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The "problem" here is how does a collector approach this area. For my collection, I pretty much draw a cut-off in the 70s. We all know what happened in Cambodia. Stamp-issuing-wise, the countries fell into a downward spiral of "gold" stamps, massive outputs for the UPU anniv, USA Bicentennial, Montreal Olympics. Then the early 80s the thematic floodgates opened.

The early 80s do offer some interesting overprints, ie. the 1982/1983/1985 for Laos, and similar-era items from Cambodia, that are scarce, but even though they're probably the "rarest material" from these countries, prices are still only a couple hundred USD.

Indeed its true in the Royalist period there isn't anything hugely valuable. Some of the limited edition M/S have good value, there's the special booklets produced for the first issues, but they're like a 5 Bob bridge, you can pick one up any time, and I see them offered well below catalogue.

So the issues of the last few years are "on a good track" with smaller print runs, but would collectors look at those issues, or has brush of the wallpaper era tarred and feathered any hope of recovery? Would one leave out the 80s/90s material, and jump straight from the early 70s to the new millennium?

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. I am glad we agree.

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

Harth asks for hobby + investment, and he is talking about country collections.

If one specializes in a certain country, how on earth wouldn't he know what is hot and what isn't? But first of all, he has to choose a relatively hot country because some countries are generally hotter than others, and Harth is asking for advice on this.

It seems that you look down on the gold stamps of the Khmer Republic. Check eBay, see what the price they fetch now.

Although Cambodia and Laos rarely give you items over a thousand USD, but investment can come in quantity shots, and this is just what the Chinese folks doing. Sitting in the auction rooms are the minorities, the majorities are buying tens or hundreds of the same items and resell when the price is right.

Two years ago I bought a certain overprint at 5USD per in block of 25. I resold them at 50USD per. This is an investment, isn't it?

Stop thinking about the Chinese red monkey and "the whole country is red". Get something reachable.

Thanks my friend for a nice post. i meant when you collect stamp for 25 Year to 40 Year of your life time speding 1% to 5% of your income and one day you want to put that collection for sale . are you going to get your money back with some profit? or not?
Thanks again for your nice comments
You ask the questions - SOMEONE will have the answers!

Thanks my Frined for your adive
i will collect China stamp for Hobby only
I just bought
Ren COlympic Games, Sydneyhen
Year (Year of Dragon ).
Just to keep them at my collection.
then i get something reachable.
» You ask the questions - SOMEONE will have the answers

Dear Harth:

Your point is well taken - after pouring money into a hobby for many years, it is reasonable to expect that it is worth something. I just wonder if one were to collect better quality stuff of the countries, topics, or subject of their liking, if one comes out ahead at the end of the day. I am sure that I could do better financially if I were more selective about my country choices, however I don't know if I would enjoy my collection as much.

All the best in your endeavors!

Maybe I'm a bit of a stuck-in-the-mud about what I collect. I find the Royalist-era Laos & Cambodia issues attractive for their fine designs and printing. Even the early 70s multi-colour issues still maintained a high standard (such as the Art commems). The Khmer gold issues just scream "collector inspired tat", they obviously weren't issued with postal use in mind, that's why I think they "have a bad smell" to them.

True though, they exist in limited quantities, and are of popular thematics (Olympics, UPU, trains), so there will be a market for them. If one wishes to add them to their collection, I won't look down on the person for it. What one chooses to add to their album is a personal decision.

The 'emergency' or 're-establishment era' overprints for this area are great items--limited quantities, quite a few inverted ovpts or errors in the date to add 'spice' to a collection. The reservation I have though is, given that they're just simple type-set dates, wouldn't they be easy to forge?

Buying Chinese stamps--the Monkey stamp is often described as a "barometer" of the market. Its price shoots up, it must mean the China market is strong. The price droops, it means buyers are getting cautious. Obviously too much of a generalization. On the stock market the basket of blue-chips used to measure market movement has 25, 50, 100 stocks. For China there's so many sub-areas--Large Dragons, Red Revenues, Gold/Silver Yuan, Cultural Revolution, 1970s-80s material. A price spike/drop could be caused by a number of collectors coincidentally shifting focus at the same time into/away from one of those.

As for the All Country is Red stamp, or the 'Treasures of the Republic' rarities, I wouldn't invest my money in those (assuming I had the 5-6 USD figure amount they sell for). Those are "trophy" items. The first rule of investing is always "diversify", so putting so much into one item, an item for which the collector base will always be thin, I'd say unwise.

Go for the moderate to medium-value items, $100-1000. Something that is worth $1 now will probably never rise much in value, as its probably sitting there at $1 because there's tonnes of them around. Scooping up ovpts at $5 and selling at $50, that's a small coup, but how often do such opportunities come along?

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Some topics in philately, and items/sets, seem to retain, if not gain, value in the long run. I build my collection out of love, but include things I think will boost its overall appeal at auction when I'm dead. Good investment examples I can think of are China Large Dragons (Dragons transcend stamp collecting as an important symbol in Chinese Culture), the PRC Monkey, GB 1 Pound George & The Dragon, Colombian Airmails (the bright, multicolor ones), US Columbians, #1s from around the World, Switzerland Cantonals, Early French Colonies, French Philatelic Expo Souvenir Sheets, Hawaii Postal History, Canada 1898 Diamond Jubilees, Cape of Good Hope Boyscout Stamps, early Mauritius, and many different Pound Values from British Commonwealth - notably Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong. Of course, good varieties (in the $1000+ CV range) with cert are always a good investment as well. If you find a stamp you particularly love, buy as many as you can! Buy good foundations and supports to the value of your collection, and specialize, specialize, specialize. Specialized collections of a particular issue or stamp are worth more as a whole than the best example you can possibly buy of a single stamp or set. That's my 2 cents.

Good investment examples I can think of are China Large Dragons (Dragons transcend stamp collecting as an important symbol in Chinese Culture), and specialize, specialize, specialize. Specialized collections.

Thanks for your post i agreed with what you posting speacialy>>>>>>>>>>