaughan and John Lennon.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

2 minutes ago, mjzee said:

I still buy commemoratives when I go to the post office, and use them when I mail bills, etc. It’s just a fun thing to do.

They still issue stamps with musical figures.  Just bought a sheet of Marvin Gaye stamps; in the past year, I’ve bought ones of Sarah Vaughan and John Lennon.

Me too! In fact, I love buying those commemorative sheets. I bought a bunch of these ones with tropical fish:

And this one:

[Rooster_Ties]

Somewhere, I have just one individual Charles Ives stamp from this set, which I always intended to get a (tiny) simple frame for.  Not sure where it got to -- I'm sure I bought it 10-15 years ago for about $4, when I stumbled across it in some collectibles shop of some sort.

[Dmitry]

Inspired by this thread, I bought these two sheets today. Will use the stamps the way they were intended.

 

 

[duaneiac]

Is there an "Album covers featuring stamps" thread?

(I used to collect -- and still have my collection around here somewhere -- first day covers like the one pictured above.  I have this LP too!)

[mjzee]

On 5/22/2019 at 1:11 PM, Brad said:

Here's an example of the quality US stamps used to have.

Do you realize how politically incorrect both of these stamps would now be considered to be by the intelligencia?  Dead white males!  And Columbus!?!...topple that statue!

[Brad]

Maybe but their designs were of high quality unlike the terrible stamps we see today.