Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
I have been spending 4-6 hours daily for 2 months on just the U.S. portion of his hoard. I'm adopting it and learning about it. I need help on some curatorial issues.
- He wrapped numerous older stamps in cellophane from cigarette packs. Am I correct in removing them and placing them in glassine envelopes and Vario stock sheets?
- There are hundreds of used ~1970-1999 definitives packed in plastic bags. I believe that these are worthless. If so, I can toss whole file boxes! Maybe I should save 10 of each stamp, especially the commemoratives in glassine envelopes?
- I have started organizing by Scott number, creating files using acid free folders. Thoughts?
- Can unused postcards be kept together in a stack?
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I've recently gotten back to collecting and have been sorting through my hoard of stuff from more than 35 years ago! I thought I'd share how I've been sorting it all out...
To do my sort I bought 5 packs of 100 of these (super deal on eBay):
So far I've organized my New Jersey postmark cover collection into these pages. It's worked out very well so far:
Now I'm working on my USA collection of stamps, blocks, plate blocks, covers... you name it! It's never really been organized. I'm using the same pages, and devoting one side of each pocket to each Scott number. The first binder I've done is commemoratives from 1919 to 1939. I've put a card in each pocket describing the stamps that should be in each. So far I've just put in the first day covers, now I need to go searching through albums and such for the rest.
This is just a sorting method for now. Once I see everything I have, I believe I should have a pretty complete USA 20th century collection, minus all the variations of early definitives. Then I can decide how to create nice album pages for it all.
Earlier this year one of my friends from my car club showed up with three black garbage bags. His mother in law died, and he was cleaning out her home. The bags represent his father in law's stamp hoard. I don't think he ever bought a stamp, all of it looks like it was clipped from mail from the 1960s to the late 1980s when he died. Most of it is USA and Poland since he was Polish and corresponded with family there. Tons and tons of the same stamps over and over! And mostly on paper. A sorting nightmare, but the alternative was it going to the landfill, so I took it.
Good luck with your sorting! I hope you wind up with a decent collection!
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Jack, what fun!
to add to Michael's response to
""There are hundreds of used 1970-1999 definitives packed in plastic bags. I believe that these are worthless. If so, I can toss whole file boxes! Maybe I should save 10 of each stamp, especially the commemoratives in glassine envelopes? ""
in addition to the Holocaust project (and I coincidentally just mentioned it in another thread earlier today), you could also start putting them up in the approvals section. Also, pay attention to PNCs on your coil singles; they are often more avidly collected and represent an important element to collecting.
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Hi everyone;
jackar1234 said;
"- Can unused postcards be kept together in a stack?"
Also in addition to not using rubber bands, avoid tape and paper clips.
Paper clips in the past were known to leave brown rust marks. I Don't know if modern ones will or not.
Better to not use them at all. They could be sorted and stored in envelopes, and then placed in a box
would be okay.
Have fun sortin'....
TuskenRaider
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Doesn't matter if the paperclips leave rust marks. The clips damage the paper just by putting them on.
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As a guy who inherited over 80 binders from my own dad, I can only commiserate with you; and also congratulate you on your perseverance and efforts. Way to go! I'm nowhere near where you are yet. Work interferes; but I'm so-o-o-o-o looking forward to the day... 
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"Work interferes; but I'm so-o-o-o-o looking forward to the day..."
I used to think that too. Now, having not worked in 10 months (retirement) I find that I don't any more free time than I did when I was working. However, there still is a difference in that I am not a slave to the alarm clock, I rarely drive in rush hour traffic anymore, I usually get up when I want, I usually go to bed when I want, and I don't have a boss hanging over my head (scratch that...I am married).
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Michael #s - Please don't ruin my vision of utopia! I have a plan where I will retire when my kids just enter post-secondary education. This way I will have at least two or three years of peace before they move back in with me. LOL
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No. Don't get me wrong. It is a totally different world after you retire. Look at what I don't do anymore. That in itself is worth the cost of admission. I do not miss working. It's just that the time goes by just as fast as it did before.
I actually retired back in 2012, but a serious illness and various things that happened during that first year necessitated my return to the workplace. I was at that job for a little over a year. That's the other nice thing. If I do need to return to work one day, I can always quit whenever I want if I don't like the job. My pension takes care of my needs.
Right now I am volunteering my past project management experience with National Model Railroad Association to embellish the Austin (Texas) Model Railroad Jamboree. It is difficult to try to get people to think of project management plans when they are used to the hobby as a "fun" thing to do. Anyway, I am slugging through it, and I think a couple are finally getting it. One giant step for the hobby. (Like how I segued back into the topic?) 
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That's what a project manager does - keeps the rest of us on track and guides us back to the original scope. The NMRA is lucky to have you!
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Thanks, but over the past couple of months I have felt like my train has been moving about as fast as the train that carried the mirror from New York to California.
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Hey, I have just spent the better part of two years moving a new Canadian law through our department and developing program instructions to keep things rolling for the taxpayers. I truly believe that I have experienced a reverse rotation of the earth at certain points in the process. Keep that train a' rolling, Michael.
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Wow! Thanks for all the responses.
BenFranklin1902. Thanks for the tip on the page protectors. Mixed in with my Dad's philatelic supplies were about 150 C-Line 62013 polypropylene sheet protectors from around 1998. The product is still sold and described as “Polypropylene material provides acid-free protection with no photocopy transferâ€. My understanding is that Lindner uses polypropylene in their their storage systems(?). They appear to be in excellent shape but, I have been hesitant to use them without more knowledgeable opinions. Any thoughts?
Thankfully Dad didn't use many paperclips. Where used, the damage has served as a warning.
I feel closer to him since starting this project than I ever have. We were never very close as we had few common interests. Every so often, I have come across a little note of his concerning particular stamps.
I also came upon the empty envelopes of every card or letter that I had sent my parents. There was noting special about the stamps. He just felt the need to keep them.
I retired early, at age 59, at the end of 2014. I have not regretted it at all. The few times that I have contemplated returning to work do not last for more than a few minutes. I chalk it up to temporary anxiety. I am too busy doing the things that I want to return to “workâ€. I have found that I miss the structure more than anything. My remedy is to write a daily “to do†list & update my longer-term “to do†list. Of course my list is flexible and taking time to read or watch an episode of “Orphan Black†is always an option. Hold it, let me see how the market is doing. Have the Chinese imploded yet?
No, seriously. I am used to doing DIY projects lasting many months. This is a long term project/hobby that may become a lifelong one.
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Jack- I will leave the archive sheet question to those who are more knowledgeable than I. The sheets I use are marked "archive quality - no acids" etc. I bought the same ones for my postcards about ten years ago and I don't see any breakdown or damage to the cards.
I understand your feeling towards your father. I too was never that close to my father, but I got to know him after his death through the many papers he had saved. He hoarded everything, so there was every document of his career, and lots of family memories. Between his things and paper my grandmother had saved, I have a bunch of old family addressed covers in my New Jersey postmark collection.
One in particular is my cover for Convent Station, NJ. It's a bit torn from a rough opening but it was a letter sent by my aunt to my grandmother when she was in college. My grandmother wrote, "Very nice letter" on the outside. They're both gone now, so it's nice to have things like this in the collection. I also have a postcard mailed by my grandfather in the late 1920s from Asbury Park, NJ (the shore) to his mother, with the last line being "Mom, Don't worry about me!" Priceless stuff!
I don't see myself retiring anytime soon. As you said, I like the routine and I need the intellectual stimulation and projects. My wife had surgery this year and I worked from home for two months that she was recovering. At the end of that we both really needed to get back to our jobs! So I don't see us retiring well.
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Hey Jack,
Enjoy working with the collection. So glad to hear you're feeling that connection to dad. My mom and dad divorced when i was a baby so i have no memories of actually living with my dad. But he and i have enjoyed a variety of collecting pursuits together over the past 20 years so it has brought us closer. Enjoy being retired! I wish I was ya lucky dawg!
-Ernie
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The American Museum of Photography web site recommends polypropylene for storage of photographs, so I assume that it would safe for philatelic material as well. Here's a quote:
"Archival materials used for this purpose* include polypropylene and polyester film (Mylar is the best-known trade name.) Both of these plastics are considered stable for long-term use. The polyester sleeves offer improved clarity."
Bob
* storage of photographs
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""I feel closer to him since starting this project than I ever have.""
Yeah, my own inherited collection harkens back to sitting with my own dad up in the attic, where we worked together on our stamps when I was just a young guy. Embrace that feeling and don't let go of it.
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You're off to an ambitious beginning in your organizing!
Tip of the hat to the two SOR members who referred you to the Holocaust Stamps Project when you're ready to unload what you don't want and what has no value to you.
School just began yesterday so I don't yet have the updated total, but the count stood at 5,544,094 in June, and I'm aware of at least 130,000 more having been counted and dropped off at school by summertime volunteers.
A Chelmsford, MA stamp club gathered about 20,000 (volunteers are up to 11,400 in their one-stamp-at-a-time count and sent them in this box! (The entire back was covered as well!)
Stamps in any quantity and any condition will continue to be welcome until the HSP reaches its goal of 11,000,000 to honor the life of each Holocaust victim.
THANKS to all the great SOR supporters!!!!
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I sort 4*6 postcards into:
http://www.bcwsupplies.com/type/sleeves-bags/5x7-photo-sleeves
I sort 3*5 postcards into:
http://www.bcwsupplies.com/cat/4x6-photo-sleeves
Like the King of Siam is said to have said: etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
I print & add Avery self-adhesive labels with topic names, but that's me.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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I recently retired and now have the time to tackle my father's "collection". He was also a hoarder of stamps.
I have been spending 4-6 hours daily for 2 months on just the U.S. portion of his hoard. I'm adopting it and learning about it. I need help on some curatorial issues.
- He wrapped numerous older stamps in cellophane from cigarette packs. Am I correct in removing them and placing them in glassine envelopes and Vario stock sheets?
- There are hundreds of used ~1970-1999 definitives packed in plastic bags. I believe that these are worthless. If so, I can toss whole file boxes! Maybe I should save 10 of each stamp, especially the commemoratives in glassine envelopes?
- I have started organizing by Scott number, creating files using acid free folders. Thoughts?
- Can unused postcards be kept together in a stack?
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
I've recently gotten back to collecting and have been sorting through my hoard of stuff from more than 35 years ago! I thought I'd share how I've been sorting it all out...
To do my sort I bought 5 packs of 100 of these (super deal on eBay):
So far I've organized my New Jersey postmark cover collection into these pages. It's worked out very well so far:
Now I'm working on my USA collection of stamps, blocks, plate blocks, covers... you name it! It's never really been organized. I'm using the same pages, and devoting one side of each pocket to each Scott number. The first binder I've done is commemoratives from 1919 to 1939. I've put a card in each pocket describing the stamps that should be in each. So far I've just put in the first day covers, now I need to go searching through albums and such for the rest.
This is just a sorting method for now. Once I see everything I have, I believe I should have a pretty complete USA 20th century collection, minus all the variations of early definitives. Then I can decide how to create nice album pages for it all.
Earlier this year one of my friends from my car club showed up with three black garbage bags. His mother in law died, and he was cleaning out her home. The bags represent his father in law's stamp hoard. I don't think he ever bought a stamp, all of it looks like it was clipped from mail from the 1960s to the late 1980s when he died. Most of it is USA and Poland since he was Polish and corresponded with family there. Tons and tons of the same stamps over and over! And mostly on paper. A sorting nightmare, but the alternative was it going to the landfill, so I took it.
Good luck with your sorting! I hope you wind up with a decent collection!
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Jack, what fun!
to add to Michael's response to
""There are hundreds of used 1970-1999 definitives packed in plastic bags. I believe that these are worthless. If so, I can toss whole file boxes! Maybe I should save 10 of each stamp, especially the commemoratives in glassine envelopes? ""
in addition to the Holocaust project (and I coincidentally just mentioned it in another thread earlier today), you could also start putting them up in the approvals section. Also, pay attention to PNCs on your coil singles; they are often more avidly collected and represent an important element to collecting.
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Hi everyone;
jackar1234 said;
"- Can unused postcards be kept together in a stack?"
Also in addition to not using rubber bands, avoid tape and paper clips.
Paper clips in the past were known to leave brown rust marks. I Don't know if modern ones will or not.
Better to not use them at all. They could be sorted and stored in envelopes, and then placed in a box
would be okay.
Have fun sortin'....
TuskenRaider
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09:04:09pm
re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Doesn't matter if the paperclips leave rust marks. The clips damage the paper just by putting them on.
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
As a guy who inherited over 80 binders from my own dad, I can only commiserate with you; and also congratulate you on your perseverance and efforts. Way to go! I'm nowhere near where you are yet. Work interferes; but I'm so-o-o-o-o looking forward to the day...
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09:08:23pm
re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
"Work interferes; but I'm so-o-o-o-o looking forward to the day..."
I used to think that too. Now, having not worked in 10 months (retirement) I find that I don't any more free time than I did when I was working. However, there still is a difference in that I am not a slave to the alarm clock, I rarely drive in rush hour traffic anymore, I usually get up when I want, I usually go to bed when I want, and I don't have a boss hanging over my head (scratch that...I am married).
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Michael #s - Please don't ruin my vision of utopia! I have a plan where I will retire when my kids just enter post-secondary education. This way I will have at least two or three years of peace before they move back in with me. LOL
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09:26:42pm
re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
No. Don't get me wrong. It is a totally different world after you retire. Look at what I don't do anymore. That in itself is worth the cost of admission. I do not miss working. It's just that the time goes by just as fast as it did before.
I actually retired back in 2012, but a serious illness and various things that happened during that first year necessitated my return to the workplace. I was at that job for a little over a year. That's the other nice thing. If I do need to return to work one day, I can always quit whenever I want if I don't like the job. My pension takes care of my needs.
Right now I am volunteering my past project management experience with National Model Railroad Association to embellish the Austin (Texas) Model Railroad Jamboree. It is difficult to try to get people to think of project management plans when they are used to the hobby as a "fun" thing to do. Anyway, I am slugging through it, and I think a couple are finally getting it. One giant step for the hobby. (Like how I segued back into the topic?)
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
That's what a project manager does - keeps the rest of us on track and guides us back to the original scope. The NMRA is lucky to have you!
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09:32:55pm
re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Thanks, but over the past couple of months I have felt like my train has been moving about as fast as the train that carried the mirror from New York to California.
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Hey, I have just spent the better part of two years moving a new Canadian law through our department and developing program instructions to keep things rolling for the taxpayers. I truly believe that I have experienced a reverse rotation of the earth at certain points in the process. Keep that train a' rolling, Michael.
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Wow! Thanks for all the responses.
BenFranklin1902. Thanks for the tip on the page protectors. Mixed in with my Dad's philatelic supplies were about 150 C-Line 62013 polypropylene sheet protectors from around 1998. The product is still sold and described as “Polypropylene material provides acid-free protection with no photocopy transferâ€. My understanding is that Lindner uses polypropylene in their their storage systems(?). They appear to be in excellent shape but, I have been hesitant to use them without more knowledgeable opinions. Any thoughts?
Thankfully Dad didn't use many paperclips. Where used, the damage has served as a warning.
I feel closer to him since starting this project than I ever have. We were never very close as we had few common interests. Every so often, I have come across a little note of his concerning particular stamps.
I also came upon the empty envelopes of every card or letter that I had sent my parents. There was noting special about the stamps. He just felt the need to keep them.
I retired early, at age 59, at the end of 2014. I have not regretted it at all. The few times that I have contemplated returning to work do not last for more than a few minutes. I chalk it up to temporary anxiety. I am too busy doing the things that I want to return to “workâ€. I have found that I miss the structure more than anything. My remedy is to write a daily “to do†list & update my longer-term “to do†list. Of course my list is flexible and taking time to read or watch an episode of “Orphan Black†is always an option. Hold it, let me see how the market is doing. Have the Chinese imploded yet?
No, seriously. I am used to doing DIY projects lasting many months. This is a long term project/hobby that may become a lifelong one.
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Jack- I will leave the archive sheet question to those who are more knowledgeable than I. The sheets I use are marked "archive quality - no acids" etc. I bought the same ones for my postcards about ten years ago and I don't see any breakdown or damage to the cards.
I understand your feeling towards your father. I too was never that close to my father, but I got to know him after his death through the many papers he had saved. He hoarded everything, so there was every document of his career, and lots of family memories. Between his things and paper my grandmother had saved, I have a bunch of old family addressed covers in my New Jersey postmark collection.
One in particular is my cover for Convent Station, NJ. It's a bit torn from a rough opening but it was a letter sent by my aunt to my grandmother when she was in college. My grandmother wrote, "Very nice letter" on the outside. They're both gone now, so it's nice to have things like this in the collection. I also have a postcard mailed by my grandfather in the late 1920s from Asbury Park, NJ (the shore) to his mother, with the last line being "Mom, Don't worry about me!" Priceless stuff!
I don't see myself retiring anytime soon. As you said, I like the routine and I need the intellectual stimulation and projects. My wife had surgery this year and I worked from home for two months that she was recovering. At the end of that we both really needed to get back to our jobs! So I don't see us retiring well.
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02:11:55pm
re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
Hey Jack,
Enjoy working with the collection. So glad to hear you're feeling that connection to dad. My mom and dad divorced when i was a baby so i have no memories of actually living with my dad. But he and i have enjoyed a variety of collecting pursuits together over the past 20 years so it has brought us closer. Enjoy being retired! I wish I was ya lucky dawg!
-Ernie
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
The American Museum of Photography web site recommends polypropylene for storage of photographs, so I assume that it would safe for philatelic material as well. Here's a quote:
"Archival materials used for this purpose* include polypropylene and polyester film (Mylar is the best-known trade name.) Both of these plastics are considered stable for long-term use. The polyester sleeves offer improved clarity."
Bob
* storage of photographs
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
""I feel closer to him since starting this project than I ever have.""
Yeah, my own inherited collection harkens back to sitting with my own dad up in the attic, where we worked together on our stamps when I was just a young guy. Embrace that feeling and don't let go of it.
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
You're off to an ambitious beginning in your organizing!
Tip of the hat to the two SOR members who referred you to the Holocaust Stamps Project when you're ready to unload what you don't want and what has no value to you.
School just began yesterday so I don't yet have the updated total, but the count stood at 5,544,094 in June, and I'm aware of at least 130,000 more having been counted and dropped off at school by summertime volunteers.
A Chelmsford, MA stamp club gathered about 20,000 (volunteers are up to 11,400 in their one-stamp-at-a-time count and sent them in this box! (The entire back was covered as well!)
Stamps in any quantity and any condition will continue to be welcome until the HSP reaches its goal of 11,000,000 to honor the life of each Holocaust victim.
THANKS to all the great SOR supporters!!!!
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re: New to stamp collecting. I inherited a "collection" from a hoarder.
I sort 4*6 postcards into:
http://www.bcwsupplies.com/type/sleeves-bags/5x7-photo-sleeves
I sort 3*5 postcards into:
http://www.bcwsupplies.com/cat/4x6-photo-sleeves
Like the King of Siam is said to have said: etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
I print & add Avery self-adhesive labels with topic names, but that's me.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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