Sounds like a whale of a good time.
Good Luck with that. When you are done, swing by and help me get organized also.
I did stockbook tags for myself (Cat # and value in two separate blocks) using MS Excel and playing with the cell sizes until I was happy. Then I copied and pasted them to give me a page full of tags. Print one, copy the rest and do some cutting. They've worked great for me.
Congratulations on your epic plan. I hope that everything falls into place for you. I envy you for your organization!
Andrew
That's pretty much what I do; except that I use Michel as my primary catalog (way more comprehensive than SG SOTW, but to each of their own ) and I do only limited 'annotations' (marking only exceptional items; in the end the rest can be found from catalog pages).
I've documented my progress and experiences on my blog (see signature line below), so you might want to pop in there.
"One particular query is marking the spine of the stockbook so I can see contents without extracting it."
Nothing is worse than seeking something you want that you know you put somewhere sorting through a bunch of albums, files or assorted boxes that have to be opened and closed to decide if there is a possibility that what you want is within. Many otherwise non-descript binders that I've acquired are marked with a strip of white duct tape. When the tape is securely along the spine I write a name with a magic marker. Once shelved along with other similarly marked binders it looks pretty neat.
Remember it is your collection and they are your albums so if what you do, appeals to you, it is the right thing.
" ... Mark catalogue (as stamps identified) with notations for mint (m) mint hinged or marked (mh), used a poor (p) acceptable (a) fine (f)or socked on nose (s). ..."
I am a fan of minimal paperwork.
I recall a friend who often got a new set of catalogs almost annually, and who then spent the better part of a month, possibly two months, transferring all the data that had been
lightly penciled in from the old catalogs to the new set.
I guess she enjoyed the neat tabulations, but to me it was largely a waste of precious time that could have been spent mounting stamps.
She lived near my business.
After about five years of meeting to swap stamps once a week at a coffee shop, a clever devil driving too fast ignored one of those eight sided signs at a four-way intersection, broadsiding her car and her time was up. I attended her memorial and could not get out of my head the idea that she had spent so many hours, nay, months, checking off lines in her Scott's.
Her husband visited my shop one day a few weeks later and gave me her last set of Scott and two neatly labeled plastic shoeboxes full of glassines, loose stamps and several envelopes from dealers, opened ever so neatly, containing stamps she had bought, but never managed to find the time to mount.
That was about thirty-five years ago this December.
Thank you for the advice so far.
scb - I too intend limited annotations - only for things that are not in the catalogue and additional non-philatelic information. Have read some of your blog, v. impressed, I'll read more later.
cdj1122 - duct tape seems to be the best solution, although I suspect there will only be room for a number and I will have to have a list of what is in what stockbook. I could, I have just thought, use letters which would quickly narrow the source. Obviously with over 1,000 postal authorities I have in many instances more than one in each stockbook.
I am sure that there are better (or different) catalogues to SGSOTW but that is what I have got, and I would rather spend money on stamps rather than catalogues.
I do not intend to update and then re-annotate catalogues, the catalogues I have are a line in the sand, everything stops at 2010.
I think I have decided to put stamps on annually marked 6 x 4" display cards, that way, when I have finished cataloguing a country they will be in an easy order to put back into stockbooks.
Again, thanks for your advice - please keep it coming!
This is what I've got. 216 A4 stockbooks (various pp 8- 64) by country loosely filled with stamps and filed in sets by size and then if appropriate by portrait or landscape.(Both used and mint combined).
The front of each stockbook has a 5 x 3" record card stating contents secured by a folding bulldog clip.
Set of Stanley Gibbons 'Stamps of the World' 2010 (5 volumes).
Brother labeller.
Approximately 20 assorted empty stockbooks.
Hundreds6 x 4" display (hangner type) display cards.
The SG catalogues list just over 1000 postal authorities.
This is what I've decided to do.
Use the SG catalogues as the definitive collection list.
Go through each country and identify stamps by SG no.
Mark catalogue (as stamps identified) with notations for mint (m) mint hinged or marked (mh), used a poor (p) acceptable (a) fine (f)or socked on nose (s).
Identify no of stamps issued by each authority and no of stamps owned. Express as percentage. That will help decide/channel future purchases.
Either note SG no next to stamps (cloakroom ticket books give suitable size and are perforated ready to tear OR put into years on 6 x 4" record cards and then refile in stockbooks with notations. I might when I have complete year by country mount on album pages or hanger type pages.
I would really welcome hints/advice/short cuts to help cataloguing etc.One particular query is marking the spine of the stockbook so I can see contents without extracting it.
My stockbooks are housed upright in cupboards.
PS In case I get bored I have separate collections of foreign and UK perfins, kangaroos and stamps featured on stamps.
Regards to you all.
re: Worldwide - what I have decided to do. Advice please!
Sounds like a whale of a good time.
re: Worldwide - what I have decided to do. Advice please!
Good Luck with that. When you are done, swing by and help me get organized also.
re: Worldwide - what I have decided to do. Advice please!
I did stockbook tags for myself (Cat # and value in two separate blocks) using MS Excel and playing with the cell sizes until I was happy. Then I copied and pasted them to give me a page full of tags. Print one, copy the rest and do some cutting. They've worked great for me.
Congratulations on your epic plan. I hope that everything falls into place for you. I envy you for your organization!
Andrew
re: Worldwide - what I have decided to do. Advice please!
That's pretty much what I do; except that I use Michel as my primary catalog (way more comprehensive than SG SOTW, but to each of their own ) and I do only limited 'annotations' (marking only exceptional items; in the end the rest can be found from catalog pages).
I've documented my progress and experiences on my blog (see signature line below), so you might want to pop in there.
"One particular query is marking the spine of the stockbook so I can see contents without extracting it."
re: Worldwide - what I have decided to do. Advice please!
Nothing is worse than seeking something you want that you know you put somewhere sorting through a bunch of albums, files or assorted boxes that have to be opened and closed to decide if there is a possibility that what you want is within. Many otherwise non-descript binders that I've acquired are marked with a strip of white duct tape. When the tape is securely along the spine I write a name with a magic marker. Once shelved along with other similarly marked binders it looks pretty neat.
Remember it is your collection and they are your albums so if what you do, appeals to you, it is the right thing.
" ... Mark catalogue (as stamps identified) with notations for mint (m) mint hinged or marked (mh), used a poor (p) acceptable (a) fine (f)or socked on nose (s). ..."
I am a fan of minimal paperwork.
I recall a friend who often got a new set of catalogs almost annually, and who then spent the better part of a month, possibly two months, transferring all the data that had been
lightly penciled in from the old catalogs to the new set.
I guess she enjoyed the neat tabulations, but to me it was largely a waste of precious time that could have been spent mounting stamps.
She lived near my business.
After about five years of meeting to swap stamps once a week at a coffee shop, a clever devil driving too fast ignored one of those eight sided signs at a four-way intersection, broadsiding her car and her time was up. I attended her memorial and could not get out of my head the idea that she had spent so many hours, nay, months, checking off lines in her Scott's.
Her husband visited my shop one day a few weeks later and gave me her last set of Scott and two neatly labeled plastic shoeboxes full of glassines, loose stamps and several envelopes from dealers, opened ever so neatly, containing stamps she had bought, but never managed to find the time to mount.
That was about thirty-five years ago this December.
re: Worldwide - what I have decided to do. Advice please!
Thank you for the advice so far.
scb - I too intend limited annotations - only for things that are not in the catalogue and additional non-philatelic information. Have read some of your blog, v. impressed, I'll read more later.
cdj1122 - duct tape seems to be the best solution, although I suspect there will only be room for a number and I will have to have a list of what is in what stockbook. I could, I have just thought, use letters which would quickly narrow the source. Obviously with over 1,000 postal authorities I have in many instances more than one in each stockbook.
I am sure that there are better (or different) catalogues to SGSOTW but that is what I have got, and I would rather spend money on stamps rather than catalogues.
I do not intend to update and then re-annotate catalogues, the catalogues I have are a line in the sand, everything stops at 2010.
I think I have decided to put stamps on annually marked 6 x 4" display cards, that way, when I have finished cataloguing a country they will be in an easy order to put back into stockbooks.
Again, thanks for your advice - please keep it coming!