Stamp collecting is a wonderful, educational, and relaxing hobby. Some of the great collectors in the world have included Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman - and currently - Queen Elizabeth of England. Roosevelt had a special "stamp room" in the White House where he spent many peaceful hours working on his collection.
There are many ways to collect: focusing on a single country or geographical area; by shape (squares, triangles, and even circular stamps); by topic (flowers, dogs, cats, musicians, sports, politicians, etc.). I have always been a world-wide collector - since there is so much to be learned about all the countries of the world. Stamps are actually miniature works of art - the topics, colors, and designs a fascinating way to see the world.
One of the best ways to "grow" a world-wide collection is through the purchase of country collections. You can buy country "packets" - typically by number of stamps per country (for example, 200 France; 500 U.S., etc.) which contain unsorted stamps for that particular country and include both older and newer issues by date. The collector then needs to sort the stamps by date for placement in a stamp album of on stock cards.
A less time-consuming way to collect by country is through buying stamps already mounted on stamp album pages. These pages generally come from pages that another collector has already put together. Since stamps are usually mounted by date of issue, it makes a collector's job much easier when going through a particular country. Some collectors prefer to keep the stamps on the original pages and simply add them to their existing album or loose-leaf binder. Other collectors will remove the stamps and mount them on their own album pages. In either case, it saves the effort of sorting and searching for the appropriate place to mount the stamps which is required when a packet is purchased.
The Bronze Dolphin is offering a number of Country Collections on album pages, many from Scott, Minkus, or Harris albums. Check your current collection to see whether these countries will help fill a void in your own collection. It is a great way to target specific countries or regions and build your collection with less effort.