On hundreds of occasions I have heard men of middle age lament the day they parted with their boyhood stamp collections. Their usual reason is that the collection would today be of great value.

Sometimes this is true, but most often the “kid” collections of thirty, forty or fifty years ago were nothing more than an accumulation of poor-conditioned common stamps. The exceptions were those cases in which an adult assisted in the formation of the collection with both personal attention and money.

Just as it takes money to get the better stamps today, so it was in 1910, 1920 and 1930. Children of those days couldn’t get very far toward building a valuable collection on their twenty-five or fifty cents a week spending money. All they could do was enjoy and learn from the general run of plentiful material. Millions did just that.

So don’t mourn the loss of your beginning album. Use the knowledge that you have gained to build a truly fine collection in the part of your life that remains.