>>51462094so, it depends? if it has a postmark, it denotes a place, date, time, etc. Also, very early cancelations simply needed to be marked in some way. So you had artistic postmen who would carve winecorks into interesting designs, and then use them as a stamp to apply ink over the postage stamp.
Then you have people that just straight up collect covers. Which would include the entire envelope or postcard, especially if a piece of international mail was marked at each point of entrance as it was being passed along different postal services.
I'm a very casual collector. I go to... what are they called. consignment shops? looking for cards, or other pokemon collectibles. And one time I found a bag of, something like 1600 stamps for ten bucks. And I was like "eh. why not".
So now, if I find a huge lot of stamps cheap, I'll pick them up, but I don't hunt them.
/blog end
