Collecting stamps is a hobby that interests kids and adults alike all over the world. You can begin a stamp collection easily enough; just start collecting interesting and unusual stamps that you find. When you start out, you may want to begin by spending as little money as possible, just enough to get your feet wet and begin to build a collection.

At first, you start your collection with only a few stamps, perhaps some favorites that you have from childhood. A great way to begin to expand your collection is to purchase a starter set from a stamp or hobby store. These collections are usually inexpensive, sometimes costing about $6.00 for a collectors pack. In the pack you'll get a nice selection of stamps from different countries. This is an easy way to start and find out what stamps appeal to you and what you'd like to focus future collecting efforts towards.

The Internet is another great source for finding stamps. Places such as eBay have many stamp sets where you can buy for relatively low prices. Again, you should try to get as wide a variety of stamps as possible, so you can find out what stamps interest you and allow you to get plants from some other countries. Once you have a batch of stamps you'll need to organize your collection so you can make some decisions about what direction you want to pursue in your collecting.

When you buy or get stamps from an original source most of the stamps will still be on the paper on which they were mailed. Once the paper backing is removed, the stamp becomes fragile and can easily be damaged. Hence it is important to be careful in the way that you move around the stamps. Therefore it is important to sort out your stamps that you purchased according to country before taking off the paper backing.

It can be a tedious process to take the paper off the stamps so make sure that you have time and won't damage the stamps with a hurried effort. Make sure that you ease the stamp off the paper instead of just pulling the stamp, so you don't make any rips in the stamp. To begin with, use a small pair of scissors to trim the paper as close to the edge of the stamp as you possible can.

Find a shallow plate or bowl and fill it with just a bit of clean water. Place the stamp with the paper backing into the water, stamp side up, and let it soak for about ten to fifteen minutes. After that amount of time has passed you can carefully pick up the stamp and try to remove it slowly from the paper.

After you've removed the stamps from the paper you'll need to dry them gently and slowly so that they don't fold over and wrinkle. You can do this by laying them flat on a layer of paper toweling, taking care to make sure that none of the stamps touch and overlap. Gently take one sheet of paper towel and lay it over the stamps, pressing gently so that you are carefully removing some of the water.

Once the stamps have had an opportunity to dry out, flatten them by putting them between the pages of a large book, or use a special drying book (you can find these books at hobby or stamp collecting stores). After the stamps have been dried and flattened, you can begin the process of sorting and storing them in your stamp collecting books.