Stamp Collecting for Beginners and Philatelists

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The Fourteen Per Cent Solution

OK stampers listen up. Today we’re going to talk about something you’d rather not: clutter and chaos.

It’s a well known fact that each of you has a closet or attic stuffed with envelopes, and boxes of god-knows-what. You haven’t opened them in the last four years so it’s a toss up as to what’s exactly in those boxes. But it is high time that we understood the nature of the beast and dealt with clutter and chaos.

It’s a fine line between controlled clutter and chaos, and in this case the beauty of controlled clutter is definitely in the eye of the beholder because the difference between the two is that the contents of controlled clutter are known, mentally inventoried, and appreciated, while chaos is a messy frenzy of unknowns.

This accounts for the stamp collector’s passion for lists, inventories, Excel, and catalogs. With list in hand we can bask in the glow of towering boxes of clutter and pick out those Solomon Island issues we got last year at the Cleveland show blindfolded. Clutter is essentially the backroom of our collections, our inner sanctum, where collectors go to play.

On the other hand, chaos is a swamp of squandered stamps perhaps ready for liquidation. They are homeless ephemera, postal history, maxim cards, curios, and stamp show impulses, and we all have a certain amount of chaos mixed among the controlled clutter of our stamp collections.

It’s this ratio that is important. A certain amount of personal collection chaos is healthy, without it there is no serendipity or synchronicity. A totally controlled collection is boring, but if it gets out of hand, chaos renders everything incomprehensible.

An environment that is stable and controlled allows collections and studies to grow, but without a little dose of the chaos that comes from random causes, the pursuit turns stale and the result dull and ‘academic’. (Is this why topical/thematic collectors are so excited: their ‘collection’ extends beyond emissions to the entire topic they collect on stamps, which is packed with discovery.)

The prime ratio of clutter to chaos to incubate a collection is 7:1 (clutter:chaos). That’s eight-six percent clutter to fourteen percent chaos.

Now go look at your closet of boxes, catalogues, envelopes, and drawers of stamps and assess your ratio.

If you are woefully over target, sort and sell. Then tackle a new collection. That’s what it’s all about. Give those forlorn items a new home and treat yourself to a new journey and collection.

the lanai guy | 11:15 AM | 0 comments |  

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