Then there were no air conditioners, too. Letters that survived the country s humid climate were either burned or lost during all those wars. Envelopes, for example, sourced from Manila are more brown, their writings more smudged or faded than those from Madrid. But perhaps more than the prospect of earning money from their prized possessions, most philatelists share a love for the visual arts and an unquenchable thirst for history. It has been 25 years since my first piece.
Some men collect cars, while some are into paintings.
Of course, there are those, like a deposed president we all know, who keep a stable of crafty mistresses. Chan and company also collect women among other stuff. The only difference is most of them are long dead, their images confined forever within the four corners of a stamp.