Stamps are not an antique, since they have a category of their own: philately. These few lines have the purpose of making this clear. Even though it is true that stamps, as well as antiques, increase their value with time, represent particular periods, report an historical event -many times, in an explicit way- and are objects of collection, it is not correct to put them into the «antiques» category. Stamps make up and independent an autonomous category called philately. Philately is the hobby of many people who spend their time collecting stamps. Each collection is particular -there are collections about a specific subject, a historical period, important events, countries, regions, etc. The value of the stamps increases due to the great demand, little offer, passing of time, and the importance of the event it is reporting. For instance, the recent death of John Paul II brought along the printing of commemorative stamps of great value that will be worth a lot of money in some years, when there are few left, and all the collectors them.

The value of a stamp is related to its handling. When stamps are used as such, they lose to a great extent the value as a collection object; any damage in it brings along a reduction in its price as well. The way they were printed and printing errors are a very important variable when quoting to sell a stamp.

In short, stamps are separated from the «antiques» category to make up the «philately» category. The purchase of only one stamp does not entail importance because it is very difficult to enjoy: only the stamp collection allows enjoying and exhibiting albums. The purpose of this section was to clarify the confusion about this subject.