Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
I was out for a walk on the weekend and realized it's been 20 years since my re-introduction to the hobby. My son was born in 1995 and it didn't take too long to realize two rounds of golf each week was no longer going to fit into my new lifestyle.
So after stumbling across my childhood stamp collection and realizing (via the library and internet) that the hobby was alive and well, the Stamp Bug bit me hard again. The bug has faded in and out over the years but is still going pretty darn strong.
Last night I sat down and paged through the entirety of my collection. A dozen or so binders, about the same number of stock books, and even the pre-printed Canada album I bought in 1995.
You know what? If I'm being honest, I was a little disappointed. Not with the number of stamps or the variety, but with the condition of 90% of my collection. There are way too many 'good enough' stamps that I added to my collection until a better copy came along. Smudgy cancels, bad centring, or both. The odd dinged corner or thin too.
I tend to buy a lot of job lots or all different country packets to start a country. And I put them all in my albums. However the thought came to me that I wouldn't want to put many of these stamps in a trading packet for fear of being blackballed for trading stamps 'below standard'.
I'm thinking of starting over. Going through my binders, pulling out the 10% - 15% of attractive stamps and calling that my collection.
Have any of you ever done this? Or am I just having a bad day? I don't want to turn into a condition crank but I think my personal 'line' has moved up a bit.
Mark
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10:45:04pm
" ... Have any of you ever done this? ..."
Yes, absolutely, more or less.
When I resumed active stamping I bought a Harris Citation World Wide album at Macy's main store on 35th street in Manhattan.
I dragged it along with me from ship to ship (*) adding stamps until it required a second Harris binder. I had removed the stamps from my childhood album and also transferred my parents stamps from their blue Scott International 1938 or '39 edition.
In the mid-1970s, I saw a dealer at a show who had a sign offering a
"Complete set of Minkus Supreme
and Minkus Master Global albums
with pages. No stamps,
fourteen volumes to 1974.
---------$40.00-----------
I could not resist since the two Harris Citations were bulging and new Minkus volumes were being sold for about $20-$25 a piece.
The dealer had one volume at that show to inspect and when I agreed to the price, he promised to bring it the next month.Soon I was busy every night as I sorted through the pages discarding those that were from Iron Curtain nations, Sheikdoms and a few abusive Caribbean countries (???) thus shrinking the albums to twelve and began what, at first, seemed like a Herculean chore and moving th stamps over to their new homes. But within a year or so I was buying the 1775, '76, and eventually the '77 Minkus supplements.
After that I began to remove certain sections and create separate albums for post-'76 issues.
I still have those Minkus albums although several times when I saw a better empty Minkus binder on sale at some dealer, I have replaced one or two of the originals as with time and usage they seem to wear a bit along the bottom edge from being slid into and out of the shelf to be worked on or just gazed through.
(*) And around the world at least twice, possibly three times.
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Madbaker, when the kids were grown etc; i began buying boxlots myself..perhaps with the foolish notion of becoming a part time stamp dealer...i would get drawers of glassines with up to 50 or a hundred of the same stamp. It never dawned on me that i might be able to trade or sell 2 or 3 of the 50 or 100 stamps and be stuck with the rest. I made many mistakes trying to buy cheap lots...i still make mistakes..but i can spot a good deal when i see one now !
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I don't fret much over condition. Replacing a common stamp that has a smudge and a dinged corner with a pristine one doesn't add value to a collection. And while I can't afford any of those ancient gems that catalog for over a thousand dollars, I have several in my album that are torn or stained, even one that was ripped in half. Most people might think they look horrible and belong in the wastebin, but to my eye they look beautiful in my album.
I do have a do-over wish though. When I was eleven I came into a small windfall and bought a brand spanking new set of Minkus Master Globals for about $400 (I think, it was a long time ago... 
I was proud to own them but they sat largely empty for years because I couldn't afford many stamps to put in them. Now I wish I had bought $400 dollars worth of stamps instead...
Chris
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11:23:06am
Like Chris, I have quite a few stamps in the "extremely damaged" category. While I would not purchase a mutilated stamp, if I come into possession of a tough to come by classic, I am not ashamed to place it in my collection. My collection is for me and represents memories of excursions to exotic paces and times I could never have accomplished in 10 lifetimes (if at all, since it involves a considerable amount of time travel). My collection is for my enjoyment!
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I only had one "do over" phase. I collected used with occasional mint until High School. I gave up on collecting until well after college, buying mint of anything that looked interesting. Finally got serious in the late 1990's and started replacing used with mint back to start of 20th Century and used before that, replacing particularly bad items. But I have several stamps that many would call "fillers".
Lars
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Yes! My do-overs mainly dealt with album choice, however. I bought a Scott International Part 1, the Vintage Reproductions album and 12 binders, and then settled on making my own pages.
If I could have a do over, I'd like to have recouped the lost money from the album sales and put into quality US used classics...Or maybe just 1 or 2 US classics.
Lars, your collection is great - a pleasure to look at and a resource of information.
Don
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If i had a do-over, it would be finding a mentor to guide me through things. I spent decades exploring what are now dead ends. it probably wasn't a waste of time, as I gained some fundamentals along the way, but if i had had someone to clear interesting paths for me, that would have been helpful.
I've traded, or sold, or given away many banker's boxes worth of stuff that is now little more than philatelic chaffe for me; i have many more to divest.
I don't want to say that I didn't enjoy the cul de sacs; I did. But spending so much energy on areas I have surrendered, well, I could have been exploring transatlantic routes instead of the PV/VPs of PNCs.
David
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I think I would have just picked a fun topical like trains or cats & not worry about finding the "missing" stamp I can't afford or buying catalogs to see what my collection is worth today.
You can never get that last one anyway unless your name is Bill Goss.
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I am always on the lookout for better copies of stamps in my collection.
If the stamp that is being replaced is a space filler or damaged, it could always be put aside for a donation.
I can tell you that for the most part I have regretted selling off/trading away a whole country collection as it turns out that years later I started it over again. BOB
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Yes, like Don, my do-overs usually involve changing albums 
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Yes, changing albums was also part of my do-over, but I went from a two post Minkus All American with zero flexibility in what to include to White Ace 3 ring binders with the ability to replace any pages that didn't fit my personal criteria. You just need to be handy with Photoshop or similar.
"Lars, your collection is great - a pleasure to look at and a resource of information."
Thanks, Don. The purpose of posting it was to share a lot of info I had to discover. Usually I could just ask a question on the boards, but sometimes I had to dig up the info myself.
"If i had a do-over, it would be finding a mentor to guide me through things."
I see your point, David, and I traveled down my share of blind alleys, but I really doubt a single mentor would be better than all the experts in certain fields one can find here. Of course, it would be great to have both!
Lars
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Lars,
you are right,
"
but I really doubt a single mentor would be better than all the experts in certain fields one can find here
"
but I was fairly seasoned when I joined SOR. The folks here have really helped me refine my collections, but I was wishing they'd been available 15 years earlier.
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I have been so lucky in meeting the most knowledgeable, helpful, and kind philatelists in cyber space!
David (amsd) is my go-to guy on Cinderellas - especially Easter Seals and Christmas Seals.
Michael Numbers has helped me in so many areas I can't even begin to list them.
There are also experts in plate numbers, revenues, PNCs, booklets, covers, etiquettes, markings, and even selvage (I'm talking about you, Kim).
I have also been fortunate enough to cross paths with Alan Moll in putting together my Postal Insurance pages and Daniel Pagter in creating my Parcel Post page. And that's just the tip of the iceberg!
I think I prefer this arrangement to a single mentor. I've been down a few blind alleys, but I have discovered some wondrous things that I might have missed if a mentor kept me on the straight and narrow.
I also like the third party audits of online experts. Someone who is an expert in his or her field may know a lot, but likely not everything. The internet allows anybody to chime in if they have examples contrary to what the expert says. That leads to more educated philatelists and more cautious experts. That's a good thing!
Lars
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Wow, what great responses this week. Thanks, everyone, for sharing.
I didn't have a lot of time for the hobby this week but I did take some time to look at my collection again, through the lens of 'where have I been spending my time lately'
It probably won't surprise you, but I realized that the areas which I haven't worked on in ages (ie, Canada, which is pretty much untouched since 2001) isn't up to my current vision of how I want my collection to look. While I'm quite happy with my Sweden collection, which I've spent the most time on during the past three years.
So maybe it's time for a revisit (to Canada) rather than a complete do-over.
Mark
PS: @ChrisW: I've changed albums / organization schemes / storage solutions so many times over the years it's a wonder I haven't given up entirely! I'm starting to think I have mental issues in the area of 'organization' - my music collection, photos and essays are equally frustrating. So much so that I don't write much or view the photos very much at all anymore. Argh.
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Agreed on the mental issue thing! haha. When I switched to new paper of a slightly lighter shade, I had to redo my already made pages. Its a little OCD, but a labor of love.
Don
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My coin collection! This is from when I was 13-14 and typical kid, I was into filling the slots rather than buying quality pieces. My friend Tommy and I went to coin shows with the same $20 and I'd come out with a bunch of worn old pennies, dimes and nickels. He'd come out with one mint condition coin. He had that self control at 13, no wonder he's a doctor today!
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I guess everyone collects different. For me, my collection is for me to look at and enjoy. I could care less what it's worth in dollars, it's priceless to me for all the excitement my Dad and I have gotten from it over the years every time we add a new stamp. When I turn the pages of my albums and see all the stamps, and remember getting most, but not all of them, I remember why we started collecting in the first place. Unfortunately, I am not rich, and never will be, so I will never be able to afford to spend a ton of money on stamps. With that in mind, if I have $100 to spend at a show, instead of spending it on one, perfect, never hinged stamp, I would rather buy ten $10 stamps so there is more to look at when I turn those pages. I will never come close to filling my albums, but every time I open them, they are a little less empty than the last time. So, for me, a do over will never be necessary.
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I collect anything and everything ! While I would not knowingly purchase a damaged stamp, one such as part of bulk lots finds a home until something better turns up in another bulk lot, whereupon it is destroyed - I would not foist it on someone else !
My do-overs ( make-overs in English English ) are 2.
1. The removal of all mint stamps - a stamp is not a stamp to me until it has gone through the mail. I have a load of mint ( mostly mounted unfortunately to exchange for used when I get around to it)
2. Putting all my treasures into some sort of logical ( to me ) system of albums. This was an extremely time consuming process and is still not complete - I have thousands of loose stamps still to sort classify and mount. Had I used the logical system from the start and expanded it gradually I would be at my destination by now!
New aquisitions are on hold until I at least make some inroads in to the backlog whereupon (if I ever get there !) i will have bulk exchanges available.
Malcolm
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Hi,
I was out for a walk on the weekend and realized it's been 20 years since my re-introduction to the hobby. My son was born in 1995 and it didn't take too long to realize two rounds of golf each week was no longer going to fit into my new lifestyle.
So after stumbling across my childhood stamp collection and realizing (via the library and internet) that the hobby was alive and well, the Stamp Bug bit me hard again. The bug has faded in and out over the years but is still going pretty darn strong.
Last night I sat down and paged through the entirety of my collection. A dozen or so binders, about the same number of stock books, and even the pre-printed Canada album I bought in 1995.
You know what? If I'm being honest, I was a little disappointed. Not with the number of stamps or the variety, but with the condition of 90% of my collection. There are way too many 'good enough' stamps that I added to my collection until a better copy came along. Smudgy cancels, bad centring, or both. The odd dinged corner or thin too.
I tend to buy a lot of job lots or all different country packets to start a country. And I put them all in my albums. However the thought came to me that I wouldn't want to put many of these stamps in a trading packet for fear of being blackballed for trading stamps 'below standard'.
I'm thinking of starting over. Going through my binders, pulling out the 10% - 15% of attractive stamps and calling that my collection.
Have any of you ever done this? Or am I just having a bad day? I don't want to turn into a condition crank but I think my personal 'line' has moved up a bit.
Mark
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
22 Apr 2015
10:45:04pm
re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
" ... Have any of you ever done this? ..."
Yes, absolutely, more or less.
When I resumed active stamping I bought a Harris Citation World Wide album at Macy's main store on 35th street in Manhattan.
I dragged it along with me from ship to ship (*) adding stamps until it required a second Harris binder. I had removed the stamps from my childhood album and also transferred my parents stamps from their blue Scott International 1938 or '39 edition.
In the mid-1970s, I saw a dealer at a show who had a sign offering a
"Complete set of Minkus Supreme
and Minkus Master Global albums
with pages. No stamps,
fourteen volumes to 1974.
---------$40.00-----------
I could not resist since the two Harris Citations were bulging and new Minkus volumes were being sold for about $20-$25 a piece.
The dealer had one volume at that show to inspect and when I agreed to the price, he promised to bring it the next month.Soon I was busy every night as I sorted through the pages discarding those that were from Iron Curtain nations, Sheikdoms and a few abusive Caribbean countries (???) thus shrinking the albums to twelve and began what, at first, seemed like a Herculean chore and moving th stamps over to their new homes. But within a year or so I was buying the 1775, '76, and eventually the '77 Minkus supplements.
After that I began to remove certain sections and create separate albums for post-'76 issues.
I still have those Minkus albums although several times when I saw a better empty Minkus binder on sale at some dealer, I have replaced one or two of the originals as with time and usage they seem to wear a bit along the bottom edge from being slid into and out of the shelf to be worked on or just gazed through.
(*) And around the world at least twice, possibly three times.
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
Madbaker, when the kids were grown etc; i began buying boxlots myself..perhaps with the foolish notion of becoming a part time stamp dealer...i would get drawers of glassines with up to 50 or a hundred of the same stamp. It never dawned on me that i might be able to trade or sell 2 or 3 of the 50 or 100 stamps and be stuck with the rest. I made many mistakes trying to buy cheap lots...i still make mistakes..but i can spot a good deal when i see one now !
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
I don't fret much over condition. Replacing a common stamp that has a smudge and a dinged corner with a pristine one doesn't add value to a collection. And while I can't afford any of those ancient gems that catalog for over a thousand dollars, I have several in my album that are torn or stained, even one that was ripped in half. Most people might think they look horrible and belong in the wastebin, but to my eye they look beautiful in my album.
I do have a do-over wish though. When I was eleven I came into a small windfall and bought a brand spanking new set of Minkus Master Globals for about $400 (I think, it was a long time ago... I was proud to own them but they sat largely empty for years because I couldn't afford many stamps to put in them. Now I wish I had bought $400 dollars worth of stamps instead...
Chris
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
23 Apr 2015
11:23:06am
re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
Like Chris, I have quite a few stamps in the "extremely damaged" category. While I would not purchase a mutilated stamp, if I come into possession of a tough to come by classic, I am not ashamed to place it in my collection. My collection is for me and represents memories of excursions to exotic paces and times I could never have accomplished in 10 lifetimes (if at all, since it involves a considerable amount of time travel). My collection is for my enjoyment!
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
I only had one "do over" phase. I collected used with occasional mint until High School. I gave up on collecting until well after college, buying mint of anything that looked interesting. Finally got serious in the late 1990's and started replacing used with mint back to start of 20th Century and used before that, replacing particularly bad items. But I have several stamps that many would call "fillers".
Lars
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
Yes! My do-overs mainly dealt with album choice, however. I bought a Scott International Part 1, the Vintage Reproductions album and 12 binders, and then settled on making my own pages.
If I could have a do over, I'd like to have recouped the lost money from the album sales and put into quality US used classics...Or maybe just 1 or 2 US classics.
Lars, your collection is great - a pleasure to look at and a resource of information.
Don
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
If i had a do-over, it would be finding a mentor to guide me through things. I spent decades exploring what are now dead ends. it probably wasn't a waste of time, as I gained some fundamentals along the way, but if i had had someone to clear interesting paths for me, that would have been helpful.
I've traded, or sold, or given away many banker's boxes worth of stuff that is now little more than philatelic chaffe for me; i have many more to divest.
I don't want to say that I didn't enjoy the cul de sacs; I did. But spending so much energy on areas I have surrendered, well, I could have been exploring transatlantic routes instead of the PV/VPs of PNCs.
David
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09:45:24am
re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
I think I would have just picked a fun topical like trains or cats & not worry about finding the "missing" stamp I can't afford or buying catalogs to see what my collection is worth today.
You can never get that last one anyway unless your name is Bill Goss.
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
I am always on the lookout for better copies of stamps in my collection.
If the stamp that is being replaced is a space filler or damaged, it could always be put aside for a donation.
I can tell you that for the most part I have regretted selling off/trading away a whole country collection as it turns out that years later I started it over again. BOB
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
Yes, like Don, my do-overs usually involve changing albums
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
Yes, changing albums was also part of my do-over, but I went from a two post Minkus All American with zero flexibility in what to include to White Ace 3 ring binders with the ability to replace any pages that didn't fit my personal criteria. You just need to be handy with Photoshop or similar.
"Lars, your collection is great - a pleasure to look at and a resource of information."
Thanks, Don. The purpose of posting it was to share a lot of info I had to discover. Usually I could just ask a question on the boards, but sometimes I had to dig up the info myself.
"If i had a do-over, it would be finding a mentor to guide me through things."
I see your point, David, and I traveled down my share of blind alleys, but I really doubt a single mentor would be better than all the experts in certain fields one can find here. Of course, it would be great to have both!
Lars
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
Lars,
you are right,
"
but I really doubt a single mentor would be better than all the experts in certain fields one can find here
"
but I was fairly seasoned when I joined SOR. The folks here have really helped me refine my collections, but I was wishing they'd been available 15 years earlier.
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
I have been so lucky in meeting the most knowledgeable, helpful, and kind philatelists in cyber space!
David (amsd) is my go-to guy on Cinderellas - especially Easter Seals and Christmas Seals.
Michael Numbers has helped me in so many areas I can't even begin to list them.
There are also experts in plate numbers, revenues, PNCs, booklets, covers, etiquettes, markings, and even selvage (I'm talking about you, Kim).
I have also been fortunate enough to cross paths with Alan Moll in putting together my Postal Insurance pages and Daniel Pagter in creating my Parcel Post page. And that's just the tip of the iceberg!
I think I prefer this arrangement to a single mentor. I've been down a few blind alleys, but I have discovered some wondrous things that I might have missed if a mentor kept me on the straight and narrow.
I also like the third party audits of online experts. Someone who is an expert in his or her field may know a lot, but likely not everything. The internet allows anybody to chime in if they have examples contrary to what the expert says. That leads to more educated philatelists and more cautious experts. That's a good thing!
Lars
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
Wow, what great responses this week. Thanks, everyone, for sharing.
I didn't have a lot of time for the hobby this week but I did take some time to look at my collection again, through the lens of 'where have I been spending my time lately'
It probably won't surprise you, but I realized that the areas which I haven't worked on in ages (ie, Canada, which is pretty much untouched since 2001) isn't up to my current vision of how I want my collection to look. While I'm quite happy with my Sweden collection, which I've spent the most time on during the past three years.
So maybe it's time for a revisit (to Canada) rather than a complete do-over.
Mark
PS: @ChrisW: I've changed albums / organization schemes / storage solutions so many times over the years it's a wonder I haven't given up entirely! I'm starting to think I have mental issues in the area of 'organization' - my music collection, photos and essays are equally frustrating. So much so that I don't write much or view the photos very much at all anymore. Argh.
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
Agreed on the mental issue thing! haha. When I switched to new paper of a slightly lighter shade, I had to redo my already made pages. Its a little OCD, but a labor of love.
Don
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
My coin collection! This is from when I was 13-14 and typical kid, I was into filling the slots rather than buying quality pieces. My friend Tommy and I went to coin shows with the same $20 and I'd come out with a bunch of worn old pennies, dimes and nickels. He'd come out with one mint condition coin. He had that self control at 13, no wonder he's a doctor today!
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re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
I guess everyone collects different. For me, my collection is for me to look at and enjoy. I could care less what it's worth in dollars, it's priceless to me for all the excitement my Dad and I have gotten from it over the years every time we add a new stamp. When I turn the pages of my albums and see all the stamps, and remember getting most, but not all of them, I remember why we started collecting in the first place. Unfortunately, I am not rich, and never will be, so I will never be able to afford to spend a ton of money on stamps. With that in mind, if I have $100 to spend at a show, instead of spending it on one, perfect, never hinged stamp, I would rather buy ten $10 stamps so there is more to look at when I turn those pages. I will never come close to filling my albums, but every time I open them, they are a little less empty than the last time. So, for me, a do over will never be necessary.
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04:09:59am
re: Did you ever want a Collection Do Over?
I collect anything and everything ! While I would not knowingly purchase a damaged stamp, one such as part of bulk lots finds a home until something better turns up in another bulk lot, whereupon it is destroyed - I would not foist it on someone else !
My do-overs ( make-overs in English English ) are 2.
1. The removal of all mint stamps - a stamp is not a stamp to me until it has gone through the mail. I have a load of mint ( mostly mounted unfortunately to exchange for used when I get around to it)
2. Putting all my treasures into some sort of logical ( to me ) system of albums. This was an extremely time consuming process and is still not complete - I have thousands of loose stamps still to sort classify and mount. Had I used the logical system from the start and expanded it gradually I would be at my destination by now!
New aquisitions are on hold until I at least make some inroads in to the backlog whereupon (if I ever get there !) i will have bulk exchanges available.
Malcolm
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