Unless there is some medical breakthrough, none of us are going to live forever. The stamps that we buy today will one day change ownership to someone else. All of us will have to give up stamp collecting at some point: be it death, poor health, a loss of interest in the hobby, or selling our collection because we need the money. At some point in time, ownership will transfer to someone else.

To me, we are temporary owners of these items. Others owned them before we acquired them. And others will own them after us. Therefore, we don’t truly own these stamps. We’re just temporary curators.

We enjoy these items because someone before us took time to care for them. Stamp multiples, special cancellations, and so forth have all been preserved by someone before us. Therefore, it is up to us to continue that trend. We are responsible for preserving these tiny little treasures for the next generation – as the generations before us have done so for us.