cornerpost

19 Jun 2015
10:33:32am

re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

That's no way to talk about your wife, poor woman suffers enough.


Merv

 
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michael78651

19 Jun 2015
11:13:01am

re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

Phil, if I were a woman, I'd say that you're a bad boy. Since it's not Saturday night, I'm not a woman, so I won't say it. OOPS!

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DavidG

APS member since 2004
19 Jun 2015
08:34:07pm

re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

Phil:

Keep sorting!

One Day At A Time.

David

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re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

Phil
I had a coffee cup that said, "I finally got it all together but now I can't remember where I put it" which fits me more and more as I get older. More appropriate however, was the one that said, "I'm finally getting organized" and then showed two piles on the floor labeled Mess A and Mess B.
On June 7, I wrote a check for an auction lot and mailed it on June 8 or 9. Yesterday, June18, I got an email from the seller that he had not received the check. I told him I would clean my desk (Mess A) and see if I forgot to mail it. I did that and now have Mess A, B and C. While I did not find the check, I "cleaned up" Mess A. Mess B is the basement table. The check arrived today Jun 19th so the Post Office only took 10 or 11 days to get from Illinois to Florida. Now I need a reason to tackle Mess B.
Jack

 
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re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

Hello

i want to start buying large quantities of stamps and cataloging them

when i purchase i know at least the country and some info for example Great Britain Queen Victoria and King Edward stamps

but once i get a huge lot (say over 500 or 1000 stamps) what is the best way to go thru them and identify the Scott # for each one

any ideas on how to do this efficiently is greatly appreciated

thanks

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re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

My wife will not go near my "den". Not only stamp collection, but building period wooden sailing ships, and tying trout flies.
If you aren't stepping on a stamp, it's a bit of wood, or feathers.

Every several months I "clean" and straighten it up. Two days later...looked like it did the week before.

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re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

The unsorted just seems to multiply over night. I sort every day and seem to fall behind even further. It probably doesn't help that I am temporarily not doing shows and still keep buying. For some reason, yesterday, I bought 4 - 10 ream paper boxes full of covers in albums. About half is US FDC's (870 at first count) and the rest is U.S. event covers and foreign covers. There was one bunch of foreign stamps in envelopes sorted by country which I sorted down yesterday and today my wife mailed a pound and a half of stamps off to the Holocaust project. There were a few good stamps including 5 used copies of the Berlin bells.

I now have one full room here on first floor, one bookcase in my bedroom, one room in the basement and all of my show stock piled up in the main basement. In addition, for as long as my wife will tolerate it, the dining room table is full of the latest purchase. I think she mentioned Memorial Day as an outside limit to her patience.

stampmanjack

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HungaryForStamps

21 Apr 2017
04:57:56pm

re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

It depends your priorities (or weaknesses). I have no problem deciding that I really need that stamp or that collection (except the price of course). But when it comes time to decide what to do with them, that exposes my weakness: what to do with the material once have it in hand? Do I just add to to a stock book? Do I create custom pages? Maybe I need to buy a new album. Easy enough maybe, but then I need to know exactly which variety it is, what its "worth", etc. So many decisions and so much work. Its much easier to just acquire and then stow it away for a future day.

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Poodle_Mum

re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

My eyes are shot but I've managed to sort out quite a few stamps into country envelopes. I have one more stockbook to work through tomorrow and then I'll start sorting the stamps in envelopes to the years I collect and put the others away for Approvals, Auctions and Give-Aways.

Now starting my WW collection up to 1950, I regret having sold off my "unwanted" stamps a few years back and when Approvals first started - I threw a lot of older stamps in there that now I have to get back to fill my albums! LOL

Oh well, a new adventure. I've decided that weekends will be my stamp days.

I've accumulated two envelopes of "I don't know" stamps so I'll have to post them to find out which countries they are! The downfall of spending years on only two countries - both of whom are on temporary hold as I've caught the WW bug!

Fun to do though - I'm really enjoying myself!

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re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

I can relate to most of you people when it comes to having a 'mess' around themselves when working on stamps.

When I was trying to find enough room on the top of my computer desk to put an envelope beside my monitor so I could address it, I decided it was time that I cleared everything off this desk except my computer and printer/scanner. What did I do? I moved everything from Desk A to Desk B. The mess will sit on Desk B for a while until I get fed up looking at it and then I'll find an empty box and put everything into the box. I'll look at that box that I put under Desk B for a few months and then I'll move the box into the closet in the spare bedroom or put it on top of another pile of boxes. Desk C & Desk D are behind me piled with containers of filled with envelopes of unsorted, uncatalogued stamps. My stamp catalogues, which at one time were neatly contained in a small bookcase at the end of Desk A, are now piled on the floor beside my feet so I can quickly grab one of the books when I need it. I tell myself it's too time consuming to stand up, walk 5 steps to & from the bookcase every time I need to look at a catalogue.

Every once in a while I ask myself why I have so many boxes of stamp related unsorted material hidden in closets and piled in corners. I get a very pleasant surprise when I open some of these boxes months after I stash them away.

The only part of this office that is organized is a bookcase/shelving of office supplies that is built into the wall over Desk B and a wall of shelves over Desk C & D that hold stock books, albums & containers of catalogued stamps.

I keep telling myself I should put some sort of a bar in front of all those stock books and containers in case we should have an earthquake. What a mess I would have if all those stamps came tumbling down to the floor

During my working years, people would remark on how neat and organized my office was. If they could only see my 'office' now their comment would be 'how can you work with all that mess around you?'.

I do keep a space cleared on my desk for my coffee warmer

I forgot to mention that I have Desk E that is only used for stamps that are or have been listed in the auction. That desk is fairly organized although the number of Vario stock sheets containing unsold stamps from previous auctions is starting to pile up. The pile hasn't toppled over yet

Is there an easy way to sort and catalogue large lots of stamps? If there is, I haven't found it yet. Other than sorting the stamps by country and then by denomination I cannot offer any time saving suggestions that have worked for me. My suggestion would be to grab 25 or 50 stamps, catalogue & put them away then go on to the next 25-50 stamps. Otherwise the task becomes overwhelming.

Liz

 
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re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

In reply to bangkokstamp, here is roughly what I do when I am working through a particular country for the first time. First of all find a big flat surface to work on. Then make sure you have pulled together everything you have for the country you are focussing on.

1. Soak all stamps on paper, except those on cover which you should leave intact if they have clear cancels or are somehow of philatelic interest.

2. Rough sort - definitives separately by set, commemoratives/semi-postals/airmails by year ( printed under the stamp design for many countries from the 1970s on) or by denomination. Other BOB by type. Oddball stuff and covers separately. (Note that I strip all stamps from pages, sales sheets, etc. and sort them along with loose stamps.)

2. Identify year of stamps sorted by denomination and add to your year piles. (Note-you need a catalogue for this step!)

3. Put each pile in a separate glassine (old used glassines are great for this) and label them. You can then go through individual glassines at your leisure. I store these glassines in a shoebox with a country label.

4. Process each pile individually. For me, stamps/covers I will collect go onto Vario pages by year (I don't use preprinted albums), and others go into stockbooks (arranged by country by year) for later sale/trading. Damaged stuff goes into a junk box. (You should also have a catalogue for this step to help you identify varieties and increase your knowledge about the stamps you are working on.)

As an aside, I find using varios to store my collection gives me the flexibility to collect what I want without having a lot of blank spaces. I can also put interesting usages on cover of a particular stamp right with that stamp set in my collection.

I hope this helps!

Eric

 
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re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !

Instead of sorting and cataloging the stuff I already have, I bought 7 retired APS circuit books from a dealer and just broke them down. They are as follows.
country stamps added to my collection stamp on 102's remainder book lots
Turkey 27 0 $13.75 17SCV
Russia 10 $22.00 71.80
Mali 29 0 26.85
Monaco 2 0 16.10
Austria - BOB 20 56.00 18.70
Ceylon 19 43.00 79.10
Total so far 107 121.00 226.35

I haven't finished the Israel yet and every page is full and mostly mint. Based on his net,I am estimating $200 cat.

I paid $25. I should get $60 for the 102 cards and $72 or the remainder circuit books at the next show or two. That makes $132. So 132 minus the 25 gives me a net of 107. I have a deal with my wife that she gets 50% of the net for putting up with two rooms full and occasionally the dinin room tableso that leaves me with a net net of $54 which will be spent on more lots that will get sorted before the basement room full. Unfortunately it doesn't always work this way but my goal is to grow my collection and sell the leftovers for at least what I paid for the original lot.
Jack

 
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