Early in his stamp collecting experience it becomes evident to almost every collector that common sense is as applicable to the pursuit of his hobby as it is to all other activities.

He realizes that moderation is a necessity if he is to enjoy philately through the coming years. He must limit the time for and cost of the hobby to the amount that his station in life affords. He must select from the thousands of forms of collecting those that suit his personality, temperament and abilities. He must decide on the important matter of club association or lone wolf collecting. He must consider such obvious details as type of album, type of mounting, used, unused or both, along with the level of quality desired.

Good common sense will decide all these matters so that future years will provide a period of tranquil enjoyment of stamp collecting. As an aid may I suggest that the tried methods that developed with our grandfather’s collections are still a path to philatelic enjoyment. Essentially they are to collect on a broad enough scale to maintain your interest; to seek to improve the quality of your specimens; to arrange your material as soon as possible in albums (envelopes, files, drawers and cigar boxes are poor display accessories); to subscribe to, read and learn from several good stamp journals; to lend a helping hand to the novice collector so that he may benefit from your experience.