Collecting
Collecting is not just about value!
Any football programmes featuring the legendary ‘Busby Babes’ bring huge amounts
By Mike Kelly
Many of the collectors I meet in my journeys around the country nearly always ask “well, what is its value?” My standard answer is usually “it’s only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it” but that’s not the true answer. When you become a collector, whether it is coins, stamps, banknotes, model toys, military or sports medals, comics, vinyl records whatever, you enter the wonderful world of pursuit and chase! Collectors begin with a subject that is really of interest to themselves. If you are an athlete you have probably won a few medals and have become interested in who-has-won-what at local, national and even Olympic events. You may work in an office or job where post arrives stamped with colourful stamps in amazing designs from countries all over the world. It’s the same story with banknotes and even the Euro coins in our pockets. There are many varieties and denominations from all the Eurozone countries. You begin an accumulation, then sort out the duplicates and ‘swop’ them on to other interested individuals. Your collection has begun. Now the search begins for those missing values or items to com 73 Senior Times l May - June 2020 l www.seniortimes.ie
plete the set. You constantly have an ‘eye out’ for these items; you visit car boot sales; coin or stamp fairs and, as you get more serious, even attend an auction or two. All the time you are researching and learning more and more about your chosen collecting subject. ‘Knowledge is power’ and to a large extent that is very true in the collecting world. If you collect football programmes you will know when the unusual matches were played and why so few programmes were issued. A postcard or stamp postmark collector will be seeking the unusual views or the mark from the long closed post office. Early issued banknotes were large and nearly always got folded and creased with use, so finding a near perfect one is a bonus. Most collectors are very willing to pass on their knowledge to younger collectors and encourage the next generation to learn about the things around them old and mod
