He will pull the stamps you want from his stock, and you mount them in the correct spaces in a custom-made album that you bought. Or you can go to stamp shows or stamp shops and spend hours looking through boxes of stamps and envelopes in search of a particular stamp with a certain postal marking or a special first-day cover that has a meaning to suit your own interests. Stamp collecting is a special mix of the structured and the unstructured, and you can make it a personal hobby that will not be like anyone else's. It's a world all its own, and anyone can find a comfortable place in it. How to Learn About Your New Hobby Organizations, publications, and other collectors can help you grow in the hobby.
Scoff lists every stamp in the world and gives each one a unique number.
At least in the United States, Scoff is the standard way of identifying stamps, and most dealers have their stock arranged according to those numbers. If your local library has no books on stamp collecting, you can borrow some from the huge collection of the American Philatelic Research Library through inter library loan or by becoming a member of the American Philatelic Society. There also are many newspapers and magazines in the stamp hobby, including Linn's's Stamp News, Stamp Collector, Scott Monthly Journal, Global Stamp News. Some can be found on large newsstands. Finding Material for Your Collection You can easily find everything for your stamp hobby by mail.