The price for a first class stamp is set to increase from 42 to 44 cents May 11, but some people purchase stamps with no intention of using them, instead choosing to save them for years.
Associate Dean of College of Arts and Sciences Howard Dewald started collecting stamps as a boy in Casper, Wyo., at the local Woolworth five-and-dime store.
Dewald then asked his family to save used stamps from letters and postcards.
I remember seeing all these albums you could put stamps in and I just wanted to start a collection of something and stamps were pretty easy
he said.
Back then, Dewald collected general U.S. stamps with flags or liberty bells as the subject.
Now years later as an associate dean and professor of chemistry, Dewald's interest in stamps has broadened to include chemistry and physics stamps and even a small collection of Canadian stamps.
My interest in stamps has waxed and waned over the years but it's something that I just stuck with because there are so many different varieties of stamps out there he said.
Although Dewald doesn't publicly display his stamps, he spends a few hundred dollars a year on stamps, mostly acquiring them through the Internet, post office or stamp shows.
Dewald is a member of the Athens Stamp Club, but the club hasn't formally met in more than four years.
The problem is our inability to attract a younger generation
he said. The group is literally a bunch of older guys.
Although the Athens Stamp Club membership has diminished, the American Philatelic Society is still going strong after 123 years with more than 40,000 members in 140 countries, said Society Spokesman Fred Baumann.
We're an organization that can help people value an inherited stamp collection
find stamps
education and meetings
he said.
Members pay a $45 annual fee, which provides them with a monthly magazine subscription, stamp albums and free entry to some national stamp shows, Baumann said.
The Society has two major shows each year to give its members a chance to display and buy stamps, and learn about historic or international stamps, he said.
In 2011, Columbus will host the Society's summer show.
Almost every subject has a stamp, but Baumann said the most popular ones are Disney, cats, dogs, flowers, trains, space, sports, music and ships.
I personally like to collect stamps with bridges
he said. Everybody likes bridges; fascists love bridges
and communists love bridges.
The U.S. Postal Service will issue the new Simpsons stamps on May 7 - the only television show to be featured as the sole subject of a stamp set while still in prime time production, according to a news release.
Stamp collecting can become an expensive hobby, with some of the world's rare stamps valued at hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, Baumann said.
One of the most valuable U.S. stamps is the one-cent Z Grill
which depicts Benjamin Franklin from 1868. The stamp was valued at $3 million in 2005.
Another valuable U.S. stamp is the inverted Jenny, which accidentally printed an upside-down plane in 1918. This stamp has a catalog value of $400,000.
The Postal Service has also issued several stamps with Ohio connections, including Neil Armstrong and the first walk on the moon, the Wright brothers and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Yet stamp collecting doesn't have to cost much money; Baumann said anyone could start stamp collecting for only a few dollars.
First figure out what your interests are and go from there
he said. Start asking your friends and neighbors to save their stamps and immediately you can get a really nice collection going.
Baumann also suggests that beginners travel to area stamp shows to get an idea of what types of stamps to collect and how to display them.
