Specialization in philately is defined as restricting your collecting from the general mass of issues to one specific area or stamp issue. Before WW II, most collectors were generalists. They collected the world. But then, a collector could afford to. There were only tens of thousands of stamp issues that a collector needed to acquire before WW Ii, not the millions that exist now. An album or two, a few hours a week, and a few hundred dollars and a collector, before 1940, could assemble a pretty decent worldwide collection. That is impossible now and collectors quickly become specialized and limit their collecting interest to one or a few countries.
But even specialized collecting before WW II was different than today. A current collector who specializes in United States stamps has all that they can do to keep up and expand their collection. Before WW II, new issues were uncommon and, with only a few hundred face different stamps to collect, specialists soon needed to expand their collecting horizon if they wished to stay engaged with their hobby. Specialization by issue became very common and presented collectors with the opportunity to study shades and cancellations on the very interesting classic US stamps. We recently came across a collection that was made in this earlier time and the pictures will show how these collectors enjoyed their hobby. Collectors of today can still collect this way. If you feel that the individual stamps that you need are too pricey you might consider expanding your collecting to the study of individual issues. Such groupings are affordable and enjoyable.
