JOHOR BARU: The common Father's Day gift is a shirt, tie, perfume, pen and souvenirs. But the trend has changed.

Children are now encouraging their fathers to take up the traditional stamp collecting hobby in order to help these stressed-out men keep their worries away.

To give them a head start the children have bought their fathers stamp collection kits which comprised stamps, an album, and tweezers, among others. A basic kit costs RM60.

Therapeut ic: Cheah holding up an album filled with stamps sold at his shop in Johor Baru Saturday.

Owner of DS Philatelic, a stamp retail shop at Holiday Plaza, C.B. Cheah, 70, said the children buy the kits as gifts for their fathers.

“It is an interesting and unusual gift and the hobby is indeed calming,” he said.

Cheah said sales have marginally increased and it is a good indication that stamp collection was picking up again.

“Currently most of my customers are working men who hardly have time for hobbies.

“After being introduced to stamp collecting, many of them are now addicted to it and find that it does help them to release stress,” he said.

Other than that, collectors also gain knowledge.

“For example, I have stamp collections from various countries and as you collect them, you get to learn about the names of places, their significance and why they were featured as stamps in the first place,” he said.

He added that stamp collecting is not very costly and it develops according to the pace of the collector.

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