Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Here is the list of questions. Just block, copy and paste in your reply, if you are a world wide collector and want to participate in this informal poll.
What year range do you collect?
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
What do you use to store the stamps in?
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I'll start.
What year range do you collect? 1840 to date
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 300,000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Scott Specialty, Scott International, Steiner Pages
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I am an OFEC (one from every country) collector.
What year range do you collect? All
How many stamps in your world wide collection? approximately 658 of the 783 I need
What do you use to store the stamps in? A 3" 3-ring binder from OfficeDepot with pages printed from the Smithsonian "A Stamp from Every Country" online PDF file, modified using image processing software to add what they missed, and printed on 67 lb white acid-free card stock punched with a 3-hole punch and corners rounded with a 3/8" cutter. Stamps mounted in Showguard mounts:
http://www.larsdog.com/stamps/smithsonian.htm
I am really just getting started on this, but if you look at what the Smithsonian had for Canada and what I expanded that to, you can get an idea of where I plan to take this.
Lars
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09:23:35pm
I collect WW 1840-1940.
I have no idea how many stamps I have, but would imagine it is considerably less than Michael's impressive number. I have a problem with tossing stuff (not in the waste can, but into my trading/selling pile) so I have many stamps represented with both used and unused varieties and any perceived shades, even if not noted in the catalog.
I started with Scott International Vol. I back when it was a single volume for the years 1840-1940. I abandoned the original binder some time ago and now have them housed in 8 3" binders. I also have about 20 stock books, several albums devoted to USA (singles and plate blocks), and a multitude of glassines, display cards and stock cards in several file boxes.
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What year range do you collect? 1840 -1960
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 10,000 or so just a guesstimate and mostly used, any mint stamps are hinged as received.
What do you use to store the stamps in? Minkus Master Global 2 volumes
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What year range do you collect?
From 1840 to modern, used (including CTO) only.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
About 95.5K for the 1840-2010 era.
Plus 3-4K for post 2010 stamps.
And then there's 40-50K varieties of the above.
And about 200 forgeries (mostly on classics)
And about 2-3K on bogus and cinderella section
So the grand total would be around 150K
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Stockbooks.
-k-
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Nice idea for a thread! Here's my response:
What year range do you collect? 1840-present
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 25.000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Stock books
As I have a strong interest in the way stamps reflect history my goal is not necessarily to have as many stamps as possible worldwide but to have a number of stamps from very stamp issuing entity - countries, minor entities within countries, airlines, and so on. All this within the scope of the four leading worldwide catalogs. From that scope I exclude some high priced entities. Also I exclude locals when there's many locals issued in the same historical context in which case 2 or three examples are enough to satisfy my collecting desires. Thus I now count 1.924 entities in scope of which I have 1823 - 101 to go.
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Range: SG Stamps of the World 2010
Qnty: c175,000
Storage: Stockbooks at present
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Most of my worldwide is pre 1970, they are mainly in 9 scott international albums,,right now i could not venture a guess on how many stamps...it would be labor intensive to count !
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What year range do you collect? varies by country all end by 1980
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 40,000 - 50,000 - estimate
What do you use to store the stamps in? Steiner pages in 3 ring binders
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A question for Lars;
being an OFEC collector - how do you decide WHICH stamp from a particular country to be THE one to represent that country??
Just curious.....
Randy
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@ Randy and Lars,
I'm interested in a OFEC collection as well. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 stamps. Would look cool with mounts on custom made pages
-Ernie
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Randy and Ernie:
Some countries require multiple stamps, like Canada:
Others, only require one or two:
As to which particular stamp to choose, first I narrow it down to the CHEAP ones. I see what is available and pick something that makes sense for me. I'm fond of the U.S. Columbus series, so I picked a common stamp for my example of U.S. My Confederate stamp will be one of the more common and inexpensive examples.
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"What year range do you collect?"
1840-1940 WW; -1952 British Commonwealth
"How many stamps in your world wide collection?"
41,519 as of August 5, 2015
http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2015/01/StatusofMyBigBlueCollection.html
"What do you use to store the stamps in?"
Steiner pages.
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"I'm interested in a OFEC collection as well. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 stamps. Would look cool with mounts on custom made pages
-Ernie"
Ernie,
Philately is my primary hobby, so I approached OFEC from a broader perspective and hence 9 different stamps needed to represent Canada (in my opinion). However, I did the same thing with numismatics (coins), but since I am not as serious in my efforts in coins, I created a more abridged version. I did that by collecting coins from countries that existed in my target year (1980). So I have a coin from East Germany and West Germany, but only a unified Vietnam. The only coin I have from Canada is one that would have been circulating in 1980. The same thing could be done for stamps if one was so inclined.
You collection is what you make of it!
Lars
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"OFEC (one from every country) ... 658 of the 783 I need"
In another thread, someone mentioned (IIRC) 1800 "stamp-issuing entities" and I wonder, are you missing a THOUSAND countries, or are they including a lot of locals or micronation fantasies or such?
I realize the question of how many countries there are depends on one's definition of what a country is, but our community generally agrees on which stamps were issued by official government stamp-issuing entities and which are not. Of the former, is 783 more in the ballpark, or is 1800?
Chris
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What year range do you collect? Pre World War One
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 2000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Stock pages, Stock Books and Homemade pages
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Chris, he did say that the 1800 included local entities and the like.
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"Of the former, is 783 more in the ballpark, or is 1800?"
783 includes some non-country stamps. There is an optional section in the back of "Stamp Issuing Entities" that is broken down by "Offices Abroad", "Local Stamps", "Occupations", "International Organizations", and "Military Stamps". There are 125 stamps in this section, so it's really only 658 "countries". For Germany there are 7 precedent countries including DDR and pre WWII Danzig, plus 18 German States. I used a list of about 1800 stamp issuing entities to decide if I was missing anything. I did, in fact, create my own page for Canada, for example, because I wanted to include a stamp as a Colony and one as a Dominion, plus a stamp for the United Crown Colony of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.
I am just getting started on evaluation all of the 1800 entities, and there are some questions beyond that, such as Cuba. We consider Peoples Republic of China to be a new country, but Cuba didn't change its name after the Revolution. That seems inconsistent so I will have pre- and post-revolution stamps. I may do the same for Nazi Germany, but I will consider Maximilian of Mexico to be nothing more than a French Occupation that really didn't fundamentally change the nature of the country.
There are questions aplenty, but it's fun doing the research to decide what to include and what to omit.
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lol, guess I should learn to read. Actually, as I said, I was thinking of another thread which didn't mention locals, but I see the post above now too. The site referenced lists only 421 major entities, which is a far cry in the other direction from the 783 from the Smithsonian pages. http://postalmuseum.si.edu/stampgallery/album/Stamp-for-Every-Country.pdf The 783 seem to include various states, but not locals, pretty much like what is listed in Scott. So I guess 783 is more in the ballpark. I guess if you asked everyone, they'd all have different answers. More power to them.
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What year range do you collect?
My accumulation is from 1840 to the present, I am thinking of cutting that back some years.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
According to SG My Collection (The latest inventorying program I am using) I have 2303 catalogued there, plus about another 7000 on various spreadsheets.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
I use home made pages/Steiner pages/A Phoenix WW Album/stock books/shoe boxes and various other storage media.
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What years? All world postally used all periods
How Many ? Not a clue,but many thousands - counting them would take too long - I would rather spend the time sorting and mounting.
Storage. Great Britain in spring back albums and on album sheets in box File.Rest of World 4-ring leaves in mixture of appropriate 4-ring albums, promotional and instruction manuals etc. Postmarks in twin-ring binders in plastic slieves. Total approx 40 albums. Thousands of stamps in envelopes awaiting leaves/sorting/soaking/mounting/identifying.All written-up -no pre-printed albums at all - I am not a one-of-a-kind collector.
As a postscript - the human memory is a marvellous thing. When first seeing a stamp I am 90% sure that I know whether I have it already in my collection ( obviously not applicable to minute varieties,watermarks perfs etc).
Malcolm
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Great thread! Looking forward to the data summary and analysis... 
What year range do you collect?
1840 to 1965 (prefer used, but have mixed)
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Rough estimate between 8,000 and 12,0000
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Scott International
I'm beginning to call my Scott Internationals a "diverse rescue collection." I started about two years ago with the intention of collecting up through the year I was born, matching Scott International Parts I-IV almost exactly. Each album was a separate auction purchase, and they came with around 4,000 stamps total to get me started. As a bonus (or curse, depending on the day), the best deal I found on a Part IV album also came with a Part V, so I find myself collecting up through 1965. That was about the year I first started collecting stamps, so maybe that's a good anchor date as it turns out. That also means I would have been about six years old when I first started.... hadn't really thought about that before.
The interleaving of the Parts I-V into a consistent grouping by country is a story in itself. Another day.
Since those original purchases, I have acquired another dozen or so albums in the Parts I-V range. As I go through them and add stamps to my collection, I often find pages I was missing, so they get added in. In other cases, I learned that Scott had rearranged its pages several times over the years - meaning what is printed on the fronts and backs of the pages. So in one edition the Air Post Semi-Postals are on the front of a page and the Postage Dues are on the back. In another album, they are on the front and the back is blank, while in yet another, the Air Posts are on the front and those semis are on the back. Lots of choices as to which page to add.
Another discussion for another day is that all of my pages are from the pre-acid-free era, and many of the pages look, well, old. I'm torn with deciding whether to to keep the old pages, or spring for new pages. The dollars that new Parts I-IV would cost would go a long way to filling those empty spaces!
-Steve
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"Great thread! Looking forward to the data summary and analysis..."
Stand by
... calculating... ...Stand by ... calculating... ...Stand by ... calculating... ...Stand by ... calculating... ...Stand by ... calculating... ...tiltI think that the number of responses here, and the request for a census on one's collection is just for estimates, shows that there are still many world wide collectors still around. It's always nice to know that there is plenty of company in the hobby!
I know that there are even more who haven't replied to this post, but have stated elsewhere on SOR that they too are world wide collectors.
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I guess that I am a world-wide collector, because I will buy any stamp that I like, assuming that I can afford it and that it fits into any of my several thematic collections.
What year range do you collect?
1840 to present
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Very rough estimate: stamps alone 4,000 - 6,000, stamps on cover 2,500
What do you use to store the stamps in?
I store stamps alone or in strips or pairs in Unitrade black page stock books; stamps on cover go into Vario or Vario-type stock sheets, which are stored in ring books. I also have a Lighthouse albums for oversize covers and for used U.S. stamps 1847-1947.
My style of collecting makes it difficult to decide where to store some stamps, many of which can fit into two or even three collections. I've sometimes had to remove stamps from one exhibit sheet to place in a sheet for a different exhibit. An example: where do three stamps showing France's colonies go, in my collection about the First Indochina War or one about the Algerian war, or my WWII collection for that matter?
Bob
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What year range do you collect?
1840 to date
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
rough estimate 150k-200k
What do you use to store the stamps in?
huge mish-mash: stockbooks, Vario-type pages, glassines, country albums (Lighthouse, Lindner, Scott, Borek, SG, Y&T...), WW albums (Scott, Harris, Minkus, Steiner), pillowcase, and apparently also my shoe 
. It all depends on what I can get my hands on and what I can afford. I prefer spending money on stamps.
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What year range do you collect?
1840 to 2010 Used only
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
73,802 right now and growing, plus many thousands of stamps not cataloged. 
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Steiner pages in 1" three ring binders.
Doug
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What year range do you collect? 1840 on
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 300,000 +
What do you use to store the stamps in? 60 vol. Scott + misc binders
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My response to the questions are
What year range do you collect?
International 1840-1969
US to 1990
United Nations to 1990
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
worldwide collection has about 77,000 stamps (gave up trying to catch Michael#s)
US collection has about 3,500 stamps
UN collection has about 4,200 stamps (this counts inscription blocks as 4 stamps)
What do you use to store the stamps in?
worldwide in Scott's International Albums plus some custom made pages for varieties
US in Scott's National Album
UN in Harris' UN Albums
I created an inventory database slowly over the years, first starting posting what I had, then expanded to include catalog numbers (Scott's basis) of missing items ("wants" and "wishful hopings for"). Database was initially in a FoxPro database, but when I retired and lost access to Foxpro, I converted to an Excel workbook containing many, many spreadsheets. I had hoped to convert to Access but never got around to learning it.
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What year range do you collect? All Years from Ancient to Modern
How many stamps in your world wide collection? More than 5,000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Home Made pages.
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If it is a stamp I collect it including forgeries, revenue, match medicine, and cinderellas
Zero idea how many I have .. But do know that catalogued I have around 2k for dahomey alone
Stored in boxes, glassines, exhibits, file folders, stock books, and albums, desk drawers and between pages of catalogs. Preferably Palo or Scott Specialty Albums.
Seriously though.. Love to collect world wide. A history lesson every day that I sit at my stamp desk. I do have a single specimen collection and I tend to lean to the high end of the count as I want to include occupation and "official" local posts... Would love to see the list with 1800 on it !! Gives me a goal.
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"I do have a single specimen collection and I tend to lean to the high end of the count as I want to include occupation and "official" local posts... Would love to see the list with 1800 on it !! Gives me a goal. "
You might want to try this list: http://www.stampworldhistory.com/stamps-issuing-entities/
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08:56:29am
What year range do you collect? All
How many stamps in your world wide collection? No Clue
What do you use to store the stamps in? Safe Hingeless for US, Canada and GB, Steiner, Stock Sheets, Harris World Wide.
Bob
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What year range do you collect? beginning through 2007
How many stamps in your world wide collection? almost 17,000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Scott Specialty Albums 3-ring
I use an Excel workbook to inventory my stamps, with one tab each for each country and a summary page.
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"Would love to see the list with 1800 on it !! Gives me a goal. "
Here is what I used originally. I don't know how it compares to the list SWH has.
http://www.stampcollectingblog.com/postal-entities-list.php
Lars
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Thx for the list resources SWH and Lars... !
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What year range do you collect? Most to around 1980, several to 1990, U.S., Germany and Greece to 2000. Africa to around 1965 Colonial.
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 330,00+
What do you use to store the stamps in? 162 albums. 90% Scott Specialty, Steiner and a few White Ace and Schaubek
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Hmm... Only about two dozen collectors have reported so far, and we're already talking a total of ~2 million stamps. Not bad from such a small bunch (though a lot of credit goes to heavy-weighters that are beyond 300K items) 
-k-
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I love you guys ! A couple of worldwide gals bid on my auction...but i do not know if they share on the chat !!
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09:31:46am
What year range do you collect?
As with most WW Collectors, May of 1840 to date.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
I have no idea, but several hundred thousand would be my guess. Over fifty years as an adult collector is a long time.
There is a question of what you include in the collection. Is it only stamps mounted on the organized pages of an album ?
Does the stock book count if it is loaded with issues, possibly varieties, that have yet to be examined closely ?
For instance as is common knowledge, or should be, the Machin series is built around 460+/- major color/value stamps almost all of which are identifiable if you can read numbers and sort colors. Add the use of a 3x magnifier and that number jumps to about 800+/-. Mix in some philatelic knowledge and a nearby 10X glass and 12o00-1600 major and minor varieties can be collected, 90% from kiloware or bulk lots and patience. Get a bit picky about minor differences and the number seems to be somewhere between 2,000 and the limitations of the atmosphere, but perhaps 5,000 is a fair number. Add shades and flyspecks and pick your number from a big hat.
Now after looking through a bulk lot and pulling out easily identified varieties, plus suspicious stamps for later close examination, I put what is left into a number of large cardboard envelopes, at least one for just about every major color/value/variety. There are about five hundred in three large file drawers so that if I learn something technical that escaped me during past examinations, or some clever devil finds something no one noticed before, I can pull that envelope, check through the glassines within and sometimes discover something that makes me glow for days on end.
I also accumulate examples of SOTNs and curious or humorous cancelations. If what is in those larger envelopes is counted I bet the number of Machins exceeds 100,000 by themselves. Where is the line between an accumulation, a hoarde, a collection and fuel for a bonfire ?
I also have a number of Wildings, but only about 20& as many as Machins.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Albums, glassines, used trimmed business envelopes that arrive, usually carrying bills, stock books, and the aforementioned cardboard envelopes, a few cleaned cookie tins as well as a few small cardboard boxes stuffed with things like French Mariannas I am convinced I'll get around to someday. Then there are albums of used envelopes and several plastic shoeboxes with envelopes received over the years in the mail that bear attractive stamps.
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My estimate of 330,00 different stamps is very conservative and the number should probably be closer to 400,000. The last time I actually counted them was 19 years ago and I had around 233,000. This took a full week counting by fives. This was 9 years after I had started collecting again, since I was a kid. Since then I have been working on the collection/stamps for an average of 50+ hours a week, I do little else. In this time I have also extended many countries end dates by 20 or thirty years. I often add between 300 and a 1,000 stamps at a time by buying parts of collections that extend a countries end date. This of course is the fastest way to add to your count. I have need lists for most all of the world. Since I have a very high level of completion for the majority of countries, If I do count again it will probably be by subtracting numbers from my need lists from the Scott catalog listings through each countries end dates. Then making adjustments for listed shades, perf and watermark sub numbers etc. For now I keep track of what I have by percentage of completion according to my need lists which is more important to me than the number of stamps. The other important number for me is the number of blank spaces in my collection up to 1950.
Opinions on what should be counted will vary from person to person. My count is for different stamps and souvenir sheets by Scott numbers. Mine are mostly mounted in Scott Specialty albums which have spaces for every major number. Also cataloged stamps on stock sheets that are yet to be mounted. As well as Scott listed shades, perf and watermark variants for, mostly, early issues.
I do not count revenues, Dunes, forgeries, Cinderellas, flyspecks or unidentified/uncataloged loose stamps in envelopes, stock pages etc. I also do not collect what I view as wallpaper so no count there.
Organization is key to coming up with a legitimate number of different stamps. Although they will take the average WW collector hundreds of hours to make up (depending on level of organization), I believe want lists are the most important thing in building a collection.
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My inventory is alot like that as well. Estimated. My estimated 300,000 count is based solely on the number of stamps that are contained in my stamp albums (meaning one stamp per catalog number). It does not include the stamps that are sitting in boxes and drawers waiting to be worked on, or stamps that are in my off-shoot collections and stock books. I would be like Antonius in my total count.
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Michael, I don't know if most people can understand how much time and effort goes into reaching the 300,000 mark much less 400,000. The first 200,000 did not seem that difficult but around 270,00 I pretty much hit the brick wall with a lot of countries. It took extending end dates and finding a really good source to get me out of that rut. I've amazed myself with the size of my collection for over 20 years but then I see countries that are still rather sparse and know I still have a long way to go.
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"The first 200,000 did not seem that difficult ..."
That is excellent news for us in the 100K ballpark. So at least the next decade or two should be relatively easy
-k-
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i am retired and stamps require a HUGE amount of time,,could easily work on them 10 hours a day..but at times life gets in the way .
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"Michael, I don't know if most people can understand how much time and effort goes into reaching the 300,000 mark much less 400,000. The first 200,000 did not seem that difficult but around 270,00 I pretty much hit the brick wall with a lot of countries. It took extending end dates and finding a really good source to get me out of that rut. I've amazed myself with the size of my collection for over 20 years but then I see countries that are still rather sparse and know I still have a long way to go."
Yes, I fully agree with that comment. I started my collection in 1962, and never looked back.
I keep an inventory of what I have in my primary collection. I enter my new acquisitions on a paper spread sheet when I add stamps to my albums. Later I enter that data into my computer spreadsheet. If one were to flip through the paper sheets, they would find that there are not that many new additions that are less than $5 in catalog value (that includes set values that will have stamps with minimal catalog values). Few new issues catalog less than $1 anymore. There are still plenty of stamps to be bought considering that there are probably over 600,000 major catalog numbers and probably around 1 million total listings in the Scott catalogs. However, the "price of poker" does go up, albeit slowly, as the collection grows.
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Michael, I think your count of 600,000 major numbers might be 25 years behind the times. It was about 25 years ago that my main dealer, at the time, told me that there were around 600,000 different major numbers at that time. I would guess that there are probably around 850,000 by now. It would really be nice if there was a count somewhere as to how many stamps thru 1940,1950,1960 etc. Every year most countries produce more stamps than the preceding year. Many produce more in a year than they did for the first 25 years. I'm really not a big fan of most stamps produced after the 1940's but if I did not go beyond that I would not be able to add much to my collection. I do not intend to collect but a very few countries past year 2000. I might not have extended most of the countries that I have already if it were not for my website. It pretty much drives me to put up more stamps for people to view and reference.
Have you scanned much of your collection? It takes a lot of time but there are a lot of advantages to doing it. Hint: I like to look at other peoples collections because most of the older stamps all look different.
I often wonder how many private well organized collections there are in the world in the 3-400,000 range. It takes so long to do, that I would not think more than a couple hundred.
As far as it being not to hard to get to the 200,000 mark. You'll have a really hard time starting from scratch with each country. You need to buy country collections that have most of the filler in them and you will get pages as well. Or layout $3,000-5,000
on a decent world collection. Then you have a good base to work with and can add to it when you find good prices for the stamps that are still needed. Of course it takes some money but you can usually get decent starter country collections for a couple hundred dollars or less. When adding to existing collections, I rarely buy singles or sets. I try and get parts of country collections that have some stamps I need and sell the better remainders to recoup the money spent on the lot.
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"I rarely buy single or sets. I try and get parts of country collections that have some stamps I need and sell the better remainders to recoup the money spent on the lot. "
I used to buy alot of box lots at auctions, but those lots get very repetitive with the same low valued material. Now, I look for lots of new material that I try to get. Not easy to find. When I do find it, I try to get it. I find it better to have the dealer put together such a lot and then buy it direct. New material is hard to find.
I wander around the approval books here. There is plenty to find to fill those missed items in the older pages, or to get a MNH version of a used stamp. I prefer MNH. That's the way (uh huh uh huh) I like it. I get APS sales circuits for the areas that I am weak on. It doesn't take long to solve that matter. I have been working heavily on independent Africa. Definitely not a popular area, but one where there is plenty of material to find. I'm tired of looking at Liberia. Seems like everyone is trying to sell Liberia. I don't need any more Liberia...well, I do, but I don't want to see it for a while.
I'll look at smaller dealers where I can get complete MNH sets at nice discounts. I found one who actually solicited me APS member to member. He sends me MNH complete sets from the country I want (currently Bulgaria - I only want approvals from one country per selection as it is too hard to get 25 sets from 25 countries). His price runs 45% to 65% of catalog, he gives me an additional discount if I purchase a certain amount, and then he sends me free MNH sets close to what I paid that are included with my next selection. I am happy with his service for sure.
As for collections, I will look at older collections if the stamps are MNH, or if the stamps a newer issues (post 1980) and MNH. I've done this for a long time, so I pretty much know just by looking at the first couple of pages if I am even interested in it. Many times after I go through a few more pages, I find I am not interested. Definitely nice to be able to purchase a nice collection and sell the unwanted material, but definitely I stay away from the minimum valued stuff now.
I have posted a few images of stamps from my collection here. Not sure if you could easily find them now. I don't have images of my collection, but I do understand the advantages of doing so, especially for insurance purposes. By the way, the upright Jenny sheet and the PRC Year of the Monkey stamp you see at the top left of SOR pages are mine. I don't have the upright Jenny sheet anymore, but I do have the Monkey. I paid $168 for it from an APS sales book years ago. It was the highest price I ever paid for a stamp from an APS sales book. It cataloged $400 at the time of purchase. I think I did all right with that one!
Whether it be 600,000 or 800,000 (and you're probably right), there's too much older material out there, and not enough newer stuff.
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Ok, guess I will join in the fun...
What year range do you collect?
1840-1940; to 1952 British Commonwealth.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Have no real idea, but I would say in the 5000 range.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
I have a two-volume Scott International Vol 1, but have recently started migrating over the Brown Vintage Reproductions, which I am really enjoying.
BTW, going to BALPEX 2015 tomorrow so hopefully I will increase my numbers by a little
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What year range do you collect?
1840 to current. USA is MNH only. All other countries I have a mixture of mint, used, and CTO.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
58,000+ Gosh it seems kind of low compared to some of the other world wide collectors here, but I have only been working on my world wide collection seriously for about 4 years now.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
USA is in Davo Albums. Everything else, except for Germany, is in 64 page Lighthouse Stockbooks. Germany is still on Steiner pages. I am up to 38 stockbooks now and will probably need to buy more soon. I used to use albums for world wide but the number of pages that I needed to keep up to date got way out of hand. I have been happy with my choice to move everything to stockbooks. The only problem is adding a lot of new stamps requires constant rearranging.
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Kam, you added 58,000 in four years. That's more than double the average number of stamps I added in my 53 years of collecting. In six more years you'll have more stamps than me!
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"Kam, you added 58,000 in four years. That's more than double the average number of stamps I added in my 53 years of collecting.
"
I've been tracking my progress for the past 10 years (ever since I build up my first country-inventory list and started doing worldwide 'seriously), and I seem to average 6.5-7K (major number) additions on most years.
IMHO there's a clear ratio between how much time one can devote to stamps vs. how many addition one can make. Those years when I've been very busy at work or busy at life, have also been the years when I've added only 4-5K stamps. Whereas when I've been having more 'me-time' (such as 2009 and 2010 when I was on sick leave most of the time), I reached 10-12K additions per year limit. So I'd estimate that when I some day get to retire, I should have no issues in boosting my stamp additions 3-4 fold.
My personal projection is that if I can keep up with the current pace (and health permits), I'll end up with:
- 170K stamps by the time fifty in 2025 (half of the kids grown up and gone to college)
- 250K stamps by the time I'm sixty 2035 (rest of kids are finally out, maybe some grandkids coming in)
- 300K stamps when I get to retire at 68 in 2043
- 400-500K stamps by the time I'm six feet under
In the end all this takes is persistence and time. Set a goal and go for it, stamp after stamp, year after year.
"Everything else, except for Germany, is in 64 page Lighthouse Stockbooks... I have been happy with my choice to move everything to stockbooks. The only problem is adding a lot of new stamps requires constant rearranging. "
That's one of the reasons (besides durability) why I use either 16 or 32 pagers most of the time. When you get a whole lot of new stamps, you'll simply add new book or two in between. Makes life a whole lot easier
-k-
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Michael, It appears we are pretty much complete opposites in our preferences and approach to collecting stamps.
I haven't bought a box lot in over 20 years and never buy anything unless I can see it. The lots I bid on most often catalog for several hundreds to several thousand each. I often pay between 3.5%-5% with very few stamps having any faults. It is very difficult for me to find the few early scarce stamps I need for my collection. If I can find a couple in a lot and sell the remainder for several times what I paid for the lot, it works for me. It also allows me to constantly upgrade for centering, appearance and used to mint. Sure most of the scarce stamps I need are not that hard to find but paying 60-100% of catalog and having nothing else to make money from makes little sense to me. I do of course buy singles from time to time because some stamps and sheets never show up in multiple stamp lots. When I do do this I rarely pay over 25%. I do not care about MNH unless I have them to sell. I'm only interested in getting sound nice appearing stamps whether mint or used.
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SCB, Sounds like a good plan, good luck! Sounds like you are on good track. I think it will prove increasingly more difficult in using stockbooks. They make it hard to keep track of what you need and shuffling them around will be very laborious.
Most collections look great in stockbooks but when you transfer them to pages with all the major numbers they do not often look so great.
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"It appears we are pretty much complete opposites in our preferences and approach to collecting stamps. "
Interesting to see how different the approach to building a collection can be. And how these very different approaches can yet lead to very advanced collections of similar size. As I focus on stamp issuing entities more than the absolute numbers I started building my collection by buying collections and then moved to buying targeted stamps. The less common entities just don't come with general collections......
"In the end all this takes is persistence and time. Set a goal and go for it, stamp after stamp, year after year. "
Ever so true.
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"Most collections look great in stockbooks but when you transfer them to pages with all the major numbers they do not often look so great."
Same can be said also when transferring stamps from traditional albums to stockbooks. You never know what lies underneath all those hinges and gunk, and often times approx. 10% (or more) ends up on the bin no matter how complete/great the album pages may have looked.
Stocks books are just a medium. You can use them wisely, or you can shoot yourself in the foot. Same applies also mounts, hinges, and just about everything else in this hobby of ours.
For example I leave spaces to both major and minor varieties, but only when I've reached a certain level of completion for country/era/series. It's just 'smarter' (no need to put money and space on empty pages long term).
-k-
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I constantly upgrade to better condition (centering, etc.) whenever I can. I also do not buy box lots of older stamps that much anymore. Larger lots of newer issues will definitely catch my eye for countries that I am weak on in the 1990 and newer eras. That's where I concentrate my box and larger lot purchases now, although there aren't that many of those around. I have learned how to scout them out real fast to see if there is anything of that I need in them. Usually not. I might miss something that I need once in a while, but sometimes that's better than winding up with a pile of junk.
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Range: 1840 to 1985
Albums: 1840 to 1940 Scott Intl. Jr.
The rest from 1840 to 1985 go into a 3 volume Harris Standard. Single country albums include U.S., Canada, U.N., Germany, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and Romania.
Number of stamps: wild guess, at least 50,000 different.
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Range: 1840 to 2015
Albums: 3 (Australia 1853-1966; Australia 1967-2015; World 1840 - 1967)
Types of stamps in collection: Australian Plate proofs, Colour trials; Specimens; Errors; Perfins; all scarce to rare Australian issues, all are in well centred mint unhinged to superb mint unhinged condition; as well as complete stamp series of former monarchs. Also scarce to rare NZ issues, GB issues (finding it difficult to locate US issues)
Type of Albums: Hagner
Total stamps: 3430 and still adding
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Hi Everyone;
World-Wide 1840 - 1970s or so.
First seven volumes Scott International (Big Blue).
26 volumes mostly 3" Scott Specialty series Green/Gold covers approximately 60% of world.
between 50,000 and 60,000 different stamps
150,000+ unsorted, enough to keep me busy into the hereafter and then some. 
Just Sortin'....and Sortin'....and....
TuskenRaider
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Ken, I think it's the nature of the beast that most of us are going to leave a pile behind when we keel over.
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My WW collection is more of whatever I have or get my hands on rather than a pursuit. That said, I collect all years and have 3 Harris Standard and/or citation albums. As stamps come my way, I put them in the albums.
I have separate albums for specialized collections, and put duplicates in my WW album.
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I'm really surprised by the number of worldwide collectors who collect up through modern issues.
I end at 1940 or so and find it a little overwhelming 
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Collecting the newest issues is indeed challenging. I stated in another thread that it appears to me that more of the newer issues are coming onto the market. Are people selling these off, because of the drooping catalog values and the strong USA dollar? Nevertheless, a look through the catalogs will show that new issues from the 1990s to date are mostly miniature sheets that take up one album page onto themselves. Makes storage space all the more critical.
This is causing me to require more shelf space for my albums. Unfortunately there is non available. I am working on getting at least one large bookcase. When I do, I'll have to buy about 15 more binders (5 inch) to store the large number of album pages that I need to mount the many sheets that I have, and also to trim the number of pages currently contained in many over-stuffed binders.
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Chris, I am also $$$$$$$ !
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Back in the 80s when PCs became a household item I started to count my stamps using microsoft works spreadsheets, it was fun, I arranged the countries by regular postage, semipostals, airmails and so on so I could tell exactly how many stamps I had for that particular country it was neat for every time I added a stamps to my collection I would get a new grand total. After a while I realized that I was playing with numbers instead of enjoying my stamps so I quit altogether counting stamps.
As of today I would guess my collection to be in the 90K to 100K stamps from issuing entities like Angola and Zanzibar and everything in between dating back to 1840 to date.
I use vario pages for my favorite countries and stockbooks for the rest.
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My worldwide collection began as a Cub Scout project at age 7. It putzed along until after age 11 when I got a paper route and funding to pursue purchases. I remember finally purchasing a Regents two volume album and starting the upgrade of spaces.
Sports intervened and I actually got really busy while commuting to college. I started adding small collections and started a specialty in Nazi Germany. It was then that I switched to the blue Scott Internationals. I bought a new volume I but gradually purchased leftover collections in volumes II through VI. That brought me to the currently available albums (1968)and I stopped there and remain at that worldwide date to this day.
My collection received episodic attention through the early years of my first marriage. The restricted free time of parenthood allowed a limited amount of attention. After my divorce in 1994 my collecting took off as it became my mistress. I leveraged my interest in exploration & African history and started a specialty in colonial Africa.
My Internationals remain through 1968 but I have liberally added detail pages so i tnow resides in 13 regular binders. (I love collecting all perf varities and other details). This despite removing pages for colonial Africa. I have slowly procured all of the appropriate Scott Specialty albums for these: British, French, Spanish, Italian, Belgian & German.
Another passion area is the Cape of Good Hope. I have accumulated over 150 triangles. although I have only one so so wood block.
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The colorful approvals from the French African "colonies" is one of the major things that attracted me to stamp collecting. I dabble in U.S. and Canada as they come along,but i have a soft spot for French Africa and the former Italian colonies.
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What year range do you collect?
1840-date ("soft" cutoff at 2010)
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Approximately 24,000
What do you use to store the stamps in?
US: Stockbooks.
Everything else: Vario pages, Steiner pages, or a combination of both.
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What year range do you collect?
1840-date ("soft" cutoff at 2010)
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Approximately 76,000
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Steiner pages, in 3 ring binders.
How many albums or binders hold your collection?
115 three ring binders.
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"How many albums or binders hold your collection?
115 three ring binders."
Doug...that's all......... I'm at 116
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Doug, you should recount the stamps as well. Maybe you have 125,000 stamps instead of 76,000.
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Interesting thread! The question that I'd like to ask is just How does WW collector collect? Do you buy kiloware and then spend hours sorting thousands of stamps? Or do you buy other people's collections at auction?
Do you focus on individual countries, or continents at a time ("Must get in a load of S America/African colonies etc this month")? And thus slowly increase overall world coverage over the months?
What about all those duplicates - what % of a kiloware purchase will be duplicates?
For me it's just a few countries - so I use eBay, Delcampe and Stamps2Go. And the SOR approvals, of course.
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"The question that I'd like to ask is just How does WW collector collect? Do you buy kiloware and then spend hours sorting thousands of stamps? Or do you buy other people's collections at auction?"
All of it (in addition of which I do stamp exchanges). Basically it all comes down to contents of it. The further I have advanced, the less 'generic' my acquisitions get.
For example last month I got my hands on 500 grams of kiloware. Not the usual type with lots of Germany/UK/US/Australia/Netherlands, but this was made up entirely from exotic countries (Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Sri Lanka etc). And last week I acquired a collection of Swiss SDN stamps from auction... Needless to say the percentage of material I can use will be pretty high.
"What about all those duplicates - what % of a kiloware purchase will be duplicates? "
That's why there are stamp exchanges...
-k-
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What year range do you collect? to 1970
How many stamps in your world wide collection? Not many as of yet
What do you use to store the stamps in? Steiner printed to Lighthouse blank pages and Lighthouse mounts
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i have little choice...i collect worldwide to 1969 ...prefer used. But i have a confession to make..i much prefer filling a space from Western Europe than say Africa or Eastern Europe.
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I just can't bear to get rid of stamps that I dont' have!
I'm a bit like Phil, though ... Western Europe is my concentration.
What year range do you collect? Whenever to present
How many stamps in your world wide collection? I really don't know - quite a few, really
What do you use to store the stamps in? I still use the Harris Statesman binder that my dad brought back for me from Toronto when I was 8,(and the second added binder) but it's obviously not large enough, so I use stockbooks for the rest
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11:00:10pm
Worldwide 1840-1950ish. Probably close to 40k. Stockbooks, Varios, Scott International 6 volumes and many not yet sorted.
Then I have specialty collections - that's probably another 20k. Same deal, Stockbooks, Varios and Specialty albums both commercial and home made.
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I collect worldwide 1840-1999. At the moment I am working hard to store all stamps at pages from Stampalbumsweb. It will be about 400 binders. At the moment I have made about 50-60% of the albums. Just now I am working with Korea. Hopefully I will be ready before next summer. Then I will focus on filling the albums.
How many stamps? Quite a lot. Perhaps 200K. For most european countries I have more than 90%. Not that strong for Central an South America.
In the past I have done a lot of trading, now I usally by collections and boxes and sell or trade the stamp I don´t need.
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Having only joined early this year, I apparently missed replying to this very entertaining thread.
What year range do you collect? 1840-1940.
How many stamps in your world wide collection? Around 23,000.
What do you use to store the stamps in? The Scott International Volume One. The Big Blue has approximately 35,000 spaces so I have a way to go.
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1840 to date
100.000 +
Vario pages for my favorite country, White pages stock books for the rest.
Tony
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Update from my original post.
I have really had to apply some strong self-discipline, and have had to apply the following rigid rules without exception.
1. No more purchases or exchanges until I have processed the many thousands of stamp sitting in boxes,envelopes and filing cabinets. As you can imagine this is very painful ! The only exception is that I retain and hopefully process immediately stamps from mail received at home.
2. Be very systematic in my processing. The majority of stuff has been partially presorted into envelopes but is very haphazard in the way that it is stored. I am determined not to waste time by consolidating the haphazard. I am determined to take each envelope in turn and totally go through it's contents in minute detail and mount everything before going onto the next. The only exception being that where a new album page is required the stamp is placed into my one stockbook with all relevant details on a slip of paper. When I have filled a couple of pages in the stockbook I will have a new-page session.
3. Duplicates. Items which I am sure are 100% duplicate are stored systematically so that when I get to the stage of exchanging again they will be easy to organise without a whole lot of unnecessary preperation. Part of the "clear as you go" policy as set out in 2 above.
4. Do not worry about the stamps I don't possess. It is far more important that the stamps I do have are organised neatly, and not languishing in the aforementioned boxes,envelopes etc. The aesthetics of the presentation is at least as important to me as the content.
So far this year I have added over 1000 stamps to my collection. However these were already in my possession, and just not processed - and they are the tip of the iceberg !
I still have absolutely no idea how many stamps are in my collection !
Malcolm
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Words of wisdom, Malcolm!
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Sorry, am I reading this correctly. We actually have to do some sorting and mounting? I thought that I just had to have the stamps, not put them in any sort of order.
Oh heck there goes the next five years of spare time.
Next thing someone will say I have to soak off the thousands of stamps still in bags and boxes, now where did I put my set of drying encyclopaedia books.
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I stopped counting at 170 albums...
I have stopped collecting Africa, Asia (Except Middle Eastern countries), US (20 albums went to nephews), and all GB and British related except for Malta and Cyprus (part of my Europe)
And still, I need to add more album......
I do not collect anything above 2000, and am capping many more recent interest areas to 1985.
I need to get rid of more......so why do I get more? 
Now Europe is being standardized in Scott Specialty in 2 post albums (I don't like the newer 3 ring binders), but the rest is Steiner, or being converted to Steiner, and 3 ring binders. Love Steiner!
I think world collectors share an incurable (but not contagious) virus.
rrr...
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What year range do you collect? 1840 to date
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 150,000 +-
What do you use to store the stamps in? Vario pages, stockbooks
Tony
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What year range do you collect?
Hard to pinpoint. I stop at different years for different countries, depending on how much i like their stamps.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Again, kind of hard to tell so far. I've just barely began organizing my worldwide collection. So far, just over 12,000 mounted, but that's only about 20 or so, mostly, small countries.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Mounted - Steiner pages in 3-ring binders. Everything else either in envelopes or penny sleeves, waiting to be mounted.
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I have embarked on a project to collect the entire bunch of stamps issued in 1970. This is quite a large number but I have already managed to collect six countries output for 1970. I am hoping to complete this collection in the next ten years.
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This is an interesting thread!
Range: 1840-1981
Count: 20-25,000 (estimate)
Albums: Minkus Global 5 Vols
Art
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Current collections and album used:
Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album 788 of 788 plus a few add-ins : Downloaded Album from Web
(this was my most active collection in terms of new purchases and time
spent looking for new stamps for the album until late 2019 with something new
almost weekly)
1840-1940 world wide 8,500+ mint and used : Scott International Part I
(adding stamps which are new to me that are left over from new country collections or other
album acquisitions where stamps are already in the 1840-1963 album set listed below)
1840-1963 world wide 32,160 mint and unused : Scott International Parts 1A1, 1A2, 1B1, 1B2, II, III, IV, and V
(at time of initial posting on April 22, 2019 I had 14.0% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 11,992 stamps in the albums)
(this is my most active collection currently in terms of new growth and I am still
adding stamps from some collections on pages that I have purchased during the past year;
at this time, late October 2019, I have 19.0% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 16,308 stamps in the albums)
(update, early February 2020, I have 20.6% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 17,654 stamps in the albums)
(update, May 7, 2020, I have 24.81% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 21,235 stamps in the albums)
(update, June 7, 2020, I have 26.99% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 23,110 stamps in the albums)
(update, October 17, 2020, I have 33.35% covereage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 28,548 stamps in the albums)
(update, November 8, 2020, I have 33.88% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 29,000 stamps in the albums)
(update, February 13, 2021, I have 37.58% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 32,160 stamps in the albums)
Finland 1856-1971 745 of 760 album spaces: Scott Finland Hingeless
(newer country collection and collecting mint stamps although a few used stamps have snuck in on the first page of the album , five to be exact)
France 1849-1994 1,340: Scott Specialty
(working on adding mint stamps to album, fourth most active collection in terms of current new growth)
Great Britain 1840-1992 700 : Scott Specialty
(trying to collect mint for the last set of Queen Victoria and up with many holes to work on
but still moving stamps from a large stock book to the album)
Japan 1871-1974 985: Scott Japan Hingeless
(third most active and a new collection)
United States of America 1847-1940 922 including airmails and back of the book (plus complete til 1978 after Scott # 902) : Scott National USA Hingeless
(want list has 36 stamps which I consider potentially acquirable over time for completion,
adding one or two stamps a year plus some special delivery and postage due stamps as
they show up)
Canada 1851-1978 plus Provinces 600 : Scott Canada Hingeless
(want list has no stamps for Canada which I consider potentially acquirable over time for
completion although five or so stamps might slip in over the next decade if I get
lucky plus 164 stamps for Newfoundland and a few isolated stamps from other provinces)
Sweden 1855-1979 1232: Scott Sweden Hingeless
(adding stamps actively now and making good progress with new stamps for the album which has spaces for 1,411 stamps)
Netherlands 1852-1948 326 of 680: Scott Netherlands Specialty Part I
(my newest collection which has been growing very fast due to assistance from some local collectors and some Stamporama members and is starting to look respectable despite my preference for mint stamps )
I really like the brown leather Scott Hingeless albums which are based on the Scott
Specialty pages that were produced starting in the early 1970's. Finding
an available binder with pages will often prompt a new collection for me. Currently I
have the albums for the United States, Canada, Japan, Finland, and most recently Sweden.
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Well, in the almost 4 years since I started this thread, I can say that I have added perhaps 85% of the stamps that were sitting in boxes and stock books into my albums. I was often surprised at the catalogue values for many of those items.
There are three areas of accumulations that I have been avoiding. That includes early US, China overprints and early South African definitives. I have worked on some of the stamps from there, but with all the easier stamps to work on, I preferred to go for the easiest stuff first, rather than watch my eyes explode trying to identify colors, overprint types and types. Besides, I won't be needing most of the stamps from those three areas.
My album rebuild/reconfigure project continues, and is entering what I consider the third of four stages.
I have been mulling over what to do with all the items I have for which there are no pages that I don't have much desire to keep. When the album work is completed, I'll make a final decision on those.
I am upgrading from the 2017 to the 2020 Scott Catalogues as I have updated my album pages. I am now just one year short of being current. I am not planning on doing the comparison analysis as I have in the past, however.
I keep thinking about starting a formal US pre-cancel collection. I have the Steiner pages for it. I ought to just go ahead and do it. I have a good supply of pre-cancels sitting in glassines and stock books.
I am planning to restart a US revenues collection. I had a very large revenue collection many years ago that I had to sell for needed financial purposes. This time, it would be a representative collection using Scott International pages that are, of course, abridged. The same holds true for postal stationary, which I also had a large collection of that I sold. I have a small accumulation sitting here of each of those areas.
Looking at my plans for my collection, and the direction I want to go with it, I figure I have about another 100 years of work to do before I am finished!
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"Looking at my plans for my collection, and the direction I want to go with it, I figure I have about another 100 years of work to do before I am finished!"
That should leave plenty of time to write another sci-fi book.
I look forward to it!
Lars
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11:10:38am
I'm not sure if I qualify as a worldwide collector but I have volumes 1, 2, 3A and 3B of the Scott's International album series. If I see a collection from a certain country I like I buy it and mount it. Lately I bought a large "P lot" in order to get stamps from the US Philippines and US Puerto Rico as well as a PEI stamp I didn't have. Of course now I collect Peru, Philippines (non-US), Puerto Rico (non-US) and some Persian stamps. I mostly try to concentrate on Scott's International #1 (up to 1940). I have relatively complete Vol #1 collections for many countries - probably a lot more than 10 000 stamps. So I'm a World collector who collects by chance or by whim. I mainly collect Canada, US, Russia and Poland but have to known to go off on a tangent! I look for interesting countries with stamps I like!
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What year range do you collect?
ANS: All, though preference is 1840-1973.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
ANS: I only count stamps mounted in an album, so 0 at this point. My “accumulation” in boxes and remainder albums is conservatively in the 10-20K range although that surely includes a decent number of duplicates.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
ANS: I will be using Steiner pages in Avery durable binders for my primary collection. Duplicates will go into various other binders such as Harris, stock books, etc.
Dale
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What year range do you collect?
all
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
No clue. Many thousands after 10 years.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Minkus Global up to 1984, Stockbooks, Vario pages after 1984, and a few specialty albums.
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Since I posted my last response in 2017, I have added a new area of focus: Latin America.
Working it, a country at a time, so earlier this year I added the missing countries of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Costa Rica and Ecuador. Panama is the last one I have to add...soon. Latin America is in 3 ring albums with Steiner pages. Capped at 2000, mostly, but to 1980 for the countries that went issuing a huge amount of stamps in the late 1980s.
This is an area where trading is a big focus.
I don't collect East Europe, but I have decided to make an exception for Bulgaria, where my grand grand father was born (When the Ottoman empire provided a shelter to the Jews escaping Europe's antisemitism, in the late 18th century). (Bulgaria is in a Minkus album). The rest of East Europe is being organized for selling. (nice Russia and Hungary collections, if anyone is interested in trading).
As far as West Europe (less UK) is concerned (all in 2-posts Scott Specialty albums and to 2000), I have been working on Cyprus, Gibraltar and Malta, previously I had ignored them as British related,..but the Europe label prevailed!
And Scandinavia is a future target, but I started with Finland this year and ask the classical question..."to continue or not to continue", appropriately a Scandinavian question! I have a good basis to start, so I am teetering at the edge of a go decision. Also the Netherlands which will be next, this fall or winter at the earliest.
Areas where my collections are quite advanced in Europe, I still target selectively the few (expensive) stamps I miss, looking at good bargains as there are still too many holes to warrant buying at any price to finish! But I have expanded to include French colonies, Spanish colonies, Portuguese colonies (but not Italian colonies yet).
US, Switzerland and Germany went to my nephews, Cuba to our adopted Cuban family and canada will go there again as they have made Canada a home. So it is a slow attempt to reduce the collection range...very slow...too slow!! It is hard to get rid of stuff! I sold an almost complete Vatican collection once at Auction and felt it did pretty well, but the Auctioneer's cut makes the whole effort financially questionable.
As I said before: I think world collectors share an incurable (but not contagious) virus.
rrr...
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Speaking of getting back at some former areas, I have restarted a United States revenue and a postal stationary collection. I am using Scott International pages, and will merely create a "representative" collection of these as provided for on the pages. I won't expand beyond the spaces provided on the album pages by printing pages, or getting specialized pages (although I do have most of those pages already - how the heck did that happen?). Famous last words? Probably, because I have many revenues that are not included with the International pages.
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I am trying to navigate the Portugese colonies..i picked up a Mozambique collection in Ottawa, the value is mainly in the postal tax stamps..Scott only lists 4 of them in the 2017 catalog but they leave out some beautiful sets.
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What year range do you collect?
Pre - philately to 1940 for world wide. Separate collections for France, World War One, Austria and Germany that have different date ranges.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
I haven't counted them in years. My grandniece would say "bazillions."
What do you use to store the stamps in?
World wide collection is housed in the old Brown Scott Internationals, the parent albums to the current International volume 1. Supplemental albums for this on home-made pages in three-ring binders. The rest in Scott Specialty Albums.
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Made some minor updates to my collection status in the April 2019 post.
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What year range do you collect?
1840-2000 or whenever I hit SA's that won't soak
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
100,000? I really don't keep a count
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Lighthouse Albums Primarily but as they don't cover everything I have some Davo, Lindner, Scott Specialty and Minkus, plus my own creations using cardstock. Everything is hingeless by origin or by me adding mounts. Hinges make me go unstuck
. I have lot of stock books as well though they are for extras or odds and ends and not primary albums.
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Updated collection status information, reached a milestone this morning of 20.0% coverage of the International Part 1A1-1B2 albums and 20.6% overall coverage for the International 1840-1963 Parts 1A1-5 albums.
Just realized that I reached 20% coverage on 2/2/2020, seems appropriate doesn't it?
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Updated collection status information, reached a milestone yesterday of 24.51% coverage of the International Part 1A1-1B2 albums with 8,434 stamps and 24.81% overall coverage of the International Parts 1A1-5 albums with 21,235 stamps.
Finland collection has stalled for a bit due to a dearth of available mint stamps with 727 of 760 stamps in the album. Two new stamps are coming for the Finland album one from the APS Stamp Store and one from a Sandafayre auction but I am unsure when APS is going to be able to ship items.
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I do miss the APS, when we are there its like when i was a 15 year kid at the Dutchess county fair !
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What year range do you collect? Currently, I've got stamps from most every time range, but I hope to trim that back to 1840-1976. An arbitrary cutoff as that is the year of my Scott US catalog, and I've been hunting down a used Scott WW catalog set from the 70s.
How many stamps in your world wide collection? No idea but not so many--under 1K I think.
What do you use to store the stamps in? Stockbooks mostly. I picked up a Mystic Voyager album on ebay that has grid pages for countries, so I think that will be useful. Storage used to be a big hangup for me. Packs of WW stamps were so cheap for so many stamps but the albums and catalogs were so expensive! I finally made peace with the whole deal and use the previously mentioned systems. Which only increased my love of WW stamps!
Update: I just scored a 1974 set of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue on ebay. The hunting paid off! Happy collecting everyone!
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Range World Wide Disney Started in '68 (US Walt Disney)
Just getting started so I currently have about 250.
Stock books for now but working on Album pages
Mikey
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My worldwide collection mainly in 9 second hand Scott Internationals bought on the cheap runs from penny black to 1969. How many stamps in albums?Probably 10 to 20 thousand . I know people who have very attractive looking matching lighthouse albums...to be honest i prefer to spend my stamp money on stamps and not albums that look like a lawyers office.
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I've created three world collections in my life:
1) a two volume Harris Standard album with stamps from 1840 to 1968 collected from 1968 to 1972 as a teenager which reached just over 10,000 mint and used stamps,
2) a Scott International Part I album which grew to two binders for 1840-1940 collected from 2006 to 2016 and containing 9,039 mint and used stamps,
and
3) a Scott International Parts 1A1-1B2 plus Parts II, III, IV, and V for 1840-1963 collected from 2006 through now (original purchase in 2006 was a mostly mint base collection in 3 Minkus Supreme Global binders which contributed about 10,000 stamps to the new collection which took seven months to move into the International albums from October 2017 through May 2018 followed by very active additions since then starting in 2017 when I joined Stamporama) in 4 regular binders for Parts 1A1-1B2 and 4 jumbo binders for Parts II throub V containing 28,053 mint stamps currently (Parts 1A1-1B2 contains 11,130 mint stamps). I kept records of the number of stamps in the new collection starting in October 2017 at 4,684, December 2017 at 6,397, December 2018 at 15,520, December 2019 at 17,227, and September 2020 at 28,053.
Worldwide is definitely the way to go!
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They are easy to get inexpensive stamps at any time even with a cut off date of 1970-80.
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I collect worldwide postally used stamps after a fashion, that is, I concentrate on definitives (no cut-off for these yet, although I am tempted to leave the modern self-adhesives to others) and the empty spaces in a 1936-ish album.
There are only a few countries that I still actively collect commemoratives from, and for these I have set cut-off dates that usually coincide with a currency reform, a significant political change, or some sort of jubilee.
No idea how many stamps I've got, surely a couple of thousands, although I try to reduce that number by offering commemoratives in exchange for definitives.
My albums consist of (mostly four ring) office binders and homemade quadrilled pages on good quality office paper, and I use hinges. Some old stock books remain in use for intermediary storage.
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I have collected many countries, and have come to love the stamps of many more countries I have not collected. I have been doing alot of thinking of late. I have decided I need to pare down my collecting interests. Ultimately I would like to collect the stamps of only three countries, US, Panama and the Canal Zone. I find myself however, loathe to part with my Canada, Australia and Great Britain collections so I am going to keep those extra three for now. The rest over time I will dispose of at my own pace (no doubt much of it here on SOR). I will maintain my postal history interests, especially US/Panama/Canal Zone.
It may be a function of getting older, but I feel the need to simplify my life more.
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What year range do you collect?
1958- (French Polynesia only).
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
634 stamps (MNH).
634 stamp sheets.
634 proof sheets.
634 certificates.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Leutchturm album (Made in Liechtenstein).
Giraudi SM album (Made in Monaco).
* French Polynesian stamp specialist.
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Many many years ago i saw this sheet and wanted it in the worst way,but it was at the time beyond my price range. Some years later at a local auction house i won a box of albums for the absurd price of $58 dollars. when i opened one album the sheet was loose between the pages of French Polynesia. What are the odds ?
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I built one other worldwide collection over a fifteen month period from July 2018 through October 2019 on which I spent many hundreds of hours which I forgot to mention. It is based on the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album made available through the National Postal Museum web site which was created to honor an exhibit that was presented at the National Postal Museum. My version of the collection grew to 788 different stamp issuing entities with three stamp on stamp issues for the very high catalog value Switzerland Canton stamps for Basel, Geneva, and Zurich and one stamp on stamp issue for Poland Scott #1, one used stamp for India from 1854 (still have never managed to win an auction bid for a replacement but continue to look for one), and 783 mint stamps for the rest of the entries in the album.
I highly recommend everyone make a stab at completing this album but you don't have to be so carried away as to do it all with mint stamps or even strive for total completeness. I must say that you will learn to look at stamps, stamp issuing countries/entities (my goodness there are a lot of them), dealer inventories, etc. in a totally different way. Plus you will have the opportunity to learn about many topics that gave rise to the production of the stamps as you work to identify candidate stamps for the album. My experience, also, was that more people are interested in this comparatively small collection than any other collection I have ever created because of its ranges of geographic diversity and time diversity. There is definitely something in it for everyone!
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Updated status of my stamp collections on the main entry for my collection to indicate progress on the International collection and the addition of a new standalone country collection.
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What year range do you collect? 1840 to roughly 1980.
How many stamps in your world wide collection? In my database I have just over 16,000. I have somewhere between 40000-60000 to go through and expect that will add 15-20K more unique stamps in collection.
What do you use to store the stamps in? I am moving out of my childhood Harris books to Steiner Pages. I am creating what I call booklets for each country. The 3 ring binders were getting unwieldy. I have a 21 hole binder to punch and put them together. What is nice is they stay open nicely and pages don't get pulled out as I turn the pages.
My current target is to get to 200 stamps in 200 countries. So based on my collecting I will be somewhere around 70,000+ to hit that since I have some countries now with over thousand stamps and many over 500.
I have many years to go.
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Updated status of the main descriptive page for my collection from the April 2019 posting.
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Updated status of my collections on the April 2019 posting. I have been very active in acquiring stamps as additions to my collections for International 1840-1963 albums, Sweden, Netherlands, Japan, and even one addition for Canada. Sweden and Netherlands are new collections for me and have prompted many additions for the International albums as well as the standalone country albums. I have, also, managed to add a number of items for the Great Britain collection with an emphasis on the Offices' items especially the Tangier items plus many of the postage due stamps.
Many of my additions have occurred due to some local collectors narrowing their focus in their collections while I have been moving in the other direction. Other significant sources have included a local stamp dealer, Stamporama members, eBay, and Hipstamp. It has been quite a lot of fun during the last few months, especially!
I have, also, been spending quite a bit of time looking at some philatelic literature resources through borrowed books locally plus a few acquisitions as well as some online resources that Stamporama members have mentioned. My eyes have been opened to the available philatelic related books through the American Philatelic Reference Library through its Philatelic Literature Review quarterly and some recent interviews of philatelic literature dealers which were quite fascinating.
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08:50:50pm
Out of curiosity, I'm interested in how many world wide collector members we have here.
Here is the list of questions. Just block, copy and paste in your reply, if you are a world wide collector and want to participate in this informal poll.
What year range do you collect?
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
What do you use to store the stamps in?
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08:51:52pm
re: World Wide Collectors
I'll start.
What year range do you collect? 1840 to date
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 300,000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Scott Specialty, Scott International, Steiner Pages
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re: World Wide Collectors
I am an OFEC (one from every country) collector.
What year range do you collect? All
How many stamps in your world wide collection? approximately 658 of the 783 I need
What do you use to store the stamps in? A 3" 3-ring binder from OfficeDepot with pages printed from the Smithsonian "A Stamp from Every Country" online PDF file, modified using image processing software to add what they missed, and printed on 67 lb white acid-free card stock punched with a 3-hole punch and corners rounded with a 3/8" cutter. Stamps mounted in Showguard mounts:
http://www.larsdog.com/stamps/smithsonian.htm
I am really just getting started on this, but if you look at what the Smithsonian had for Canada and what I expanded that to, you can get an idea of where I plan to take this.
Lars
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
28 Aug 2015
09:23:35pm
re: World Wide Collectors
I collect WW 1840-1940.
I have no idea how many stamps I have, but would imagine it is considerably less than Michael's impressive number. I have a problem with tossing stuff (not in the waste can, but into my trading/selling pile) so I have many stamps represented with both used and unused varieties and any perceived shades, even if not noted in the catalog.
I started with Scott International Vol. I back when it was a single volume for the years 1840-1940. I abandoned the original binder some time ago and now have them housed in 8 3" binders. I also have about 20 stock books, several albums devoted to USA (singles and plate blocks), and a multitude of glassines, display cards and stock cards in several file boxes.
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? 1840 -1960
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 10,000 or so just a guesstimate and mostly used, any mint stamps are hinged as received.
What do you use to store the stamps in? Minkus Master Global 2 volumes
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
From 1840 to modern, used (including CTO) only.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
About 95.5K for the 1840-2010 era.
Plus 3-4K for post 2010 stamps.
And then there's 40-50K varieties of the above.
And about 200 forgeries (mostly on classics)
And about 2-3K on bogus and cinderella section
So the grand total would be around 150K
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Stockbooks.
-k-
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re: World Wide Collectors
Nice idea for a thread! Here's my response:
What year range do you collect? 1840-present
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 25.000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Stock books
As I have a strong interest in the way stamps reflect history my goal is not necessarily to have as many stamps as possible worldwide but to have a number of stamps from very stamp issuing entity - countries, minor entities within countries, airlines, and so on. All this within the scope of the four leading worldwide catalogs. From that scope I exclude some high priced entities. Also I exclude locals when there's many locals issued in the same historical context in which case 2 or three examples are enough to satisfy my collecting desires. Thus I now count 1.924 entities in scope of which I have 1823 - 101 to go.
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05:55:54am
re: World Wide Collectors
Range: SG Stamps of the World 2010
Qnty: c175,000
Storage: Stockbooks at present
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re: World Wide Collectors
Most of my worldwide is pre 1970, they are mainly in 9 scott international albums,,right now i could not venture a guess on how many stamps...it would be labor intensive to count !
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09:56:16am
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? varies by country all end by 1980
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 40,000 - 50,000 - estimate
What do you use to store the stamps in? Steiner pages in 3 ring binders
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re: World Wide Collectors
A question for Lars;
being an OFEC collector - how do you decide WHICH stamp from a particular country to be THE one to represent that country??
Just curious.....
Randy
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12:44:52pm
re: World Wide Collectors
@ Randy and Lars,
I'm interested in a OFEC collection as well. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 stamps. Would look cool with mounts on custom made pages
-Ernie
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re: World Wide Collectors
Randy and Ernie:
Some countries require multiple stamps, like Canada:
Others, only require one or two:
As to which particular stamp to choose, first I narrow it down to the CHEAP ones. I see what is available and pick something that makes sense for me. I'm fond of the U.S. Columbus series, so I picked a common stamp for my example of U.S. My Confederate stamp will be one of the more common and inexpensive examples.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"What year range do you collect?"
1840-1940 WW; -1952 British Commonwealth
"How many stamps in your world wide collection?"
41,519 as of August 5, 2015
http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2015/01/StatusofMyBigBlueCollection.html
"What do you use to store the stamps in?"
Steiner pages.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"I'm interested in a OFEC collection as well. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 stamps. Would look cool with mounts on custom made pages
-Ernie"
Ernie,
Philately is my primary hobby, so I approached OFEC from a broader perspective and hence 9 different stamps needed to represent Canada (in my opinion). However, I did the same thing with numismatics (coins), but since I am not as serious in my efforts in coins, I created a more abridged version. I did that by collecting coins from countries that existed in my target year (1980). So I have a coin from East Germany and West Germany, but only a unified Vietnam. The only coin I have from Canada is one that would have been circulating in 1980. The same thing could be done for stamps if one was so inclined.
You collection is what you make of it!
Lars
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re: World Wide Collectors
"OFEC (one from every country) ... 658 of the 783 I need"
In another thread, someone mentioned (IIRC) 1800 "stamp-issuing entities" and I wonder, are you missing a THOUSAND countries, or are they including a lot of locals or micronation fantasies or such?
I realize the question of how many countries there are depends on one's definition of what a country is, but our community generally agrees on which stamps were issued by official government stamp-issuing entities and which are not. Of the former, is 783 more in the ballpark, or is 1800?
Chris
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10:32:03am
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? Pre World War One
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 2000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Stock pages, Stock Books and Homemade pages
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03:45:17pm
re: World Wide Collectors
Chris, he did say that the 1800 included local entities and the like.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"Of the former, is 783 more in the ballpark, or is 1800?"
783 includes some non-country stamps. There is an optional section in the back of "Stamp Issuing Entities" that is broken down by "Offices Abroad", "Local Stamps", "Occupations", "International Organizations", and "Military Stamps". There are 125 stamps in this section, so it's really only 658 "countries". For Germany there are 7 precedent countries including DDR and pre WWII Danzig, plus 18 German States. I used a list of about 1800 stamp issuing entities to decide if I was missing anything. I did, in fact, create my own page for Canada, for example, because I wanted to include a stamp as a Colony and one as a Dominion, plus a stamp for the United Crown Colony of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.
I am just getting started on evaluation all of the 1800 entities, and there are some questions beyond that, such as Cuba. We consider Peoples Republic of China to be a new country, but Cuba didn't change its name after the Revolution. That seems inconsistent so I will have pre- and post-revolution stamps. I may do the same for Nazi Germany, but I will consider Maximilian of Mexico to be nothing more than a French Occupation that really didn't fundamentally change the nature of the country.
There are questions aplenty, but it's fun doing the research to decide what to include and what to omit.
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re: World Wide Collectors
lol, guess I should learn to read. Actually, as I said, I was thinking of another thread which didn't mention locals, but I see the post above now too. The site referenced lists only 421 major entities, which is a far cry in the other direction from the 783 from the Smithsonian pages. http://postalmuseum.si.edu/stampgallery/album/Stamp-for-Every-Country.pdf The 783 seem to include various states, but not locals, pretty much like what is listed in Scott. So I guess 783 is more in the ballpark. I guess if you asked everyone, they'd all have different answers. More power to them.
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
My accumulation is from 1840 to the present, I am thinking of cutting that back some years.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
According to SG My Collection (The latest inventorying program I am using) I have 2303 catalogued there, plus about another 7000 on various spreadsheets.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
I use home made pages/Steiner pages/A Phoenix WW Album/stock books/shoe boxes and various other storage media.
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08:58:37am
re: World Wide Collectors
What years? All world postally used all periods
How Many ? Not a clue,but many thousands - counting them would take too long - I would rather spend the time sorting and mounting.
Storage. Great Britain in spring back albums and on album sheets in box File.Rest of World 4-ring leaves in mixture of appropriate 4-ring albums, promotional and instruction manuals etc. Postmarks in twin-ring binders in plastic slieves. Total approx 40 albums. Thousands of stamps in envelopes awaiting leaves/sorting/soaking/mounting/identifying.All written-up -no pre-printed albums at all - I am not a one-of-a-kind collector.
As a postscript - the human memory is a marvellous thing. When first seeing a stamp I am 90% sure that I know whether I have it already in my collection ( obviously not applicable to minute varieties,watermarks perfs etc).
Malcolm
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re: World Wide Collectors
Great thread! Looking forward to the data summary and analysis...
What year range do you collect?
1840 to 1965 (prefer used, but have mixed)
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Rough estimate between 8,000 and 12,0000
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Scott International
I'm beginning to call my Scott Internationals a "diverse rescue collection." I started about two years ago with the intention of collecting up through the year I was born, matching Scott International Parts I-IV almost exactly. Each album was a separate auction purchase, and they came with around 4,000 stamps total to get me started. As a bonus (or curse, depending on the day), the best deal I found on a Part IV album also came with a Part V, so I find myself collecting up through 1965. That was about the year I first started collecting stamps, so maybe that's a good anchor date as it turns out. That also means I would have been about six years old when I first started.... hadn't really thought about that before.
The interleaving of the Parts I-V into a consistent grouping by country is a story in itself. Another day.
Since those original purchases, I have acquired another dozen or so albums in the Parts I-V range. As I go through them and add stamps to my collection, I often find pages I was missing, so they get added in. In other cases, I learned that Scott had rearranged its pages several times over the years - meaning what is printed on the fronts and backs of the pages. So in one edition the Air Post Semi-Postals are on the front of a page and the Postage Dues are on the back. In another album, they are on the front and the back is blank, while in yet another, the Air Posts are on the front and those semis are on the back. Lots of choices as to which page to add.
Another discussion for another day is that all of my pages are from the pre-acid-free era, and many of the pages look, well, old. I'm torn with deciding whether to to keep the old pages, or spring for new pages. The dollars that new Parts I-IV would cost would go a long way to filling those empty spaces!
-Steve
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11:17:40am
re: World Wide Collectors
"Great thread! Looking forward to the data summary and analysis..."
Stand by
... calculating... ...Stand by ... calculating... ...Stand by ... calculating... ...Stand by ... calculating... ...Stand by ... calculating... ...tiltI think that the number of responses here, and the request for a census on one's collection is just for estimates, shows that there are still many world wide collectors still around. It's always nice to know that there is plenty of company in the hobby!
I know that there are even more who haven't replied to this post, but have stated elsewhere on SOR that they too are world wide collectors.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I guess that I am a world-wide collector, because I will buy any stamp that I like, assuming that I can afford it and that it fits into any of my several thematic collections.
What year range do you collect?
1840 to present
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Very rough estimate: stamps alone 4,000 - 6,000, stamps on cover 2,500
What do you use to store the stamps in?
I store stamps alone or in strips or pairs in Unitrade black page stock books; stamps on cover go into Vario or Vario-type stock sheets, which are stored in ring books. I also have a Lighthouse albums for oversize covers and for used U.S. stamps 1847-1947.
My style of collecting makes it difficult to decide where to store some stamps, many of which can fit into two or even three collections. I've sometimes had to remove stamps from one exhibit sheet to place in a sheet for a different exhibit. An example: where do three stamps showing France's colonies go, in my collection about the First Indochina War or one about the Algerian war, or my WWII collection for that matter?
Bob
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
1840 to date
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
rough estimate 150k-200k
What do you use to store the stamps in?
huge mish-mash: stockbooks, Vario-type pages, glassines, country albums (Lighthouse, Lindner, Scott, Borek, SG, Y&T...), WW albums (Scott, Harris, Minkus, Steiner), pillowcase, and apparently also my shoe . It all depends on what I can get my hands on and what I can afford. I prefer spending money on stamps.
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
1840 to 2010 Used only
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
73,802 right now and growing, plus many thousands of stamps not cataloged.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Steiner pages in 1" three ring binders.
Doug
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02:36:30pm
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? 1840 on
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 300,000 +
What do you use to store the stamps in? 60 vol. Scott + misc binders
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re: World Wide Collectors
My response to the questions are
What year range do you collect?
International 1840-1969
US to 1990
United Nations to 1990
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
worldwide collection has about 77,000 stamps (gave up trying to catch Michael#s)
US collection has about 3,500 stamps
UN collection has about 4,200 stamps (this counts inscription blocks as 4 stamps)
What do you use to store the stamps in?
worldwide in Scott's International Albums plus some custom made pages for varieties
US in Scott's National Album
UN in Harris' UN Albums
I created an inventory database slowly over the years, first starting posting what I had, then expanded to include catalog numbers (Scott's basis) of missing items ("wants" and "wishful hopings for"). Database was initially in a FoxPro database, but when I retired and lost access to Foxpro, I converted to an Excel workbook containing many, many spreadsheets. I had hoped to convert to Access but never got around to learning it.
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? All Years from Ancient to Modern
How many stamps in your world wide collection? More than 5,000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Home Made pages.
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11:20:05pm
re: World Wide Collectors
If it is a stamp I collect it including forgeries, revenue, match medicine, and cinderellas
Zero idea how many I have .. But do know that catalogued I have around 2k for dahomey alone
Stored in boxes, glassines, exhibits, file folders, stock books, and albums, desk drawers and between pages of catalogs. Preferably Palo or Scott Specialty Albums.
Seriously though.. Love to collect world wide. A history lesson every day that I sit at my stamp desk. I do have a single specimen collection and I tend to lean to the high end of the count as I want to include occupation and "official" local posts... Would love to see the list with 1800 on it !! Gives me a goal.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"I do have a single specimen collection and I tend to lean to the high end of the count as I want to include occupation and "official" local posts... Would love to see the list with 1800 on it !! Gives me a goal. "
You might want to try this list: http://www.stampworldhistory.com/stamps-issuing-entities/
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Immediate Past President - West Essex Philatelic Society www.wepsonline.org
02 Sep 2015
08:56:29am
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? All
How many stamps in your world wide collection? No Clue
What do you use to store the stamps in? Safe Hingeless for US, Canada and GB, Steiner, Stock Sheets, Harris World Wide.
Bob
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? beginning through 2007
How many stamps in your world wide collection? almost 17,000
What do you use to store the stamps in? Scott Specialty Albums 3-ring
I use an Excel workbook to inventory my stamps, with one tab each for each country and a summary page.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"Would love to see the list with 1800 on it !! Gives me a goal. "
Here is what I used originally. I don't know how it compares to the list SWH has.
http://www.stampcollectingblog.com/postal-entities-list.php
Lars
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11:48:31pm
re: World Wide Collectors
Thx for the list resources SWH and Lars... !
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? Most to around 1980, several to 1990, U.S., Germany and Greece to 2000. Africa to around 1965 Colonial.
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 330,00+
What do you use to store the stamps in? 162 albums. 90% Scott Specialty, Steiner and a few White Ace and Schaubek
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re: World Wide Collectors
Hmm... Only about two dozen collectors have reported so far, and we're already talking a total of ~2 million stamps. Not bad from such a small bunch (though a lot of credit goes to heavy-weighters that are beyond 300K items)
-k-
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re: World Wide Collectors
I love you guys ! A couple of worldwide gals bid on my auction...but i do not know if they share on the chat !!
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
03 Sep 2015
09:31:46am
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
As with most WW Collectors, May of 1840 to date.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
I have no idea, but several hundred thousand would be my guess. Over fifty years as an adult collector is a long time.
There is a question of what you include in the collection. Is it only stamps mounted on the organized pages of an album ?
Does the stock book count if it is loaded with issues, possibly varieties, that have yet to be examined closely ?
For instance as is common knowledge, or should be, the Machin series is built around 460+/- major color/value stamps almost all of which are identifiable if you can read numbers and sort colors. Add the use of a 3x magnifier and that number jumps to about 800+/-. Mix in some philatelic knowledge and a nearby 10X glass and 12o00-1600 major and minor varieties can be collected, 90% from kiloware or bulk lots and patience. Get a bit picky about minor differences and the number seems to be somewhere between 2,000 and the limitations of the atmosphere, but perhaps 5,000 is a fair number. Add shades and flyspecks and pick your number from a big hat.
Now after looking through a bulk lot and pulling out easily identified varieties, plus suspicious stamps for later close examination, I put what is left into a number of large cardboard envelopes, at least one for just about every major color/value/variety. There are about five hundred in three large file drawers so that if I learn something technical that escaped me during past examinations, or some clever devil finds something no one noticed before, I can pull that envelope, check through the glassines within and sometimes discover something that makes me glow for days on end.
I also accumulate examples of SOTNs and curious or humorous cancelations. If what is in those larger envelopes is counted I bet the number of Machins exceeds 100,000 by themselves. Where is the line between an accumulation, a hoarde, a collection and fuel for a bonfire ?
I also have a number of Wildings, but only about 20& as many as Machins.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Albums, glassines, used trimmed business envelopes that arrive, usually carrying bills, stock books, and the aforementioned cardboard envelopes, a few cleaned cookie tins as well as a few small cardboard boxes stuffed with things like French Mariannas I am convinced I'll get around to someday. Then there are albums of used envelopes and several plastic shoeboxes with envelopes received over the years in the mail that bear attractive stamps.
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re: World Wide Collectors
My estimate of 330,00 different stamps is very conservative and the number should probably be closer to 400,000. The last time I actually counted them was 19 years ago and I had around 233,000. This took a full week counting by fives. This was 9 years after I had started collecting again, since I was a kid. Since then I have been working on the collection/stamps for an average of 50+ hours a week, I do little else. In this time I have also extended many countries end dates by 20 or thirty years. I often add between 300 and a 1,000 stamps at a time by buying parts of collections that extend a countries end date. This of course is the fastest way to add to your count. I have need lists for most all of the world. Since I have a very high level of completion for the majority of countries, If I do count again it will probably be by subtracting numbers from my need lists from the Scott catalog listings through each countries end dates. Then making adjustments for listed shades, perf and watermark sub numbers etc. For now I keep track of what I have by percentage of completion according to my need lists which is more important to me than the number of stamps. The other important number for me is the number of blank spaces in my collection up to 1950.
Opinions on what should be counted will vary from person to person. My count is for different stamps and souvenir sheets by Scott numbers. Mine are mostly mounted in Scott Specialty albums which have spaces for every major number. Also cataloged stamps on stock sheets that are yet to be mounted. As well as Scott listed shades, perf and watermark variants for, mostly, early issues.
I do not count revenues, Dunes, forgeries, Cinderellas, flyspecks or unidentified/uncataloged loose stamps in envelopes, stock pages etc. I also do not collect what I view as wallpaper so no count there.
Organization is key to coming up with a legitimate number of different stamps. Although they will take the average WW collector hundreds of hours to make up (depending on level of organization), I believe want lists are the most important thing in building a collection.
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09:36:04pm
re: World Wide Collectors
My inventory is alot like that as well. Estimated. My estimated 300,000 count is based solely on the number of stamps that are contained in my stamp albums (meaning one stamp per catalog number). It does not include the stamps that are sitting in boxes and drawers waiting to be worked on, or stamps that are in my off-shoot collections and stock books. I would be like Antonius in my total count.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Michael, I don't know if most people can understand how much time and effort goes into reaching the 300,000 mark much less 400,000. The first 200,000 did not seem that difficult but around 270,00 I pretty much hit the brick wall with a lot of countries. It took extending end dates and finding a really good source to get me out of that rut. I've amazed myself with the size of my collection for over 20 years but then I see countries that are still rather sparse and know I still have a long way to go.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"The first 200,000 did not seem that difficult ..."
That is excellent news for us in the 100K ballpark. So at least the next decade or two should be relatively easy
-k-
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i am retired and stamps require a HUGE amount of time,,could easily work on them 10 hours a day..but at times life gets in the way .
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11:03:30am
re: World Wide Collectors
"Michael, I don't know if most people can understand how much time and effort goes into reaching the 300,000 mark much less 400,000. The first 200,000 did not seem that difficult but around 270,00 I pretty much hit the brick wall with a lot of countries. It took extending end dates and finding a really good source to get me out of that rut. I've amazed myself with the size of my collection for over 20 years but then I see countries that are still rather sparse and know I still have a long way to go."
Yes, I fully agree with that comment. I started my collection in 1962, and never looked back.
I keep an inventory of what I have in my primary collection. I enter my new acquisitions on a paper spread sheet when I add stamps to my albums. Later I enter that data into my computer spreadsheet. If one were to flip through the paper sheets, they would find that there are not that many new additions that are less than $5 in catalog value (that includes set values that will have stamps with minimal catalog values). Few new issues catalog less than $1 anymore. There are still plenty of stamps to be bought considering that there are probably over 600,000 major catalog numbers and probably around 1 million total listings in the Scott catalogs. However, the "price of poker" does go up, albeit slowly, as the collection grows.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Michael, I think your count of 600,000 major numbers might be 25 years behind the times. It was about 25 years ago that my main dealer, at the time, told me that there were around 600,000 different major numbers at that time. I would guess that there are probably around 850,000 by now. It would really be nice if there was a count somewhere as to how many stamps thru 1940,1950,1960 etc. Every year most countries produce more stamps than the preceding year. Many produce more in a year than they did for the first 25 years. I'm really not a big fan of most stamps produced after the 1940's but if I did not go beyond that I would not be able to add much to my collection. I do not intend to collect but a very few countries past year 2000. I might not have extended most of the countries that I have already if it were not for my website. It pretty much drives me to put up more stamps for people to view and reference.
Have you scanned much of your collection? It takes a lot of time but there are a lot of advantages to doing it. Hint: I like to look at other peoples collections because most of the older stamps all look different.
I often wonder how many private well organized collections there are in the world in the 3-400,000 range. It takes so long to do, that I would not think more than a couple hundred.
As far as it being not to hard to get to the 200,000 mark. You'll have a really hard time starting from scratch with each country. You need to buy country collections that have most of the filler in them and you will get pages as well. Or layout $3,000-5,000
on a decent world collection. Then you have a good base to work with and can add to it when you find good prices for the stamps that are still needed. Of course it takes some money but you can usually get decent starter country collections for a couple hundred dollars or less. When adding to existing collections, I rarely buy singles or sets. I try and get parts of country collections that have some stamps I need and sell the better remainders to recoup the money spent on the lot.
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07:39:16pm
re: World Wide Collectors
"I rarely buy single or sets. I try and get parts of country collections that have some stamps I need and sell the better remainders to recoup the money spent on the lot. "
I used to buy alot of box lots at auctions, but those lots get very repetitive with the same low valued material. Now, I look for lots of new material that I try to get. Not easy to find. When I do find it, I try to get it. I find it better to have the dealer put together such a lot and then buy it direct. New material is hard to find.
I wander around the approval books here. There is plenty to find to fill those missed items in the older pages, or to get a MNH version of a used stamp. I prefer MNH. That's the way (uh huh uh huh) I like it. I get APS sales circuits for the areas that I am weak on. It doesn't take long to solve that matter. I have been working heavily on independent Africa. Definitely not a popular area, but one where there is plenty of material to find. I'm tired of looking at Liberia. Seems like everyone is trying to sell Liberia. I don't need any more Liberia...well, I do, but I don't want to see it for a while.
I'll look at smaller dealers where I can get complete MNH sets at nice discounts. I found one who actually solicited me APS member to member. He sends me MNH complete sets from the country I want (currently Bulgaria - I only want approvals from one country per selection as it is too hard to get 25 sets from 25 countries). His price runs 45% to 65% of catalog, he gives me an additional discount if I purchase a certain amount, and then he sends me free MNH sets close to what I paid that are included with my next selection. I am happy with his service for sure.
As for collections, I will look at older collections if the stamps are MNH, or if the stamps a newer issues (post 1980) and MNH. I've done this for a long time, so I pretty much know just by looking at the first couple of pages if I am even interested in it. Many times after I go through a few more pages, I find I am not interested. Definitely nice to be able to purchase a nice collection and sell the unwanted material, but definitely I stay away from the minimum valued stuff now.
I have posted a few images of stamps from my collection here. Not sure if you could easily find them now. I don't have images of my collection, but I do understand the advantages of doing so, especially for insurance purposes. By the way, the upright Jenny sheet and the PRC Year of the Monkey stamp you see at the top left of SOR pages are mine. I don't have the upright Jenny sheet anymore, but I do have the Monkey. I paid $168 for it from an APS sales book years ago. It was the highest price I ever paid for a stamp from an APS sales book. It cataloged $400 at the time of purchase. I think I did all right with that one!
Whether it be 600,000 or 800,000 (and you're probably right), there's too much older material out there, and not enough newer stuff.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Ok, guess I will join in the fun...
What year range do you collect?
1840-1940; to 1952 British Commonwealth.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Have no real idea, but I would say in the 5000 range.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
I have a two-volume Scott International Vol 1, but have recently started migrating over the Brown Vintage Reproductions, which I am really enjoying.
BTW, going to BALPEX 2015 tomorrow so hopefully I will increase my numbers by a little
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08:11:26pm
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
1840 to current. USA is MNH only. All other countries I have a mixture of mint, used, and CTO.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
58,000+ Gosh it seems kind of low compared to some of the other world wide collectors here, but I have only been working on my world wide collection seriously for about 4 years now.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
USA is in Davo Albums. Everything else, except for Germany, is in 64 page Lighthouse Stockbooks. Germany is still on Steiner pages. I am up to 38 stockbooks now and will probably need to buy more soon. I used to use albums for world wide but the number of pages that I needed to keep up to date got way out of hand. I have been happy with my choice to move everything to stockbooks. The only problem is adding a lot of new stamps requires constant rearranging.
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08:19:44pm
re: World Wide Collectors
Kam, you added 58,000 in four years. That's more than double the average number of stamps I added in my 53 years of collecting. In six more years you'll have more stamps than me!
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re: World Wide Collectors
"Kam, you added 58,000 in four years. That's more than double the average number of stamps I added in my 53 years of collecting.
"
I've been tracking my progress for the past 10 years (ever since I build up my first country-inventory list and started doing worldwide 'seriously), and I seem to average 6.5-7K (major number) additions on most years.
IMHO there's a clear ratio between how much time one can devote to stamps vs. how many addition one can make. Those years when I've been very busy at work or busy at life, have also been the years when I've added only 4-5K stamps. Whereas when I've been having more 'me-time' (such as 2009 and 2010 when I was on sick leave most of the time), I reached 10-12K additions per year limit. So I'd estimate that when I some day get to retire, I should have no issues in boosting my stamp additions 3-4 fold.
My personal projection is that if I can keep up with the current pace (and health permits), I'll end up with:
- 170K stamps by the time fifty in 2025 (half of the kids grown up and gone to college)
- 250K stamps by the time I'm sixty 2035 (rest of kids are finally out, maybe some grandkids coming in)
- 300K stamps when I get to retire at 68 in 2043
- 400-500K stamps by the time I'm six feet under
In the end all this takes is persistence and time. Set a goal and go for it, stamp after stamp, year after year.
"Everything else, except for Germany, is in 64 page Lighthouse Stockbooks... I have been happy with my choice to move everything to stockbooks. The only problem is adding a lot of new stamps requires constant rearranging. "
That's one of the reasons (besides durability) why I use either 16 or 32 pagers most of the time. When you get a whole lot of new stamps, you'll simply add new book or two in between. Makes life a whole lot easier
-k-
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re: World Wide Collectors
Michael, It appears we are pretty much complete opposites in our preferences and approach to collecting stamps.
I haven't bought a box lot in over 20 years and never buy anything unless I can see it. The lots I bid on most often catalog for several hundreds to several thousand each. I often pay between 3.5%-5% with very few stamps having any faults. It is very difficult for me to find the few early scarce stamps I need for my collection. If I can find a couple in a lot and sell the remainder for several times what I paid for the lot, it works for me. It also allows me to constantly upgrade for centering, appearance and used to mint. Sure most of the scarce stamps I need are not that hard to find but paying 60-100% of catalog and having nothing else to make money from makes little sense to me. I do of course buy singles from time to time because some stamps and sheets never show up in multiple stamp lots. When I do do this I rarely pay over 25%. I do not care about MNH unless I have them to sell. I'm only interested in getting sound nice appearing stamps whether mint or used.
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re: World Wide Collectors
SCB, Sounds like a good plan, good luck! Sounds like you are on good track. I think it will prove increasingly more difficult in using stockbooks. They make it hard to keep track of what you need and shuffling them around will be very laborious.
Most collections look great in stockbooks but when you transfer them to pages with all the major numbers they do not often look so great.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"It appears we are pretty much complete opposites in our preferences and approach to collecting stamps. "
Interesting to see how different the approach to building a collection can be. And how these very different approaches can yet lead to very advanced collections of similar size. As I focus on stamp issuing entities more than the absolute numbers I started building my collection by buying collections and then moved to buying targeted stamps. The less common entities just don't come with general collections......
"In the end all this takes is persistence and time. Set a goal and go for it, stamp after stamp, year after year. "
Ever so true.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"Most collections look great in stockbooks but when you transfer them to pages with all the major numbers they do not often look so great."
Same can be said also when transferring stamps from traditional albums to stockbooks. You never know what lies underneath all those hinges and gunk, and often times approx. 10% (or more) ends up on the bin no matter how complete/great the album pages may have looked.
Stocks books are just a medium. You can use them wisely, or you can shoot yourself in the foot. Same applies also mounts, hinges, and just about everything else in this hobby of ours.
For example I leave spaces to both major and minor varieties, but only when I've reached a certain level of completion for country/era/series. It's just 'smarter' (no need to put money and space on empty pages long term).
-k-
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08:45:32pm
re: World Wide Collectors
I constantly upgrade to better condition (centering, etc.) whenever I can. I also do not buy box lots of older stamps that much anymore. Larger lots of newer issues will definitely catch my eye for countries that I am weak on in the 1990 and newer eras. That's where I concentrate my box and larger lot purchases now, although there aren't that many of those around. I have learned how to scout them out real fast to see if there is anything of that I need in them. Usually not. I might miss something that I need once in a while, but sometimes that's better than winding up with a pile of junk.
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12:28:03am
re: World Wide Collectors
Range: 1840 to 1985
Albums: 1840 to 1940 Scott Intl. Jr.
The rest from 1840 to 1985 go into a 3 volume Harris Standard. Single country albums include U.S., Canada, U.N., Germany, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and Romania.
Number of stamps: wild guess, at least 50,000 different.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Range: 1840 to 2015
Albums: 3 (Australia 1853-1966; Australia 1967-2015; World 1840 - 1967)
Types of stamps in collection: Australian Plate proofs, Colour trials; Specimens; Errors; Perfins; all scarce to rare Australian issues, all are in well centred mint unhinged to superb mint unhinged condition; as well as complete stamp series of former monarchs. Also scarce to rare NZ issues, GB issues (finding it difficult to locate US issues)
Type of Albums: Hagner
Total stamps: 3430 and still adding
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re: World Wide Collectors
Hi Everyone;
World-Wide 1840 - 1970s or so.
First seven volumes Scott International (Big Blue).
26 volumes mostly 3" Scott Specialty series Green/Gold covers approximately 60% of world.
between 50,000 and 60,000 different stamps
150,000+ unsorted, enough to keep me busy into the hereafter and then some.
Just Sortin'....and Sortin'....and....
TuskenRaider
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07:12:56pm
re: World Wide Collectors
Ken, I think it's the nature of the beast that most of us are going to leave a pile behind when we keel over.
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re: World Wide Collectors
My WW collection is more of whatever I have or get my hands on rather than a pursuit. That said, I collect all years and have 3 Harris Standard and/or citation albums. As stamps come my way, I put them in the albums.
I have separate albums for specialized collections, and put duplicates in my WW album.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I'm really surprised by the number of worldwide collectors who collect up through modern issues.
I end at 1940 or so and find it a little overwhelming
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12:58:59am
re: World Wide Collectors
Collecting the newest issues is indeed challenging. I stated in another thread that it appears to me that more of the newer issues are coming onto the market. Are people selling these off, because of the drooping catalog values and the strong USA dollar? Nevertheless, a look through the catalogs will show that new issues from the 1990s to date are mostly miniature sheets that take up one album page onto themselves. Makes storage space all the more critical.
This is causing me to require more shelf space for my albums. Unfortunately there is non available. I am working on getting at least one large bookcase. When I do, I'll have to buy about 15 more binders (5 inch) to store the large number of album pages that I need to mount the many sheets that I have, and also to trim the number of pages currently contained in many over-stuffed binders.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Chris, I am also $$$$$$$ !
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Back in the 80s when PCs became a household item I started to count my stamps using microsoft works spreadsheets, it was fun, I arranged the countries by regular postage, semipostals, airmails and so on so I could tell exactly how many stamps I had for that particular country it was neat for every time I added a stamps to my collection I would get a new grand total. After a while I realized that I was playing with numbers instead of enjoying my stamps so I quit altogether counting stamps.
As of today I would guess my collection to be in the 90K to 100K stamps from issuing entities like Angola and Zanzibar and everything in between dating back to 1840 to date.
I use vario pages for my favorite countries and stockbooks for the rest.
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re: World Wide Collectors
My worldwide collection began as a Cub Scout project at age 7. It putzed along until after age 11 when I got a paper route and funding to pursue purchases. I remember finally purchasing a Regents two volume album and starting the upgrade of spaces.
Sports intervened and I actually got really busy while commuting to college. I started adding small collections and started a specialty in Nazi Germany. It was then that I switched to the blue Scott Internationals. I bought a new volume I but gradually purchased leftover collections in volumes II through VI. That brought me to the currently available albums (1968)and I stopped there and remain at that worldwide date to this day.
My collection received episodic attention through the early years of my first marriage. The restricted free time of parenthood allowed a limited amount of attention. After my divorce in 1994 my collecting took off as it became my mistress. I leveraged my interest in exploration & African history and started a specialty in colonial Africa.
My Internationals remain through 1968 but I have liberally added detail pages so i tnow resides in 13 regular binders. (I love collecting all perf varities and other details). This despite removing pages for colonial Africa. I have slowly procured all of the appropriate Scott Specialty albums for these: British, French, Spanish, Italian, Belgian & German.
Another passion area is the Cape of Good Hope. I have accumulated over 150 triangles. although I have only one so so wood block.
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re: World Wide Collectors
The colorful approvals from the French African "colonies" is one of the major things that attracted me to stamp collecting. I dabble in U.S. and Canada as they come along,but i have a soft spot for French Africa and the former Italian colonies.
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
1840-date ("soft" cutoff at 2010)
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Approximately 24,000
What do you use to store the stamps in?
US: Stockbooks.
Everything else: Vario pages, Steiner pages, or a combination of both.
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
1840-date ("soft" cutoff at 2010)
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Approximately 76,000
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Steiner pages, in 3 ring binders.
How many albums or binders hold your collection?
115 three ring binders.
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11:13:15am
re: World Wide Collectors
"How many albums or binders hold your collection?
115 three ring binders."
Doug...that's all......... I'm at 116
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Doug, you should recount the stamps as well. Maybe you have 125,000 stamps instead of 76,000.
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Interesting thread! The question that I'd like to ask is just How does WW collector collect? Do you buy kiloware and then spend hours sorting thousands of stamps? Or do you buy other people's collections at auction?
Do you focus on individual countries, or continents at a time ("Must get in a load of S America/African colonies etc this month")? And thus slowly increase overall world coverage over the months?
What about all those duplicates - what % of a kiloware purchase will be duplicates?
For me it's just a few countries - so I use eBay, Delcampe and Stamps2Go. And the SOR approvals, of course.
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re: World Wide Collectors
"The question that I'd like to ask is just How does WW collector collect? Do you buy kiloware and then spend hours sorting thousands of stamps? Or do you buy other people's collections at auction?"
All of it (in addition of which I do stamp exchanges). Basically it all comes down to contents of it. The further I have advanced, the less 'generic' my acquisitions get.
For example last month I got my hands on 500 grams of kiloware. Not the usual type with lots of Germany/UK/US/Australia/Netherlands, but this was made up entirely from exotic countries (Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Sri Lanka etc). And last week I acquired a collection of Swiss SDN stamps from auction... Needless to say the percentage of material I can use will be pretty high.
"What about all those duplicates - what % of a kiloware purchase will be duplicates? "
That's why there are stamp exchanges...
-k-
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? to 1970
How many stamps in your world wide collection? Not many as of yet
What do you use to store the stamps in? Steiner printed to Lighthouse blank pages and Lighthouse mounts
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re: World Wide Collectors
i have little choice...i collect worldwide to 1969 ...prefer used. But i have a confession to make..i much prefer filling a space from Western Europe than say Africa or Eastern Europe.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I just can't bear to get rid of stamps that I dont' have!
I'm a bit like Phil, though ... Western Europe is my concentration.
What year range do you collect? Whenever to present
How many stamps in your world wide collection? I really don't know - quite a few, really
What do you use to store the stamps in? I still use the Harris Statesman binder that my dad brought back for me from Toronto when I was 8,(and the second added binder) but it's obviously not large enough, so I use stockbooks for the rest
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24 Aug 2017
11:00:10pm
re: World Wide Collectors
Worldwide 1840-1950ish. Probably close to 40k. Stockbooks, Varios, Scott International 6 volumes and many not yet sorted.
Then I have specialty collections - that's probably another 20k. Same deal, Stockbooks, Varios and Specialty albums both commercial and home made.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I collect worldwide 1840-1999. At the moment I am working hard to store all stamps at pages from Stampalbumsweb. It will be about 400 binders. At the moment I have made about 50-60% of the albums. Just now I am working with Korea. Hopefully I will be ready before next summer. Then I will focus on filling the albums.
How many stamps? Quite a lot. Perhaps 200K. For most european countries I have more than 90%. Not that strong for Central an South America.
In the past I have done a lot of trading, now I usally by collections and boxes and sell or trade the stamp I don´t need.
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04:03:43pm
re: World Wide Collectors
Having only joined early this year, I apparently missed replying to this very entertaining thread.
What year range do you collect? 1840-1940.
How many stamps in your world wide collection? Around 23,000.
What do you use to store the stamps in? The Scott International Volume One. The Big Blue has approximately 35,000 spaces so I have a way to go.
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re: World Wide Collectors
1840 to date
100.000 +
Vario pages for my favorite country, White pages stock books for the rest.
Tony
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08:10:36am
re: World Wide Collectors
Update from my original post.
I have really had to apply some strong self-discipline, and have had to apply the following rigid rules without exception.
1. No more purchases or exchanges until I have processed the many thousands of stamp sitting in boxes,envelopes and filing cabinets. As you can imagine this is very painful ! The only exception is that I retain and hopefully process immediately stamps from mail received at home.
2. Be very systematic in my processing. The majority of stuff has been partially presorted into envelopes but is very haphazard in the way that it is stored. I am determined not to waste time by consolidating the haphazard. I am determined to take each envelope in turn and totally go through it's contents in minute detail and mount everything before going onto the next. The only exception being that where a new album page is required the stamp is placed into my one stockbook with all relevant details on a slip of paper. When I have filled a couple of pages in the stockbook I will have a new-page session.
3. Duplicates. Items which I am sure are 100% duplicate are stored systematically so that when I get to the stage of exchanging again they will be easy to organise without a whole lot of unnecessary preperation. Part of the "clear as you go" policy as set out in 2 above.
4. Do not worry about the stamps I don't possess. It is far more important that the stamps I do have are organised neatly, and not languishing in the aforementioned boxes,envelopes etc. The aesthetics of the presentation is at least as important to me as the content.
So far this year I have added over 1000 stamps to my collection. However these were already in my possession, and just not processed - and they are the tip of the iceberg !
I still have absolutely no idea how many stamps are in my collection !
Malcolm
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re: World Wide Collectors
Words of wisdom, Malcolm!
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Sorry, am I reading this correctly. We actually have to do some sorting and mounting? I thought that I just had to have the stamps, not put them in any sort of order.
Oh heck there goes the next five years of spare time.
Next thing someone will say I have to soak off the thousands of stamps still in bags and boxes, now where did I put my set of drying encyclopaedia books.
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I stopped counting at 170 albums...
I have stopped collecting Africa, Asia (Except Middle Eastern countries), US (20 albums went to nephews), and all GB and British related except for Malta and Cyprus (part of my Europe)
And still, I need to add more album......
I do not collect anything above 2000, and am capping many more recent interest areas to 1985.
I need to get rid of more......so why do I get more?
Now Europe is being standardized in Scott Specialty in 2 post albums (I don't like the newer 3 ring binders), but the rest is Steiner, or being converted to Steiner, and 3 ring binders. Love Steiner!
I think world collectors share an incurable (but not contagious) virus.
rrr...
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? 1840 to date
How many stamps in your world wide collection? 150,000 +-
What do you use to store the stamps in? Vario pages, stockbooks
Tony
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
Hard to pinpoint. I stop at different years for different countries, depending on how much i like their stamps.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
Again, kind of hard to tell so far. I've just barely began organizing my worldwide collection. So far, just over 12,000 mounted, but that's only about 20 or so, mostly, small countries.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Mounted - Steiner pages in 3-ring binders. Everything else either in envelopes or penny sleeves, waiting to be mounted.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I have embarked on a project to collect the entire bunch of stamps issued in 1970. This is quite a large number but I have already managed to collect six countries output for 1970. I am hoping to complete this collection in the next ten years.
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re: World Wide Collectors
This is an interesting thread!
Range: 1840-1981
Count: 20-25,000 (estimate)
Albums: Minkus Global 5 Vols
Art
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re: World Wide Collectors
Current collections and album used:
Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country Album 788 of 788 plus a few add-ins : Downloaded Album from Web
(this was my most active collection in terms of new purchases and time
spent looking for new stamps for the album until late 2019 with something new
almost weekly)
1840-1940 world wide 8,500+ mint and used : Scott International Part I
(adding stamps which are new to me that are left over from new country collections or other
album acquisitions where stamps are already in the 1840-1963 album set listed below)
1840-1963 world wide 32,160 mint and unused : Scott International Parts 1A1, 1A2, 1B1, 1B2, II, III, IV, and V
(at time of initial posting on April 22, 2019 I had 14.0% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 11,992 stamps in the albums)
(this is my most active collection currently in terms of new growth and I am still
adding stamps from some collections on pages that I have purchased during the past year;
at this time, late October 2019, I have 19.0% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 16,308 stamps in the albums)
(update, early February 2020, I have 20.6% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 17,654 stamps in the albums)
(update, May 7, 2020, I have 24.81% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 21,235 stamps in the albums)
(update, June 7, 2020, I have 26.99% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 23,110 stamps in the albums)
(update, October 17, 2020, I have 33.35% covereage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 28,548 stamps in the albums)
(update, November 8, 2020, I have 33.88% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 29,000 stamps in the albums)
(update, February 13, 2021, I have 37.58% coverage of the 85,600 stamp spaces in the album set for 32,160 stamps in the albums)
Finland 1856-1971 745 of 760 album spaces: Scott Finland Hingeless
(newer country collection and collecting mint stamps although a few used stamps have snuck in on the first page of the album , five to be exact)
France 1849-1994 1,340: Scott Specialty
(working on adding mint stamps to album, fourth most active collection in terms of current new growth)
Great Britain 1840-1992 700 : Scott Specialty
(trying to collect mint for the last set of Queen Victoria and up with many holes to work on
but still moving stamps from a large stock book to the album)
Japan 1871-1974 985: Scott Japan Hingeless
(third most active and a new collection)
United States of America 1847-1940 922 including airmails and back of the book (plus complete til 1978 after Scott # 902) : Scott National USA Hingeless
(want list has 36 stamps which I consider potentially acquirable over time for completion,
adding one or two stamps a year plus some special delivery and postage due stamps as
they show up)
Canada 1851-1978 plus Provinces 600 : Scott Canada Hingeless
(want list has no stamps for Canada which I consider potentially acquirable over time for
completion although five or so stamps might slip in over the next decade if I get
lucky plus 164 stamps for Newfoundland and a few isolated stamps from other provinces)
Sweden 1855-1979 1232: Scott Sweden Hingeless
(adding stamps actively now and making good progress with new stamps for the album which has spaces for 1,411 stamps)
Netherlands 1852-1948 326 of 680: Scott Netherlands Specialty Part I
(my newest collection which has been growing very fast due to assistance from some local collectors and some Stamporama members and is starting to look respectable despite my preference for mint stamps )
I really like the brown leather Scott Hingeless albums which are based on the Scott
Specialty pages that were produced starting in the early 1970's. Finding
an available binder with pages will often prompt a new collection for me. Currently I
have the albums for the United States, Canada, Japan, Finland, and most recently Sweden.
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10:27:25am
re: World Wide Collectors
Well, in the almost 4 years since I started this thread, I can say that I have added perhaps 85% of the stamps that were sitting in boxes and stock books into my albums. I was often surprised at the catalogue values for many of those items.
There are three areas of accumulations that I have been avoiding. That includes early US, China overprints and early South African definitives. I have worked on some of the stamps from there, but with all the easier stamps to work on, I preferred to go for the easiest stuff first, rather than watch my eyes explode trying to identify colors, overprint types and types. Besides, I won't be needing most of the stamps from those three areas.
My album rebuild/reconfigure project continues, and is entering what I consider the third of four stages.
I have been mulling over what to do with all the items I have for which there are no pages that I don't have much desire to keep. When the album work is completed, I'll make a final decision on those.
I am upgrading from the 2017 to the 2020 Scott Catalogues as I have updated my album pages. I am now just one year short of being current. I am not planning on doing the comparison analysis as I have in the past, however.
I keep thinking about starting a formal US pre-cancel collection. I have the Steiner pages for it. I ought to just go ahead and do it. I have a good supply of pre-cancels sitting in glassines and stock books.
I am planning to restart a US revenues collection. I had a very large revenue collection many years ago that I had to sell for needed financial purposes. This time, it would be a representative collection using Scott International pages that are, of course, abridged. The same holds true for postal stationary, which I also had a large collection of that I sold. I have a small accumulation sitting here of each of those areas.
Looking at my plans for my collection, and the direction I want to go with it, I figure I have about another 100 years of work to do before I am finished!
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re: World Wide Collectors
"Looking at my plans for my collection, and the direction I want to go with it, I figure I have about another 100 years of work to do before I am finished!"
That should leave plenty of time to write another sci-fi book.
I look forward to it!
Lars
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
28 Apr 2019
11:10:38am
re: World Wide Collectors
I'm not sure if I qualify as a worldwide collector but I have volumes 1, 2, 3A and 3B of the Scott's International album series. If I see a collection from a certain country I like I buy it and mount it. Lately I bought a large "P lot" in order to get stamps from the US Philippines and US Puerto Rico as well as a PEI stamp I didn't have. Of course now I collect Peru, Philippines (non-US), Puerto Rico (non-US) and some Persian stamps. I mostly try to concentrate on Scott's International #1 (up to 1940). I have relatively complete Vol #1 collections for many countries - probably a lot more than 10 000 stamps. So I'm a World collector who collects by chance or by whim. I mainly collect Canada, US, Russia and Poland but have to known to go off on a tangent! I look for interesting countries with stamps I like!
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10:06:57am
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
ANS: All, though preference is 1840-1973.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
ANS: I only count stamps mounted in an album, so 0 at this point. My “accumulation” in boxes and remainder albums is conservatively in the 10-20K range although that surely includes a decent number of duplicates.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
ANS: I will be using Steiner pages in Avery durable binders for my primary collection. Duplicates will go into various other binders such as Harris, stock books, etc.
Dale
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
all
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
No clue. Many thousands after 10 years.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Minkus Global up to 1984, Stockbooks, Vario pages after 1984, and a few specialty albums.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Since I posted my last response in 2017, I have added a new area of focus: Latin America.
Working it, a country at a time, so earlier this year I added the missing countries of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Costa Rica and Ecuador. Panama is the last one I have to add...soon. Latin America is in 3 ring albums with Steiner pages. Capped at 2000, mostly, but to 1980 for the countries that went issuing a huge amount of stamps in the late 1980s.
This is an area where trading is a big focus.
I don't collect East Europe, but I have decided to make an exception for Bulgaria, where my grand grand father was born (When the Ottoman empire provided a shelter to the Jews escaping Europe's antisemitism, in the late 18th century). (Bulgaria is in a Minkus album). The rest of East Europe is being organized for selling. (nice Russia and Hungary collections, if anyone is interested in trading).
As far as West Europe (less UK) is concerned (all in 2-posts Scott Specialty albums and to 2000), I have been working on Cyprus, Gibraltar and Malta, previously I had ignored them as British related,..but the Europe label prevailed!
And Scandinavia is a future target, but I started with Finland this year and ask the classical question..."to continue or not to continue", appropriately a Scandinavian question! I have a good basis to start, so I am teetering at the edge of a go decision. Also the Netherlands which will be next, this fall or winter at the earliest.
Areas where my collections are quite advanced in Europe, I still target selectively the few (expensive) stamps I miss, looking at good bargains as there are still too many holes to warrant buying at any price to finish! But I have expanded to include French colonies, Spanish colonies, Portuguese colonies (but not Italian colonies yet).
US, Switzerland and Germany went to my nephews, Cuba to our adopted Cuban family and canada will go there again as they have made Canada a home. So it is a slow attempt to reduce the collection range...very slow...too slow!! It is hard to get rid of stuff! I sold an almost complete Vatican collection once at Auction and felt it did pretty well, but the Auctioneer's cut makes the whole effort financially questionable.
As I said before: I think world collectors share an incurable (but not contagious) virus.
rrr...
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06:03:41pm
re: World Wide Collectors
Speaking of getting back at some former areas, I have restarted a United States revenue and a postal stationary collection. I am using Scott International pages, and will merely create a "representative" collection of these as provided for on the pages. I won't expand beyond the spaces provided on the album pages by printing pages, or getting specialized pages (although I do have most of those pages already - how the heck did that happen?). Famous last words? Probably, because I have many revenues that are not included with the International pages.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I am trying to navigate the Portugese colonies..i picked up a Mozambique collection in Ottawa, the value is mainly in the postal tax stamps..Scott only lists 4 of them in the 2017 catalog but they leave out some beautiful sets.
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03:36:40pm
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
Pre - philately to 1940 for world wide. Separate collections for France, World War One, Austria and Germany that have different date ranges.
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
I haven't counted them in years. My grandniece would say "bazillions."
What do you use to store the stamps in?
World wide collection is housed in the old Brown Scott Internationals, the parent albums to the current International volume 1. Supplemental albums for this on home-made pages in three-ring binders. The rest in Scott Specialty Albums.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Made some minor updates to my collection status in the April 2019 post.
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04:45:52pm
re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
1840-2000 or whenever I hit SA's that won't soak
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
100,000? I really don't keep a count
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Lighthouse Albums Primarily but as they don't cover everything I have some Davo, Lindner, Scott Specialty and Minkus, plus my own creations using cardstock. Everything is hingeless by origin or by me adding mounts. Hinges make me go unstuck. I have lot of stock books as well though they are for extras or odds and ends and not primary albums.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Updated collection status information, reached a milestone this morning of 20.0% coverage of the International Part 1A1-1B2 albums and 20.6% overall coverage for the International 1840-1963 Parts 1A1-5 albums.
Just realized that I reached 20% coverage on 2/2/2020, seems appropriate doesn't it?
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re: World Wide Collectors
Updated collection status information, reached a milestone yesterday of 24.51% coverage of the International Part 1A1-1B2 albums with 8,434 stamps and 24.81% overall coverage of the International Parts 1A1-5 albums with 21,235 stamps.
Finland collection has stalled for a bit due to a dearth of available mint stamps with 727 of 760 stamps in the album. Two new stamps are coming for the Finland album one from the APS Stamp Store and one from a Sandafayre auction but I am unsure when APS is going to be able to ship items.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I do miss the APS, when we are there its like when i was a 15 year kid at the Dutchess county fair !
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What year range do you collect? Currently, I've got stamps from most every time range, but I hope to trim that back to 1840-1976. An arbitrary cutoff as that is the year of my Scott US catalog, and I've been hunting down a used Scott WW catalog set from the 70s.
How many stamps in your world wide collection? No idea but not so many--under 1K I think.
What do you use to store the stamps in? Stockbooks mostly. I picked up a Mystic Voyager album on ebay that has grid pages for countries, so I think that will be useful. Storage used to be a big hangup for me. Packs of WW stamps were so cheap for so many stamps but the albums and catalogs were so expensive! I finally made peace with the whole deal and use the previously mentioned systems. Which only increased my love of WW stamps!
Update: I just scored a 1974 set of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue on ebay. The hunting paid off! Happy collecting everyone!
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re: World Wide Collectors
Range World Wide Disney Started in '68 (US Walt Disney)
Just getting started so I currently have about 250.
Stock books for now but working on Album pages
Mikey
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re: World Wide Collectors
My worldwide collection mainly in 9 second hand Scott Internationals bought on the cheap runs from penny black to 1969. How many stamps in albums?Probably 10 to 20 thousand . I know people who have very attractive looking matching lighthouse albums...to be honest i prefer to spend my stamp money on stamps and not albums that look like a lawyers office.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I've created three world collections in my life:
1) a two volume Harris Standard album with stamps from 1840 to 1968 collected from 1968 to 1972 as a teenager which reached just over 10,000 mint and used stamps,
2) a Scott International Part I album which grew to two binders for 1840-1940 collected from 2006 to 2016 and containing 9,039 mint and used stamps,
and
3) a Scott International Parts 1A1-1B2 plus Parts II, III, IV, and V for 1840-1963 collected from 2006 through now (original purchase in 2006 was a mostly mint base collection in 3 Minkus Supreme Global binders which contributed about 10,000 stamps to the new collection which took seven months to move into the International albums from October 2017 through May 2018 followed by very active additions since then starting in 2017 when I joined Stamporama) in 4 regular binders for Parts 1A1-1B2 and 4 jumbo binders for Parts II throub V containing 28,053 mint stamps currently (Parts 1A1-1B2 contains 11,130 mint stamps). I kept records of the number of stamps in the new collection starting in October 2017 at 4,684, December 2017 at 6,397, December 2018 at 15,520, December 2019 at 17,227, and September 2020 at 28,053.
Worldwide is definitely the way to go!
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re: World Wide Collectors
They are easy to get inexpensive stamps at any time even with a cut off date of 1970-80.
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I collect worldwide postally used stamps after a fashion, that is, I concentrate on definitives (no cut-off for these yet, although I am tempted to leave the modern self-adhesives to others) and the empty spaces in a 1936-ish album.
There are only a few countries that I still actively collect commemoratives from, and for these I have set cut-off dates that usually coincide with a currency reform, a significant political change, or some sort of jubilee.
No idea how many stamps I've got, surely a couple of thousands, although I try to reduce that number by offering commemoratives in exchange for definitives.
My albums consist of (mostly four ring) office binders and homemade quadrilled pages on good quality office paper, and I use hinges. Some old stock books remain in use for intermediary storage.
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re: World Wide Collectors
I have collected many countries, and have come to love the stamps of many more countries I have not collected. I have been doing alot of thinking of late. I have decided I need to pare down my collecting interests. Ultimately I would like to collect the stamps of only three countries, US, Panama and the Canal Zone. I find myself however, loathe to part with my Canada, Australia and Great Britain collections so I am going to keep those extra three for now. The rest over time I will dispose of at my own pace (no doubt much of it here on SOR). I will maintain my postal history interests, especially US/Panama/Canal Zone.
It may be a function of getting older, but I feel the need to simplify my life more.
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect?
1958- (French Polynesia only).
How many stamps in your world wide collection?
634 stamps (MNH).
634 stamp sheets.
634 proof sheets.
634 certificates.
What do you use to store the stamps in?
Leutchturm album (Made in Liechtenstein).
Giraudi SM album (Made in Monaco).
* French Polynesian stamp specialist.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Many many years ago i saw this sheet and wanted it in the worst way,but it was at the time beyond my price range. Some years later at a local auction house i won a box of albums for the absurd price of $58 dollars. when i opened one album the sheet was loose between the pages of French Polynesia. What are the odds ?
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re: World Wide Collectors
I built one other worldwide collection over a fifteen month period from July 2018 through October 2019 on which I spent many hundreds of hours which I forgot to mention. It is based on the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album made available through the National Postal Museum web site which was created to honor an exhibit that was presented at the National Postal Museum. My version of the collection grew to 788 different stamp issuing entities with three stamp on stamp issues for the very high catalog value Switzerland Canton stamps for Basel, Geneva, and Zurich and one stamp on stamp issue for Poland Scott #1, one used stamp for India from 1854 (still have never managed to win an auction bid for a replacement but continue to look for one), and 783 mint stamps for the rest of the entries in the album.
I highly recommend everyone make a stab at completing this album but you don't have to be so carried away as to do it all with mint stamps or even strive for total completeness. I must say that you will learn to look at stamps, stamp issuing countries/entities (my goodness there are a lot of them), dealer inventories, etc. in a totally different way. Plus you will have the opportunity to learn about many topics that gave rise to the production of the stamps as you work to identify candidate stamps for the album. My experience, also, was that more people are interested in this comparatively small collection than any other collection I have ever created because of its ranges of geographic diversity and time diversity. There is definitely something in it for everyone!
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Updated status of my stamp collections on the main entry for my collection to indicate progress on the International collection and the addition of a new standalone country collection.
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re: World Wide Collectors
What year range do you collect? 1840 to roughly 1980.
How many stamps in your world wide collection? In my database I have just over 16,000. I have somewhere between 40000-60000 to go through and expect that will add 15-20K more unique stamps in collection.
What do you use to store the stamps in? I am moving out of my childhood Harris books to Steiner Pages. I am creating what I call booklets for each country. The 3 ring binders were getting unwieldy. I have a 21 hole binder to punch and put them together. What is nice is they stay open nicely and pages don't get pulled out as I turn the pages.
My current target is to get to 200 stamps in 200 countries. So based on my collecting I will be somewhere around 70,000+ to hit that since I have some countries now with over thousand stamps and many over 500.
I have many years to go.
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Updated status of the main descriptive page for my collection from the April 2019 posting.
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re: World Wide Collectors
Updated status of my collections on the April 2019 posting. I have been very active in acquiring stamps as additions to my collections for International 1840-1963 albums, Sweden, Netherlands, Japan, and even one addition for Canada. Sweden and Netherlands are new collections for me and have prompted many additions for the International albums as well as the standalone country albums. I have, also, managed to add a number of items for the Great Britain collection with an emphasis on the Offices' items especially the Tangier items plus many of the postage due stamps.
Many of my additions have occurred due to some local collectors narrowing their focus in their collections while I have been moving in the other direction. Other significant sources have included a local stamp dealer, Stamporama members, eBay, and Hipstamp. It has been quite a lot of fun during the last few months, especially!
I have, also, been spending quite a bit of time looking at some philatelic literature resources through borrowed books locally plus a few acquisitions as well as some online resources that Stamporama members have mentioned. My eyes have been opened to the available philatelic related books through the American Philatelic Reference Library through its Philatelic Literature Review quarterly and some recent interviews of philatelic literature dealers which were quite fascinating.
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