I never started collecting duck stamps until I became an avid duck hunter. Enjoyed buying duck stamp prints with the stamps we placed on the wall for daily enjoyment. Bought an entire collection for almost $250 on an auction site that were pasted on pages. I didn't care about the pasting: just the stamps and pictures they so eloquently displayed. Lots of great artists out there, some of which I have met and talked to at shows in Charleston. When I received the collection, the only thing pasted were these little stamp holders in the book with descriptions of the artist and stamp on each page. The stamps could be removed. All I have had to do is buy a stamp each year, but the pages to place them on are more difficult to find. I got lucky.

My love for ducks, or waterfowl, is my reason for collecting them. It gives me another way to enjoy them when I take them out of storage to look at them. One state's stamps are all hand-carved decoys, which I have all of. Can't afford all of them and have no desire for them all, but it has nothing to do with hoarding. Now, they give the permit with no stamp in many states. What a waste.

Wikipedia says, "It has been speculated that the widespread appeal of collecting is connected to the hunting and gathering that was once necessary for human survival. Collecting is also associated with memory by association and the need for the human brain to catalogue and organise information and give meaning to ones actions."

I can deal with that. Sure have learned a lot about certain Smith & Wessons. Among those to thank for this is this forum and those that visit here, and the Smith & Wesson Standard Catalogs. Thanks to the guys helped me learn, and thanks to Lee for inviting me here and the S&WCA.
Wish I could collect more, but I have learned to be satisfied with what comes my way.

Anyone like to share your collecting experiences, please feel free to do so. Thanks for listening.