The Plan

bearwith.. are you saying you have both the 121 and the 131?

my goodness no.... I wish they are part of the album in the hopes that one day when my kids become doctors they will buy one for the old man

while waiting for the packet to come in I may as well take this opportunity to again thank all of the wonderful members here who have exchanged stamps with my wife, children, and of course myself over the last few weeks... and a huge thank you to those who have shown us the great many kindnesses over the last few months..... I am forever growing and learning in this wonderful hobby and while I may not post as often I am reading here daily and learning more by the minute...

still waiting for the ebay order.... yesterday however I did get a packet in from a new friend in Australia.... I was floored when I saw it 4 big ziplock bags full of stamps! on paper, off paper, and world wide!! I found at least 9 flags I was missing for the flag album I found numerous ones to help in completing the Machin book I have coming from another trade.... my kids found stamps that made them jump up and down and the the wife got a great start on her Poland collection she has been talking about.... there was a number of mint hinged and never hinged in there and just wonderful stuff.. the first sorting (paper vs off paper vs queens vs Mint) took us 3.5 hours! it was so much fun but lots more work to go....heading on a long over due vacation with the family this week end so it will have to wait but I am excited!!

Question - we found a number of these stamps that are in the most unusual condition and cannot figure out how to classify them.. they have either a clear or at least a nice light cancel (some only a small line on corner to indicate cancel) and yet the gum is fully intact.. how does this happen ? what do you call it? and it is really cool!!

What you are probably referring to are CTO's (Cancelled to Order). They are stamps intentionally cancelled for sale to collectors and have seen no postal use. As such, they are considered less desirable (and of lower value) than those that have been through the mails.

Here's a Wiki explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancelled-to-order

oh thank you ... I guess that did not occur to me as the cancel is in a position that looks as though it was on mail... the cancel is just not on center and often off the edge... man I wish my scanner worked! when I get back from vacation I will bring some to work and try to get them in here...

it is time for a long over due vacation ifi have already posted this then please disregard....

we are heading out to go camping and go to Niagara falls ! we got the site last week and we just printed off the tickets to all the stuff we are doing out there.... I will be on and off today but I will not be back until Monday night Tuesday morning.... we have recently discovered our lack in family relations through our now mutual interest in stamps and while this is helping us communicate a lot better it is time to take a bit of us time away from al of the daily nonsense...... I look forward to no phones, no computers, no calls at every turn about how this person needs this, or that person can not handle that, the calls for rides, the calls to attend this meeting or that, the ing about how damn hard life is...... its only three days but long long over due.....

incredible vacation!! and I got to come back to a book on GB in my mail box from Stamp Study! thank you very very much and what a nice cover it was sent in a box just filled with stamps!! oh man that is something... will post pix as soon as the camera is empty from all the vacation shots!!

here is the great cover from that book


i love it!

ahhh back into the swing of things LOL.... so last night I got back into the stamps I set up 5 pages of pressing (about 60 more to go!) and worked a bit more on the Flag album... made a few changes as I noticed when setting up the spaces that some of the stamps were from sets so I decided to include the entire set not just the ones with Flags ..... the thought is it mat be easier to get the whole set when buying on line... also it helps keep the details accurate... if ny one is interested in seeing them I can try to post a few more pages later today or let me know if you want me to email the pages I have done so far as that may be far easier to accomplish while at work LOL...

sorry it took so ling to update but things have been super busy as of late... here is a brief of how things have gone in the world of stamps.. finally got all of our stamps soaked and pressed.. 1st stage sorting is almost complete for us 1st stage is by country.... kids have been actively trading and working on there collections and the wife has decided a few focuses for her collections which opens up a lot of stamps for trade and such as time goes on to fill out those collections. the US flag album is complete finally and here are a few pix of the typical page.







i like it but made a few small changes as I got ready to print LOL... I have this version in full as a PDF file saved and I really do like the way it came out.. its all US flags from 1868 - 2005...

any way thats the brief version of the update and I will make my next post about how my own collection is evolving at another time...