Specialists with knowledge gained from concentrated study and research will always have an advantage over general dealers and collectors. These specialists will know and recognize varieties which are regularly offered for major numbers in most places. They have learned the “good” postmarks, the points that genuine stamps must bear, the required postal rates of covers and much other information that would sorely over-burden any individual if he tried to learn all about everything. General dealers should know some of this, but can never know all.

Specialists are frequently repaid for their intensive studies by the opportunities they get for picking up “sleepers.” But they must often invest a great deal more time in study than they are repaid in the “good buys” they make.

Only a small percentage of stamp collectors are inclined to be studious specialists. For the rest of us, the general world of stamps is our fascination. If a broken “T” exists in position 23 of plate 16 of the $10,000 denomination of the 1938 issues of Yemen, that knowledge, so precious to few, is of little import to the great body of our hobby.