How to start collecting stamps without spending

Stamps · 4 September 2026

Nothing has to be bought to begin. The first stamps are already at home – on old envelopes, greeting cards and family letters; they can be identified in an open catalogue and stored at first in a plain box with paper envelopes. Album, tweezers and reference book come later, once it is clear what you are actually collecting.

Step 1. Find what is already there

The family archive is the most honest source of first stamps: old envelopes, greeting cards, business letters. Such stamps are almost always used, and that is fine – a collection of used stamps is no worse, and it is far easier to begin with. Look at the envelope too: a postmark with a date and a town is sometimes more interesting than the stamp.

Step 2. Lift the stamp properly

Never tear it off – thin paper splits along the perforation. The order is:

1. Cut out a piece of the envelope with a margin around the stamp.
2. Put it in warm water for 15–20 minutes – the gum releases on its own.
3. Lift the stamp off without pulling the wet paper.
4. Dry it between sheets of paper under a light weight, or it will curl.

Two exceptions: coloured envelopes can bleed into the water and stain the stamp, and modern self-adhesive stamps do not release in water – leave them on the piece.

Step 3. Handle it properly

Fingers only by the edges, and only when there is no choice: skin oils stay in the paper for good. The sensible minimum is any pair of flat-tipped tweezers without serrations, plus a magnifier. Everything else – perforation gauge, lamp, stockbook – can wait and changes nothing at the start.

Step 4. Storage that costs nothing

• A cardboard box and ordinary paper envelopes sorted by country or year work for the first months.
• No tape and no glue: they destroy a stamp permanently.
• Avoid soft plastic sleeves – over time they leave a mark on the paper.
• Keep it dark and dry: light fades the ink, damp glues sheets together.

More on this in the guide to storing a paper collection.

Step 5. Choose a theme

Collecting every stamp in the world is impossible, and that is exactly where most first collections end. Three directions work: one country, one period or one subject. A theme sets a boundary and makes the gaps visible. How to pick one is covered in the guide to choosing a collecting theme.

Step 6. Identify from an open catalogue

No reference book needed. The open archive holds 80,472 stamp images from 271 countries and territories, with Soviet issues laid out separately: 6,382 stamps of 1918–1991 with CPA catalogue numbers. The search order is simple: country, then period and year, then subject. The number you find is the stamp's exact name – from there it can be looked up anywhere.

Open the catalogues: world stamps, Soviet stamps.

What not to do at the start

• Do not buy bulk packets of world stamps: they are mostly the same mass issues with no theme.
• Do not paste stamps into a notebook, with glue or tape.
• Do not trim perforations to make a stamp sit straight: a trimmed stamp loses everything.
• Do not clean or bleach the paper.
• Do not throw duplicates away – they are your future trading stock.