Your stamp collection can be whatever you want it to be -– there is no right way or wrong way to collect!

A Worldwide Collector saves stamps from every country. This is a good way to start a collection because it gives you a wide variety of stamps. Sometimes a Worldwide Collector just tries to get at least one stamp from every country in the world

If you collect stamps from the country you were born in or live in, or maybe a country you would like to visit, you are a Country Collector. This is a fun way to "take a vacation" without leaving your home.

Animals, flowers, ships, space, Disney, sports -– all of these are found on stamps. A popular way to collect stamps is to be a Topical Collector. Your topic may come from any county on earth! It way be the entire stamp design, or it was by just a small part of the stamp design.

Some people Collect by Type. People who just collect airmail stamps or coil stamps Collect by Type. Sometimes people who Collect by Type also have another collection, like a collection of Topical stamps.

Many people eventually limit themselves to either Mint or Used Collecting. A Mint stamp is a stamp that has never been used and looks like it did when it was first purchased at the post office. A Used stamp has been used for the purpose of carrying the mail. Your family, friends, and neighbors can help you by saving Used stamps for your collection. Mint stamps are purchased through the Postal Service or from someone else who bought them from the Postal Service.

You may also collect stamps by Shape, Color, or by some other Creative way that you want to collect.

A cover is an envelope with a cancellation and the stamp still on the envelope. Some people collect First Day Covers. These are covers with a special cancellation for a new stamp on the day it was first issued. Covers with a design on them, called a cachet (pronounced ka-shay), are fun to collect. The design is usually on the left side of the cover and should be related in some way to the stamp.

A Postmark Collector may try to find a Postmark from every state in the United States, or one from every year, or one from every day of the year you were born. It is fun to look at the different kinds of Postmarks you receive in the mail.

You don’t need to decide today what kind of Stamp Collector you want to be. Keep all your stamps in a dry place, if you don’t own a Stamp Album, a shoebox works great! It is fun to look through a box of stamps to see the different designs, colors, and countries on them.