From the 1870s through the 1970s, the predominant stamp collecting trend involved amassing complete country collections. Today, collecting has broadened its outlook, with some collectors specializing in not just countries, but also such areas as airmail stamps, first day covers, commemorative stamps, revenue stamps, cinderella stamps, and postmarks, among others. As you will see here, thematic collecting is also a relatively new area.  

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Country collecting is arguably still the most popular area. It is relatively easy. The best way to collect country stamps is to purchase a pre-printed album that contains pages with the stamps of one or more countries already printed on the pages. The collector needs only to purchase or acquire the appropriate stamp and mount it in the album in that location. The goal is usually to acquire all the stamps of that particular country. Stamps may be used or mint, at the collector's discretion - and budget.

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Below are some examples of albums and album pages.