Not Sure How To Start Organizing

My dad gave me a big stamp collection that had been past down to him and I am not sure what/how to even start to organize it.

Some is in albums but the pages are yellowed and dad said to get acid free paper and change the paper. But the collection has lots of loose stamps from all over the world - most are divided into countries.

But I'm kinda at a lose, this seems very interesting, but feeling a little overwhelmed right now.

What would be a good book to use to look up information?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Hope you enjoy your stay & your new stamp collection. Many people here will be able to guide you along!

First - welcome to this forum! You have come to a great place where you can get great advice on just about any stamp-related question you may have!
Second - sit back, relax and become "under"whelmed. The great thing about stamp collecting is that you do not have to get everything done overnight. You can spend as much time as you want to ask questions and come up with the best plan for you. I have collected since 1952 and I am probebly close to being as unorganized now as I was then.
Third - I would suggest as first priority to heed you father's advice by removing the stamps from those yellowing pages.
Fourth - if they are not yet sorted, sort them by country and store in glassine envelopes until you are ready to mount them. If you do not have glassine envelopes, you may purchase from any stamp dealer. In the meantime, storing in plain envelopes would suffice until you get some.
Depending on the number of countries you have, you may want to consider purchasing a world-wide stamp album. They come in many formats and prices to match everyone's needs and budget.
Decisions you will want to make include: are they stamps used or mint unused. What type of mount do you want to use - stamp hinges or stamp mounts.
This is just a start - I am positive that you will get more great suggestions from your post.
Make stamp collecting enjoyable for yourself!

Buterflyws6, welcome to this website which I'm sure will help you expand your knowledge of stamp collecting.
To answer your question, I would suggest that you use the "Search" feature (see the buttons at the top of the screen) and use the following search query "Organizing collection" or something similiar to read earlier discussions on this topic.
To get you started, the following is a link you might enjoy that was started by ncbuckeye:
https://goscf.com/t/17151&SearchTer...g,collection

You have been given some good advice in the previous posts.

Most importantly, do move the stamps from the yellowed albums and go forth with acid free paper as your number one priority.

Beyond that, there is no strict rule as to how to organize, mount or display your collection. Part of the beauty of the hobby is that one can do as they please and no one will criticize how you decide to house your collection. As a matter of economics, though, many of your decisions will likely depend on how many stamps are in the collection, if they are common or scarce varieties, whether there are numerous duplicates, and if the stamps are in mint or used condition (or both).

I assume you are talking about a worldwide collection of stamps and, if so, I suggest your first stop should be your local public library and see if they have a set of Scott Stamp Catalogs, which is the generally accepted means of determining stamp values. Just keep in mind that the "catalog" value is not necessarily indicative of the sales price one can expect to receive in selling a stamp; it is simply a guide. However, it can often provide the assistance you need to identify the "cheap" (common) versus "expensive" (scarce/rare) stamps in your collection.

As these catalogs can get quite expensive, the library is typically your best source to obtain the information. Of course, if you want your own set of Scott Catalogs, past year sets are often available from auction sites such as ebay, at a fraction of the cost of new catalogs.

Regardless of what anyone says, do collect stamps for your own enjoyment and do it in your own time. After all, that's the main goal of the hobby.

First, sort by country, or even first letter of country.

Then, pick a country. Pick it because you have a lot of that country, or because you like the look of those stamps while you were sorting, or because you have some affinity to that country.

Get a stock book, and do a second order sort using whatever criteria you want. I typically match up obvious sets, and sort the rest by denomination (it's a good proxy for date).

Then, as others have said, check out the stamp catalog from the library and buy an album with your country of choice. Then get to mounting.

As you find you have duplicates, get another stock book and add your duplicates to that one. You'll want to bring that to shows and trade with others.

Have fun. It can be a blissfully mindless and relaxing.

First off, you're not lost, you're right here.


It is a regular joke that if you aren't disorganized you aren't really a stamp collector. Look at the threads titled 'You know you're a stamp collector when . . .'

If you aren't sure what to do to start out with just get some Vario brand plastic stock pages or a stockbook and take the stamps out of that old album first like everyone says. Or use glassines (search ebay also) to keep the countries together.

For some great fun and learning experience dump them all in a big pile and learn as you go trying to sort them out and looking at them all as you go.

You will see ones you like and ones you don't like and some countries will appeal to you and some won't. people usually start out with everything (all countries) and then realize there are just so many stamps that they whittle it down to a few countries or just one and work away on that.

Then sometimes they get a separate stockbook or album(you can print your own pages off the internet also) to have a separate collection of just cars on stamps or stamps on stamps or designs or history or cats or whatever.

keep it as simple as you can handle.

There are pre-printed albums with countries and pages already printed up with pictures of some of the stamps, or you can use quadrilled pages (pages with grid lines on them to keep the stamps in line as you mount them), that have no pictures so you can place the stmps how you like. By shape or size or year or denomination or subject or anything.

Look around here or go to a stamp show if one is near you (ask here again). Try something and see how it fits or sits with you. I haven't tried everything myself, some have, but I do what is economical and gets the job done to the quality standards (or lack thereof ) that I demand of myself.

Stamps are fun because you can go as far as you want or keep going and expand your knowledge and collection however you wish.

There is only one rule in stamp collecting. Have fun with it.

Guidelines:
Keep it simple,
Go at your own pace,
Take advice from others or leave it,

Art

I have posted this before, but a refresher...

I am a world wide collector, and as such things can get
out of hand very quickly with organisation
when you buy a "phossick box" at auction with
say 3,000 stamps.


Here is how I do it, I use Bantex A5 2 ring binders
and a packet of A5 copy sheet protectors.

Binder $3.50 sheets $8.50
so for $12 you have a "stock book" where you can
store 100 countries.

I have binders to "sort country" "sort value" and "sort year"
so I never have loose stamps floating around, they all have a home
(short term)

Here is how it looks




and inside, you can see I need to start mounting "greece"

Hope this helps.

Thanks for showing more of that good system Rod.

For those of us who think in inches and feet and not metrix yet (including me) the size of an A5 sized piece of paper or binder is about the same as a 5 inch by 9 inch binder available from Staples office supply here in North America.

Thanks everyone!!

If you're as uneducated as I was when I started last year, the other thing to note is not handle them with your fingers... Stamp tongs!

And welcome to SCF.

Rod - Thanks for posting this. My worldwide extras are starting to get out of hand and I keep them in those plastic organizational bins with all of the compartments. I've got about 7 of those stacked on top of each other. I can never remember which country is in which bin (plus I don't like them being in that plastic that is not acid free). I'm always looking for ways to streamline the process and this method is one I really like. Tidier and more organized.
I would have thought that I should have already figured it out though because I do exactly this for souvenir sheets. I refuse to buy those high dollar mounts for SS's.

Thanks again for the tip.