An Arpin Philately initiative – Dealing in Quality Stamps since 1969
Lisa 
Now that you have your very own stamp kit, you’ll want to learn how to use it properly.
Your stockbook is a special kind of book to keep your stamps clean and safe. It’s up to you to decide how you want to organize your stamps inside of it. Try to make the arrangement as pretty as possible–you want to show off your best stamps!
The question we get asked the most at Arpin Philately is: What is my stamp worth? Here is a short checklist to help you get going.
1) Begin by auto-evaluating your stamp’s worth. To do this you will need a stamp catalogue. You’ll either want to get the Unitrade Specialized Catalogue for Canadian stamps, the Scott Pocket for U.S. stamps, or a Scott World catalogue for other countries.
There are many different languages spoken around the world. Often, each country has its own language and alphabet. That can make it hard to know which country your stamp is from. Here is an alphabetical list of some of the more difficult to identify country names–beside each country name, we have shown you how it will most likely be written on your stamp. Hopefully it will make things easier for all of you out there!
Click here to go the Arpin Philately online store and see all the world stamp packets we have to offer, or click on each country name to go directly to that country’s store page.
Let’s get kids hooked on stamps! In this day and age there are a lot of entertainment options for kids–video games, sports, TV etc. How about collecting stamps? Not only is it fun, but they can learn a lot about art, animals, different cultures, history and a ton of other things. Collecting stamps can also teach a child patience, attention to detail, organizational skills, fine motor skills, and how to stay focused on one thing at a time. But it’s up to us to show them how much fun it can be.
So you want to collect stamps? Get ready for lots of fun!
Stamps can be pretty to look at, but they can also help you learn about different countries, music, animals, art and a whole bunch of other things.
What is a stamp? Well, a long time ago in England, when people would receive a letter, they would have to pay for it themselves when it was delivered to their door! Often, the cost of the letter was really high.
We’re happy to announce a new feature of our blog at Arpin Philately–Kids Corner!
We’ve developed this new category to help you get kids interested in stamps. It features an information guide for adults on how to build a custom-made starter stamp kit for your child.
Kids Corner will also feature articles explaining stamps and stamp collecting to little ones in simple terms.
Let’s get kids hooked on stamps!
In a previous article we already discussed what a die-cut stamp is (see article: FAQ-What is a die-cut stamp?). Many of you have noticed when shopping for your Quarterly Packs that some stamps are described as «die-cut to shape from Quartely Pack». What does this mean?
Quarterly Packs are prepared by Canada Post as an easy way for collectors to procure all of the stamps issued in a year in tri-monthly installments. A Quarterly Pack contains
Modern printing has had a huge impact on stamp production and philately. Experienced collectors and philatelists are now finding themselves having to learn new philatelic terms and definitions. For example, many new stamps are die-cut. What does that mean?
Simply put, die-cutting is a method of stamp separation designed for self-adhesive stamps. Older, gummed stamps are perforated so that you can separate them one from another (see article: FAQ-What are stamp perforations? ). Modern self-adhesive stamps are very rarely perforated, instead they are die-cut. In other words, a metal die cuts out the sides of the stamps.
So you want to take good care of your precious stamp collection and ensure that it stays in top notch condition for a long time? Without a doubt, the best storage solution is a stamp album. With all the options on the market, it can be difficult to decide which one to get. For the serious collector of Canada stamps, Arpin Philately recommends the Lighthouse Hingeless Canada stamp album–a stamp album fit for the Queen herself!!
Canada Post is issuing more and more self-adhesive stamps and a lot of you have asked how to remove them from a paper backing (such as an envelope). A previous article discussed how to do this using Bestine, a chemical solvent. For obvious reasons, many of you would prefer not to use something chemical.
I am very grateful to Claude Favron for posting his suggestion in our comments section. We tested Mr. Favron’s method at Arpin Philately and found that it worked beautifully. I am reproducing his tip below and hope that you find it useful too. The key to success is