Maybe you're looking for an Elvis? Or a Nixon? Or a much more pricey Graf Zeppelin from 1930?

Whether you're a novice stamp collector or a seasoned speculator, chances are you'll find what you're looking for at Champion Stamp Co.

This shop, which bills itself as "New York's only street-level retail stamp store," is tucked away on an unassuming side street in Hell's Kitchen. But to walk through the front door is to enter a world where the imagination is free to soar.

Liliana Rosende, who has managed the shop since it opened on W. 54th St. 10 years ago, makes a sweeping gesture at a wall of catalogued stamps - from the United States, the British colonies and the rest of the world, arranged alphabetically from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. On another wall, there are subcategories, including birds, flowers, marine life, the military. The stamps range in price from a few cents to several thousand dollars.

"Some people want to collect only mint [uncanceled] stamps," says Rosende, 32, whose father was a collector back. "Some want stamps from Spain. Some want stamps with trains."

Champion offers tantalizing deals for the beginner. The Traveler stamp album costs just $23.95 and includes 300 stamps, a magnifying glass, tweezers and "hinges" for affixing the stamps to the album's pages.

A bulging, one-pound bag of U.S. stamps sells for $29.95, while commemorative stamps cost $39.95 and foreign stamps cost $59.95. For pricing of individual stamps, Champion consults the Scott catalogue, the bible of philately, and then knocks 20% off.

Rosende, like just about everyone else in the business, says stamp collecting remains a popular hobby - but not with its traditional group of enthusiasts.

"There's no rhyme or reason to it," she says. "Thirty years ago, a lot of children collected stamps. You had stamp clubs in the schools. You don't have that now. What we're getting now is people who collected when they were children. They've gotten out of school, they've had kids, and now they have a little spending money. And they're getting back into collecting." When they do, one of the first things they learn is that there's virtually no end to the variety - and price range - of stamps today.

"Every country has expensive stamps," says Rosende, showing a sheet of 1903 stamps from Hong Kong priced at $2,303. A Graf Zeppelin from 1930, priced at $2,200 in the catalogue, is available for just $1,295 - because the gum has been removed from its back.

The Elvis stamp was such a big event that the Postal Service conducted a poll to find out if the public preferred its Elvis young and slick or middle-aged in a white jumpsuit. The '50s Elvis, the one with the gleaming pompadour, won out. The stamp had a face value of 29 cents when it was issued in 1993, and it was a huge hit. Which is not the same thing as saying it would become valuable. Quite the contrary.

"The Elvis stamp was great for stamp collecting because it promoted the hobby," says Rosende. "But they kept printing them to satisfy demand. So is it ever going to be worth anything? No."

Originally published on October 11, 2002