Stamp 'accumulator' has no idea how many stamps he owns

He calls himself more of an accumulator than a collector. 

No matter what you call him, Daniel Michaud is a philatelist, and will be one of many attending the upcoming British North American Philatelic Society exhibition in Fredericton.

"I'm an accumulator," said Michaud of the stamps he has been collecting throughout his life. "A collector usually would specialize in some sort of field. Either a country or a specific type of stamp."

His collection fills a converted bedroom lined with shelves filled with albums containing various series of stamps from all around the world. His collection consists of Canadian stamps, Belgium, French, Polish, South Pacific and others. 

Michaud said the albums contain anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 stamps, but added not all of his 500 albums are full.

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When asked how many individual stamps he had, Michaud replied, "I have no idea, I haven't the foggiest idea."

Michaud began collecting as child.

"My brother was a scout when I was very young and he started collecting, and whatever doubles he had, he passed them on to me. So I started putting them in, just in loose leafs, and when I eventually earned a bit of money I bought a small album and started there."

The interest continued when he joined the school's stamp club and grew from there.

Investment 

Michaud said he looked at stamp collection as an investment for his retirement, but said since he didn't want to get rid of any of it, it was only valuable to himself.

"I'm into Canadian revenue stamps, they don't print ... make them out anymore now that everything is rubber stamped. But previous to that if you paid taxes, there was a stamp for it."

But Michaud does collect other stamps and spends his time sorting them. He described three stamps he had from the country Tonga as a history lesson as well as a geography lesson.

"I have no idea why I collect. It's a hobby. I can start working on a collection of some stamps at ten o'clock at night and look at my watch, oh oh, it's five o'clock in the morning and you've got to stop," he said.

Stamp show

People from all over the country and different parts of the world who collect British North American stamps will display their collections. 

While there will be study group, meetings and 43 exhibitors showing parts of their collection at the international stamp show, Michaud said there are a number of seminars, with one in particular that interests him.

"There is one that I'm interested in because I'm not too sure why I'm collecting. There's one on the psychology of collecting so I'm definitely going to go cause I want to know why I collect all these things."

The British North American Philatelic Society exhibition will be held at the Fredericton Inn from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2.