Angie was in her early forties and had began collecting in a serious way after her husband died. She was in social service work, comfortable financial circumstances, and was an interesting and attractive woman. Will was a few years older, a widower, attorney and also an avid collector. Both would come to our office every couple of months and it took a bit of time for me to put together what a great a match this would be. Here were two serious collectors, each well educated, interesting and fun, of the same religious background and in similar places with their kids. What’s more they both collected the same area-Butterflies on Stamps. It seemed like a match made in heaven and one afternoon when they were both at my office I introduced them. They seemed to hit it off well enough and were animated in their conversation. As I walked by a bit later I heard them make plans to have dinner together one night the following week. I was very proud of my (philatelic) matchmaking ability. A few weeks later they were both in my office again at the same time though sitting at far ends of the counter and paying no attention to each other. I asked Will, with whom I had a closer relationship into my office. I politely inquired what was going on, didn’t they hit it off? “Not at all” he said. But don’t you both collect butterflies I asked. His lip turned up in disgust. “She collects moths”.
The degree of difficulty of a philatelic specialty is determined by three components. First is the intrinsic scarcity of the material, second the cost involved,…