I once read an article: A real envelope sold at a sky-high price of 1.8 million once again verified the old saying in the philatelic industry

Which old saying? That means collecting stamps but not seals will end up in vain. This quote is based on a "jingle saying" from traditional stamp collecting.

Because stamps are collectibles with specific functions. First of all, stamps have postage and are used to send letters, and secondly they are collections. Therefore, even now, some stamp collectors still ignore the new stamps and believe that collecting stamps is the real stamp collection. The actual envelope becomes the most valuable and meaningful because it fully demonstrates the function of the stamp. In the history of stamp collecting, there was a time when people went to the post office to get new stamps stamped. At that time, on the one hand, value guided everyone and they believed that stamp collecting should only collect old stamps. On the other hand, stamp collecting was also an educational and entertaining activity. The commercial nature is not strong, the people are relatively "pure", and the purpose of collecting stamps is also relatively simple. I am afraid that this situation is difficult to see now.

However, due to the special situation of postage and the limited number of stamps, the large-scale use and consumption of stamps will lead to a decrease in new stamps and an increase in old stamps. Collections have always valued scarcity, so new ones are more valuable. Stamps are often worth more than used stamps, especially if the currency is still in normal use.

Why the actual seal has a special significance in philately? I think there are mainly the following reasons:

The actual cover often has a lot of special information on it, and ordinary collectors do not They will pay too much attention and often ignore it, but as a professional stamp collector, this information has become very "valuable". The most important element here is the postmark, which shows the situation of the postal route and reflects the working conditions of the postal system at that time. It is a true portrayal of the postal history at that time;

The actual seals were sent to all over the world, intertwined into a communication network, and many of the postal routes were very special or even unique, making ordinary stamps with the blessing of actual envelopes The value of the envelopes has doubled;

General stamp collectors tend to ignore the value of actual envelopes, especially those with ordinary stamps, so a large number of envelopes have been destroyed, and the number of surviving ones is generally relatively small, which is in line with the actual value of the envelopes. The purpose of collection is to value rarity;

Professional stamp collection requires some specific themes. There are many ways to obtain stamps and they are easy to obtain, but sealing stamps requires a certain amount of "fate". Once you obtain them, you will It plays an even more powerful role in your own collection;

Because many links are added to the actual envelope, some emergencies are prone to occur, especially some errors, which not only increases the fun, but also increases its existence. value. Let's assume that for example, if the "Mountains and Rivers Across the Country Are Red" stamps were released in advance and actually sent in advance, and they were sent to a remote area abroad, at the same time, due to poor postal routes, various labels and stamps were attached to the envelope. It was stamped and returned to the sender in the end. All these circumstances combined made it difficult to think whether it was valuable or not.

You may say that yours is too exaggerated. Let’s take a simpler example. For example, the stamp below is a good one. It is an Italian Leonardo da Vinci airmail stamp, but because it is not a complete set, The value is much lower than that of the sealed film. If you buy it with an old ticket, it may cost tens of yuan. However, because this sealed film took a German airship flying to South America at that time, this kind of subject has long since disappeared, and it can be seen from the stamp that this seal Most of them are not sent intentionally by stamp collectors, but purely for the purpose of conveying information, so they are valuable, and the price should be more than a few hundred yuan.

An example is the German-Austrian aviation seal above. If it were a stamp, it might not be valuable at all, but the seal reflects the specific historical pattern during World War II, and it is still very precious now.

Finally, what needs to be emphasized is "value". On the one hand, it is its own price, that is, everyone often asks "How much is this worth?"; on the other hand, it is the significance of its existence to stamp collecting. And the latter is what this sentence really means. Moreover, there are no absolutes in the world, and sky-high prices only belong to a few special contents. For example, some man-made actual envelopes have lost the restriction of "natural actual mailing". They are called "philatelic envelopes" in the philatelic community. They are "some envelopes sent by some philatelists for the purpose of mailing", such as the following:

These may be sold at a good price, but their significance is far less than that of natural seals. In other words, collecting stamps but not seals will end up in vain. Not only is the price empty, but more importantly, we have lost knowledge and fun.