Getting Your Feet Wet as a Stamp Collector

Starter kits are a good way to get your feet wet as a stamp collector. Reasonably priced, kits contain the essentials: an assortment of 100 to 200 mixed stamps, a basic album, a pair of tongs, a perforation gauge, a magnifying glass, hinges and an information booklet. While you can buy these items individually in better quality, starter kits provide perfectly adequate equipment for the beginner. For a minimal investment you can try the hobby on for size. As your interest and expertise grow, you may choose to invest in more expensive tools and supplies.

The best way to learn is by doing, goes the old adage. This is certainly true of stamp collecting. You'll learn a lot about stamps by handling them, inspecting details with a magnifying glass, looking them up in catalogs, mounting them, etc. That's one of the advantages of starter kits. You want to learn, practice and master handling, soaking and mounting techniques on low-value stamps to avoid making a painfully expensive mistake as your hobby grows.

Purchasing mixtures and packets of stamps are the most economical way of obtaining a wide variety of stamps.

• Mixtures. Mixtures are cheaper than packets. Both contain an assortment of stamps but mixtures include a fair number of duplicates, hence their lower price. Mixtures are sold by weight: ounce, pound or kilogram.
  
  There are two types of mixtures: on paper and off paper. The off paper are more expensive but come ready to mount. If you buy an on paper mixture, you'll get more stamps, but you'll have to soak them off yourself.
  
  You can get general worldwide mixtures that contain a wide variety of definitives (the type of stamps found on your daily mail). Or you can purchase mixtures specializing in a single country or type, such as high values (stamps costing $1 and more) or pictorials.
  


• Packets. Packets contain all different stamps with no duplicates. Off paper and ready to mount, packets range from general worldwide stamps to specific topics, such as 200 stamps from Italy or 300 dog stamps.
  
  Packets are sold by count from 10 stamps to as many as 50,000. Small packets of under 500 stamps contain mostly common stamps and, therefore, are less expensive. Because each stamp in a packet must be different, larger packets will contain a larger number of better or more valuable items.

Several packets or a pound of mixtures will provide you with one or two thousand stamps, more than enough to get started.