Tips for Stamp Collectors

I am linking you to a great stamp collection guide on eBay. Go through it and you will learn a lot.

Never use hot water to soak the stamps for removal from the papers and don't place them all together in the bowl.

Before you get on with removing stamps from envelopes and papers you need to sort them according to colored paper backs, dirty stamps or stamps with markings and clean stamps on white paper. After sorting them you have to soak all of these separately. 

You can separate the dirty stamps and then soak them in mild warm water with some detergent. When they soften up, you can lightly brush them, but be careful or you will tear off the stamps. You also need to keep an eye on the ink because the detergent can also get it off.

The best way to collect stamps, in my view, is to sort all your collection into types according to any of the following:

Topics, Country, Colors, Shapes, Animals, Numbers, Years etc.

This way your collection will have a perspective and it will be easy for you to organize your stamps in a meaningful way.