De chibolo juntaba estampillas, aún las tengo por ahí. Incluso si me llega alguna carta con estampillas en lugar de un simple sello, guardo los pequeños papelitos. Pero la verdad, pensé que la vieja afición estaba herida de muerte en estas épocas cibernéticas. Nada más falso. Los coleccionistas han evolucionado y usan todos los recursos de la tecnología para mantener sus colecciones y comunicarse entre ellos. El NYT publica un artículo al respecto y la verdad está muy interesante, claro, si alguna vez te llamaron la atención aquellos pedacitos de papel, si no, salta a otra cosa.

Many enthusiasts worry that the pastime may slowly fade in the blare of video games, satellite television and iPods. But for all its emphasis on paper, ink and glue, stamp collecting has found new life in the digital age. The hobby's online dimension is striking because most collectors are from an older generation less familiar with computers and the Internet. Still, the lure of meeting other stamp collectors, locating that one elusive stamp for a collection, or showcasing entire collections has drawn many onto the Web.

An unintended result of displaying stamps on the Internet is the creation of galleries by individual collectors to help document and preserve the images and history of stamps. There are hundreds of exhibits broken down by themes, like stamps of birds, or by region or period. Many philatelists say they would never see the collections were they not displayed on the Web. "Some of the stamps on my Web site are quite valuable," said Ross Taylor, a collector of Victorian stamps who lives on the outskirts of London and maintains a site at imagesoftheworld.org/stamps/stamps.htm "The stamps are in the bank - and before, I could not even view them unless I took them out of the bank."