Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Time is a consideration as I am 66 yoa. Thank you.
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Welcome.
Here is my opinion,
1. Buy and use quality vintage hinges.
2. Be aware that many albums/lots/collections on eBay are typically full of weeds and stamps of poor quality. Good material has been pulled years ago, less-then-ethical sellers will hide stamps with condition issues in large collections/lots, less-then-ethical sellers will salt questionable stamps in eBay lots/collections.
3. Think about your objectives, is it for enjoyment or investment? If enjoyment, then view eBay purchases in that way and calculate a ‘fun factor’. If a lot is $400 will you get $400 of enjoyment from it? If so, it is a no brainer and anything that your collection will bring after you are done with it is gravy. If investment is your objective, then consider something other than eBay stamps.
4. Build relationships with sellers; just because we buy online doesn’t mean that we should forget how to build strong business relationships.
5. Be careful with trying to merge early Internationals pages with newer Internationals pages; the running changes made in the country layouts can drive you to drink.
Don
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Hi JPoole!
The 60's are the new 50's!
That's what some youngster's told me!
So, I'm in my 50's, so I guess I'm 40!
Sounds like you have plenty of time!
JR
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Roger,
Like you, my primary collection lately (other than a Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album on which I am working concurrently) is a set of International Parts I-V covering the years 1840-1963. I have concentrated on trying to find mint stamps for the albums although there are some older used stamps included for Canada, France, and Great Britain in particular where I had standalone collections which I used to feed the earlier areas for these countries. Most of my acquisitions have been through scavenging from older albums on eBay or from local stores, fortunately there are a couple of storefront dealers in the Seattle area, although lately I have bought a number of items from U-Pick albums at one dealer and from individual stamp/set acquisitions from eBay.
I just passed 15,000 stamps in the album set and am working my way through some other collection purchases which I need to integrate with a hope of reaching 20% completion by early 2019 which would be just over 17,000 different of the 85,598 spaces I counted in the albums. After that I suspect it is going to take a while to make a significant inroad to my next major milestone goal of 20,000 different! I track the number of stamps in each country by an Excel spreadsheet which has a worksheet for each album with a list of countries with the number of spaces in the album plus the number of stamps I have for the country plus any tip-ins I have added (I tend to make additions quite sparingly though).
I bought albums and/or pages through eBay and one Part 1B2 from Amos Media new after being unable to find one available through auction on eBay. Parts 1A1 , 1A2, and 1B1 were all found unused on eBay as well as Parts II and III with Parts IV and V being previously used with several hundred stamps in each album so with patience finding clean, problem free albums is definitely possible at significant discounts from Amos Media's list prices. I, also, bought new binders to replace some worn binders from older feeder collections that I used initially through eBay as well. Currently my collection is not organized chronologically by country but is in the album year sets as published by Scott which I have decided I prefer for no particular reason that I can identify.
Sounds like you have made a great start on your collection!
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As we are approaching the end of 2019 I find my expectation of reaching 20% coverage by the beginning of 2019 was quite optimistic. Just reached 19% coverage today and have a backlog of items to add which should be doable over the next couple of months and which should finally allow me to reach the 20% coverage level. I am reasonably sure that I have the stamps just got backed up with adding them to the albums as I concentrated on the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album and needed to get some additional mounts and hinges as I ran out of the commonly used mounts and used every hinge I had, given that I had nearly 12,000 when I started on the albums that does represent something of an accomplishment. Lately I am using clear Scott mounts for most additions as they look cleaner in the album and allow me to take stamps out of the album for review much more easily plus quite a few newer acquisitions have been non-hinged by happenstance.
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Collecting worldwide is quite a challenge, even if it is "only" up to 1963, considering that there have been some notoriously difficult countries even back then, and some stamps can be quite hard to find and/or rather expensive. Some countries have already started in the 1940s to issue a whole lot of topical stamps (although the good news is that these can often be had for comparative little money). It might be more satisfying to concentrate on a few countries, maybe those that you already have got the album pages for.
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This Summer I managed to locate and buy a number of International sections on Ebay. I am currently using a 1955 volume one and plan to gift myself with sections 2-6 this Christmas. Merging the older volume one with the remainder will be a bit problematic. Several countries in my section one start on the left side of the pages, for example. I was lucky to locate sections with paper that more or less matches. The newer Internationals are now being printed on stock with a distinct yellow tone. I second all that Don said, it's good advice.
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That Volume One is a pain in the butt, bum, heine, etc.
The most inventive way that I have seen a collector be able to use those pages that have the wrong stamps/countries on a page is to use blank International pages. He trimmed the pages to fit the space of the unwanted spaces, and glued the cover sheet over it. Unless you really looked, it wasn't bothersome as the paper color was moatly the same. it will all depend on your personal tastes.
Now, that meant he had to buy multiple copies of Volume One, but you can get them on the cheap now and then.
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Reached a new milestone this morning on my 1840-1863 International album set of 20.0% completion for Parts 1A1-1B2 and 20.6% completion of Parts 1A1-5. Collection is virtually all uncanceled stamps with a mix of MNH, MLH, MH, and a very small number of used stamps (probably less than 300).
Just realized I reached 20% on 2/2/2020, seems appropriate doesn't it?
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I have continued to make progress on adding stamps to the International 1840-1963 albums and have now reached a new milestone with 22.61% completion and 19,351 stamps in the albums. Albums remain fairly balanced in their coverage with a low of 20.06% in the Part III album for 1949-55 and a high of 27.36% in the Part IV album for 1956-59.
I am in complete awe of Antonius Ra's collection building efforts, just the physical effort in identifying and adding that many stamps to his Scott Specialty albums is inspiring! Thanks so much for making the pages accessible online!!
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I have been quite busy making additions to the International 1840-1963 albums for the last couple of months and reached a major milestone today with 25.01% completion for the albums and 21,405 of 85,598 stamps in the albums even after removing most of the remaining used stamps from the albums. So now I have surpassed 1 out of every 4 stamps for the combined albums. Getting very close now on reaching 25% for the Parts 1A1-1B2 album pages in particular but still not even close on the Part III album which is currently at 21.35% complete!
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I have continued adding stamps to my International 1840-1963 albums and now have 24,418 stamps in the albums for 28.5% completion with less than a hundred remaining used stamps in the albums. All parts now have 25% completion or better and as a new milestone Parts II and IV have reached better than 33.3% completion so now have 1 of every 3 stamps required for those two albums and 1 of every 4 stamps required for the other three parts!
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Baxter Thanks much, I Really appreciate knowing that there are people who appreciate and benefit from having my collection on line for reference. I know how much a site like this would have helped me years ago but of course there were none. I do hope any collector,
who hasn't would check it out because I'm sure it would be helpful to them.
See link below............
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Yes Mitch - good to hear from you!
Its been a while!
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Phil and Randy thanks for the greeting. I check the board out a couple times a week but there just doesn't seem to be much for me to offer. Most questions have been answered before I see them. I also have pretty much stopped looking for additions for most of the world as most of what I need is to expensive or to difficult to find. I do hope the rest of you have much luck and happiness in building your collections. I'll keep checking in and hope I can be of help from time to time.
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Mitchell: It's great to see you on here! Until your post a couple of days ago, I was a little concerned about you. Glad you're hanging in there!
-- Dave
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Dave, Thanks and I'm very glad to hear from you also. It must be 20 years or so that we have conversed on different boards and have found you to be one of the nicest participants on any of them. At an rate, I'm not done yet.
I didn't mean to take over this thread. I have had a lot to say about this subject in the past but everyone seems to have a different opinion on it. The one thing I would not do is make 1963 my cut-off date, unless it was my birth year. I like 1940 as a cut off date as it includes the classic era (first 100 years)and only requires one catalog. However there is on big problem with that year in that it does not include WWII post WWII which I feel is very important. It would have been pretty easy thing to make my cut-off year 1950 as it is my birth year and includes WWII. The main problem is the Scott Classic Catalog only goes to 1940 and you have to buy another 5 or so catalogs to include those years.
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I've been stepping up my efforts on Japan and Great Britain country collections with mint stamps as well as general British Commonwealth issues in my International 1840-1963 albums now that availability of missing Finland issues has become quite limited. That should keep me busy for a while.
Just reached 25,351 different in the International albums for 29.61% completion so making some progress there. My recent additions concentrated on the 1840-1900 time period. I managed to come up with 383 additions of mint stamps for that period. Most of the stamps came from a 19th century edition of the Scott Brown albums that was made available as a u-pick album.
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Made real progress on the British Commonwealth issues going through a couple of New Ideal album volumes picking out missing stamps for my International 1840-1963 album plus added some additional issues for Jamaica, Bechuanaland, Ireland, and the Bahamas from some selected pages bought at an online auction.
Now up to 30.30% overall completion with 25,941 out of 85,600 possible stamps after removing most of the remaining used stamps as well (at least I think I got them all, except for two really nice early USA issues including a Scott #1). New mileposts were that I reached 10,002 different stamps in the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums for 1840-1940 and I reached 40% completion on the Part IV album.
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From what I have seen, the Scott International albums do not have spaces for all major number in the pre-1930 period. How do you handle that?
Al
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For the most part I collect to the album. If I come up with an additional item and the album has space next to the other items in the set I will add it next to the other items but this is fairly rare. Currently I have 485 tip-ins that have been added in this fashion across the eight binders that make up the album but they are not counted in my album completion totals as they are additions not part of the album requirements. By far the largest number of additions are to the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums covering 1840-1940 which as Scott states are for a "representative" collection.
I, also, don't count stamps added for open ended pages like for the India States issues where no predefined spaces are present so they are counted as tip-ins.
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Edited my response regarding handling of unrepresented stamps to the International pages to provide some more details.
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Continuing to work on my International collection and reached a new milestone for the collection of 27,662 of 85,600 stamps for the collection and 6,000 stamps in the Part II album. Now have 32% of the stamp spaces in the album set filled. Most of the new stamps are for France so the country is almost complete other than the first page for France with mint stamps. I have a few stamps in place for the first page but they will be a long time coming I suspect to reach a respectable level of completion on that page.
I have, also, added quite a few stamps for Italy and especially for the Italian colonies but still have a long way to go there. Very close now on reaching 11,000 different in the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums and have some Mexico stamps to go through which should put me over.
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Reached a major milestone today for my International 1840-1963 album collection with 28,548 out of 85,600 stamps for the album with 33.35% of the spaces filled for just over one out of every three stamps for the album set. Added stamps to the Part III album today for Aden through Indonesia from a pick book at a local stamp dealer. I, also, selected additional stamps for Israel through Poland in the Part III album but have not completed adding them to the album. Hopefully within the next week or so I will have a chance to go through the remainder of the pick book and add some additional stamps from the part of the album that I have not had a chance to examine.
I did recently break 11,000 different stamps in the 1840-1940 sections of the album, also.
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How many duplicates do you have?
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Most likely 15,000 plus total stamps (I haven't really thought about it and I could be undercounting this actually) in other International albums and the original Minkus collection which restarted my world wide collecting activities in 2006 and which was the primary source for the first 12,000 stamps in the International album set or a small number of country collections that were purchased during the phase when I was buying collections to find candidate stamps for the album set. Now I almost never buy collections as it has not proved to be cost effective for adding stamps any more plus my wife really doesn't like the proliferation of storage space required (and I have a bad tendency to want to fill in the missing spaces in those albums 
).
I do have a few standalone country collections (USA, Canada, Finland, Japan, Great Britain, France, and now Sweden) with duplicates of the International coverage that are more complete than the related parts of the International albums and these collections cover longer periods of time than the International album page set that I use.
Just remembered my original International 1840-1940 albums which have another 8,500 or so different stamps which are both mint and used that should be added to the count of duplicates. This collection had reached 9,000+ different before I started on the mint only International collection but recently I pulled about 500 stamps from it to fill missing spaces in my main International collection.
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Getting too many duplicates has been something that concerns me. Buying collections is a good way to get jump started for a country but eventually there is a point of diminishing returns.
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Reached a new milestone today of 29,000 of 85,600 stamps for the International 1840-1963 album set. Most of the latest additions have been to the Part V album which covers 1959-1963. Source of most of the additions was a pick book for the Part V album at a local stamp dealer.
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Reached a couple of new milestones today on my International 1840-1963 album set of 30,000 different unused stamps in the albums with 12,086 different in the Part 1A1-1B2 albums. Another numbers related milestone is that this makes for 35% overall completion for the albums.
Most recent additions have included quite a few additions to Italy plus several cut squares for the USA section and some isolated stamps for Canada plus a number of issues for the "A" countries in the Part 1A1 album.
Today has been a momentous day in many respects as it is my wedding anniversary and I have now been married more years than not married in my life. 
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Reached a new milestone on my 1840-1963 International albums based collection with 31,096 different unused stamps in the albums and 12,535 in the 1840-1940 albums for 36% complete in each grouping!
On another note, I officially retired from Konica Minolta Business Systems/All Covered on Friday after almost 15 years with All Covered so should have a bit more time to spend on philatelic pursuits (but a bit less income to use for them so a bit of a trade-off ). Worked with five different clients on my last day addressing some last minute issues and working on hand-offs of accounts to other support personnel. Last few weeks have been something of a whirlwind as I attempted to transfer knowledge about accounts to other staff members and address any last minute questions at the client sites. One of the accounts was my first visit to a client after joining All Covered so I have literally worked with them for just under 15 years. All Covered has been a good company for which to work and the clients have become almost like family over the years.
I celebrated on Saturday my first day of retirement with wearing what my wife called a Cabana shirt (something like you normally see in pictures of Hawaii?) that she purchased to celebrate the event (I think she thinks my button down dress shirts from the last 45 years are a bit lacking in pizzazz! ) She presented it to me on Friday evening after we had dinner to celebrate the retirement with my manager and his wife at our home; they provided a Mexican dinner from a local restaurant. I wore it to a local stamp dealer Saturday where I reviewed a pick book for the International album for stamps for the Cayman Islands through Crete in the Part I time period and found 105 new stamps for my albums.
My wife objected to my picture saying it doesn't deliver the appropriate effect, so here is her version.
I do plan to do some cleaning up of my "stamp room" with a bit more time available. Pictures below for why!
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Congrats on your retirement!
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Congratulations!!!! Enjoy your retirement!
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 31,616 different stamps and 13,040 for the 1840-1940 period. Most of the new stamps were from a pick book at a local stamp dealer based on part of an International Part I album which covered Aden through Haiti. Unfortunately the dealer had sold the second part of the album so will have to look for some new source material for the next additions.
Plus managed to get some items added to my Great Britain album using clear mounts after I relocated my mount cutting device which I had put away over Christmas and could not remember where (no, this does not mean I have finished cleaning up the stamp room although a "small" dent was made in it ). Most of the items were postage due stamps for Great Britain plus issues with Tangier overprints although a nice Scott #222 was added as well.
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Congrats! Another one escapes the rat race alive!
I may have accidentally retired. I'm only 62 but with this Covid mess, I'm pretty much staying home and not looking for work. My last consult finished up early December.
My financial guy says I am able to retire if I'd like, but I'd be best to work a few more years. So if something comes my way, we will see...
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New milestone reached for my International 1840-1963 collection of 32,018 stamps in the albums with 13,170 different in the 1840-1940 section. Most of the new stamps were for the Netherlands and Romania plus some stamps for Russia which remains the country with the smallest number of stamps in the album relative to the number released by the country during the time period among nations which released a large number of stamps. So far I have seen very few stamps in collections for Russia where the the later period stamps are not CTO.
I have been continuing to read the APRL quarterly journal for which I received the 2020 issues when I joined the APRL. I am really looking forward to visiting the libary at Bellefonte, PA once the Covid virus issues are resolved. There were several issues with interviews of some well known philatelic literature vendors which have been very enjoyable in particular.
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Several new milestones on my International 1840-1963 albums with 33,321 total stamps (plus 879 tip-ins in addition) and, drum roll please, I just reached 14,014 different mint stamps in the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums for 1840-1940 (plus 725 tip-ins in addition). New additions were almost completely for the 1840-1940 period with most acquisitions occurring from a local collector's duplicates in Scott Brown albums up to 1929. The part one albums now have 130 of 388 collecting entities with 50% coverage and 13 with 100% coverage!
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New milestone on my album filling efforts for an International 1840-1963 collection with 34,007 different stamps in the albums reached today. In addition, I have passed some new thresholds with 5,063 different stamps in the Part III album for 1950-1954 and 4,041 different stamps in the Part V album for 1960-1963. These last two continue to contain the most difficult stamps for me to locate where delivery costs don't outweigh the stamp costs in many cases. It is, also, likely the case that the abundance of relatively low cost stamps causes issues with advertising them cost effectively as well. Of course, a side benefit is it makes locating the stamps a worthwhile challenge.
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 35,139 different unused stamps plus 899 tip-ins in the albums and getting close to 15,000 different in the Part 1A1-1B2 albums for 1840-1940 (currently at 14,933 different plus 739 tip-ins and have access to a new pick book which is being a bit productive although quite time consuming to check so far with my first three hour review locating a total of 37 stamps ). Also, managed to add significant numbers of stamps for Nicaragua and Uruguay from a local collector's duplicates on Scott Specialty pages. Now have 144 of the 388 collectible entities in the 1840-1940 period with 50% coverage including 14 with 100% coverage. Started working a new to me Part II album for 1940-1949 as a pick book at a local stamp dealer and am making some progress there with a nice contribution to the overall count of stamps.
Recent acquisitions made a huge change in the USA section of the album with additions for unused cut squares from postal stationary envelopes in the 1840-1940 time period in particular so that I now have 58 of 79 of these issues in the album. These items were acquired through either Hipstamp or from a local collector. Most International album collections seem to bypass these items.
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 36,128 different unused stamps plus 939 tip-ins today. Still inching my way to 15,000 different in the 1840-1940 album portion (now up to 14,958 stamps plus 739 tip-ins) plus closing in on 8,000 different in the Part II 1940-49 album (currently at 7,873 plus 98 tip-ins).
New additions were mostly from the previously mentioned International Part II pick book for 1940-49 (currently at Poland in the album). Several additional items from Spain were found in a Minkus Spain album that I bought a long time ago from a local dealer. I discovered that somehow I never checked it for additions to the Spain area during my clean-up of the stamp room which was finally finished this week. I had to get it done as it needs to be usable since my sister is coming to visit over the coming weekend with her husband and her grandson for the first visit from any of my family since we moved to Washington from Alabama in 2004! Maybe now I can talk my brother into coming for a visit.
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 37,048 different unused stamps plus 962 tip-ins today. Also, have managed to reach 15,312 different in the 1840-1940 album portion plus reached 8,248 different in the Part II 1940-49 album (plus 116 tip-ins).
New additions were from a variety of sources including some pick books for the Dominican Republic and Jugoslavia from a local collector plus the previously mentioned Part II pick book for which I have completed the selection of stamps. I am still working on the Jugoslavia album checking for additional possible additions.
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 38,025 different unused stamps plus 974 tip-ins today. Also, have managed to reach 15,552 different in the 1840-1940 album portion plus 8,385 different in the Part II 1940-49 album (plus 116 tip-ins).
New additions were from some APS books returned to a local collector, some album pages with stamps for Germany, Switzerland, and Cambodia, and a hodgepodge of other sources including Stamporama auction and approvals purchases.
Today I am going to the Seapex show meeting in Seattle this weekend with a goal of finding 40 different stamps for the Part II album which will bring me to 50% coverage for the album! I attended the show yesterday and spent a very enjoyable three and a half hours catching up with other collectors and dealers and reviewing some items. No success with locating an India 1854 mint stamp issue for the last remaining used stamp in my Smithsonian album. The India Study Circle is a sponsor of the show so I had some hope that a dealer attendee might have a useful stamp for me but no success. I had a very enjoyable visit with George Holschauer of Colonial Stamp Company and got to see a genuine "cotton reel" issue from British Guiana which he had brought with his stock for the show. He has the most incredible available inventory of British Commonwealth stamps up to 1936 imaginable but no mint stamps for India before Scott #12. He showed his new stockbooks that his son created for their "better" stock items that he is taking to the London Stampex show that is meeting at the end of September. They were beautiful (and the stamps inside them are incredible but far outside my budget).
Also, met a stamp exhibitor with the India Study Circle who shared pictures of a recent acquisition of an Indian stamp on cover used overseas. It is one of three known covers so used. George Holschauer of Colonial Stamp Company was very impressed with the item!
It was a very notable visit for British Guiana related topics as during a short visit to a local storefront dealer's booth at the show I had an opportunity to meet a lady who is originally from British Guiana that had traveled from Florida to come to the show. She was looking for stamps from Mauritius in particular and we discussed the boom times that are occurring in British Guiana due to an oil discovery there which is impacting the local economy very positively. Hopefully they will do a better job of managing the revenues than Venezuela!
Another local stamp dealer has the most complete George VI stamp album with easily 95% plus mint stamps and I got a chance to page through the album. Lovely!
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I mentioned the exhibits at the Seapex show that is occurring this weekend and wanted to call out a few of them which were particularly noteworthy:
1) Niko Courtelis who works for a stamp dealer in Portland, Oregon created the most beautifully done single frame exhibit of perforation gauges and their history with truly exemplary use of fonts and text that I can imagine.
2) There were several amazing exhibits related to Indian philately including incredible displays of postal history items.
3) There was a superb large scale display on philatelic history and items for Guatemala that was easily the most interesting large exhibit I have seen.
4) There were multiple other single frame exhibits on a variety of topics including Washington State tax stamps, the Lady Bird Johnson sponsored USA Beautification stamps that had their first day of issue back in 1969 in Seattle, and many others. I must admit they were the most interesting of the exhibits for me!
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I made it back to the Seapex show today and was able to acquire some stamps for Austria and Brazil for the International album for 1940-49 which were enough to put me over the 50% completion mark for the album!
I, also, visited the exhibits area again and was able to see the results of the judges' inspections. The Guatemala exhibit that I liked received a large gold medal and the others, also, received awards ranging from vermeil to large vermeil to gold! I tried to take some pictures of the exhibits but they were essentially unusable due to the amount of glare that was present in the pictures. My wife is going with me tomorrow to see the exhibits and I will try again for some pictures.
The show seemed reasonably active and continued to be a lot of fun.
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"Another local stamp dealer has the most complete George VI stamp album with easily 95% plus mint stamps and I got a chance to page through the album. Lovely!,Another local stamp dealer has the most complete George VI stamp album with easily 95% plus mint stamps and I got a chance to page through the album. Lovely!"
Was it for sale?
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Yes, he wants $8,000 for the $34,000 catalog value collection which has many of the best hinged copies of British Commonwealth stamps I have seen. There are "some" used stamps and a VERY small number of missing stamps for the album. He advertises on Hipstamp as greenestamps. I have dealt with him for stamps fairly regularly over a five year period via Hipstamp and at local stamp shows.
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Made it back to the show with my wife accompanying me. Still couldn't make pictures successfully. She looked through the exhibits and really liked some of the single frame exhibits. The large, multiframe exhibits were mostly overwhelming as they tended to require a very high level of knowledge about esoteric areas in order to appreciate them although I very much appreciate the efforts of the exhibit creators.
I spent a very nice hour searching through a box with 75% off cards with mostly single stamps which were already at 20% of catalog and picked up a number of items that I will use to possibly fill some album spots but which were mostly picked just because they were interesting stamps which may end up going into an Elbe album filled with empty quadrille pages as the beginning of a somewhat unstructured collection which is quite different from my normal album filling approach to collecting.
I actually won a door prize of the book Blue Mauritius The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamp by Helen Morgan in a hardbound edition published by Atlantic Books in the United States in 2008 which was very exciting. I have already started reading the book and actually purchased an early Mauritius stamp from Hipstamp to commemorate the acquisition of the book. The book had a dedication with "One must never despair in philately. The future reserves for us yet, perhaps, happy surprises." which is a translation of a quote from Georges Brunel's book Le Timbres-Poste de l'Ile Maurice: Emissions de 1847 a 1898 which was published in 1928 which seems quite appropriate today!
Happy philatelic searching everyone and may many happy surprises await you in your philatelic journeys!
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I also have the Blue Mauritius book, and enjoyed it immensely. I'd also recommend "The One-Cent Magenta" by James Barron. Nice mix of philately and history in each.
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Several milestones to report on my International 1840-1963 albums' collection:
I have reached 38,155 different stamps in the albums for 44.5% coverage with 15,601 in the Parts 1A1-1B2 for 1840-1940 for 45.2% coverage. Plus the Part II album for 1940-1949 has now reached 8,464 different stamps for 50.2% coverage so this is the first of the parts where I now have 1 of every 2 stamps in the album! Of course, Parts III for 1950-55 and V for 1960-63 are still just below 40% at 38.8% and 38.6% complete each so challenges do continue especially with the later issues.
The collection continues to be interesting although the acquisition rate is definitely slowing as all acquisitions for some time have been on a stamp or set at a time basis!
I have been reading about Stan Cornyn and Murray Geller who managed to complete the International's from 1840-1971 in 1978 which seems quite an incredible feat especially given that they started in 1972 before the internet but admittedly when there were a lot more brick and mortar stamp stores available. I have, also, become fascinated with the stories about other collectors who created well-known collections and continue to search for related sources.
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A few new milestones to report:
1) I have now reached 39,042 different mint stamps in the 1840-1963 albums as a set (plus 994 different add-ins to the albums) for just over 45.5% complete.
2) I finally broke 5,000 different for the International Part V album for 1959-1963 with a new total of 5,103 different stamps in the album for 43.75% completion which means there are now over four of every ten stamps in that album!
3) I now have 15,706 different stamps in the Parts 1A1-1B2 pages for 1840-1940 for 45.4% of the stamps in the album for nine out of every twenty stamps in the album as I inch closer to one of every two stamps in the album. These pages continue to have the most add-ins with currently 741 different stamps added to those required for completion of the page sets.
New additions were from APS circuit books (especially for the 1840-1940 period), Stamporama, some pick books from local collectors, and a Part Va binder with some selected countries and a mix of stamps from 1959 up through 1968 for those countries as a pick book at a local dealer. Most of the pick book items in the Part Va binder were British Commonwealth related.
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Do you find APS a good place to find reasonably priced stamps?
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angore: I do, but they aren't priced as cheaply as here! I bought quite a few from APS and have been happy with all received. Which reminds me... I have a bunch in my basket I should purchase before someone else buys them.
Peter
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In most cases the APS circuit books are not the cheapest place to buy stamps but I often find stamps there that are simply unobtainable otherwise. They are the most like the thrill of finding something unexpected in a batch of stamps on approval that I remember when I was first collecting stamps back in the late 1960's and early 1970's in that you never know what will show up in the circuit books!
Plus since they are a shared resource that arrives for the stamp club meetings we hold at local restaurants that adds a bit of interest as well as other members bring selected albums to look for additions and we get to do a bit of show and tell for our collecting endeavors.
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Two new milestones to report on my International 1840-1963 mint stamps collection:
1) Finally broke 16,000 different in the Parts 1A1-1B2 pages for 1840-1940 and now have 16,161 different stamps of 34,598 required for the page set. Acquisitions were through red boxes at a local dealer, APS circuit books received by the stamp club, and a pick book at a different local dealer plus some auction items from eBay.
2) Reached 5,605 different stamps in the International Part III album for 1950-1954 which means I have just over 4 of every 10 stamps in that part of the International album with all of the parts now at 40% or better (the Part II album is at 51.2% for 1 of every 2 stamps for that part which is the most complete of the albums). My overall count is at 39,637 different stamps of 85,675 required by the album set. The overall add-ins count has reached 1,018 additional stamps.
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Have you scanned all your pages? It would make a great reference for someone,
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I haven't scanned all of the pages as the collection is still seeing a lot of additions. There are much more complete collections available through others online currently although I am planning to create a scanned set of pages as it grows in hopes that it will be useful at some point. Jim Jackson in particular has created an incredible resource for International 1840-1940 collectors on his https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/ web site and is detailing a complete collection completed by Bud plus has had some very useful input and content provided by Dilip Limaye who has completed the only other known to me truly complete International 1840-1940 collection since the Cornyn and Geller collection of the late 1970's. Another useful source is the https://globalstamps.blogspot.com/ site.
I have very much enjoyed hearing about the growth of Jim Jackson's collection over the past few years through his web site plus he has created some very interesting posts regarding albums, photographing a collection, etc. which are available through the site.
I continue to be amazed by the Antonius Ra collection formed on Scott Specialty pages by Mitchell Ward and find his online web presentation to be a very useful resource.
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Recently on another collection which is based on a 1930 copyright International Junior album I counted up all of the 19th century stamp spaces and stamps which have been added to date to that collection. On a whim I decided to do the same thing for this album which is based on the current International pages available from Amos Media. The results were that there are spaces for 5,352 different stamps in the album where the stamps were issued in the 19th century (or, at least where the issues per the heading for a set started with release before 1900) and, currently, I have 2,094 different stamps for the spaces for just under 40% of the required stamps. Actually this was quite a surprize in that I expected the 19th century stamps to be quite a bit less complete. I even found that 12 stamp issuing entities in the album were 100% complete for the needed stamps which was exciting.
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Reached two new milestones on my International 1840-1963 stamp collection:
1) Reached 4,378 different stamps in my Part IV album which means I now have one of every two stamps required to fill the spaces in that album. Now both Part II and Part IV are at 50%+ completion.
2) Reached 40,045 different stamps for the combined albums for 1840-1963 plus an additional 1,025 add-ins for the albums. Just noticed that the percentage completion for the overall collection is at 46.72% and, by happenstance, the percentage completion for the page sets for Parts 1A1-1B2 for 1840-1940 is, also, 46.72%! I did find and add a missing page from my Part V album pages set for 1962 for Afghanistan when comparing against another album which I was using as a pick book so the total number of stamps required to fill all of the pages is now 85,704.
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Milestone changes are becoming more difficult to reach but can now report that I have reached 40,500 different stamps in my Internatiional 1840-1963 collection of unused stamps for 47.25% completion of the album set which holds 85,704 different stamps per current counts. In addition, there are a total of 1,029 tip-ins for the albums. Most recent additions were for Hungary although a wide ranging number of individual stamps were added, also.
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New milestone of 41,040 different mint stamps in my 1840-1963 album set for 47.88% complete and 16,526 spaces filled in the 1840-1940 period. The total number of tip-ins for the album set over and above the required stamps mentioned above has reached 1,045 different items with 769 different for the 1840-1940 period. I have continued to add a variety of stamps for Hungary and that country is beginning to look quite comprehensive in terms of its coverage. Recent additions were from a Scott Specialty collection for Hungary plus a number of items from APS circuit books. I even managed to come up with an uncanceled stamp for the first stamp in the album pages, US #1. While not completely problem free the stamp offers a very nice appearance. The replaced placeholder used stamp was moved to my separate International Junior album which is copyright 1930 as I am quite sure I will never see another affordable mint US #1 to go into that album!
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New milestone of 41,522 different mint stamps in my International 1840-1963 albums for 48.45% complete and 16,727 spaces filled in the 1840-1940 Part 1A1-1B2 album portion. In addition, there are now 1,061 tip-ins for the 1840-1963 period with 782 added stamps for the 1840-1940 period. Stamps were added throughout the album parts from a wide variety of sources including APS circuit books, Stamporama purchases, eBay, Hipstamp, and Sandafayre auctions. I am getting very close to completing inclusion of all required cut squares for the United States of America parts of the pages which is the only country where Scott included cut squares for envelopes and/or lettersheets in the pages.
I, also, managed a visit to the Pipex 2022 stamp show in Portland, Oregon recently and am planning a visit to the Huntspex 2022 stamp show in Huntsville, Alabama while visiting family in Alabama in the near future. I made a number of acquisitions for a new Syria collection which I have started during the Pipex show but no Syria 106c has made its appearance. To date, I have acquired 59 different items for the new Syria collection plus filled in over a hundred new stamps for Syria in the International pages as well since starting on the new Syria collection.
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New milestone of 42,019 different mint stamps in my International 1840-1963 collection for 49.03% complete with 16,884 stamps in the 1840-1940 albums for 48.80% complete. In addition there are now 1,094 add-ins in the 1840-1963 range and 796 add-ins in the 1840-1940 range, i.e. stamps which are typically either excluded from the International pages due to abbreviation of sets or removal of higher value stamps for the International albums' representative selection of stamps for the time periods.
New stamps for the albums include addition of all but one remaining item in the United States cut square issues and addition of a wide ranging array of additional stamps found in local dealer stocks in the Seattle area plus a number of acquisitions made at the Huntspex 2022 stamp show that I attended in Huntsville, Alabama a few weeks ago as well as a few items from eBay and Hipstamp purchases.
I can report that I have continued to make progress on the Syria collection that I mentioned previously and now have 149 different items in the collection plus 99 additional items of the United Arab Republic issues for the 1958-1963 period. In addition, by happenstance a couple of collectors in the Greater Eastside Stamp Society brought their Syria collections in today to compare notes on items within their collections and one of them shared his collection with the group in a very active show and tell session. In addtion another member who has a rather phenomenal 19th Century Scott International brown album showed us items from his collection which we compared with some items in some APS circuit books which we reviewed today as well looking for items for our collections.
I, also, had to split the Part III pages to two regular International binders rather than one large binder as I could no longer get the album to go into its dust case! So, I really am making some progress on that album which is actually the part of the collection with the lowest level of completion with 6,044 of 13,941 possible items for 43.35% completion. Now I will have to find two additional regular size dust cases for the International albums. I suspect that I will have to do the same thing for the Part IV and V albums as they are approaching capacity for their dust cases as well and will require separation into two regular capacity binders rather than a single large capacity binder.
Last I can report that I have managed to complete the clean-up of my stamp room that I began in January 2021. I will add pictures tomorrow afternoon before I start messing it up again! Of course, now that I have cleaned up and stored elsewhere the acquired stamp albums I used as feeders I suspect that I will never be able to find those items again with a reasonable amount of effort but the room definitely looks better and is a bit more comfortable for work on stamps.
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Finally got pictures from my stamp room clean-up (before I start messing it up again, I suspect):
Of course, there is the issue of the garage that will have to be resolved as it was the temporary depository of the extraneous items from the stamp room.
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Nice room.
So all the stamps you have noted are in the binders shown in the images?
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I see Big Blue close at hand!
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Yes, everything in "official" collections is in the binders. Of course, there are a few other items in plastic tubs in the garage for now. Plus a few extra items in the drawers in the dresser that don't really fit any current collections and are looking for inspiration. I did go through the desk drawer today and put all items that fit in the USA Leuchtturn (Lighthouse) binders that I recently found in the storage area under the bottom floor's staircase. They had been there since 2009 and I forgot I had them (actually I thought I sold them a long time ago). Not a lot of stamps but some interesting one's including mint USA 666, C13, 569, 571, a few other Kansas/Nebraska issues and about twenty other lower value stamps plus the 730 and 731 souvenir sheets and two authentication certificates! I had been placing some random duplicates in the drawer for almost five years! Now I get to go through the remaining items and see what I can add to the second Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album that I started.
The Leuchtturn binders (there are three of them with pages) have been of particular interest recently as I started picking up a few items for them as I run into them. Coincidentally one of our regular Monday stamp group meeting attendees brought in his USA collection on Monday. He uses the same albums for his collection which represents a roughly fifty year collection and was a real treat to see. I was particularly fascinated with his addition of color varieties, vertical and horizontal gutter pairs for some issues, etc. to the album. It was, also, the first time I have ever seen the USA stamp issues from the 1990's through 2005 complete in an album as all the collections I have seen previously stop before 1990. He definitely has a few items from the earlier issues that I don't have and vice versa but has a LOT more of the later issues than my collection which ends with issues for 1978. I think I found only two or three missing issues among the later stamps which he hasn't located! Normally he brings the rather incredible 19th Century Scott Brown album that I have mentioned before to meetings as he continues to actively look for missing stamps for that album.
I forgot to mention, yes, my International binders with pages are on the desk next to the laptop desk which has a built-in book case. Currently 10 binders but as I mentioned it looks like it will definitely have to grow to 12 regular size binders with dust cases as the albums have definitely expanded as I added stamps (and clear interleaves) to the page sets.
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I collect on Steiner pages and could not get the same number of stamps in the same space.
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It has been a long time since I have had a new report on the status of my 1840-1963 International albums based collection and I thought an update might be of interest.
I recently manged to add a few items to the Parts 1A1-1B2 pages, enough to pass the 17,000 different issues mark, and can now report that I have 17,011 different of the 34,598 stamp spaces in the albums for 1840-1940 for 49.17% complete with an additional 809 stamps in the album where no spaces were defined for stamps that I managed to acquire for the time period. The most recent additions were acquired during a visit to the Nashville TN stamp show. I spent virtually my entire visit at the show at the first dealer that I encountered as I entered the show going through his stock looking for additions for these pages with a fair bit of success.
The full collection is now at 42,236 of 85,706 defined stamps for 49.28% complete. The total addins for the albums are at 1,116.
I, also, recently acquired through Hipstamp the last two items needed for two categories of US stamps in the 1840-1940 page sets, the US Offices in China stamps and the cut squares section, so these are now complete as well.
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Binders and pages are holding up well although I must admit that in the now seven years I have been working on the collection all binders ended up being replaced at least once as I grew to large binders and am now in the last stages of splitting to two regular binders for Parts II, III, IV, and V. Part I was already split to four binders although they are a bit “roomy”.
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Reached a new milestone on my Scott International Parts 1A1-5 based 1840-1963 collection with 50.21% of all stamps in the 1840-1940 range in the album for 17,370 of 34,598 issues present. For the 1840-1963 range I now have 42,674 of 85,706 mint stamps in the album set. As a side note, I now have 589 of 717 of the United States of America stamps and cut squares for the album. In addition, there are 1,122 add-ins for the album that have been added where space was available on the page and a related stamp for a short set presented itself.
New items were added from a wide variety of sources including Stamporama, eBay, Hipstamp, and several stamp shows including a major push from the GASS 2023 show that I attended last week.
I finally started preparation of a want list for the 1840-1940 era using a checklist created by Jim Jackson and Chris Whitehouse and available through Jim's web site, https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/. So far, I have worked up to but not including New Zealand. I used this checklist while attending the GASS 2023 show to find items to enable me to reach the magic 50% completion mark as I had to fly by commercial carrier to get to the show. The show itself was incredible with 800+ frames of exhibits, a United States C3a invert stamp on display, and a wide variety of stamp dealers, auction houses, certification agencies, and stamp collecting related clubs/societies represented at the show.
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Very nice progress! Nice stamp room too
-Chris
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Chris,
Welcome back! You have been missed!
Jerrel
P.S. I need to update the stamp room pictures as since they were posted my wife and I have moved cross-country. Unfortunately the bookcase I was using did not survive the move. It literally collapsed after removing the albums when I tried to tilt it to go through the door of a storage unit when we were trying to load it for the move so probably a good thing before I got the albums put back into it! I found two replacements at a local estate sale recently and have removed all active collections from the heavy duty plastic bins in which they stayed stored for seven months and have now got them arranged in the new (to me) bookcases.
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01:19:40am
I am new to Stamporama and have got a good start into collecting WW 1840-1963 through buying old scott international albums and stamp country pages on ebay. Still missing a good number of countries. I probably have about 15,000-20,000 stamps total not counting U S A. Question is should I commit to a new 4 vol scott international and continue as I have been doing by feeding into it since I started this year or should I continue to canabalize and scavenge country stamp pages? I know about the possible problems and deficiences mentioned in these 4 vols from prior threads.
Time is a consideration as I am 66 yoa. Thank you.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Welcome.
Here is my opinion,
1. Buy and use quality vintage hinges.
2. Be aware that many albums/lots/collections on eBay are typically full of weeds and stamps of poor quality. Good material has been pulled years ago, less-then-ethical sellers will hide stamps with condition issues in large collections/lots, less-then-ethical sellers will salt questionable stamps in eBay lots/collections.
3. Think about your objectives, is it for enjoyment or investment? If enjoyment, then view eBay purchases in that way and calculate a ‘fun factor’. If a lot is $400 will you get $400 of enjoyment from it? If so, it is a no brainer and anything that your collection will bring after you are done with it is gravy. If investment is your objective, then consider something other than eBay stamps.
4. Build relationships with sellers; just because we buy online doesn’t mean that we should forget how to build strong business relationships.
5. Be careful with trying to merge early Internationals pages with newer Internationals pages; the running changes made in the country layouts can drive you to drink.
Don
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Hi JPoole!
The 60's are the new 50's!
That's what some youngster's told me!
So, I'm in my 50's, so I guess I'm 40!
Sounds like you have plenty of time!
JR
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Roger,
Like you, my primary collection lately (other than a Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album on which I am working concurrently) is a set of International Parts I-V covering the years 1840-1963. I have concentrated on trying to find mint stamps for the albums although there are some older used stamps included for Canada, France, and Great Britain in particular where I had standalone collections which I used to feed the earlier areas for these countries. Most of my acquisitions have been through scavenging from older albums on eBay or from local stores, fortunately there are a couple of storefront dealers in the Seattle area, although lately I have bought a number of items from U-Pick albums at one dealer and from individual stamp/set acquisitions from eBay.
I just passed 15,000 stamps in the album set and am working my way through some other collection purchases which I need to integrate with a hope of reaching 20% completion by early 2019 which would be just over 17,000 different of the 85,598 spaces I counted in the albums. After that I suspect it is going to take a while to make a significant inroad to my next major milestone goal of 20,000 different! I track the number of stamps in each country by an Excel spreadsheet which has a worksheet for each album with a list of countries with the number of spaces in the album plus the number of stamps I have for the country plus any tip-ins I have added (I tend to make additions quite sparingly though).
I bought albums and/or pages through eBay and one Part 1B2 from Amos Media new after being unable to find one available through auction on eBay. Parts 1A1 , 1A2, and 1B1 were all found unused on eBay as well as Parts II and III with Parts IV and V being previously used with several hundred stamps in each album so with patience finding clean, problem free albums is definitely possible at significant discounts from Amos Media's list prices. I, also, bought new binders to replace some worn binders from older feeder collections that I used initially through eBay as well. Currently my collection is not organized chronologically by country but is in the album year sets as published by Scott which I have decided I prefer for no particular reason that I can identify.
Sounds like you have made a great start on your collection!
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
As we are approaching the end of 2019 I find my expectation of reaching 20% coverage by the beginning of 2019 was quite optimistic. Just reached 19% coverage today and have a backlog of items to add which should be doable over the next couple of months and which should finally allow me to reach the 20% coverage level. I am reasonably sure that I have the stamps just got backed up with adding them to the albums as I concentrated on the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album and needed to get some additional mounts and hinges as I ran out of the commonly used mounts and used every hinge I had, given that I had nearly 12,000 when I started on the albums that does represent something of an accomplishment. Lately I am using clear Scott mounts for most additions as they look cleaner in the album and allow me to take stamps out of the album for review much more easily plus quite a few newer acquisitions have been non-hinged by happenstance.
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01:16:55pm
re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Collecting worldwide is quite a challenge, even if it is "only" up to 1963, considering that there have been some notoriously difficult countries even back then, and some stamps can be quite hard to find and/or rather expensive. Some countries have already started in the 1940s to issue a whole lot of topical stamps (although the good news is that these can often be had for comparative little money). It might be more satisfying to concentrate on a few countries, maybe those that you already have got the album pages for.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
This Summer I managed to locate and buy a number of International sections on Ebay. I am currently using a 1955 volume one and plan to gift myself with sections 2-6 this Christmas. Merging the older volume one with the remainder will be a bit problematic. Several countries in my section one start on the left side of the pages, for example. I was lucky to locate sections with paper that more or less matches. The newer Internationals are now being printed on stock with a distinct yellow tone. I second all that Don said, it's good advice.
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03:03:17pm
re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
That Volume One is a pain in the butt, bum, heine, etc.
The most inventive way that I have seen a collector be able to use those pages that have the wrong stamps/countries on a page is to use blank International pages. He trimmed the pages to fit the space of the unwanted spaces, and glued the cover sheet over it. Unless you really looked, it wasn't bothersome as the paper color was moatly the same. it will all depend on your personal tastes.
Now, that meant he had to buy multiple copies of Volume One, but you can get them on the cheap now and then.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Reached a new milestone this morning on my 1840-1863 International album set of 20.0% completion for Parts 1A1-1B2 and 20.6% completion of Parts 1A1-5. Collection is virtually all uncanceled stamps with a mix of MNH, MLH, MH, and a very small number of used stamps (probably less than 300).
Just realized I reached 20% on 2/2/2020, seems appropriate doesn't it?
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
I have continued to make progress on adding stamps to the International 1840-1963 albums and have now reached a new milestone with 22.61% completion and 19,351 stamps in the albums. Albums remain fairly balanced in their coverage with a low of 20.06% in the Part III album for 1949-55 and a high of 27.36% in the Part IV album for 1956-59.
I am in complete awe of Antonius Ra's collection building efforts, just the physical effort in identifying and adding that many stamps to his Scott Specialty albums is inspiring! Thanks so much for making the pages accessible online!!
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
I have been quite busy making additions to the International 1840-1963 albums for the last couple of months and reached a major milestone today with 25.01% completion for the albums and 21,405 of 85,598 stamps in the albums even after removing most of the remaining used stamps from the albums. So now I have surpassed 1 out of every 4 stamps for the combined albums. Getting very close now on reaching 25% for the Parts 1A1-1B2 album pages in particular but still not even close on the Part III album which is currently at 21.35% complete!
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
I have continued adding stamps to my International 1840-1963 albums and now have 24,418 stamps in the albums for 28.5% completion with less than a hundred remaining used stamps in the albums. All parts now have 25% completion or better and as a new milestone Parts II and IV have reached better than 33.3% completion so now have 1 of every 3 stamps required for those two albums and 1 of every 4 stamps required for the other three parts!
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Baxter Thanks much, I Really appreciate knowing that there are people who appreciate and benefit from having my collection on line for reference. I know how much a site like this would have helped me years ago but of course there were none. I do hope any collector,
who hasn't would check it out because I'm sure it would be helpful to them.
See link below............
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Yes Mitch - good to hear from you!
Its been a while!
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Phil and Randy thanks for the greeting. I check the board out a couple times a week but there just doesn't seem to be much for me to offer. Most questions have been answered before I see them. I also have pretty much stopped looking for additions for most of the world as most of what I need is to expensive or to difficult to find. I do hope the rest of you have much luck and happiness in building your collections. I'll keep checking in and hope I can be of help from time to time.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Mitchell: It's great to see you on here! Until your post a couple of days ago, I was a little concerned about you. Glad you're hanging in there!
-- Dave
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Dave, Thanks and I'm very glad to hear from you also. It must be 20 years or so that we have conversed on different boards and have found you to be one of the nicest participants on any of them. At an rate, I'm not done yet.
I didn't mean to take over this thread. I have had a lot to say about this subject in the past but everyone seems to have a different opinion on it. The one thing I would not do is make 1963 my cut-off date, unless it was my birth year. I like 1940 as a cut off date as it includes the classic era (first 100 years)and only requires one catalog. However there is on big problem with that year in that it does not include WWII post WWII which I feel is very important. It would have been pretty easy thing to make my cut-off year 1950 as it is my birth year and includes WWII. The main problem is the Scott Classic Catalog only goes to 1940 and you have to buy another 5 or so catalogs to include those years.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
I've been stepping up my efforts on Japan and Great Britain country collections with mint stamps as well as general British Commonwealth issues in my International 1840-1963 albums now that availability of missing Finland issues has become quite limited. That should keep me busy for a while.
Just reached 25,351 different in the International albums for 29.61% completion so making some progress there. My recent additions concentrated on the 1840-1900 time period. I managed to come up with 383 additions of mint stamps for that period. Most of the stamps came from a 19th century edition of the Scott Brown albums that was made available as a u-pick album.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Made real progress on the British Commonwealth issues going through a couple of New Ideal album volumes picking out missing stamps for my International 1840-1963 album plus added some additional issues for Jamaica, Bechuanaland, Ireland, and the Bahamas from some selected pages bought at an online auction.
Now up to 30.30% overall completion with 25,941 out of 85,600 possible stamps after removing most of the remaining used stamps as well (at least I think I got them all, except for two really nice early USA issues including a Scott #1). New mileposts were that I reached 10,002 different stamps in the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums for 1840-1940 and I reached 40% completion on the Part IV album.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
From what I have seen, the Scott International albums do not have spaces for all major number in the pre-1930 period. How do you handle that?
Al
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
For the most part I collect to the album. If I come up with an additional item and the album has space next to the other items in the set I will add it next to the other items but this is fairly rare. Currently I have 485 tip-ins that have been added in this fashion across the eight binders that make up the album but they are not counted in my album completion totals as they are additions not part of the album requirements. By far the largest number of additions are to the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums covering 1840-1940 which as Scott states are for a "representative" collection.
I, also, don't count stamps added for open ended pages like for the India States issues where no predefined spaces are present so they are counted as tip-ins.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Edited my response regarding handling of unrepresented stamps to the International pages to provide some more details.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Continuing to work on my International collection and reached a new milestone for the collection of 27,662 of 85,600 stamps for the collection and 6,000 stamps in the Part II album. Now have 32% of the stamp spaces in the album set filled. Most of the new stamps are for France so the country is almost complete other than the first page for France with mint stamps. I have a few stamps in place for the first page but they will be a long time coming I suspect to reach a respectable level of completion on that page.
I have, also, added quite a few stamps for Italy and especially for the Italian colonies but still have a long way to go there. Very close now on reaching 11,000 different in the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums and have some Mexico stamps to go through which should put me over.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Reached a major milestone today for my International 1840-1963 album collection with 28,548 out of 85,600 stamps for the album with 33.35% of the spaces filled for just over one out of every three stamps for the album set. Added stamps to the Part III album today for Aden through Indonesia from a pick book at a local stamp dealer. I, also, selected additional stamps for Israel through Poland in the Part III album but have not completed adding them to the album. Hopefully within the next week or so I will have a chance to go through the remainder of the pick book and add some additional stamps from the part of the album that I have not had a chance to examine.
I did recently break 11,000 different stamps in the 1840-1940 sections of the album, also.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
How many duplicates do you have?
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Most likely 15,000 plus total stamps (I haven't really thought about it and I could be undercounting this actually) in other International albums and the original Minkus collection which restarted my world wide collecting activities in 2006 and which was the primary source for the first 12,000 stamps in the International album set or a small number of country collections that were purchased during the phase when I was buying collections to find candidate stamps for the album set. Now I almost never buy collections as it has not proved to be cost effective for adding stamps any more plus my wife really doesn't like the proliferation of storage space required (and I have a bad tendency to want to fill in the missing spaces in those albums ).
I do have a few standalone country collections (USA, Canada, Finland, Japan, Great Britain, France, and now Sweden) with duplicates of the International coverage that are more complete than the related parts of the International albums and these collections cover longer periods of time than the International album page set that I use.
Just remembered my original International 1840-1940 albums which have another 8,500 or so different stamps which are both mint and used that should be added to the count of duplicates. This collection had reached 9,000+ different before I started on the mint only International collection but recently I pulled about 500 stamps from it to fill missing spaces in my main International collection.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Getting too many duplicates has been something that concerns me. Buying collections is a good way to get jump started for a country but eventually there is a point of diminishing returns.
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Reached a new milestone today of 29,000 of 85,600 stamps for the International 1840-1963 album set. Most of the latest additions have been to the Part V album which covers 1959-1963. Source of most of the additions was a pick book for the Part V album at a local stamp dealer.
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Reached a couple of new milestones today on my International 1840-1963 album set of 30,000 different unused stamps in the albums with 12,086 different in the Part 1A1-1B2 albums. Another numbers related milestone is that this makes for 35% overall completion for the albums.
Most recent additions have included quite a few additions to Italy plus several cut squares for the USA section and some isolated stamps for Canada plus a number of issues for the "A" countries in the Part 1A1 album.
Today has been a momentous day in many respects as it is my wedding anniversary and I have now been married more years than not married in my life.
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Reached a new milestone on my 1840-1963 International albums based collection with 31,096 different unused stamps in the albums and 12,535 in the 1840-1940 albums for 36% complete in each grouping!
On another note, I officially retired from Konica Minolta Business Systems/All Covered on Friday after almost 15 years with All Covered so should have a bit more time to spend on philatelic pursuits (but a bit less income to use for them so a bit of a trade-off ). Worked with five different clients on my last day addressing some last minute issues and working on hand-offs of accounts to other support personnel. Last few weeks have been something of a whirlwind as I attempted to transfer knowledge about accounts to other staff members and address any last minute questions at the client sites. One of the accounts was my first visit to a client after joining All Covered so I have literally worked with them for just under 15 years. All Covered has been a good company for which to work and the clients have become almost like family over the years.
I celebrated on Saturday my first day of retirement with wearing what my wife called a Cabana shirt (something like you normally see in pictures of Hawaii?) that she purchased to celebrate the event (I think she thinks my button down dress shirts from the last 45 years are a bit lacking in pizzazz! ) She presented it to me on Friday evening after we had dinner to celebrate the retirement with my manager and his wife at our home; they provided a Mexican dinner from a local restaurant. I wore it to a local stamp dealer Saturday where I reviewed a pick book for the International album for stamps for the Cayman Islands through Crete in the Part I time period and found 105 new stamps for my albums.
My wife objected to my picture saying it doesn't deliver the appropriate effect, so here is her version.
I do plan to do some cleaning up of my "stamp room" with a bit more time available. Pictures below for why!
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Congrats on your retirement!
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Congratulations!!!! Enjoy your retirement!
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 31,616 different stamps and 13,040 for the 1840-1940 period. Most of the new stamps were from a pick book at a local stamp dealer based on part of an International Part I album which covered Aden through Haiti. Unfortunately the dealer had sold the second part of the album so will have to look for some new source material for the next additions.
Plus managed to get some items added to my Great Britain album using clear mounts after I relocated my mount cutting device which I had put away over Christmas and could not remember where (no, this does not mean I have finished cleaning up the stamp room although a "small" dent was made in it ). Most of the items were postage due stamps for Great Britain plus issues with Tangier overprints although a nice Scott #222 was added as well.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Congrats! Another one escapes the rat race alive!
I may have accidentally retired. I'm only 62 but with this Covid mess, I'm pretty much staying home and not looking for work. My last consult finished up early December.
My financial guy says I am able to retire if I'd like, but I'd be best to work a few more years. So if something comes my way, we will see...
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New milestone reached for my International 1840-1963 collection of 32,018 stamps in the albums with 13,170 different in the 1840-1940 section. Most of the new stamps were for the Netherlands and Romania plus some stamps for Russia which remains the country with the smallest number of stamps in the album relative to the number released by the country during the time period among nations which released a large number of stamps. So far I have seen very few stamps in collections for Russia where the the later period stamps are not CTO.
I have been continuing to read the APRL quarterly journal for which I received the 2020 issues when I joined the APRL. I am really looking forward to visiting the libary at Bellefonte, PA once the Covid virus issues are resolved. There were several issues with interviews of some well known philatelic literature vendors which have been very enjoyable in particular.
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Several new milestones on my International 1840-1963 albums with 33,321 total stamps (plus 879 tip-ins in addition) and, drum roll please, I just reached 14,014 different mint stamps in the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums for 1840-1940 (plus 725 tip-ins in addition). New additions were almost completely for the 1840-1940 period with most acquisitions occurring from a local collector's duplicates in Scott Brown albums up to 1929. The part one albums now have 130 of 388 collecting entities with 50% coverage and 13 with 100% coverage!
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New milestone on my album filling efforts for an International 1840-1963 collection with 34,007 different stamps in the albums reached today. In addition, I have passed some new thresholds with 5,063 different stamps in the Part III album for 1950-1954 and 4,041 different stamps in the Part V album for 1960-1963. These last two continue to contain the most difficult stamps for me to locate where delivery costs don't outweigh the stamp costs in many cases. It is, also, likely the case that the abundance of relatively low cost stamps causes issues with advertising them cost effectively as well. Of course, a side benefit is it makes locating the stamps a worthwhile challenge.
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 35,139 different unused stamps plus 899 tip-ins in the albums and getting close to 15,000 different in the Part 1A1-1B2 albums for 1840-1940 (currently at 14,933 different plus 739 tip-ins and have access to a new pick book which is being a bit productive although quite time consuming to check so far with my first three hour review locating a total of 37 stamps ). Also, managed to add significant numbers of stamps for Nicaragua and Uruguay from a local collector's duplicates on Scott Specialty pages. Now have 144 of the 388 collectible entities in the 1840-1940 period with 50% coverage including 14 with 100% coverage. Started working a new to me Part II album for 1940-1949 as a pick book at a local stamp dealer and am making some progress there with a nice contribution to the overall count of stamps.
Recent acquisitions made a huge change in the USA section of the album with additions for unused cut squares from postal stationary envelopes in the 1840-1940 time period in particular so that I now have 58 of 79 of these issues in the album. These items were acquired through either Hipstamp or from a local collector. Most International album collections seem to bypass these items.
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 36,128 different unused stamps plus 939 tip-ins today. Still inching my way to 15,000 different in the 1840-1940 album portion (now up to 14,958 stamps plus 739 tip-ins) plus closing in on 8,000 different in the Part II 1940-49 album (currently at 7,873 plus 98 tip-ins).
New additions were mostly from the previously mentioned International Part II pick book for 1940-49 (currently at Poland in the album). Several additional items from Spain were found in a Minkus Spain album that I bought a long time ago from a local dealer. I discovered that somehow I never checked it for additions to the Spain area during my clean-up of the stamp room which was finally finished this week. I had to get it done as it needs to be usable since my sister is coming to visit over the coming weekend with her husband and her grandson for the first visit from any of my family since we moved to Washington from Alabama in 2004! Maybe now I can talk my brother into coming for a visit.
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 37,048 different unused stamps plus 962 tip-ins today. Also, have managed to reach 15,312 different in the 1840-1940 album portion plus reached 8,248 different in the Part II 1940-49 album (plus 116 tip-ins).
New additions were from a variety of sources including some pick books for the Dominican Republic and Jugoslavia from a local collector plus the previously mentioned Part II pick book for which I have completed the selection of stamps. I am still working on the Jugoslavia album checking for additional possible additions.
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Reached a new milestone on my International 1840-1963 collection with 38,025 different unused stamps plus 974 tip-ins today. Also, have managed to reach 15,552 different in the 1840-1940 album portion plus 8,385 different in the Part II 1940-49 album (plus 116 tip-ins).
New additions were from some APS books returned to a local collector, some album pages with stamps for Germany, Switzerland, and Cambodia, and a hodgepodge of other sources including Stamporama auction and approvals purchases.
Today I am going to the Seapex show meeting in Seattle this weekend with a goal of finding 40 different stamps for the Part II album which will bring me to 50% coverage for the album! I attended the show yesterday and spent a very enjoyable three and a half hours catching up with other collectors and dealers and reviewing some items. No success with locating an India 1854 mint stamp issue for the last remaining used stamp in my Smithsonian album. The India Study Circle is a sponsor of the show so I had some hope that a dealer attendee might have a useful stamp for me but no success. I had a very enjoyable visit with George Holschauer of Colonial Stamp Company and got to see a genuine "cotton reel" issue from British Guiana which he had brought with his stock for the show. He has the most incredible available inventory of British Commonwealth stamps up to 1936 imaginable but no mint stamps for India before Scott #12. He showed his new stockbooks that his son created for their "better" stock items that he is taking to the London Stampex show that is meeting at the end of September. They were beautiful (and the stamps inside them are incredible but far outside my budget).
Also, met a stamp exhibitor with the India Study Circle who shared pictures of a recent acquisition of an Indian stamp on cover used overseas. It is one of three known covers so used. George Holschauer of Colonial Stamp Company was very impressed with the item!
It was a very notable visit for British Guiana related topics as during a short visit to a local storefront dealer's booth at the show I had an opportunity to meet a lady who is originally from British Guiana that had traveled from Florida to come to the show. She was looking for stamps from Mauritius in particular and we discussed the boom times that are occurring in British Guiana due to an oil discovery there which is impacting the local economy very positively. Hopefully they will do a better job of managing the revenues than Venezuela!
Another local stamp dealer has the most complete George VI stamp album with easily 95% plus mint stamps and I got a chance to page through the album. Lovely!
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I mentioned the exhibits at the Seapex show that is occurring this weekend and wanted to call out a few of them which were particularly noteworthy:
1) Niko Courtelis who works for a stamp dealer in Portland, Oregon created the most beautifully done single frame exhibit of perforation gauges and their history with truly exemplary use of fonts and text that I can imagine.
2) There were several amazing exhibits related to Indian philately including incredible displays of postal history items.
3) There was a superb large scale display on philatelic history and items for Guatemala that was easily the most interesting large exhibit I have seen.
4) There were multiple other single frame exhibits on a variety of topics including Washington State tax stamps, the Lady Bird Johnson sponsored USA Beautification stamps that had their first day of issue back in 1969 in Seattle, and many others. I must admit they were the most interesting of the exhibits for me!
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I made it back to the Seapex show today and was able to acquire some stamps for Austria and Brazil for the International album for 1940-49 which were enough to put me over the 50% completion mark for the album!
I, also, visited the exhibits area again and was able to see the results of the judges' inspections. The Guatemala exhibit that I liked received a large gold medal and the others, also, received awards ranging from vermeil to large vermeil to gold! I tried to take some pictures of the exhibits but they were essentially unusable due to the amount of glare that was present in the pictures. My wife is going with me tomorrow to see the exhibits and I will try again for some pictures.
The show seemed reasonably active and continued to be a lot of fun.
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"Another local stamp dealer has the most complete George VI stamp album with easily 95% plus mint stamps and I got a chance to page through the album. Lovely!,Another local stamp dealer has the most complete George VI stamp album with easily 95% plus mint stamps and I got a chance to page through the album. Lovely!"
Was it for sale?
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Yes, he wants $8,000 for the $34,000 catalog value collection which has many of the best hinged copies of British Commonwealth stamps I have seen. There are "some" used stamps and a VERY small number of missing stamps for the album. He advertises on Hipstamp as greenestamps. I have dealt with him for stamps fairly regularly over a five year period via Hipstamp and at local stamp shows.
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Made it back to the show with my wife accompanying me. Still couldn't make pictures successfully. She looked through the exhibits and really liked some of the single frame exhibits. The large, multiframe exhibits were mostly overwhelming as they tended to require a very high level of knowledge about esoteric areas in order to appreciate them although I very much appreciate the efforts of the exhibit creators.
I spent a very nice hour searching through a box with 75% off cards with mostly single stamps which were already at 20% of catalog and picked up a number of items that I will use to possibly fill some album spots but which were mostly picked just because they were interesting stamps which may end up going into an Elbe album filled with empty quadrille pages as the beginning of a somewhat unstructured collection which is quite different from my normal album filling approach to collecting.
I actually won a door prize of the book Blue Mauritius The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamp by Helen Morgan in a hardbound edition published by Atlantic Books in the United States in 2008 which was very exciting. I have already started reading the book and actually purchased an early Mauritius stamp from Hipstamp to commemorate the acquisition of the book. The book had a dedication with "One must never despair in philately. The future reserves for us yet, perhaps, happy surprises." which is a translation of a quote from Georges Brunel's book Le Timbres-Poste de l'Ile Maurice: Emissions de 1847 a 1898 which was published in 1928 which seems quite appropriate today!
Happy philatelic searching everyone and may many happy surprises await you in your philatelic journeys!
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I also have the Blue Mauritius book, and enjoyed it immensely. I'd also recommend "The One-Cent Magenta" by James Barron. Nice mix of philately and history in each.
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Several milestones to report on my International 1840-1963 albums' collection:
I have reached 38,155 different stamps in the albums for 44.5% coverage with 15,601 in the Parts 1A1-1B2 for 1840-1940 for 45.2% coverage. Plus the Part II album for 1940-1949 has now reached 8,464 different stamps for 50.2% coverage so this is the first of the parts where I now have 1 of every 2 stamps in the album! Of course, Parts III for 1950-55 and V for 1960-63 are still just below 40% at 38.8% and 38.6% complete each so challenges do continue especially with the later issues.
The collection continues to be interesting although the acquisition rate is definitely slowing as all acquisitions for some time have been on a stamp or set at a time basis!
I have been reading about Stan Cornyn and Murray Geller who managed to complete the International's from 1840-1971 in 1978 which seems quite an incredible feat especially given that they started in 1972 before the internet but admittedly when there were a lot more brick and mortar stamp stores available. I have, also, become fascinated with the stories about other collectors who created well-known collections and continue to search for related sources.
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A few new milestones to report:
1) I have now reached 39,042 different mint stamps in the 1840-1963 albums as a set (plus 994 different add-ins to the albums) for just over 45.5% complete.
2) I finally broke 5,000 different for the International Part V album for 1959-1963 with a new total of 5,103 different stamps in the album for 43.75% completion which means there are now over four of every ten stamps in that album!
3) I now have 15,706 different stamps in the Parts 1A1-1B2 pages for 1840-1940 for 45.4% of the stamps in the album for nine out of every twenty stamps in the album as I inch closer to one of every two stamps in the album. These pages continue to have the most add-ins with currently 741 different stamps added to those required for completion of the page sets.
New additions were from APS circuit books (especially for the 1840-1940 period), Stamporama, some pick books from local collectors, and a Part Va binder with some selected countries and a mix of stamps from 1959 up through 1968 for those countries as a pick book at a local dealer. Most of the pick book items in the Part Va binder were British Commonwealth related.
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Do you find APS a good place to find reasonably priced stamps?
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
angore: I do, but they aren't priced as cheaply as here! I bought quite a few from APS and have been happy with all received. Which reminds me... I have a bunch in my basket I should purchase before someone else buys them.
Peter
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In most cases the APS circuit books are not the cheapest place to buy stamps but I often find stamps there that are simply unobtainable otherwise. They are the most like the thrill of finding something unexpected in a batch of stamps on approval that I remember when I was first collecting stamps back in the late 1960's and early 1970's in that you never know what will show up in the circuit books!
Plus since they are a shared resource that arrives for the stamp club meetings we hold at local restaurants that adds a bit of interest as well as other members bring selected albums to look for additions and we get to do a bit of show and tell for our collecting endeavors.
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Two new milestones to report on my International 1840-1963 mint stamps collection:
1) Finally broke 16,000 different in the Parts 1A1-1B2 pages for 1840-1940 and now have 16,161 different stamps of 34,598 required for the page set. Acquisitions were through red boxes at a local dealer, APS circuit books received by the stamp club, and a pick book at a different local dealer plus some auction items from eBay.
2) Reached 5,605 different stamps in the International Part III album for 1950-1954 which means I have just over 4 of every 10 stamps in that part of the International album with all of the parts now at 40% or better (the Part II album is at 51.2% for 1 of every 2 stamps for that part which is the most complete of the albums). My overall count is at 39,637 different stamps of 85,675 required by the album set. The overall add-ins count has reached 1,018 additional stamps.
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Have you scanned all your pages? It would make a great reference for someone,
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I haven't scanned all of the pages as the collection is still seeing a lot of additions. There are much more complete collections available through others online currently although I am planning to create a scanned set of pages as it grows in hopes that it will be useful at some point. Jim Jackson in particular has created an incredible resource for International 1840-1940 collectors on his https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/ web site and is detailing a complete collection completed by Bud plus has had some very useful input and content provided by Dilip Limaye who has completed the only other known to me truly complete International 1840-1940 collection since the Cornyn and Geller collection of the late 1970's. Another useful source is the https://globalstamps.blogspot.com/ site.
I have very much enjoyed hearing about the growth of Jim Jackson's collection over the past few years through his web site plus he has created some very interesting posts regarding albums, photographing a collection, etc. which are available through the site.
I continue to be amazed by the Antonius Ra collection formed on Scott Specialty pages by Mitchell Ward and find his online web presentation to be a very useful resource.
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Recently on another collection which is based on a 1930 copyright International Junior album I counted up all of the 19th century stamp spaces and stamps which have been added to date to that collection. On a whim I decided to do the same thing for this album which is based on the current International pages available from Amos Media. The results were that there are spaces for 5,352 different stamps in the album where the stamps were issued in the 19th century (or, at least where the issues per the heading for a set started with release before 1900) and, currently, I have 2,094 different stamps for the spaces for just under 40% of the required stamps. Actually this was quite a surprize in that I expected the 19th century stamps to be quite a bit less complete. I even found that 12 stamp issuing entities in the album were 100% complete for the needed stamps which was exciting.
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Reached two new milestones on my International 1840-1963 stamp collection:
1) Reached 4,378 different stamps in my Part IV album which means I now have one of every two stamps required to fill the spaces in that album. Now both Part II and Part IV are at 50%+ completion.
2) Reached 40,045 different stamps for the combined albums for 1840-1963 plus an additional 1,025 add-ins for the albums. Just noticed that the percentage completion for the overall collection is at 46.72% and, by happenstance, the percentage completion for the page sets for Parts 1A1-1B2 for 1840-1940 is, also, 46.72%! I did find and add a missing page from my Part V album pages set for 1962 for Afghanistan when comparing against another album which I was using as a pick book so the total number of stamps required to fill all of the pages is now 85,704.
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Milestone changes are becoming more difficult to reach but can now report that I have reached 40,500 different stamps in my Internatiional 1840-1963 collection of unused stamps for 47.25% completion of the album set which holds 85,704 different stamps per current counts. In addition, there are a total of 1,029 tip-ins for the albums. Most recent additions were for Hungary although a wide ranging number of individual stamps were added, also.
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New milestone of 41,040 different mint stamps in my 1840-1963 album set for 47.88% complete and 16,526 spaces filled in the 1840-1940 period. The total number of tip-ins for the album set over and above the required stamps mentioned above has reached 1,045 different items with 769 different for the 1840-1940 period. I have continued to add a variety of stamps for Hungary and that country is beginning to look quite comprehensive in terms of its coverage. Recent additions were from a Scott Specialty collection for Hungary plus a number of items from APS circuit books. I even managed to come up with an uncanceled stamp for the first stamp in the album pages, US #1. While not completely problem free the stamp offers a very nice appearance. The replaced placeholder used stamp was moved to my separate International Junior album which is copyright 1930 as I am quite sure I will never see another affordable mint US #1 to go into that album!
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New milestone of 41,522 different mint stamps in my International 1840-1963 albums for 48.45% complete and 16,727 spaces filled in the 1840-1940 Part 1A1-1B2 album portion. In addition, there are now 1,061 tip-ins for the 1840-1963 period with 782 added stamps for the 1840-1940 period. Stamps were added throughout the album parts from a wide variety of sources including APS circuit books, Stamporama purchases, eBay, Hipstamp, and Sandafayre auctions. I am getting very close to completing inclusion of all required cut squares for the United States of America parts of the pages which is the only country where Scott included cut squares for envelopes and/or lettersheets in the pages.
I, also, managed a visit to the Pipex 2022 stamp show in Portland, Oregon recently and am planning a visit to the Huntspex 2022 stamp show in Huntsville, Alabama while visiting family in Alabama in the near future. I made a number of acquisitions for a new Syria collection which I have started during the Pipex show but no Syria 106c has made its appearance. To date, I have acquired 59 different items for the new Syria collection plus filled in over a hundred new stamps for Syria in the International pages as well since starting on the new Syria collection.
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New milestone of 42,019 different mint stamps in my International 1840-1963 collection for 49.03% complete with 16,884 stamps in the 1840-1940 albums for 48.80% complete. In addition there are now 1,094 add-ins in the 1840-1963 range and 796 add-ins in the 1840-1940 range, i.e. stamps which are typically either excluded from the International pages due to abbreviation of sets or removal of higher value stamps for the International albums' representative selection of stamps for the time periods.
New stamps for the albums include addition of all but one remaining item in the United States cut square issues and addition of a wide ranging array of additional stamps found in local dealer stocks in the Seattle area plus a number of acquisitions made at the Huntspex 2022 stamp show that I attended in Huntsville, Alabama a few weeks ago as well as a few items from eBay and Hipstamp purchases.
I can report that I have continued to make progress on the Syria collection that I mentioned previously and now have 149 different items in the collection plus 99 additional items of the United Arab Republic issues for the 1958-1963 period. In addition, by happenstance a couple of collectors in the Greater Eastside Stamp Society brought their Syria collections in today to compare notes on items within their collections and one of them shared his collection with the group in a very active show and tell session. In addtion another member who has a rather phenomenal 19th Century Scott International brown album showed us items from his collection which we compared with some items in some APS circuit books which we reviewed today as well looking for items for our collections.
I, also, had to split the Part III pages to two regular International binders rather than one large binder as I could no longer get the album to go into its dust case! So, I really am making some progress on that album which is actually the part of the collection with the lowest level of completion with 6,044 of 13,941 possible items for 43.35% completion. Now I will have to find two additional regular size dust cases for the International albums. I suspect that I will have to do the same thing for the Part IV and V albums as they are approaching capacity for their dust cases as well and will require separation into two regular capacity binders rather than a single large capacity binder.
Last I can report that I have managed to complete the clean-up of my stamp room that I began in January 2021. I will add pictures tomorrow afternoon before I start messing it up again! Of course, now that I have cleaned up and stored elsewhere the acquired stamp albums I used as feeders I suspect that I will never be able to find those items again with a reasonable amount of effort but the room definitely looks better and is a bit more comfortable for work on stamps.
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Finally got pictures from my stamp room clean-up (before I start messing it up again, I suspect):
Of course, there is the issue of the garage that will have to be resolved as it was the temporary depository of the extraneous items from the stamp room.
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Nice room.
So all the stamps you have noted are in the binders shown in the images?
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I see Big Blue close at hand!
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Yes, everything in "official" collections is in the binders. Of course, there are a few other items in plastic tubs in the garage for now. Plus a few extra items in the drawers in the dresser that don't really fit any current collections and are looking for inspiration. I did go through the desk drawer today and put all items that fit in the USA Leuchtturn (Lighthouse) binders that I recently found in the storage area under the bottom floor's staircase. They had been there since 2009 and I forgot I had them (actually I thought I sold them a long time ago). Not a lot of stamps but some interesting one's including mint USA 666, C13, 569, 571, a few other Kansas/Nebraska issues and about twenty other lower value stamps plus the 730 and 731 souvenir sheets and two authentication certificates! I had been placing some random duplicates in the drawer for almost five years! Now I get to go through the remaining items and see what I can add to the second Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album that I started.
The Leuchtturn binders (there are three of them with pages) have been of particular interest recently as I started picking up a few items for them as I run into them. Coincidentally one of our regular Monday stamp group meeting attendees brought in his USA collection on Monday. He uses the same albums for his collection which represents a roughly fifty year collection and was a real treat to see. I was particularly fascinated with his addition of color varieties, vertical and horizontal gutter pairs for some issues, etc. to the album. It was, also, the first time I have ever seen the USA stamp issues from the 1990's through 2005 complete in an album as all the collections I have seen previously stop before 1990. He definitely has a few items from the earlier issues that I don't have and vice versa but has a LOT more of the later issues than my collection which ends with issues for 1978. I think I found only two or three missing issues among the later stamps which he hasn't located! Normally he brings the rather incredible 19th Century Scott Brown album that I have mentioned before to meetings as he continues to actively look for missing stamps for that album.
I forgot to mention, yes, my International binders with pages are on the desk next to the laptop desk which has a built-in book case. Currently 10 binders but as I mentioned it looks like it will definitely have to grow to 12 regular size binders with dust cases as the albums have definitely expanded as I added stamps (and clear interleaves) to the page sets.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
I collect on Steiner pages and could not get the same number of stamps in the same space.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
It has been a long time since I have had a new report on the status of my 1840-1963 International albums based collection and I thought an update might be of interest.
I recently manged to add a few items to the Parts 1A1-1B2 pages, enough to pass the 17,000 different issues mark, and can now report that I have 17,011 different of the 34,598 stamp spaces in the albums for 1840-1940 for 49.17% complete with an additional 809 stamps in the album where no spaces were defined for stamps that I managed to acquire for the time period. The most recent additions were acquired during a visit to the Nashville TN stamp show. I spent virtually my entire visit at the show at the first dealer that I encountered as I entered the show going through his stock looking for additions for these pages with a fair bit of success.
The full collection is now at 42,236 of 85,706 defined stamps for 49.28% complete. The total addins for the albums are at 1,116.
I, also, recently acquired through Hipstamp the last two items needed for two categories of US stamps in the 1840-1940 page sets, the US Offices in China stamps and the cut squares section, so these are now complete as well.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Binders and pages are holding up well although I must admit that in the now seven years I have been working on the collection all binders ended up being replaced at least once as I grew to large binders and am now in the last stages of splitting to two regular binders for Parts II, III, IV, and V. Part I was already split to four binders although they are a bit “roomy”.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Reached a new milestone on my Scott International Parts 1A1-5 based 1840-1963 collection with 50.21% of all stamps in the 1840-1940 range in the album for 17,370 of 34,598 issues present. For the 1840-1963 range I now have 42,674 of 85,706 mint stamps in the album set. As a side note, I now have 589 of 717 of the United States of America stamps and cut squares for the album. In addition, there are 1,122 add-ins for the album that have been added where space was available on the page and a related stamp for a short set presented itself.
New items were added from a wide variety of sources including Stamporama, eBay, Hipstamp, and several stamp shows including a major push from the GASS 2023 show that I attended last week.
I finally started preparation of a want list for the 1840-1940 era using a checklist created by Jim Jackson and Chris Whitehouse and available through Jim's web site, https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/. So far, I have worked up to but not including New Zealand. I used this checklist while attending the GASS 2023 show to find items to enable me to reach the magic 50% completion mark as I had to fly by commercial carrier to get to the show. The show itself was incredible with 800+ frames of exhibits, a United States C3a invert stamp on display, and a wide variety of stamp dealers, auction houses, certification agencies, and stamp collecting related clubs/societies represented at the show.
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Very nice progress! Nice stamp room too
-Chris
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re: Best way to build WW 1840-1963 album
Chris,
Welcome back! You have been missed!
Jerrel
P.S. I need to update the stamp room pictures as since they were posted my wife and I have moved cross-country. Unfortunately the bookcase I was using did not survive the move. It literally collapsed after removing the albums when I tried to tilt it to go through the door of a storage unit when we were trying to load it for the move so probably a good thing before I got the albums put back into it! I found two replacements at a local estate sale recently and have removed all active collections from the heavy duty plastic bins in which they stayed stored for seven months and have now got them arranged in the new (to me) bookcases.
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