Acquiring Stamps

The starting point for many new collectors is to ask family and friends to save stamps from their incoming mail. Although the stamps received by major businesses, and those kept by elderly relatives, may be of international and historical interest, the stamps received from family members are often of the definitive sort. Definitives seem mundane but, considering their variety of colours, watermarks, paper differences, perforations and printing errors, they can fill many pages in a collection. Introducing either variety or specific focus to a collection can require the purchasing of stamps, either from a dealer or online. Large numbers of relatively recent stamps, often still attached to fragments or envelopes, may be obtained cheaply and easily. Rare and old stamps can also be easily obtained via similar channels, with costs extending far beyond the means of all but a tiny minority of collectors.
Duplicate stamps are the stamps that a collector already has, and are therefore not required to fill a gap in a collection. Duplicate stamps can be sold or traded, so they are an important medium of exchange among collectors.
Many stamp dealers sell their merchandise over the Internet. Others have neighborhood stamp shops, one of the best resources for beginning and intermediate collectors. Some dealers also jointly set up week-end stamp markets called "Bourses" that move around a region from week to week. They also meet collectors at regional exhibitions and stamp shows.