How Do You Organize Your Collection?

My collection includes singles, first day covers, covers, plate blocks, post cards and -yep- even some mail early and zip blocks. Right now, each "category" is organized in a separate collection. I am interested in how you organize your collectibles.

Mine is easier -- 99% of mine are singles in country albums (U.S., U.N., Canada).

But I do like the idea of separate "collections" -- I tend to think of my stamps as my US collection, my Airmail collection, etc.

I have "Miscellaneous Collection" of a few airmail covers and a few covers/items I've received from SCF members. I have them in a 3-ring binder containing a hodgepodge of Vario sheets, sheet protectors, etc.

KirkS

Organize? What is organize?

I 'would like to' but do not have as of yet, my hodge podge collection mounted on paper pages with write ups as shown by some collectors of different threads on this forum.

Keeps all the similar but odd-shaped pieces together and makes for a much more coherent display I feel.

Right now it is glassines, stockbooks and Vario pages of differing sizes.

boxes boxes and more boxes witha few albums and [ages thrown into the mix - one day I might get a bit more organized

Do you ever see those so called "collections" on ebay with stamps hanging all over the page ? Well at least I am not that bad !

Oh, do you count the boxes and plastic tubs and such? Oh.


What about the ones everywhere that you find later when you are not doing stamps?

My collection is firstly housed in dealer stockbooks with a centre strip, separated into mint never hinged, mint hinged, postally used and pen cancelled columns across an pen page. No more than 10 of each type are placed in the stockbook. Overflow used material is placed into 102 cards with a maximum of 20 of each type in the card. Mint meterial is housed on hagner pages. Larger pieces are in a sheet file. I also have a separate stockbook for reference matrial that is not of collectible quality.

I keep track of this accumulation in an excel spreadsheet, updated every time I add new material.

I have 22,800 Aussie postage dues at present.

I have three other 64 page stockbooks wuth centre strip housing my British Commonwealth postage dues and separate smaller stockbooks for my South Africa and New Zealand dues.

All my singles,plate blocks and b.o.f.'s & mint sheets, etc.. are all in Vario stock pages and in a binder and in a slipcase, all in meticulous order by Scott number. All of my F.D.C.'s and covers are in acid free paper [D.I.Y.] folders in shoe box's also sorted by scott number.
Edit:
As of last evening I have all my Australian stamps are in glassines and other foreign countries are all in a little manilla stockbook.

My most serious collection is highly specialised. I have it arranged chronologically by face value (since the same plates were always used for each face value), and I keep singles, blocks, sheets, booklets and covers all together, because they're all different aspects of the same individual stamp.

tonymacg you are amazing.
The depth of your knowledge is just full on. John

I collect U.S. pre-1940 and design and print my own pages for all my albums/collections. The main collection is chronological with the early by type/Scott no, plate, position, varieties, shades, etc. Covers and multiples are mounted with the rest of the collection. My precancels are in their own albums by state/city/style. My expo cancel covers are chronological/site using the Bomar designation. Non Bomar expos are year and city in the same albums. Machine cancel covers are in their own albums by state/city/station/machine type/machine no/date. My streetcar RPO's are their own album by state/city/route/date.

Designing my own pages makes it easy the arrange by what make sense to me.

Hi

I use blank quadrille pages exclusively. Therefore, my collection pages are composed of stamp(s), cover(s), etc. on a single page and in chronological order. Everything is in a mount and under the mount, in pencil, is the date of issue, the Scott catalog number and, where appropriate, any other catalog number(s).

If a stamp(s) were re-issued at a later date with a different color, perf, etc. the re-isuues are on the same page as the original issue.

If a set of stamps includes Air Mails then the Air Mails are on the same page as the Regular issue.

If a stamp has variations then the stamp and its variations (next to each other) are on the same page.

Mint stamps not yet mounted are on Hawid 3 row cards in a metal file box. Larger pieces, such as souvenir sheets and blocks, are in glassine bags and in a set of plastic drawers by country.

Used stamps not mounted are in #2 glassines and are in business card file boxes by Scott catalog number, one set of boxes per country. I found long ago that a #2 glassine is almost the same size as a standard business card so the card files work beautifully.

Duplicates, Mint and Used, are in #2 glassines and in an empty glassine box by Scott catalog number, one box per country.

Used US stamps (soaked from correspondence) are in a shoe box. Every now and then I give them to a friend to distribute to children's groups.

I have 2 sets of binders for each country. One is Mint with classic Used and one is Used only (some duplication with Used). Some large pieces that do not fit on a page are in a sheet album.

Colombia FDC's not on a page are in an FDC album arranged by Scott number.

I have one set of binders for the US stamps that I used to collect. This collection is arranged by year and Scott catalog number and is composed of Mint and Used stamps.

I also have a single set of binders that house the world-wide collection that I had when I was a kid. It is not worth very much but it has sentimental value as a very dear aunt helped me with it.

As one can see, a pre-printed album would not be useful. Also, I only collect 3 countries so keeping track of everything is pretty simple, at least to me.

Jerry B

Very interesting Jerry -- you're a bit of an inspiration for the rest of us.

Thanks for sharing,
Kirk

Organization ???? I know where things are but it would be very difficult to have someone else disappear into the stamp room to fetch something for me. They might be swallowed whole never to re-emerge.

Different parts have different locations and handling.

My Canadian material is housed in 3 "Harris" style albums, only one of which is on pre-printed pages. These are for mint material only after 1911 (Geo V and on) and used prior to that. The bulk of my modern used is in another two albums and chosen largely for postmark. Covers in a seperate album (3-ring) except for FDCs which are in FDC albums (currently 12, I think). I have 3 binders of specialized Centennial Issue stuff, precancels in a KaBe stockbook,as are perfins.

Country albums (some are Minkus, some are Stanley Gibbons) for about 6 areas (GB, Aus., NZ, Swiss, Austria, Scandinavia)up to about 1975. U.S.A. is in transition into printed albums and a BOB album thanks to an interest awakened by the SCF Forum.

I also have about 6 KaBe stockbooks containing British Commonwealth Omnibus sets (KGV Anniversary, KGVI Peace Issue, UPU, Elizabeth II Coronation etc., etc.) which I am constantly trying to complete.

Worldwide is in (and this keeps changing) about seventy 3-ring binders organized alphabetically by country name. They have Mint, Used, BOB, Covers, Cinderellas - a bit of everything. I use hinges, Hawid mounts, Clear sleeves, preprinted pages, a bit of everything for display and I do include printouts of information posted on SCF threads.

If I do post a thread showing a set that has caught my eye (see Bosnia and Herzegovina posted yesterday) it means that I am most likely going to remount the material in a more pleasing and more informative manner, often with added information supplied by SCF Members which, by the way, I try to date and credit in the new display.

And finally, on my computer, I have a file that is actually titled "I didn't know that!". This contains folders titled by country and stamp number which contain facts and information about specific stamps which is intended for use when I redo a section of the collection.

Perfect? Good Lord, no! But it seems to let me proceed in a semi-logical manner while still allowing for surprises as I look through books and find stuff that I had previously overlooked or had, and I hate to admit this, forgotten that I owned.

Siggh.. I collect US, South America and some EU pre-1995. Everything in Vario pages in Lighthouse albums according to Scott numbering. Data stored in excel spreadsheets in my laptop.

Problem is I can't stop searching for bargains and buying or trading with friends around the world; not enough time to sort. Piles of glassines filled with stamps lying around. Not pretty... at all.

Need to special attention with my infant crawling around; once found him chewing on Lincoln's head

I can understand that as I live in the Land of Lincoln and have an 8 month old crawling around.

My collection use to be organized, then I found this site. Actually most of my US stamps are hinged or mounted in Mystic Heirloom/Heritage albums, covers on in binders or sleeves in a box, and everything else (duplicates, recent purchases, and the unkonwn)is in piles or stockbooks.