Ladies and Gentlemen! On your left is Mr. Topical Collector, and on your right, Mr. Conventional Philatelist. The fight is a “no hold barred” to the finish, to decide how stamps should be collected.

The above is the way some extremists would have the stamp collecting world view the differences in styles of our hobby. They are intolerant of variation from the “by country,” “by date,” and “by issues” form, or, if they are followers of thematics, cannot bear to accord rights to anything but that gathered by subject or event.

Every human endeavor including religion, politics, philosophy, and medicine has its share of rabid and intolerantly biased followers. They do little good and frequently do harm. We don’t need them in philately. Much can be said for any form of collecting. If we exclude them from our hobby, because of the plan they follow, any segment stamp collectors we are decreasing the market for stamps, and thus affecting the price level that is sensitive to all matters of supply and demand. We are also, and probably most harmfully, restricting the number of people who enjoy the pleasures and benefits of stamp collecting.