The famous stamp collector Josiah Lilly said that there were 100,000 postage stamps he wanted for his collection and he succeeded in acquiring 77,000. My considerably easier target is 35,000 of the more common stamps from 1840-1940 contained in the Scott Blue International Album Volume 1. This blog will record my progress, provide general information about Classic era philately and hopefully encourage other "Blue" collectors.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Blue Collectors are Singing the Blues Today
Jim, who authors the "Big Blue 1840-1940 Blog," has decided to discontinue his checklists for the Scott Blue International Volume 1 as he is migrating his collection to Bill Steiner's comprehensive Classic-era pages. Fortunately, Jim "will continue to do a country by country analysis of the classical era." I'm particularly keen to read the comparisons he intends to do of the coverage of the Steiner pages versus the Scott Classic Catalogue. And, I'm also interested in the logistics of using the Steiner pages. Does it work well, in practice, to print pages only as you have stamps to put on them? Just how many binders does it take to hold the 6814 Steiner pages? How many individual stamps in Steiner are worth more than all the stamps in the Blue? Inquiring minds want to know!
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7 comments:
Thanks Bob
The questions posed will certainly reveal themselves in due time.
"And, I'm also interested in the logistics of using the Steiner pages. Does it work well, in practice, to print pages only as you have stamps to put on them?"
I can tentatively answer that question- at least for myself-now.
Generally, no it doesn't work (for me) to selectively print out a countries pages. It is simply easier time wise to print out the whole file.
I expect to add to my collection, and anticipate that many blank pages will eventually have something on them. So, for me, to obtain a stamp, and then find and print out the specific page is not good use of time and labor.
So what to do? Interestingly, so far, most pages do have something on them. So not as big of a problem as one would think.
But if there is a large number of pages with nothing on them (I'm thinking of Afghanistan),then placing these pages in a "holding binder" for future use is a definite option.
Clearly, the advantage of a "holding binder" is I can quickly retrieve the pages(s), and add them to the "active" collection.
Anyway, that is the plan at the moment. :-)
Jim
Obviously Jim suffers more rightly from ADHD, not OCD as he originally led us to believe. If I remember correctly, his most important personal attribute was his self-proclaimed "compulsive/obsessive personality needed for the task" of completing such a herculean effort. Humph! Indeed! Or, perhaps it's just that his wife is finally pissed with the inordinate amount of time he's been spending lately with a hobby instead of getting other, more important things done.
The "holding binder" idea is intriguing. This is exactly why it is so important that there are collectors such as yourself who are willing to share the mechanics of does and does not work with the various collection storage options.
Sniggy, I'm not certain what could be more important than building a collection of classic stamps. I'm sure my wife would agree if she knew that was what I was doing! Today the Blue, tomorrow the Brown, and then Second star to the right and straight on till morning for the Steiner. OK, that sounds like a plan.
As my Big Blue gets bigger (around 17000), I've considered migrating to something more robust. Minkus isn't that much better and the Vintage Reproduction are a bit expensive. I also don't want 14 mostly empty albums, since migrating would be gradual.
The Steiner pages seem to be the way to go. I would print out pages as I go, but I would print the entire country and not worry about blanks within. And the price is right. It will be great to see Jim's take on the Steiner pages. Jim and Bob, thank you both for your excellent blogs. They are a joy to read.
Around how many stamps to a page on the Stiere albums? Huge margins are nice on a small collection of say Newfoundland, but impractical in a WW collection.
To check the density of the Steiner pages, I checked Malta, which has about 232 classic era regluar issues on 17 pages, an average of 13.6 per page. Sets are together and will start on a new page if they don't fit on the previous page. Each set also has a brief description at the top of the set. The pages tend to have no more than five stamps on a row (definitives) and no more than 6 rows (most pages have 5 or less). Note that the Steiner pages are on letter size paper, a bit smaller than Big Blue.
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