I used to be an avid stamp collector since elementary school days until early 20's, but lost interests in it during the last 20 years although I still buy stamps occasionally.

But I don't say anymore that one of my hobbies is collecting stamps, although I still buy large quantity of stamps all over the world, attend stamp exhibition when I have time, and my collection of stamps grew significantly since I stopped being stamp collector.

When I was in teens, collecting stamps worldwide was quite a challenge as I had little means and connections to collect all. From my mid-20's, I had travelled extensively and was affordable financially to buy any stamps I wanted to buy and to collect rare stamps which required quite an effort to find.

Looking at boxes of bindings and sheets of stamps which I've not sorted out yet, I have a mixed feeling of growing up: when it was hard to get, it was valuable; but once I was able to get it easily, I lost interest in it and am not that energetic about it.

During my recent trips to Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan during March and April, 2004, I didn't bother to visit post offices of those countries, which used to be my priority until about 20 years ago. I used to put highest priority on visiting there and spending expenses. But for my recent trip there, I didn't bother to drop in to take a look at on displays, except when in Hong Kong, where I had to mail a letter internationally.

Although collecting and sorting stamps won't be my hobby any more, I will keep buying stamps as necessary to fill up my collection, which I hope to regain interests later.

(July 27, 2004)

Copyright© 1994-2004 Daniel SW Kim