Every decent stamp collection is a real accomplishment on the part of its owner and creator. You had to decide what to collect and carefully search for items for your collection over a period of years. You went to stamp shows and dealer shops, perused auction catalogs and surfed the Internet. You learned the language of the hobby, learned its history, language and arcanum. And you invested far more than time and effort. You have considerable money in your collection and it represents a real asset for you and your family, something you are justly very proud of.
And yet, most collectors know that their collection is built on the work of thousands of serious philatelists who came before them-the men and women who wrote the catalogs and the literature that we use, without which stamp collecting would be no different than button collecting. We belong to philatelic societies created by others and subscribe to magazines that continue the 150 year tradition of philatelic journalism. Those are just some of the things that a philatelist owes to just the hobby. But stamp collecting is only possible in a society that has created an educated and wealthy populous that can appreciate stamps and afford to pay for them. (Don’t underestimate this-the assurance of a market for stamps is a great motivator for this hobby). Our justly proud collector uses the United States Postal Service to buy and sell stamps and… well you get the point. You did build your collection. But you built it in a world that made such success possible. None of us built the world we inherited and being here in this place and time where success and achievement is possible is something for which most of us are gratful.