I have no idea why, I just find it very hard to bring myself to collect anything used. I started off that way, after all. I soaked tons of stamps off of envelopes when I was a kid and hinged them into albums. Today, I just can’t do it. I know, I’ve tried. I just don’t understand what the problem is, although I might have some ideas.
So let’s discuss it.
A recent post on Reddit brought this to the fore once again. It isn’t remotely uncommon if you just keep your eyes out, but it is something that really needs to be said.
Maybe you’re just not at a point in your life where woodworking is something you ought to be doing. That’s something guaranteed to make a lot of people mad.
I doubt that anyone really cares, but I have been trying to watch a bunch of YouTube stamp collector videos of late and most of them, for one reason or another, I just don’t care for.
Therefore, I wanted to explain why so many of them are just not that valuable to me and what, I think, most of them can do better. I don’t know if it will help but here we go regardless.
This has been rolling around in my head for a very long time and now and then, it pops up. I suppose I’ve covered some of it in my discussions on stamp NFTs, but two recent things happened and I wanted to talk about it in more detail.
First, a discussion on a stamp forum about the USPS just packing it in because they provide terrible service, which I absolutely agree with, and secondly, I’ve started watching a UK-based coin channel, mostly because I get bored, called Christopher Collects. He’s the YouTube face for a UK coin dealership and in a lot of those videos, they bring up what I have a problem with.
However, we’ll get into both of those things in more detail below. See you there.
Now I’m not trying to say that the people over at Stamp Show Here Today are wrong, but… yeah, I think they’re wrong. They had an episode a week or so ago (just heard it over the weekend) on bad stamp collecting advice.
Sorry, I think a lot of bad advice is coming from the podcast.
I know I’ve talked about this a lot lately, but I stumbled across this video by RedLetterMedia and it seems that they understand the problem, from an entirely different hobby. This kind of crap happens everywhere!
So let’s go look at the video, which is funny, and talk about it.
They just sent a survey, which I took, about a lot of issues facing the American Philatelic Society and how I use it. I’m happy to help so I went through and dutifully answered all of their questions, but in so doing, I realized a couple of things.
Mostly, I realized just how little the APS actually does that I care about. Let’s talk about it.
I know this is just going on and on, but it keeps evolving. I got into a discussion over “investing” in coins vs. just investing elsewhere and, as expected, they really weren’t impressed with my take.
That’s fine. All the down votes in the world don’t bother me. Imaginary buttons online mean nothing. So here’s what I had to say and why I said it.
I know I broached this subject a while back, but it came up again, so sue me. Back then, I wasn’t “collecting” coins, although I’m not sure how much “collecting” I’m going to be doing, I’m mostly just sorting and cataloging right now, but someone, in a discussion, talked about it again and I have to throw in my 2 cents.
Sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, no coin not intended for circulation ought to count as a coin, at least to collectors. Even if it is, theoretically, legal tender, if it’s not out in the hands of the public, even hypothetically, it’s just a hunk of metal, designed to take advantage of gullible buyers.
Prove me wrong.
I know I’m yelling at the clouds here, but I am ever so sick and tired of this. It seems like every single “hobby” out there is just a haven for people trying to make a buck and this one is more so than any other, it seems.
What the hell ever happened to just collecting things for the joy of collecting things? That’s all I want to do!
