I’m turning 36 later this year, which means I’m literally somewhere between a young adult and middle aged family guy. As much I hate to admit it, in recent years I’ve noted several (inevitable) age related changes in me that affect my every day collecting behavior as well.

I do have eye glasses. I have worn glasses since 7th grade, but they’ve been there to support my distant vision. In recent years though I’ve noted changes in my near vision as well. Last night I was doing some Czech Republic stamps, and I rough sorted them to stock book pages based on imprinted year on the stamp. Few years back I was able to do chores like this easily without any kind of visual aids, now I had to rely on my magnifier glass in order to see the tiny year imprints properly. I’ve also noted that I need more light to read and see catalogs, stamps etc. better yet another common aging vision symptom.In a way it’s scary to acknowledge that some day in future I may not see the all the marvels & flyspecks I once noted so easily. Of course a new pair of glasses & modern technology will solve some of the issues, but still… Anyway, I’ve got an appointment with eye doc scheduled up for near future. Some people (and now everyone reading this) are aware that I have a disease called ulcerative colitis. It’s a nasty bugger, that not only affects how often I go to loo & what I can eat, but also other parts of my body as well.

A somewhat common sidekick of IBD diseases (such as colitis) is arthritis. I have days when my spine hurts so much that I can’t sit down more than half an hour constantly. I have days when handling heavy items (such as 64-pager stock books or single-volume worldwide stamp catalogs) makes me feel discomfort. And I don’t expect things to get better in near future; more likely the opposite. Luckily my fingers are one of the few areas untouched by the disease, and I have no trouble making my tweezers fly when sorting stamps.

In a way it’s highly surprising that there are so few supplies / applications besides the magnifiers and loupes to ease the life of (aging) collector. I know that Actulite makes (somewhat expensive) lighting systems for museums, collectors and other special target groups. But is there anything else?

Personally I’d like to see a “stamp collecting chair” with sleeves/pockets (for tweezers etc. misc stuff) aside, as well as some sort of additional trays to spread around stuff. And inbuilt USB-microscope / scanner & display for quick enlargements would be useful too. I just fear the price of this kind of “space age” collecting chair would be quite astronomical 😆 Maybe I’ll try to built something as such some day (after all, most of the additional gear can be purchased separately at quite cheap prices; the rest would be plain work of incorporating them into any chair).