Stamp Column Archives

The Glassine Surfer Column Archive

This column originally appeared in the American Philatelic Society's monthly magazine, "The American Philatelist." Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

May 1999

Equitorial Stamp

The Net has a north pole and a south pole like the real world. At the Net's north pole the hymn is commerce, where producers bypass fixed-price, brick-and-mortar retailers and sell direct to customers.  At the other pole content shines like the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

At one extreme a worldvision of e-sales devours everything 24/7.  At the opposite, all is explained, linked and annotated, updated weekly, downloaded from a thousand sources, supplimented by e-mail, chat, bulletin boards, FAQ and ICQ.  But life thrives near the equator, and there commerce and content are merging rapidly.

Online booksellers, travel agents, music and video stores have struck an equilibrium, blending capitalism and consumerism.  Product data is highlighted by reviews, samples, linked to other sites, libraries and extracts, and if it can be shipped cheaply it's for e-sale.  Is it any wonder why the equatorial 'Net is the perfect latitude for stamp collectors?

This is if you can handle the humidity.

Birds of the World

If I were a topical collector, I'd be a birdman.  The wealth and variety of aviary issues is asounding, and if you want to see what I mean, check out Chris Gibbins' site.

He calls it "Birds of the World on Postage Stamps." The site caption reads, "The information on this site is for the enjoyment of other collectors and bird enthusiasts; no stamps are sold here."  It's a wonderfully browseable site, carefully arranged and packed with data on birds and stamps, along with great illustrations of each.

The lists of issues are limited to those birds that inhabit the country of issue, eliminating a lot of postal scrap.  Click on a country's stamp of a seabird, for example a tern, and you go to a page of all the world's tern stamps, along with a world map showing their habitat range.

This is a browsers paradise with Net essays on different topics of interest.  In one case Gibbins' identifies the species shown on Uruguay's "Birds on the Lighthouses" set with side-by-side scans.

Birds of the World on Postage Stamps at
http://www.bird-stamps.org/

Beaches for Young Surfers

Kids are still the same.  They love to collect things and discover what the object represents, but their world has changed.  Not long ago stamps were collected, and moms threw out baseball cards.  Now cards are prized, and kids are somewhat confused about stamp collecting.

Right now the Net offers an easy way for youngster to discover stamps and several sites are geared to help them out.

Collector W.J. Finch has a site to help kids get acquainted with stamp collecting as a hobby and is very kid-friendly.

Stamp Collecting for Kids at
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8406/

The International Society of Worldwide Stamp Collectors have a series of articles by Al and Mildred Feinberg on the basics that will help new and young collectors.

Handbook of Stamp Collecting Basics at
http://www.frontiernet.net/~stamptmf/iswsc/iswsc_begbook.html  

Junior Philatelists of America is run by and for young collectors and provides useful services, friendships and fun.

Junior Philatelists of America at
http://www.jpastamps.org

The APS maintains a listing of stamp sites for kids that covers a wide range of presentations.

Philatelic Web Sites for Kids at
http://www.west.net/~stamps1/apsjoe/youthlnk.html