Recently we bought a collection from a life long collector that wasn't the greatest we ever have handled in terms of value, though it was worth quite a bit. It wasn't the most scholarly collection we have ever bought, though the collector was a very good philatelist. And it wasn't the most aesthetically appealing collection we have ever sold, though parts of it were neatly laid out and artistic and beautiful. But where this collector had every other beaten we believe is in the amount of time that he spent in his life on his stamps. He was a bachelor, with little close family and a few philatelic friends. He collected the world and soaked off envelopes all the stamps from all the mail that had ever come his way and the way of everyone he knew. He subscribed to every stamp magazine and had for the last sixty years before he died at the age of 82
. He collected world wide stamps and had a sub specialty of cancellations for just about every country (we never even knew that Serbian rail road cancellations existed). Each collection was researched and often annotated and he had literally hundreds of sub collections, many of them which he had not looked at in years. He told me he spent "four to five hours a day on my stamps-more on weekends" and his collection looked as if that were an underestimation. He spent nearly 40 hours a week on his stamps and we calculated that he had spent 120,000 hours on his stamps (the equivalent of sixty work years), which meant that in addition to his real job, he had a lifetime job with his hobby. Next time a relative tells you that you spend too much time with your stamps tell him about this collector.
. He collected world wide stamps and had a sub specialty of cancellations for just about every country (we never even knew that Serbian rail road cancellations existed). Each collection was researched and often annotated and he had literally hundreds of sub collections, many of them which he had not looked at in years. He told me he spent "four to five hours a day on my stamps-more on weekends" and his collection looked as if that were an underestimation. He spent nearly 40 hours a week on his stamps and we calculated that he had spent 120,000 hours on his stamps (the equivalent of sixty work years), which meant that in addition to his real job, he had a lifetime job with his hobby. Next time a relative tells you that you spend too much time with your stamps tell him about this collector.