Now is the time to begin your specialized collection of Olympic stamps. The popularity of this thematic flows in quadrennial cycles, usually peaking a few months before the games themselves. Olympic philately is one of the most interesting and long established of the topical philatelic areas with the first set being issued by Greece for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. After that, every four years many countries issued Olympic stamps.
 
Here are a few tips for maximizing the profit potential of your Olympic collection and minimizing the risk of loss. First, stick with the straight stamps. Olympic Philately was played around with from the first by dealers who created all sorts of special covers and sought out proofs and essays from the printers of the early worldwide Olympic stamps. These specialty items have always seemed to me to be sold at prices way beyond what their popularity should warrant, and that means the supply is controlled by a few well heeled collectors and dealers.
 
Olympic philately began to get popular about 1960, and it was then that our hobby was bombarded with imperfs and other philatelically created products for collectors. Stay away from these imperfs (and indeed the regular stamps issued after 1960) and the various First Day Covers that have been issued for no other reason but as souvenirs for collectors. If you avoid all that I've mentioned what you'll have is a collection of several hundred worldwide issues to 1960 that commemorate the Olympics, that were issued for legitimate postal purposes, that have performed well price wise over time, and are likely to do so again in the future.