Tongs

The purpose of this tool is to prevent picking up stamps with your hand. Picking up stamps with your hand causes various oils from your hand to be spread to the stamp and sometimes causes damage to the stamp.

Magnifying Glasses

One purpose of a magnifying glass is to spot tiny design varieties & secret marks. A magnifying glass also helps the collector determine whether the stamp is in good condition & if it is authentic or not. Finally a magnifying glass helps show a stamp cancellation more clearly so the collector can identify which city or state the stamp is from.

Stockbooks & Albums

Stock books are used to hold stamps loosely. You simply slip the stamp inside a pocket. Since there are no pre printed labels on the stock books, you can organize the pages however you want. Albums are meant to be a place to store your best stamps. In the albums stamps are attached to the pages using tiny paper called hinges.

Watermark Fluid and Tray

Many older stamps have a hidden design or letters pressed into the paper when it was made, called a watermark. By placing the stamp face-down in a small black tray and dropping a special, fast-evaporating, non-damaging fluid onto it, the watermark temporarily pops out and becomes visible. (If you want to learn more about watermarks and how to find one look at our page on "Stamp Watermarks")

Stamps Catalogue

The primary job of a catalogs is to help you figure out exactly what stamp you are holding. Every year, countries issue thousands of new stamps. Catalogs organize them chronologically by country and provide specific details to help you tell similar-looking stamps apart. Catalogs also assign a unique, standardized reference number to every single stamp ever issued.

Perforation gauge

A perforation gauge is a specialized tool used by stamp collectors to count the number of perforation holes along a stamp's edge. It measures how many of these holes fit within a standard span of two centimeters by matching the stamp's teeth to printed lines or dots on the gauge. This measurement is crucial because stamps with identical designs can have different perforations, which often determines their rarity and financial value.