Some investors used to look askance at creating a collection. After all, they would tell you again and again, they were not collectors. After a time, however it began to be apparent that making a collection was not only fun, it had some pretty smart investment strategy associated with it. First of all, simply buying stamps that are touted in the philatelic and financial presses has risks. Only stamps that are available in quantity or have already made a significant wave are ever mentioned in the media. This makes sense-- the media are only interested in facts, so far as they can tell them, not hunches. But the best investment ideas for the future are only hunches today. Rare stamps that have not yet made their move are often offered to a collector because there is no investor market for them yet. They can be bought advantageously then. Furthermore, by creating a collection of a country or even the world, an investor is, in essence, spreading his risk. It's nice to have zeppelins when they jump from $3,000 to $6,000 a set. It's not so nice to have them when they hold steady for a period of time or even fall in price. A collection of 1,000 stamps made over a period of years has, at any given time, stamps in it that are going up and stamps that are stable. And when liquidation time comes, what is to prevent you from selling only that part of your holdings that you believe will show low growth for the near future and holding that part that you most believe is going to rise further?
Most investors who create a collection as a safe philatelic investment also combine it with a little old-fashioned speculative hoarding as well. Every philatelist has some favorite stamps that he believes are going to go up. Even the most dogmatic adherent to the theory of spreading your risk buys a few of his favorites. Remember there are several hundred quality investment stamps in United States philately alone, and the economic history of these stamps over the last eighty years indicates that some of them are always moving quite substantially. A spread holding might miss some spectacular growth that can be produced if the investor buys absolutely right; but a spread holding, the history indicates, has always risen in value.