How to collect stamps?

[songbirdchen]

Please give me answers to the following:

What do you put it in?
Where can you buy stamps for a cheap price?
What are the kind of stamps you can collect?(ex: Forever,etc)

Also, a bonus question:
Can I just randomly stick my stamps in a blank journal- like book? Or will it lower the value of the stamp since its stuck to paper?

[Comicbook Reader]

You can collect any stamps you want. World wide, specialise in a country or era or even content. There are people who collect cats on stamps for instance. Others specialise in a particular stamp but they collect variations. It's up to you. There is no right or wrong way.

To start off with get a couple of inexpensive stockbooks or buy some binders and get what are called stock pages. See if you can pick up some used stockbooks. They are perfect for beginners. Then organise them any way you want. Don't stick your stamps to anything. That completely ruins the value.

You could also purchase hinges and put them on pages.

Look around to see if there is a stamp story in your area. Go and see if they have what's called a missionary mix - a large bag of stamps from around the world for cheap prices. You won't find anything rare in them, but they are endless fun to sort through.

YOu can find most information online - including prices.

Oh and mint means it's a stamp never used. Used means it's been postally used (on a letter, post card etc). CTO means canceled to order - basically space fillers (junk stamps) that were canceled and sold on mass but never used for postal purposes.

Drop me a line if you have questions. I've been collecting for 30 odd years now so I might be able to point you in the right direction.

If you have a Facebook account, look for stamp collecting groups. They will be one of your best sources for information and help.