Postage Stamps

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Byline: By RHODRI CLARK Western Mail

Most children get the collecting bug, and there's nothing better for them to accumulate than postage stamps. Stamps take up little storage space. They don't have to be kept in a controlled climate, or polished regularly or displayed in glass cabinets. Used stamps are also free, or can be bought cheaply in bulk. That prevents stamp collecting becoming another competition of affluence among children, with humiliating consequences for the ones whose parents can't or won't keep up. Stamp collecting is also vaguely exciting for children, especially at Christmas when parcels and cards, bearing exotic stamps, arrive from distant relatives.