Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
07:41:35pm
I use Michel 2 Volume for my German collection and both Michel and SG for my Russian collection. Both are limited collections (including States (German), colonies and occupations) - ending with the fall of the USSR and then up to 2000 for reunification (Germany).
I keep them with Scott numbers on Excel but they are set up in the albums according to proper issue date - no BoB in a separate spot. I can update the Excel CVs when I get the itch but otherwise I just use my old 2009 set I have on my computer (for Scott #s) and Stampworld when I want to quickly sort through things by picture without getting into details.
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The nice thing about collecting worldwide without any cutoff date is that my weightlifting abilities get better with each catalog set that I buy. With over 700,000 stamps now listed in the six/twelve volume Scott catalog set, I'm developing quite a nice "six pack"!
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10:15:26pm
Priceless Michael - absolutely priceless. So you save money on a gym membership & spend it on Scott instead?
Well, I must say I do appreciate the Russian pages (and associated) you send me every few years from old Scotts you no longer need. They come in handy for updates. My friends get tired of reading out the new CVs to update my files! 
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I can appreciate the weight lifting associated with world-wide albums as I've been moving stamps from a Minkus Supreme Global album in three huge volumes where the albums are organized by country to a Scott International album with four volumes in their original, as issued contents with Parts 1A1 and 1A2 in two albums so far (with one more to be acquired while waiting delivery on the third album). The International Part 1B1 and Part 5 should be delivered shortly from eBay acquisitions. The Minkus albums cover 1840-1966. The International Part 1B2 will be acquired when one appears on eBay hopefully. All told I will be moving about 14,000 stamps, completed 1,150 so far in August, but I am starting to slow down a bit so it will take a while. Starting on the Brazil moves. Interestingly, the Austria pages were missing and I had never noticed it in ten years of looking at the albums. I wonder, what other omissions will I find? 
For now these are separate from my main world-wide collection which is a 1953 vintage Scott International Part I without a USA section.
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With a little judicious hunting you might find someone selling old austria stamps intact on the missing pages.
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Did a bit of checking last night and found that I never had any France or Greece pages either. 
Hadn't noticed because the France steps were going into a Specialty album and, somehow, just never had any Greece acquisitions of mint stamps.
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Just finished the move up through Indo-China from the Minkus Supreme Global albums into the Scott International I-V set. As of now, the International set has 5,063 stamps. Interestingly, there are over 1,200 stamps for which there was no matching space in the new albums (some were for countries where there were some stamps for years after 1963 on the Supreme Global pages while the Scott International pages end at 1963 but others were for stamps where the stamps are in the more comprehensive Supreme Global album but not in the Scott International). It will be interesting to tally the counts of each following completion of the move to the new albums.
I continue to find looking at the stamps in the new Scott albums to be much more satisfying than when they were in the Minkus album. I, also, find this to be a bit strange. 
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How do you feel about not having spaces for all those stamps, however? What will you do with them, add blank pages?
I agree that the look and spacing of the Scott Internationals is much more pleasing, but it is also frustrating not having the spaces for the stamps I have.
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So far I am leaning towards getting rid of the stamps for which there are no album spaces. I know it sounds like heresy but I think I would rather collect to the album than continually deal with having to add pages to the two post albums which would never look right. I know that Jim Jackson chose to use Steiner pages for 1840-1940 which in principle have every stamp and major variety available but I just don't think I can deal with 6500 pages of which most pages are virtually empty. He does his International Part I as a checklist against the Steiner pages.
But I really do like albums that have at least a representative set of spaces with pictures in them as well which is also an issue with the Steiner pages. Palo Alto has pictures but the album costs for similar comprehensiveness are astronomical. I do have a set of Scott Brown albums now with volumes for 19th century, 1900-1919, and 1920-1929 but I've started counting the spaces for each country and am definitely coming to the conclusion that a representative collection is wiser for me than a complete collection goal?
Still thinking about it though and the stamps haven't gone anywhere yet. They might make interesting auction and/or approval offerings though. Now the magic question is can I really bear to part with them? 
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Is there a Steiner version of "Big Blue" so you can have all stamps?
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Yes, there is, that is where the 6,500 page version comes from! Essentially it covers all major numbered varieties though not just the Big Blue equivalent so is more or less equivalent to the Subway Stamp Shop vintage brown albums with less crowding of issues on pages than the brown albums plus you print your own and there are no stamp pictures just descriptions which are mostly (or, possibly, consistently) in Scott number order.
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12:38:18am
If I were inclined to collect worldwide, my choice would be to collect the 1930-1960 period, because that is the era where I enjoy the stamp production values the most.
So, I am curious. Anybody have any idea how many Steiner pages that would represent?
Roy
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It would likely be even way more than the 6500 classic pages because, after 1940, the number of issues produced increase a lot each year and each decade!
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"I do have a set of Scott Brown albums now with volumes for 19th century, 1900-1919, and 1920-1929 but I've started counting the spaces for each country and am definitely coming to the conclusion that a representative collection is wiser for me than a complete collection goal?"
I am definitely of the same mindset. I started out trying to switch over to Steiner pages, but that was just too much. I also have the complete set of Vintage Browns, but my Scott International "BigBlue" just feels more comfortable. Also, while I may never completely fill it, that is at least an obtainable goal and within a reasonable budget.
I think if you are going to collect worldwide, there's nothing wrong with having a representative collection. After all, having a "complete collection goal" is all about how you define it.
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I will admit that my decision for a representative collection was somewhat colored by Josiah Lilly's attempt where he claimed 77,162 (or so) of the known just under 100,000 stamp issues from 1840-1940 on an essentially unlimited budget (at least by typical standards). Knowing from Jim Jackson's Big Blue blog that at least two individuals Dilip and Bud have managed to complete a Big Blue Part I makes it unlikely but at least possible. Not to mention the spreadsheet and checklist item availability provide really useful resources and let me see how I am doing against a level of completion goal. Dilip's new project to ascertain the catalog values associated with all mint, all used, or least cost options for completing a Big Blue at least provide for some idea of potential costs (a lifetime expenditure of $30,000 to $200,000 for a mildly obsessive hobby does not seem unreasonable as most golfers who become really interested in following tournaments will end up with this level of cost).
A former employer liked planes and bought a dual engine Ted Smith Aerostar private plane as part of his airplane hobby purchases. I believe he spent over $80,000 just upgrading the navigation equipment! Of course then there is the friend from a former church that owned a world war II era P51 Mustang which he rebuilt and then ended up selling to a collector in Australia a few years ago. I can't even imagine his costs associated with it. I do enjoy seeing results of some auto rebuilds that are shown locally at car shows associated with annual events. Also, the model railroading layouts and the work associated with the hobbyists build can represent similar levels of outlay (but not to the airplane hobby I suspect ).
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some folks mentioned the huge heavy albums and the issues with moving them around,getting pages to lie flat, or even viewing your stamps.
That's why I use these 1" 3 ring binders for my collection. I can pull a book off the shelf, hit my easy chair and enjoy the contents.
The 5 larger binders on the second shelf are the New Jersey postmark collection. Any time I decide to collect a new area, I grab another binder and set it up.
You could easily use Steiner pages and print them as you get to work on a specific era of a specific country. You could do a binder like mine per country, or area. Nobody said you need to have 6500 empty pages in one huge book, like a library dictionary!
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So true, but the idea of that many empty pages has a terrible impact on the obsessive, compulsive collector in me. Your albums look very nice and well-ordered and the pages you have shared on Stamporama are definitely interesting. Thanks for sharing your organization and bookcase with us. I have been following your discussions about the NJ postmark project. My wife is from West Windsor just outside of Princeton and I have had several nice visits in the area.
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The mention of old cars and aircaft reminds me of those who collect Commercial Vehicles ( trucks and buses ) This is more akin to collecting aircraft ( apart from the price ) than collecting classic cars - you can hardly nip down the shops in a double-deck bus or 40-ton articulated lorry !
I spent most of my "real life" at work in the bus industry and I have a lot of respect for those who tackle commercial vehicles. As an ex-professional bus man I have more idea of the costs involved in maintaining these vehicles than the preservationists when they start out ( they soon become aquainted with the facts of life !!).
Like classic cars there are gatherings of those who collect commercials - and some of them appear in condition that they never managed to appear in their working life !
Malcolm
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The 19th Century Brown album that I have (and the 1920-29 version as well) have some major cover damage although the pages themselves are near perfect. I finally managed to take them to a local bookbinder to get pricing for repair or, possibly, having them rebound with a leather binding. Ouch, just repair including replacing the spine covering but using the original front and back boards and existing covers had a $117 estimate each while doing a complete new binding in leather would start at $398 each. All before sales taxes are charged!
We, also, discussed simply doing hole punches and putting them in new binders like the Scott Specialty binders but he was very helpful in pointing out the difficulties associated with this approach since the original is gathered in a series of small folds which are then sewn together then bound into a hard bound book and the width of the page from the edge to before printing starts is actually quite narrow. The borders are probably too narrow for standard 3-hole punches.
I wonder as well about the fragility of the 100 year old paper as individual pages rather than a bound volume. For now, they look like they will be a better guide than stamp storage album. A bit disappointing and definitely points to some of the advantages of new production albums. I do like the idea of the antiquity of the albums though (hmm, is that really a word?) and will continue to think about the binding repair option.
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You might have issues with the pages not being acid-free as well?
Have you looking at just buying new pages from Subway (Vintage Reproductions), which are copies of the old Browns, but on newer thicker paper?
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"Your albums look very nice and well-ordered and the pages you have shared on Stamporama are definitely interesting. Thanks for sharing your organization and bookcase with us. I have been following your discussions about the NJ postmark project. My wife is from West Windsor just outside of Princeton and I have had several nice visits in the area."
Jerrel Baxter- thanks so much for the nice comments! I only saw this now.
(Best I can do- there never was a West Windsor postmark!)
"I spent most of my "real life" at work in the bus industry and I have a lot of respect for those who tackle commercial vehicles. As an ex-professional bus man I have more idea of the costs involved in maintaining these vehicles than the preservationists when they start out ( they soon become aquainted with the facts of life !!)."
My wife works in HR for a major bus company with a fleet in excess of 2000 units. Here's unit number one. As an antique vehicle guy with a passion for old commercial vehicles, I've noticed a lot of restored units belong to companies who have facilities large enough to store them. Great publicity and tax write off. This bus certainly wouldn't fit into my 2 car garage!
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I checked out the Subway Stamp Shop Vintage pages early this morning. With 3 3-ring binders and the pages for 1840-1900 they were $203.04. That definitely sounds like it might be a better choice than rebinding the pages I have especially given that the new pages would actually be acid free paper for sure and much sturdier. Still thinking about it.
What do you think of the stamp image quality in the Vintage re-print pages? I am concerned that they were supposedly scanned from the existing pages rather than being re-generated from stamps using modern scans. I've yet to find anywhere locally where I could actually see the pages before acquiring them. It isn't a pressing issue but I am interested. I will admit to more than a bit of concern about the pages being more than a little overwhelming to complete to any significant degree as well. Even the standard International are a challenge so far.
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Great picture of the bus. I like the color they painted it.
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Yes, the images are definitely scanned from the originals, but they are not too bad and serve the purpose of telling you which stamp goes where 
Here's a scan from my pages.
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Do you by chance have the same image available from the original version pages? It would be really nice to see them against each other.
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I'll see what I can dig up today and scan it I can find...
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"Do you by chance have the same image available from the original version pages? It would be really nice to see them against each other."
Ok, here are a couple of examples of pairs I put together. Left = Vintage Reproduction; Right = Original Scott Speciality
Of course the originals are sharper, but in my opinion, there's not enough difference to dissuade the use of the Vintage Reproductions pages.
Hope that helps.
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Wonderful pictures which definitely show the difference in the print quality of the two albums. The new albums are definitely serviceable and the paper is much better, plus they are single side printing. They just don't have the print quality of the original.
I realize it is likely impossible for a new generation of world wide albums to be produced but it would be very nice to have a high quality choice available that wasn't prohibitively priced. Don Quixote should live!
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"I realize it is likely impossible for a new generation of world wide albums to be produced but it would be very nice to have a high quality choice available that wasn't prohibitively priced."
I know what you mean, but I suspect many people would say "Steiner pages" to that statement
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Having asked all of these questions over 30 years ago the answer for me is still the same.
If you want to build a serious world wide collection, Scott Specialty albums are simply the best. You can not start off collecting everything at once and new Scott Specialty albums are to expensive or cannot be found in print. Answer is to start buying all the different used Scott Specialty albums with stamps that you can find and go from there. Any thing else besides Steiner and you're settling for lesser stamps and if you do get a stamp you have no space for is a better stamp which would be the stamps I would want to keep. I always thought that if I did not do it right the first time then I would regret it and I'm glad to say that I don't.
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If I said it once, I said it many times, Steiner pages are the albums of the future...
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Steiner and others helped create these pages. There was no magic except dedication. Steiner chose a minimalist approach rather than fancy borders, supplemental details, non-standard paper sizes, etc. His original open approach (sharing the Page Maker files) soon ended when others want to make money on his work and still an issue to some extent.
There is nothing to prevent others from doing something similar based upon something like Album Easy.
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I've completed the move from the three part Supreme Global albums to parts I through V International pages. I ended up with 15.1% coverage of the stamps in the International albums and 4,600 stamps from the original albums which had no place in the International albums due to a significant number of stamps with dates after 1963 toward the end of the collection. Now I have started incorporating some other acquisitions that never made it into the Supreme Global albums and it will be interesting to see whether it materially impacts the percentage completion. I am still hoping for 17.5% but it may be a bit less. I am going to work up counts for stamps in the 1840-1963 era with no home in the International, stamps after 1963 with no home, and miscellaneous stamps on blank pages in the Supreme albums just to get an idea of why stamps had no home. It should be interesting.
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"just to get an idea of why stamps had no home"
I suspect you will find that there's no rhyme or reason for why certain stamps have no home in the Internationals. Most of the more expensive stamps were left out, but there's also many common inexpensive stamps left out as well.
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Phil,
I'm a bit opposite I guess. I've never gotten into collecting covers. I'm enjoying the simple pleasures and challenges of trying to fill and complete my Scott International Vol. 1. I'm sure this will keep me busy for the rest of my life. If I get stamps that don't have a space in the album, I just make up new pages using blank quadrille pages and add to the album. And if I eventually want to extend beyond 1940, I will just buy the Vol. 2, which I may do at some point in the future.
I find this way of collecting reminds me the most of the fun I had collecting stamps as a kid. And, it doesn't 'break the bank' in the process
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Since I'm fairly new to going "all in" on WW collecting (about a year now), even though I've been collecting for 45 years, I have found a few benefits:
As a single country "specialist", I found myself constantly being disappointed at stamp shows. Many times driving a good distance and walking away with nothing. That should not happen now. There is always going to be countries that,a t the time, are not very popular to collect, so finding material should be easy and affordable.
Another benefit are the Steiner pages, as others have mentioned. I know some don't like them for one reason or another, but they are perfect for me. I've had Vol 1 & II of Scott "Big Blue" for many years. Of course, they never got much attention because of my focus on Spanish stamps. Now, after purchasing the large collection/accumulation a year ago, I've instantly gone past the Big Blue's. Steiner pages are a great option that can be added to, altered to fit your collection and expanded upon easily. One of the benefits of Steiner is you can print the pages you NEED, rather than have a bunch of empty pages. They are easy to keep track of so you know which pages you still might need to print.
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O.K. i still collect worldwide CAREFULLY, i belong to an active stamp club and the stuff that has been coming to auction lately is unbelievable. We are fortunate to belong to a club like this..because we see what collections realize. So if you have a group like ours, a GOOD carefully prepared collection can go for 20 percent of catalog(more than any dealer would offer) If you are just filling spaces, not completing sets etc ..you could get a 10 percent bid with the right crowd in attendence. If you are having fun..go for it...but i hope you have a club like ours for the survivor to bring your stamps to.
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How I wish there were a club anywhere within my vicinity!
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Continuing to add content to the International Part I-V albums which cover 1840-1963 and reached a milestone today of 15,000 different for 17.5% completion of the 85,598 spaces in the album set.
Current project is incorporating some stamps from an International Junior remainder album with a publication date of 1939. Big advantage of the album is that it has mostly mint stamps which fit in well as the bulk of this collection is un-cancelled stamps mostly mint hinged although quite a good number of new mint non-hinged acquisitions have been added with clear Scott/Prinz mounts to keep the general appearance of the album pages. I haven't really tried to keep track but I suspect there are less than 400 used stamps in the album set mostly better issues from Great Britain, France, Germany and Canada plus several from Japan plus a few random entries that were already present in some of the album pages when they were acquired. Once I complete transfer of the new stamps from the last two pages of Germany it is on to Gibraltar and the rest of the world.
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"Stampwrangler" - Where in California do you live?
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I have been collecting worldwide stamps for 70 years and still fall back on them when things are slow but my interests do change..from stamps to first day covers to commercial covers and now if there are no stamps or covers at a marketplace i will look at ephemera.
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Making some progress on the International 1840-1963 album set and reached a new milestone of 19.5% completion yesterday. Biggest group of new additions were for Belgium in Part I and II with many of the stamps being semi-postals and Canada in Part I plus a wide ranging group of additions for the British Commonwealth countries. Still have about a foot tall stack of stamps on album pages to go through looking for mint additions for the albums so should make additional progress as time allows. Interestingly the Parts I through V are fairly balanced in terms of completion with 18.7% of Part I to a maximum of 22.7% of Part IV.
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The amount of stock a traditional dealer, let alone a show dealer, has to carry must be enormous in terms of capital and physically stocking. This means even supposedly common stamps would be hard to find at many dealers.
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I know the pic was from 2 years ago but thats a great bus
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Spent today adding G&K clear interleaves between the adjoining stamp containing pages in Parts 1A2, 1B1, and 1B2 of my International albums. I had previously completed the Part 1A1 page interleaves. It took just over 400 total interleaves to do all of the parts.
I finally decided to do it as stamps kept hanging on to opposing pages' stamps no matter how careful I was. The clear interleaves look a lot cleaner than using glassine based interleaves as I have seen quite a few albums with older glassine interleaves and they do seem to deteriorate with time. It will be interesting to see how the G&K clear interleaves hold up over the next years as I continue working to fill the albums. For now I have added 6,400+ mint stamps to the albums at this point.
Today I added two stamps to Kionga which gives me 28 countries with 50% completion in the Part 1 based albums. A stamp dealer acquaintance's response when I let him know that I had completed the Smithsonian album was that now I needed to work on something that can not be completed. We shall see how it goes!
By the way has anyone run across a Syria 106c overprint error?
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G&K products are from Subway.
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I've always collected countries within specific time periods, apart from my collection of line engraved stamps, and a brief interest in early airmail stamps. But this thread, and in particular the comment of rbpuzzles, has set me thinking. Rb, if I may call him that, says that trips to stamp shows etc can be disappointing if none of the stamps he's looking for are there. I know that feeling very well! And as one collects an individual country, the gaps become increasingly just the more difficult to find and the more expensive issues - and finally the stamps one will never be able to afford.
I can't consider really world wide - it seems to me like it would be just floundering about in a sea of unremarkable stamps. So I wonder .. how about a bit of focus - maybe Europe between the two world wars? That's 20 years, and I make it 19 countries that are largely new to me (I already collect 6 European countries). Or if not 20s and 30s Europe, then perhaps Latin America, say a representative collection of the more interesting issues of each country, reflecting their culture and history. I've already got the SG Central and South America cats.
I can't be doing with hinges and mounts - I haven't the patience - so it'd have to be in stockbooks - or better, in ring binders with the black pages with 7 or 8 strips. And I'd need to make space for them on already crowded shelves.
The drawback is this would make it even more difficult for me to fill any of those gaps in the 6 countries! Hmmm.
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I belonged to the International Society of Guatemala collectors for 20 years..i was able to pick up many of their publications Guatemala I Guatemala II etc; Even though some of their higher value airmails only had a total printing of 3 thousand...they are readily available for a few dollars. I had a lot of fun with the Guatemala collection.
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Added some additional clear interleaves to the Part 1A1 album pages this morning before church as I found that I had skipped some, mostly because of a small number of stamps on the facing pages and several pages where I actually had no stamps on the facing pages. Now all of the facing pages where stamps could be added have an interleave.
Also, started working through some of my backlogged acquisitions this afternoon and evening adding them to the album and have finally passed the 20% completion level for the International Part 1A1 through Part V album set covering 1840-1963 for a significant new milestone. I got so involved that I totally forgot to eat dinner!
New stamps added were from Cuba, Surinam, Salvador, and Spain and all but two stamps added were for the Part 1A1 and 1B2 albums. Those two stamps were for the Part II album and were for Cuba and Surinam. Interestingly, my pending additions stack doesn't look like it has been touched which is both exciting in that more stamps are available to go into the albums and a bit disheartening in terms of the amount of time it is going to take to complete the additions. Of course, I did find time to make a few bids on Stamporama today to add to the pending stack. Hopefully they aren't duplicates! 
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"a bit disheartening in times of the amount of time it is going to take to complete the additions"
Why should it be disheartening? Are you on a deadline and will get fired if you don't get those stamps in the album? Relax and enjoy. It isn't a race, or a job. It's a hobby.
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Stop collecting world wide stamps? No way. It is just too interesting to explore the world.
Only disheartening in the sense of a desire to have utilization of my acquisitions catch up with the rate of acquisition if only so that it is easier to justify more acquisitions. 
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Went I left home to finish college, that would be "cold turkey" to me. I did not have any of my albums or stamps with me. But, After several months of not working on stamps, I found a dealer to send me stamps on approval. I didn't have much money, but I did buy a few stamps from each selection. When I would go home for a holiday, I would put the stamps in my albums. Other than those couple of years, I always had my albums with me. Even when I had no money to buy stamps, there was always something to do with the albums.
The worst hobby "cold turkey" that I ever had was about eight years with no model railroading. I would buy a magazine once in a while and visit a hobby shop, but that was about it. When I finally got settled in Texas, I got a two bedroom apartment for the explicit purpose of building a layout in one of the rooms. I was single then. I had no tools, but a guy at the lumber store built the benchwork for me. All I had to do then was to buy what I needed to build the track plan. That was much too long to go without my trains.
I did get a two bedroom apartment for the same purpose when I lived in Syracuse, but I didn't enjoy living or working there. When I moved there, my dad helped me move the layout I had at the time. It did not survive the trip too well, so it wasn't usable. I took it apart hoping to build a new one, but I never did.
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My Dad purchased a Lionel train set when i was an infant...i suspect he bought it for himself rather than for me. I still have the locomotive that must weigh 12 or 15 pounds. They built them sturdy in them days.
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About collecting World Wide... My wife-to-be and I started collecting in 1972 while in University. We started with Canada, then US, then Russia and Poland because the stamps were "pretty", we didn't know any better. We also bought an old used 3 volume world set somewhere and started adding to the books, it was "fun" learning about different areas of the world. We eventually realized we needed to upgrade the World albums and eventually bought the first three volumes of the Scott International. There were still lots of stamps missing but most of those were too expensive for us back then. We had a friend at the time, a Philosophy professor, who was a WW collector (he also had the largest porn collection east of Montreal - ties, books, shirts, etc.) and he had a whole room of albums. We decided to keep it simple and stick with what we had, eventually I put cut off dates on my major collections to keep my sanity! I still concentrate on Canada, US, Poland and Russia and have major collections. But sometimes I see a stamp from an area of the world and decide to have a bit of fun again. To sum up I treat my WW collection as fun, even though I sometimes get a bit carried away. But stamp collecting really should have a whole bunch of fun in it!!!
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I imagine everyone is much the same. I have about 30 albums of Germany and probably not more than 60 for the rest of the world. You may have an area of focus but you become attracted to bits of fluff or a theme and off you go ... but you still get lured back to the core when you see it as well.
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Phil, that is a "bit" of an understatement.
For the Scott Internationals, that do not contain spaces for all stamps and souvenir sheets, the years 1840 to 1969 are covered in the first 6 parts. Part 54, for 2018, will be issued within a month, and the newest parts of the International pages contain spaces for even less stamps since most stamps are issued in souvenir or miniature sheets that are not included in the International. To cover the world from 1840 to date like I do requires a ton of shelf space!
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Is it really one year per volume now? Are there actually that many stamps issued? The first volume actually covered the first 100 years of philately!
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Yes. Each part is for one year. Of course there are a few catch-ups from the previous year, and sometimes some spaces for stamps for the next year. Each new part is issued about a year or so later.
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The increase in stamps can be seen in the catalogs. A single Scott Classic covers the world up to 1940/KGVI era. Now, we have 6 volumes sold as 12 books to cover the world.
I am just wonder who is collecting all these modern(post 2000) stamps from all the non-major countries that issue the bulk of the wallpaper issues and why people see a need to buy a complete set of catalogs each year.
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I was buying a new set of catalogs every year. Then the prices started going up, and I was buying every two years. Then the prices went up even more, and I bought a new set of the standard catalog every three years, the US specialized every two years. Now, I have the 2020 set, and don't plan on buying another until 2025, except for the US Specialized. I will be getting the Classic catalog for 2020 (mine is 2015), but I have no plans to upgrade that one after that.
It's getting very difficult to buy new issues (2000 and up) as the print quantities are becoming smaller and smaller. Dealers are not buying quantities, if any at all for most countries. It makes me wonder what these countries that are issuing thousands of stamps each year are expecting to get in return when people are not buying them. I have found that stamps from the 1990s are getting easier to find and buy. Early 2000s are starting to show up a bit. Maybe they will get easier too, but the higher face values definitely hinder purchases.
Obviously enough people are buying the stamps and album supplements to make it worth-while. Renewals to Steiner pages continue. If people didn't need the new pages, then there would be no need to keep buying Steiner's product either.
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Yes, but how I don't know!
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I am very glad that newer stamps have never been of interest to me! I know of a person who collects world and is trying to stay current. He is considering getting out of the hobby because of stress. I think he'd be better off if he instituted a cutoff date and concentrated on the older more interesting stuff! But that's just my opinion.
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My Scott Classic and Specialized are 2018 and my complete set is a mixture of 2016 and 2017 with no plans to buy any future ones. I also have a 2015 SG 1840-1970 and a Concise 2018. My prior Concise was an older one so got a new one because they had improvements in Machin section. Catalogs over 2 to 3 years old often can be picked up for very little so that is another benefit of collecting worldwide.
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Look for older catalogs in dealer junk boxes too. Often they'll just give away the older catalogs.
My Michel catalogs, all but one, are from the 1990s. My Gibbons world is from 2008, and the British is 2012. I don't use them for values, but for reference purposes to supplement information not contained or too vague in Scott.
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I can only refer folks to abe books. If you dont mind an out of date catalog for pure reference its my goto spot. Don't forget to search in original language for foreign cats. Ebay is next best but do a general search not exclusive to stamps as sometimes non-collectors throw stuff up at cut rate. I got a bunch of stanley gibbons one time from a guy whose specialty seemed to be various types of nails.... Also don't be hasty stuff will show up... like my english version of michel specialized for 3.99 free shipping....
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Local stamp dealer gave me a couple of catalogs that were included with a collection he bought recently as he knows that I am interested in books with philatelic content. One was a 1956 edition of the Yvert catalog in three volumes and the other was a Russian language catalog that appears to be quite old. UPDATE: I found the copyright date on the Russian catalog and it is from 1958. As best I can tell the catalog covers stamps of Russia from 1921 through 1957. The cyrillic alphabet is definitely a challenge to translation since I can't even type the content into a translation service. Hmm, maybe taking pictures with text recognition might work. Should be an interesting challenge!
Also, I received an Amazon order this week which was for a children's book about a dog that travels on mail trains all around the country which is supposedly based on a true story.
I have now reached 20.39% completion for the International album set with some recent additions from Stamporama being added including several additions of earlier stamps for the USA section as well as several replacement stamps for Canadian stamps in the album. Replacements were mint while the originals were part of a limited number of used stamps in the album set. I, also, purchased a number of packages of Scott/Prinz stamp mount strips to use in adding MNH stamps to the albums. I now have mount strips with sizes of 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 36, 37, 41, 43, 55, and 61 mm sizes for use in mounting stamps. I, also, have about 200 Scott hinges left that were originally manufactured for Scott by Dennison in the 1960's that were included in an old beginner album collector kit that was purchased on a lark last year. Best part of the package was an unopened hinge package with 1,000 hinges.
Still have a large number of stamps on album pages to review for additions to the albums. Nicest new stamp added recently was for India, a half anna stamp from 1854 which is a clean, unused copy that fills in the first position in the India pages.
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Link to "Oney, Mascot Of The Railway Mail Service"
https://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/current/moving-the-mail/mail-by-rail/owney-mascot-of-the-railway-mail-service/all-about-owney/index.html
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It's been 2 years since I made my initial post in this topic. At that time I had barely began down the WW road. I knew there would be some benefits, which I noted then. 2 more years into it and I've realized another benefit:
As a worldwide collector who includes literally everything, there is always something I buy. I can, in effect, be very opportunistic. As a single country specialist I was always looking out for certain items, many times I had to make a decision on buying something and paying through the nose for it. Now, as an opportunistic WW "specialist", I simply sit back, quietly work on what I have (which, by itself, could last the rest of my life), and wait for opportunities to make their presence known. Doing this, I've made nice purchases, through Facebook groups, of:
French revenues, Austrian revenues, US cut squares, US match & medicine stamps, German on paper kiloware (for postmark hunting) and various small collections locally. Most of these things would make for nice specialized collections by themselves. But, being an opportunistic WW collector allows me to buy them and add them to my all-inclusive WW collection. Also, most of things I jump on are usually inexpensive. Mostly from people just wanting to get rid of things. It just seems easy to buy stuff nowadays....so I do.
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Great way of putting it. Sums it up perfectly.
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The challenge for a collector is to stay organized to better appreciate the endless opportunities. Of course, one may like the accumulation approach.
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Continuing on with my worldwide collection (International albums 1A1-1B2 plus II,III, IV, and V for 1840-1963) yesterday I reached 28,053 different mint stamps for the entire collection (32.77% complete) including 11,130 different for the 1840-1940 period (32.34% complete).
Most recent additions were from French colonies and Mexico and were from a local collector's duplicates. Now he has made one incredibly interesting purchase recently of a large Great Britain collection that he thought had a page with 21 copies of Great Britain Scott #4 on it until I pointed out that they are actually all Great Britain Scott #2 except for one pair which he said he had added to the page (we found a replacement for the pair which is Scott #2 later) and very nice copies at that! But no mint copies. I did pick up one nice Great Britain Scott #33 for my collection from a plate number specialized group which had two of the Scott #33's in the mount for plate number 93 with one mint and one used plus another mint copy that was loose in the album. After finding a magnifying glass that gave us a good enough view of the stamp to be sure that it, also, was plate number 93 I bought the duplicate from him for my Great Britain collection. 
There was, also, one really pretty mint block of six of one of the early half penny stamps from Great Britain. We had a great hour and a half show and tell session looking at just a part of the collection!
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I have continued to add stamps to my 1840-1963 Scott International albums based collection and can now report that I have 32,284 stamps in the albums for 37.7% coverage. I have removed all used stamps that remain in the albums from the counts (there are very few now as whenever I add stamps to a country where they remain I have been removing them). The Part 1A1-1B2 albums now contain 13,326 stamps for 38.7% completion. The most complete of the albums is the Part IV album with 3,698 stamps for 42.8% completion and the least complete is the Part V album with 3,844 stamps for 32.9% complete.
All acquisitions for some time now have involved individual stamp or set purchases as I haven't seen a collection that would deliver enough new stamps which are mint to justify the cost in the past year. Still looking for a Syria 106c!
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A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent).
15 Apr 2017
07:41:35pm
The greatest thing about having a WW collection that ends at 1945/50 is that I don't need a 6 volume, 75+ lb Scott Catalogue. I picked up a 1961 2 volume set on eBay last year that works perfectly. Volume 1 is British Commonwealth and Americas and Volume 2 is the rest of the world. The 2 side by side are the height of a regular stock book. The larger of the 2 - WW is 1400 pages. Absolutely perfect!
I use Michel 2 Volume for my German collection and both Michel and SG for my Russian collection. Both are limited collections (including States (German), colonies and occupations) - ending with the fall of the USSR and then up to 2000 for reunification (Germany).
I keep them with Scott numbers on Excel but they are set up in the albums according to proper issue date - no BoB in a separate spot. I can update the Excel CVs when I get the itch but otherwise I just use my old 2009 set I have on my computer (for Scott #s) and Stampworld when I want to quickly sort through things by picture without getting into details.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
The nice thing about collecting worldwide without any cutoff date is that my weightlifting abilities get better with each catalog set that I buy. With over 700,000 stamps now listed in the six/twelve volume Scott catalog set, I'm developing quite a nice "six pack"!
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A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent).
15 Apr 2017
10:15:26pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Priceless Michael - absolutely priceless. So you save money on a gym membership & spend it on Scott instead?
Well, I must say I do appreciate the Russian pages (and associated) you send me every few years from old Scotts you no longer need. They come in handy for updates. My friends get tired of reading out the new CVs to update my files!
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I can appreciate the weight lifting associated with world-wide albums as I've been moving stamps from a Minkus Supreme Global album in three huge volumes where the albums are organized by country to a Scott International album with four volumes in their original, as issued contents with Parts 1A1 and 1A2 in two albums so far (with one more to be acquired while waiting delivery on the third album). The International Part 1B1 and Part 5 should be delivered shortly from eBay acquisitions. The Minkus albums cover 1840-1966. The International Part 1B2 will be acquired when one appears on eBay hopefully. All told I will be moving about 14,000 stamps, completed 1,150 so far in August, but I am starting to slow down a bit so it will take a while. Starting on the Brazil moves. Interestingly, the Austria pages were missing and I had never noticed it in ten years of looking at the albums. I wonder, what other omissions will I find?
For now these are separate from my main world-wide collection which is a 1953 vintage Scott International Part I without a USA section.
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12:03:26pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
With a little judicious hunting you might find someone selling old austria stamps intact on the missing pages.
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Did a bit of checking last night and found that I never had any France or Greece pages either.
Hadn't noticed because the France steps were going into a Specialty album and, somehow, just never had any Greece acquisitions of mint stamps.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Just finished the move up through Indo-China from the Minkus Supreme Global albums into the Scott International I-V set. As of now, the International set has 5,063 stamps. Interestingly, there are over 1,200 stamps for which there was no matching space in the new albums (some were for countries where there were some stamps for years after 1963 on the Supreme Global pages while the Scott International pages end at 1963 but others were for stamps where the stamps are in the more comprehensive Supreme Global album but not in the Scott International). It will be interesting to tally the counts of each following completion of the move to the new albums.
I continue to find looking at the stamps in the new Scott albums to be much more satisfying than when they were in the Minkus album. I, also, find this to be a bit strange.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
How do you feel about not having spaces for all those stamps, however? What will you do with them, add blank pages?
I agree that the look and spacing of the Scott Internationals is much more pleasing, but it is also frustrating not having the spaces for the stamps I have.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
So far I am leaning towards getting rid of the stamps for which there are no album spaces. I know it sounds like heresy but I think I would rather collect to the album than continually deal with having to add pages to the two post albums which would never look right. I know that Jim Jackson chose to use Steiner pages for 1840-1940 which in principle have every stamp and major variety available but I just don't think I can deal with 6500 pages of which most pages are virtually empty. He does his International Part I as a checklist against the Steiner pages.
But I really do like albums that have at least a representative set of spaces with pictures in them as well which is also an issue with the Steiner pages. Palo Alto has pictures but the album costs for similar comprehensiveness are astronomical. I do have a set of Scott Brown albums now with volumes for 19th century, 1900-1919, and 1920-1929 but I've started counting the spaces for each country and am definitely coming to the conclusion that a representative collection is wiser for me than a complete collection goal?
Still thinking about it though and the stamps haven't gone anywhere yet. They might make interesting auction and/or approval offerings though. Now the magic question is can I really bear to part with them?
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Is there a Steiner version of "Big Blue" so you can have all stamps?
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Yes, there is, that is where the 6,500 page version comes from! Essentially it covers all major numbered varieties though not just the Big Blue equivalent so is more or less equivalent to the Subway Stamp Shop vintage brown albums with less crowding of issues on pages than the brown albums plus you print your own and there are no stamp pictures just descriptions which are mostly (or, possibly, consistently) in Scott number order.
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BuckaCover.com - 80,000 covers priced 60c to $1.50 - Easy browsing 300 categories
25 Oct 2017
12:38:18am
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
If I were inclined to collect worldwide, my choice would be to collect the 1930-1960 period, because that is the era where I enjoy the stamp production values the most.
So, I am curious. Anybody have any idea how many Steiner pages that would represent?
Roy
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
It would likely be even way more than the 6500 classic pages because, after 1940, the number of issues produced increase a lot each year and each decade!
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"I do have a set of Scott Brown albums now with volumes for 19th century, 1900-1919, and 1920-1929 but I've started counting the spaces for each country and am definitely coming to the conclusion that a representative collection is wiser for me than a complete collection goal?"
I am definitely of the same mindset. I started out trying to switch over to Steiner pages, but that was just too much. I also have the complete set of Vintage Browns, but my Scott International "BigBlue" just feels more comfortable. Also, while I may never completely fill it, that is at least an obtainable goal and within a reasonable budget.
I think if you are going to collect worldwide, there's nothing wrong with having a representative collection. After all, having a "complete collection goal" is all about how you define it.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I will admit that my decision for a representative collection was somewhat colored by Josiah Lilly's attempt where he claimed 77,162 (or so) of the known just under 100,000 stamp issues from 1840-1940 on an essentially unlimited budget (at least by typical standards). Knowing from Jim Jackson's Big Blue blog that at least two individuals Dilip and Bud have managed to complete a Big Blue Part I makes it unlikely but at least possible. Not to mention the spreadsheet and checklist item availability provide really useful resources and let me see how I am doing against a level of completion goal. Dilip's new project to ascertain the catalog values associated with all mint, all used, or least cost options for completing a Big Blue at least provide for some idea of potential costs (a lifetime expenditure of $30,000 to $200,000 for a mildly obsessive hobby does not seem unreasonable as most golfers who become really interested in following tournaments will end up with this level of cost).
A former employer liked planes and bought a dual engine Ted Smith Aerostar private plane as part of his airplane hobby purchases. I believe he spent over $80,000 just upgrading the navigation equipment! Of course then there is the friend from a former church that owned a world war II era P51 Mustang which he rebuilt and then ended up selling to a collector in Australia a few years ago. I can't even imagine his costs associated with it. I do enjoy seeing results of some auto rebuilds that are shown locally at car shows associated with annual events. Also, the model railroading layouts and the work associated with the hobbyists build can represent similar levels of outlay (but not to the airplane hobby I suspect ).
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
some folks mentioned the huge heavy albums and the issues with moving them around,getting pages to lie flat, or even viewing your stamps.
That's why I use these 1" 3 ring binders for my collection. I can pull a book off the shelf, hit my easy chair and enjoy the contents.
The 5 larger binders on the second shelf are the New Jersey postmark collection. Any time I decide to collect a new area, I grab another binder and set it up.
You could easily use Steiner pages and print them as you get to work on a specific era of a specific country. You could do a binder like mine per country, or area. Nobody said you need to have 6500 empty pages in one huge book, like a library dictionary!
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
So true, but the idea of that many empty pages has a terrible impact on the obsessive, compulsive collector in me. Your albums look very nice and well-ordered and the pages you have shared on Stamporama are definitely interesting. Thanks for sharing your organization and bookcase with us. I have been following your discussions about the NJ postmark project. My wife is from West Windsor just outside of Princeton and I have had several nice visits in the area.
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10:04:56am
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
The mention of old cars and aircaft reminds me of those who collect Commercial Vehicles ( trucks and buses ) This is more akin to collecting aircraft ( apart from the price ) than collecting classic cars - you can hardly nip down the shops in a double-deck bus or 40-ton articulated lorry !
I spent most of my "real life" at work in the bus industry and I have a lot of respect for those who tackle commercial vehicles. As an ex-professional bus man I have more idea of the costs involved in maintaining these vehicles than the preservationists when they start out ( they soon become aquainted with the facts of life !!).
Like classic cars there are gatherings of those who collect commercials - and some of them appear in condition that they never managed to appear in their working life !
Malcolm
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
The 19th Century Brown album that I have (and the 1920-29 version as well) have some major cover damage although the pages themselves are near perfect. I finally managed to take them to a local bookbinder to get pricing for repair or, possibly, having them rebound with a leather binding. Ouch, just repair including replacing the spine covering but using the original front and back boards and existing covers had a $117 estimate each while doing a complete new binding in leather would start at $398 each. All before sales taxes are charged!
We, also, discussed simply doing hole punches and putting them in new binders like the Scott Specialty binders but he was very helpful in pointing out the difficulties associated with this approach since the original is gathered in a series of small folds which are then sewn together then bound into a hard bound book and the width of the page from the edge to before printing starts is actually quite narrow. The borders are probably too narrow for standard 3-hole punches.
I wonder as well about the fragility of the 100 year old paper as individual pages rather than a bound volume. For now, they look like they will be a better guide than stamp storage album. A bit disappointing and definitely points to some of the advantages of new production albums. I do like the idea of the antiquity of the albums though (hmm, is that really a word?) and will continue to think about the binding repair option.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
You might have issues with the pages not being acid-free as well?
Have you looking at just buying new pages from Subway (Vintage Reproductions), which are copies of the old Browns, but on newer thicker paper?
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"Your albums look very nice and well-ordered and the pages you have shared on Stamporama are definitely interesting. Thanks for sharing your organization and bookcase with us. I have been following your discussions about the NJ postmark project. My wife is from West Windsor just outside of Princeton and I have had several nice visits in the area."
Jerrel Baxter- thanks so much for the nice comments! I only saw this now.
(Best I can do- there never was a West Windsor postmark!)
"I spent most of my "real life" at work in the bus industry and I have a lot of respect for those who tackle commercial vehicles. As an ex-professional bus man I have more idea of the costs involved in maintaining these vehicles than the preservationists when they start out ( they soon become aquainted with the facts of life !!)."
My wife works in HR for a major bus company with a fleet in excess of 2000 units. Here's unit number one. As an antique vehicle guy with a passion for old commercial vehicles, I've noticed a lot of restored units belong to companies who have facilities large enough to store them. Great publicity and tax write off. This bus certainly wouldn't fit into my 2 car garage!
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I checked out the Subway Stamp Shop Vintage pages early this morning. With 3 3-ring binders and the pages for 1840-1900 they were $203.04. That definitely sounds like it might be a better choice than rebinding the pages I have especially given that the new pages would actually be acid free paper for sure and much sturdier. Still thinking about it.
What do you think of the stamp image quality in the Vintage re-print pages? I am concerned that they were supposedly scanned from the existing pages rather than being re-generated from stamps using modern scans. I've yet to find anywhere locally where I could actually see the pages before acquiring them. It isn't a pressing issue but I am interested. I will admit to more than a bit of concern about the pages being more than a little overwhelming to complete to any significant degree as well. Even the standard International are a challenge so far.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Great picture of the bus. I like the color they painted it.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Yes, the images are definitely scanned from the originals, but they are not too bad and serve the purpose of telling you which stamp goes where Here's a scan from my pages.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Do you by chance have the same image available from the original version pages? It would be really nice to see them against each other.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I'll see what I can dig up today and scan it I can find...
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
"Do you by chance have the same image available from the original version pages? It would be really nice to see them against each other."
Ok, here are a couple of examples of pairs I put together. Left = Vintage Reproduction; Right = Original Scott Speciality
Of course the originals are sharper, but in my opinion, there's not enough difference to dissuade the use of the Vintage Reproductions pages.
Hope that helps.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Wonderful pictures which definitely show the difference in the print quality of the two albums. The new albums are definitely serviceable and the paper is much better, plus they are single side printing. They just don't have the print quality of the original.
I realize it is likely impossible for a new generation of world wide albums to be produced but it would be very nice to have a high quality choice available that wasn't prohibitively priced. Don Quixote should live!
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
"I realize it is likely impossible for a new generation of world wide albums to be produced but it would be very nice to have a high quality choice available that wasn't prohibitively priced."
I know what you mean, but I suspect many people would say "Steiner pages" to that statement
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Having asked all of these questions over 30 years ago the answer for me is still the same.
If you want to build a serious world wide collection, Scott Specialty albums are simply the best. You can not start off collecting everything at once and new Scott Specialty albums are to expensive or cannot be found in print. Answer is to start buying all the different used Scott Specialty albums with stamps that you can find and go from there. Any thing else besides Steiner and you're settling for lesser stamps and if you do get a stamp you have no space for is a better stamp which would be the stamps I would want to keep. I always thought that if I did not do it right the first time then I would regret it and I'm glad to say that I don't.
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07:08:31pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
If I said it once, I said it many times, Steiner pages are the albums of the future...
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Steiner and others helped create these pages. There was no magic except dedication. Steiner chose a minimalist approach rather than fancy borders, supplemental details, non-standard paper sizes, etc. His original open approach (sharing the Page Maker files) soon ended when others want to make money on his work and still an issue to some extent.
There is nothing to prevent others from doing something similar based upon something like Album Easy.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I've completed the move from the three part Supreme Global albums to parts I through V International pages. I ended up with 15.1% coverage of the stamps in the International albums and 4,600 stamps from the original albums which had no place in the International albums due to a significant number of stamps with dates after 1963 toward the end of the collection. Now I have started incorporating some other acquisitions that never made it into the Supreme Global albums and it will be interesting to see whether it materially impacts the percentage completion. I am still hoping for 17.5% but it may be a bit less. I am going to work up counts for stamps in the 1840-1963 era with no home in the International, stamps after 1963 with no home, and miscellaneous stamps on blank pages in the Supreme albums just to get an idea of why stamps had no home. It should be interesting.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
"just to get an idea of why stamps had no home"
I suspect you will find that there's no rhyme or reason for why certain stamps have no home in the Internationals. Most of the more expensive stamps were left out, but there's also many common inexpensive stamps left out as well.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Phil,
I'm a bit opposite I guess. I've never gotten into collecting covers. I'm enjoying the simple pleasures and challenges of trying to fill and complete my Scott International Vol. 1. I'm sure this will keep me busy for the rest of my life. If I get stamps that don't have a space in the album, I just make up new pages using blank quadrille pages and add to the album. And if I eventually want to extend beyond 1940, I will just buy the Vol. 2, which I may do at some point in the future.
I find this way of collecting reminds me the most of the fun I had collecting stamps as a kid. And, it doesn't 'break the bank' in the process
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Since I'm fairly new to going "all in" on WW collecting (about a year now), even though I've been collecting for 45 years, I have found a few benefits:
As a single country "specialist", I found myself constantly being disappointed at stamp shows. Many times driving a good distance and walking away with nothing. That should not happen now. There is always going to be countries that,a t the time, are not very popular to collect, so finding material should be easy and affordable.
Another benefit are the Steiner pages, as others have mentioned. I know some don't like them for one reason or another, but they are perfect for me. I've had Vol 1 & II of Scott "Big Blue" for many years. Of course, they never got much attention because of my focus on Spanish stamps. Now, after purchasing the large collection/accumulation a year ago, I've instantly gone past the Big Blue's. Steiner pages are a great option that can be added to, altered to fit your collection and expanded upon easily. One of the benefits of Steiner is you can print the pages you NEED, rather than have a bunch of empty pages. They are easy to keep track of so you know which pages you still might need to print.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
O.K. i still collect worldwide CAREFULLY, i belong to an active stamp club and the stuff that has been coming to auction lately is unbelievable. We are fortunate to belong to a club like this..because we see what collections realize. So if you have a group like ours, a GOOD carefully prepared collection can go for 20 percent of catalog(more than any dealer would offer) If you are just filling spaces, not completing sets etc ..you could get a 10 percent bid with the right crowd in attendence. If you are having fun..go for it...but i hope you have a club like ours for the survivor to bring your stamps to.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
How I wish there were a club anywhere within my vicinity!
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Continuing to add content to the International Part I-V albums which cover 1840-1963 and reached a milestone today of 15,000 different for 17.5% completion of the 85,598 spaces in the album set.
Current project is incorporating some stamps from an International Junior remainder album with a publication date of 1939. Big advantage of the album is that it has mostly mint stamps which fit in well as the bulk of this collection is un-cancelled stamps mostly mint hinged although quite a good number of new mint non-hinged acquisitions have been added with clear Scott/Prinz mounts to keep the general appearance of the album pages. I haven't really tried to keep track but I suspect there are less than 400 used stamps in the album set mostly better issues from Great Britain, France, Germany and Canada plus several from Japan plus a few random entries that were already present in some of the album pages when they were acquired. Once I complete transfer of the new stamps from the last two pages of Germany it is on to Gibraltar and the rest of the world.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
"Stampwrangler" - Where in California do you live?
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I have been collecting worldwide stamps for 70 years and still fall back on them when things are slow but my interests do change..from stamps to first day covers to commercial covers and now if there are no stamps or covers at a marketplace i will look at ephemera.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Making some progress on the International 1840-1963 album set and reached a new milestone of 19.5% completion yesterday. Biggest group of new additions were for Belgium in Part I and II with many of the stamps being semi-postals and Canada in Part I plus a wide ranging group of additions for the British Commonwealth countries. Still have about a foot tall stack of stamps on album pages to go through looking for mint additions for the albums so should make additional progress as time allows. Interestingly the Parts I through V are fairly balanced in terms of completion with 18.7% of Part I to a maximum of 22.7% of Part IV.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
The amount of stock a traditional dealer, let alone a show dealer, has to carry must be enormous in terms of capital and physically stocking. This means even supposedly common stamps would be hard to find at many dealers.
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11:25:11pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I know the pic was from 2 years ago but thats a great bus
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Spent today adding G&K clear interleaves between the adjoining stamp containing pages in Parts 1A2, 1B1, and 1B2 of my International albums. I had previously completed the Part 1A1 page interleaves. It took just over 400 total interleaves to do all of the parts.
I finally decided to do it as stamps kept hanging on to opposing pages' stamps no matter how careful I was. The clear interleaves look a lot cleaner than using glassine based interleaves as I have seen quite a few albums with older glassine interleaves and they do seem to deteriorate with time. It will be interesting to see how the G&K clear interleaves hold up over the next years as I continue working to fill the albums. For now I have added 6,400+ mint stamps to the albums at this point.
Today I added two stamps to Kionga which gives me 28 countries with 50% completion in the Part 1 based albums. A stamp dealer acquaintance's response when I let him know that I had completed the Smithsonian album was that now I needed to work on something that can not be completed. We shall see how it goes!
By the way has anyone run across a Syria 106c overprint error?
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
G&K products are from Subway.
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I've always collected countries within specific time periods, apart from my collection of line engraved stamps, and a brief interest in early airmail stamps. But this thread, and in particular the comment of rbpuzzles, has set me thinking. Rb, if I may call him that, says that trips to stamp shows etc can be disappointing if none of the stamps he's looking for are there. I know that feeling very well! And as one collects an individual country, the gaps become increasingly just the more difficult to find and the more expensive issues - and finally the stamps one will never be able to afford.
I can't consider really world wide - it seems to me like it would be just floundering about in a sea of unremarkable stamps. So I wonder .. how about a bit of focus - maybe Europe between the two world wars? That's 20 years, and I make it 19 countries that are largely new to me (I already collect 6 European countries). Or if not 20s and 30s Europe, then perhaps Latin America, say a representative collection of the more interesting issues of each country, reflecting their culture and history. I've already got the SG Central and South America cats.
I can't be doing with hinges and mounts - I haven't the patience - so it'd have to be in stockbooks - or better, in ring binders with the black pages with 7 or 8 strips. And I'd need to make space for them on already crowded shelves.
The drawback is this would make it even more difficult for me to fill any of those gaps in the 6 countries! Hmmm.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I belonged to the International Society of Guatemala collectors for 20 years..i was able to pick up many of their publications Guatemala I Guatemala II etc; Even though some of their higher value airmails only had a total printing of 3 thousand...they are readily available for a few dollars. I had a lot of fun with the Guatemala collection.
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Added some additional clear interleaves to the Part 1A1 album pages this morning before church as I found that I had skipped some, mostly because of a small number of stamps on the facing pages and several pages where I actually had no stamps on the facing pages. Now all of the facing pages where stamps could be added have an interleave.
Also, started working through some of my backlogged acquisitions this afternoon and evening adding them to the album and have finally passed the 20% completion level for the International Part 1A1 through Part V album set covering 1840-1963 for a significant new milestone. I got so involved that I totally forgot to eat dinner!
New stamps added were from Cuba, Surinam, Salvador, and Spain and all but two stamps added were for the Part 1A1 and 1B2 albums. Those two stamps were for the Part II album and were for Cuba and Surinam. Interestingly, my pending additions stack doesn't look like it has been touched which is both exciting in that more stamps are available to go into the albums and a bit disheartening in terms of the amount of time it is going to take to complete the additions. Of course, I did find time to make a few bids on Stamporama today to add to the pending stack. Hopefully they aren't duplicates!
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
"a bit disheartening in times of the amount of time it is going to take to complete the additions"
Why should it be disheartening? Are you on a deadline and will get fired if you don't get those stamps in the album? Relax and enjoy. It isn't a race, or a job. It's a hobby.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Stop collecting world wide stamps? No way. It is just too interesting to explore the world.
Only disheartening in the sense of a desire to have utilization of my acquisitions catch up with the rate of acquisition if only so that it is easier to justify more acquisitions.
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Went I left home to finish college, that would be "cold turkey" to me. I did not have any of my albums or stamps with me. But, After several months of not working on stamps, I found a dealer to send me stamps on approval. I didn't have much money, but I did buy a few stamps from each selection. When I would go home for a holiday, I would put the stamps in my albums. Other than those couple of years, I always had my albums with me. Even when I had no money to buy stamps, there was always something to do with the albums.
The worst hobby "cold turkey" that I ever had was about eight years with no model railroading. I would buy a magazine once in a while and visit a hobby shop, but that was about it. When I finally got settled in Texas, I got a two bedroom apartment for the explicit purpose of building a layout in one of the rooms. I was single then. I had no tools, but a guy at the lumber store built the benchwork for me. All I had to do then was to buy what I needed to build the track plan. That was much too long to go without my trains.
I did get a two bedroom apartment for the same purpose when I lived in Syracuse, but I didn't enjoy living or working there. When I moved there, my dad helped me move the layout I had at the time. It did not survive the trip too well, so it wasn't usable. I took it apart hoping to build a new one, but I never did.
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My Dad purchased a Lionel train set when i was an infant...i suspect he bought it for himself rather than for me. I still have the locomotive that must weigh 12 or 15 pounds. They built them sturdy in them days.
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06:18:16pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
About collecting World Wide... My wife-to-be and I started collecting in 1972 while in University. We started with Canada, then US, then Russia and Poland because the stamps were "pretty", we didn't know any better. We also bought an old used 3 volume world set somewhere and started adding to the books, it was "fun" learning about different areas of the world. We eventually realized we needed to upgrade the World albums and eventually bought the first three volumes of the Scott International. There were still lots of stamps missing but most of those were too expensive for us back then. We had a friend at the time, a Philosophy professor, who was a WW collector (he also had the largest porn collection east of Montreal - ties, books, shirts, etc.) and he had a whole room of albums. We decided to keep it simple and stick with what we had, eventually I put cut off dates on my major collections to keep my sanity! I still concentrate on Canada, US, Poland and Russia and have major collections. But sometimes I see a stamp from an area of the world and decide to have a bit of fun again. To sum up I treat my WW collection as fun, even though I sometimes get a bit carried away. But stamp collecting really should have a whole bunch of fun in it!!!
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11:07:57pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I imagine everyone is much the same. I have about 30 albums of Germany and probably not more than 60 for the rest of the world. You may have an area of focus but you become attracted to bits of fluff or a theme and off you go ... but you still get lured back to the core when you see it as well.
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Phil, that is a "bit" of an understatement.
For the Scott Internationals, that do not contain spaces for all stamps and souvenir sheets, the years 1840 to 1969 are covered in the first 6 parts. Part 54, for 2018, will be issued within a month, and the newest parts of the International pages contain spaces for even less stamps since most stamps are issued in souvenir or miniature sheets that are not included in the International. To cover the world from 1840 to date like I do requires a ton of shelf space!
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08:11:10pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Is it really one year per volume now? Are there actually that many stamps issued? The first volume actually covered the first 100 years of philately!
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Yes. Each part is for one year. Of course there are a few catch-ups from the previous year, and sometimes some spaces for stamps for the next year. Each new part is issued about a year or so later.
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The increase in stamps can be seen in the catalogs. A single Scott Classic covers the world up to 1940/KGVI era. Now, we have 6 volumes sold as 12 books to cover the world.
I am just wonder who is collecting all these modern(post 2000) stamps from all the non-major countries that issue the bulk of the wallpaper issues and why people see a need to buy a complete set of catalogs each year.
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I was buying a new set of catalogs every year. Then the prices started going up, and I was buying every two years. Then the prices went up even more, and I bought a new set of the standard catalog every three years, the US specialized every two years. Now, I have the 2020 set, and don't plan on buying another until 2025, except for the US Specialized. I will be getting the Classic catalog for 2020 (mine is 2015), but I have no plans to upgrade that one after that.
It's getting very difficult to buy new issues (2000 and up) as the print quantities are becoming smaller and smaller. Dealers are not buying quantities, if any at all for most countries. It makes me wonder what these countries that are issuing thousands of stamps each year are expecting to get in return when people are not buying them. I have found that stamps from the 1990s are getting easier to find and buy. Early 2000s are starting to show up a bit. Maybe they will get easier too, but the higher face values definitely hinder purchases.
Obviously enough people are buying the stamps and album supplements to make it worth-while. Renewals to Steiner pages continue. If people didn't need the new pages, then there would be no need to keep buying Steiner's product either.
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Yes, but how I don't know!
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07:34:14pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I am very glad that newer stamps have never been of interest to me! I know of a person who collects world and is trying to stay current. He is considering getting out of the hobby because of stress. I think he'd be better off if he instituted a cutoff date and concentrated on the older more interesting stuff! But that's just my opinion.
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My Scott Classic and Specialized are 2018 and my complete set is a mixture of 2016 and 2017 with no plans to buy any future ones. I also have a 2015 SG 1840-1970 and a Concise 2018. My prior Concise was an older one so got a new one because they had improvements in Machin section. Catalogs over 2 to 3 years old often can be picked up for very little so that is another benefit of collecting worldwide.
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Look for older catalogs in dealer junk boxes too. Often they'll just give away the older catalogs.
My Michel catalogs, all but one, are from the 1990s. My Gibbons world is from 2008, and the British is 2012. I don't use them for values, but for reference purposes to supplement information not contained or too vague in Scott.
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11:44:15pm
re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
I can only refer folks to abe books. If you dont mind an out of date catalog for pure reference its my goto spot. Don't forget to search in original language for foreign cats. Ebay is next best but do a general search not exclusive to stamps as sometimes non-collectors throw stuff up at cut rate. I got a bunch of stanley gibbons one time from a guy whose specialty seemed to be various types of nails.... Also don't be hasty stuff will show up... like my english version of michel specialized for 3.99 free shipping....
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Local stamp dealer gave me a couple of catalogs that were included with a collection he bought recently as he knows that I am interested in books with philatelic content. One was a 1956 edition of the Yvert catalog in three volumes and the other was a Russian language catalog that appears to be quite old. UPDATE: I found the copyright date on the Russian catalog and it is from 1958. As best I can tell the catalog covers stamps of Russia from 1921 through 1957. The cyrillic alphabet is definitely a challenge to translation since I can't even type the content into a translation service. Hmm, maybe taking pictures with text recognition might work. Should be an interesting challenge!
Also, I received an Amazon order this week which was for a children's book about a dog that travels on mail trains all around the country which is supposedly based on a true story.
I have now reached 20.39% completion for the International album set with some recent additions from Stamporama being added including several additions of earlier stamps for the USA section as well as several replacement stamps for Canadian stamps in the album. Replacements were mint while the originals were part of a limited number of used stamps in the album set. I, also, purchased a number of packages of Scott/Prinz stamp mount strips to use in adding MNH stamps to the albums. I now have mount strips with sizes of 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 36, 37, 41, 43, 55, and 61 mm sizes for use in mounting stamps. I, also, have about 200 Scott hinges left that were originally manufactured for Scott by Dennison in the 1960's that were included in an old beginner album collector kit that was purchased on a lark last year. Best part of the package was an unopened hinge package with 1,000 hinges.
Still have a large number of stamps on album pages to review for additions to the albums. Nicest new stamp added recently was for India, a half anna stamp from 1854 which is a clean, unused copy that fills in the first position in the India pages.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Link to "Oney, Mascot Of The Railway Mail Service"
https://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/current/moving-the-mail/mail-by-rail/owney-mascot-of-the-railway-mail-service/all-about-owney/index.html
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It's been 2 years since I made my initial post in this topic. At that time I had barely began down the WW road. I knew there would be some benefits, which I noted then. 2 more years into it and I've realized another benefit:
As a worldwide collector who includes literally everything, there is always something I buy. I can, in effect, be very opportunistic. As a single country specialist I was always looking out for certain items, many times I had to make a decision on buying something and paying through the nose for it. Now, as an opportunistic WW "specialist", I simply sit back, quietly work on what I have (which, by itself, could last the rest of my life), and wait for opportunities to make their presence known. Doing this, I've made nice purchases, through Facebook groups, of:
French revenues, Austrian revenues, US cut squares, US match & medicine stamps, German on paper kiloware (for postmark hunting) and various small collections locally. Most of these things would make for nice specialized collections by themselves. But, being an opportunistic WW collector allows me to buy them and add them to my all-inclusive WW collection. Also, most of things I jump on are usually inexpensive. Mostly from people just wanting to get rid of things. It just seems easy to buy stuff nowadays....so I do.
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Great way of putting it. Sums it up perfectly.
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The challenge for a collector is to stay organized to better appreciate the endless opportunities. Of course, one may like the accumulation approach.
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re: The Benefits of Collecting WW
Continuing on with my worldwide collection (International albums 1A1-1B2 plus II,III, IV, and V for 1840-1963) yesterday I reached 28,053 different mint stamps for the entire collection (32.77% complete) including 11,130 different for the 1840-1940 period (32.34% complete).
Most recent additions were from French colonies and Mexico and were from a local collector's duplicates. Now he has made one incredibly interesting purchase recently of a large Great Britain collection that he thought had a page with 21 copies of Great Britain Scott #4 on it until I pointed out that they are actually all Great Britain Scott #2 except for one pair which he said he had added to the page (we found a replacement for the pair which is Scott #2 later) and very nice copies at that! But no mint copies. I did pick up one nice Great Britain Scott #33 for my collection from a plate number specialized group which had two of the Scott #33's in the mount for plate number 93 with one mint and one used plus another mint copy that was loose in the album. After finding a magnifying glass that gave us a good enough view of the stamp to be sure that it, also, was plate number 93 I bought the duplicate from him for my Great Britain collection.
There was, also, one really pretty mint block of six of one of the early half penny stamps from Great Britain. We had a great hour and a half show and tell session looking at just a part of the collection!
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I have continued to add stamps to my 1840-1963 Scott International albums based collection and can now report that I have 32,284 stamps in the albums for 37.7% coverage. I have removed all used stamps that remain in the albums from the counts (there are very few now as whenever I add stamps to a country where they remain I have been removing them). The Part 1A1-1B2 albums now contain 13,326 stamps for 38.7% completion. The most complete of the albums is the Part IV album with 3,698 stamps for 42.8% completion and the least complete is the Part V album with 3,844 stamps for 32.9% complete.
All acquisitions for some time now have involved individual stamp or set purchases as I haven't seen a collection that would deliver enough new stamps which are mint to justify the cost in the past year. Still looking for a Syria 106c!
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