The Beginning

My first encounter with stamp collecting was back in 1982. One day I was at my friend's home and I saw several glassine interleaving envelops with several stamps that laid on top of several notepads. I asked my friend what is it (pretending)? I knew they were stamps based on the outline, but because the glassine is semi-transparent I can't make out the picture, although I see they were brightly colored. My friend said they were his brother and that we shouldn't touch them. His brother was a much older guy who doesn't talk much and never involve with our activities. Later, being curious, I asked his brother what's in it, he told me they are PRC stamps. When he removed the stamp from the envelop, there were the most beautiful pictures I ever seen. They were the complete mint goldfish set issued from the 1960.

Like drug, I was hooked. I started to ask questions left and right about their origin while staring at them and he saw my enthusiasm and begin to talk to me about it. Later he show me his collections and I was blown away. I have never seen such beautifully made stamps from that period of time. I asked him how can I be like a collector like him and that's when my collecting career started.

After learning many things about stamp collecting, I purchased my first PRC stamps. And believe it or not, I still remember my purchase price for them. The ship set at $1 and panda set at 80 cents back in 1982 (The following are my original two sets) ! Who would've know it has risen 20000% since.

But the point about collecting back then was not about investment and monetary value but rather to learn about the history, culture, important events and appreciate the art that a country brings. The passion of learning is what this hobby is all about.

If you are new to stamp collecting, there are tons of resources online to get you started. Also feel free to bookmark this page and look for future articles about PRC stamps.