Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
However. A-Ra has inspired me and ikey-pikey (apparently my long-lost evil twin brother) has goaded me into action.
So, here's the agenda this weekend:
Stage 1: Introduction to "The Hoard". I'm going to post some pictures of the monster I'm dealing with. Question: Faced with this daunting task, how would you approach sorting/organizing this mess? (Obviously, specialists who would answer "pitch it" need not apply). I'll tell you about my sad journey and what I'm currently doing. Laughter (even at my expense) is tolerated and advice/comments/feedback are REALLY appreciated.
Stage 2: Looking at Some of the Components of "The Hoard". This will be a fairly high level look at some of the pieces and how I'm trying to make sense of it and, especially, figure out what to collect and what to sell. Surprisingly hard decision which I have changed my mind on frequently. (Although I have made a successful sale of $1.60 here, although I suspect it was a "pity purchase". Question: Take a look at the pictures and see if you spot anything interesting. Suggestions on "that's cool, collect it", "that's crap, toss it", "get that in an Auction/Approval ASAP", or " I collect some stuff I saw in there, can you post more scans?"
Stage 3: Some Individual Findings That I Think Are Cool. Question: Same as above and/or you can send me a private message if you have an idea on trading or a private sale. I'll want to develop some kind of relationship and find out some stuff about you first, especially since I won't be doing anything rash. And same rules as Stamporama sales would apply with no tolerance for B.S. obviously.
Stage 4: Becoming a Real Collector & Starting to Sell Some S*&,&*,%T. I'm going to try and put together 1-2 pages of a "Poor Schmuck's A-Ra" presentation if I still have some energy left this weekend. 8 hour round-trip tomorrow for Easter Dinner so it's a good thing I have a bunch of pictures and scans ready to go.
Cheers.
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Cool Hoard! I bought a similar hoard myself last summer.
Best advise I can give? Settle in for the long haul and have fun!
I would start by sorting by country.
Good luck!
WB
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"endless, fruitless hours wading through it"
When you talk about stamps, the quote above does not apply!
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As a world wide collector I am green with envy. However I have a hoard of my own to get through, so I will not be taking anything off your hands.
The first thing to say is that you need to have self-discipline in spades, and you need to avoid sorting anything twice.
I have never been that lucky myself, but I do accummulate lots of "stuff".Here is my approach.
First of all aquire loads of junk envelopes and some empty shoe boxes.Cut the envelopes so that they are open at the top, and fold to fit the shoe boxes.
Take your first lump of stamps. Sort into countries/topics and put them in envelopes by country in the shoe boxes using whatever filing system you choose. Then take each country and subsort into envelopes - so that all that group of stamps is identified.
Take the next lump of stamps and repeat, except that where you have similar stamps already filed add to the original and create new envelopes for different stamps.
Repeat ad infinitum until the number of new envelopes per lump of stamps is low. You no doubt will still have hundreds of unsorted stamps,but at this stage that does not matter.
At that stage you can start "proper"sorting. Take the first envelope and deal with the contents then continue.
Once you have your albums reasonable full you can then add the remaining unsorted stuff album by album.
Trying to sort all your stamps into albums at one time from scratch is too time consuming-but picking a country and going through a huge hoard time and again is equally unproductive.
Once you are under way you will be able to vary your activity so that you do not get either bored or too frustrated. The secret is good time-management.
Best of luck with it.
Malcolm
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I just saw your other thread with photos, and man! You hit the motherlode!
Since you don't have any preconceptions as to what you will collect, just start going through it and eventually things will grab your interest. For starters, I'd consider anything nicely in album as already sorted and a collection to enjoy.
I don't know how well the USA portion is sorted or if there are organized albums. I am in a similar situation, recently returned to general collecting after a 30 year absence, where I just concentrated on a narrow specialty. I realized that I probably had a fairly complete USA collection so I started by sorting that into binders in Scott order. I still have no idea how I will eventually house it all, but at least it's getting organized.
I also have a mess of foreign stamps, covers and more. This is the hoard of stuff I acquired as a teen and hadn't looked at since. Some of it is in stock books by country so I consider that already sorted until I want to either start collecting that country or sell it off.
On top of that a friend of mine gave me a hoard of stamps last year. His father in law died years ago and his mother in law died recently and they were getting the house ready for sale. His wife had already "sorted" her father's stamp collection into 3 large black trash bags. My friend rescued them and gave them to me. Tons of stuff, mainly used and off the mail from the last 60 years. Still since they were Polish, there is a mega hoard of Poland both on and off paper. So I have this to sort also. Someday!
Note that since you have this hoard pretty much free, making decisions on what to collect doesn't involve having to acquire stuff on eBay or other purchasing. You have enough to build a decent collection already. So it's a matter of figuring it out. I wouldn't consider this pressure to work quickly, you have the rest of your life to figure it out!
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OK, I've yapped endlessly about my sorry lot in life wading through the trunk-load (did I mention it was a car trunk?) of stamps I bought for $400 last year and the endless, fruitless hours wading through it to try and re-establish a collection. By the way, I still haven't attached a single stamp to a page yet...
However. A-Ra has inspired me and ikey-pikey (apparently my long-lost evil twin brother) has goaded me into action.
So, here's the agenda this weekend:
Stage 1: Introduction to "The Hoard". I'm going to post some pictures of the monster I'm dealing with. Question: Faced with this daunting task, how would you approach sorting/organizing this mess? (Obviously, specialists who would answer "pitch it" need not apply). I'll tell you about my sad journey and what I'm currently doing. Laughter (even at my expense) is tolerated and advice/comments/feedback are REALLY appreciated.
Stage 2: Looking at Some of the Components of "The Hoard". This will be a fairly high level look at some of the pieces and how I'm trying to make sense of it and, especially, figure out what to collect and what to sell. Surprisingly hard decision which I have changed my mind on frequently. (Although I have made a successful sale of $1.60 here, although I suspect it was a "pity purchase". Question: Take a look at the pictures and see if you spot anything interesting. Suggestions on "that's cool, collect it", "that's crap, toss it", "get that in an Auction/Approval ASAP", or " I collect some stuff I saw in there, can you post more scans?"
Stage 3: Some Individual Findings That I Think Are Cool. Question: Same as above and/or you can send me a private message if you have an idea on trading or a private sale. I'll want to develop some kind of relationship and find out some stuff about you first, especially since I won't be doing anything rash. And same rules as Stamporama sales would apply with no tolerance for B.S. obviously.
Stage 4: Becoming a Real Collector & Starting to Sell Some S*&,&*,%T. I'm going to try and put together 1-2 pages of a "Poor Schmuck's A-Ra" presentation if I still have some energy left this weekend. 8 hour round-trip tomorrow for Easter Dinner so it's a good thing I have a bunch of pictures and scans ready to go.
Cheers.
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re: My Much Ballyhooed, and Oft Maligned, "Hoard O' Stamps" READ THIS FIRST !!!
Cool Hoard! I bought a similar hoard myself last summer.
Best advise I can give? Settle in for the long haul and have fun!
I would start by sorting by country.
Good luck!
WB
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09:52:12pm
re: My Much Ballyhooed, and Oft Maligned, "Hoard O' Stamps" READ THIS FIRST !!!
"endless, fruitless hours wading through it"
When you talk about stamps, the quote above does not apply!
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Login to Like.
03:54:29am
re: My Much Ballyhooed, and Oft Maligned, "Hoard O' Stamps" READ THIS FIRST !!!
As a world wide collector I am green with envy. However I have a hoard of my own to get through, so I will not be taking anything off your hands.
The first thing to say is that you need to have self-discipline in spades, and you need to avoid sorting anything twice.
I have never been that lucky myself, but I do accummulate lots of "stuff".Here is my approach.
First of all aquire loads of junk envelopes and some empty shoe boxes.Cut the envelopes so that they are open at the top, and fold to fit the shoe boxes.
Take your first lump of stamps. Sort into countries/topics and put them in envelopes by country in the shoe boxes using whatever filing system you choose. Then take each country and subsort into envelopes - so that all that group of stamps is identified.
Take the next lump of stamps and repeat, except that where you have similar stamps already filed add to the original and create new envelopes for different stamps.
Repeat ad infinitum until the number of new envelopes per lump of stamps is low. You no doubt will still have hundreds of unsorted stamps,but at this stage that does not matter.
At that stage you can start "proper"sorting. Take the first envelope and deal with the contents then continue.
Once you have your albums reasonable full you can then add the remaining unsorted stuff album by album.
Trying to sort all your stamps into albums at one time from scratch is too time consuming-but picking a country and going through a huge hoard time and again is equally unproductive.
Once you are under way you will be able to vary your activity so that you do not get either bored or too frustrated. The secret is good time-management.
Best of luck with it.
Malcolm
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: My Much Ballyhooed, and Oft Maligned, "Hoard O' Stamps" READ THIS FIRST !!!
I just saw your other thread with photos, and man! You hit the motherlode!
Since you don't have any preconceptions as to what you will collect, just start going through it and eventually things will grab your interest. For starters, I'd consider anything nicely in album as already sorted and a collection to enjoy.
I don't know how well the USA portion is sorted or if there are organized albums. I am in a similar situation, recently returned to general collecting after a 30 year absence, where I just concentrated on a narrow specialty. I realized that I probably had a fairly complete USA collection so I started by sorting that into binders in Scott order. I still have no idea how I will eventually house it all, but at least it's getting organized.
I also have a mess of foreign stamps, covers and more. This is the hoard of stuff I acquired as a teen and hadn't looked at since. Some of it is in stock books by country so I consider that already sorted until I want to either start collecting that country or sell it off.
On top of that a friend of mine gave me a hoard of stamps last year. His father in law died years ago and his mother in law died recently and they were getting the house ready for sale. His wife had already "sorted" her father's stamp collection into 3 large black trash bags. My friend rescued them and gave them to me. Tons of stuff, mainly used and off the mail from the last 60 years. Still since they were Polish, there is a mega hoard of Poland both on and off paper. So I have this to sort also. Someday!
Note that since you have this hoard pretty much free, making decisions on what to collect doesn't involve having to acquire stuff on eBay or other purchasing. You have enough to build a decent collection already. So it's a matter of figuring it out. I wouldn't consider this pressure to work quickly, you have the rest of your life to figure it out!
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