Sunday, January 3, 2010

New Years Resolutions

There has been a thread on the Virtual Stamp Club devoted to resolutions relating to stamp collecting, so I might as well post mine:

1. Prepare five "duplicate" albums for sale on eBay after verifying that I've transferred all stamps of interest to my "Blue" Volume 1. I've actually completed one album, a 1947 edition of the "Blue," and used this as an opportunity to make notes on differences between the 1947 edition and my 1969. I'll post these in a couple of days.

2. As a corollary to my first resolution, buy a nice fat 1840-1940 collection with the proceeds to continue to build my Volume 1.

3. Count the number of stamps issued between 1840 and 1940 based on the Scott Classic Catalogue. While I've seen several estimates for the number of stamps issued to the present day (500K, give or take), I'm surprised I haven't been able to find numbers for the first hundred years of philately--a much simpler task. Anyway, I'm now in the "C's" with this project, but at the rate I'm going, it will probably be the Spring before this resolution is accomplished. The count will also give a rough breakdown by regular postage, airmails, semi-postals, etc.

Well, that should be enough to keep me busy. Vis-a-vis Resolution #1, below are pictures of my workspace for transferring stamps between two albums. I'm using the plastic drafting tables made by Ikea. These raise the albums enough to make them easier to browse and I like the round holders for keeping track of hinges (in the Ziplock bag), tongs, etc. My only "complaint" is that I wish the lips on the bottom of the drafting tables could be a little higher to hold albums more securely.


1 comment:

maplewoodhistory said...

I just picked a copy of the 1955 album and compared it to the 1947 edition I have, there are some minor moves. I think Pitican Islands is missing like someone else mentioend. Ethiopia is unnder the "E"'s instead of the "a's" The revenue stamps for the US are still included.