Sorting And Identifying....what's Your Method

I am going thru numerous glassine and paper envelopes of mixed stamps as well as many loose pages of different countries. I am not putting them in a stamp catalogue, but into vario sleeves, sorted by country.
I have probably 300 pages , double sided, sorted by country or occasionall mixed countries. I still have a huge suitcase full of stuff, some sorted by countries, but knowing the owners, am finding that they weren't really educated in the different countries using similiar stamps, such as german and russian issues...as well as France and Italy. My question is this...when your sorting....and you discover unknown stamps...do you keep a seperate sleeve for them to investigate later? and then what....or more to the point....when do you bring it in here for help?...i have a couple ..maybe 5 pages of stamps that I have no idea...hopefully they're special, but at least their unusual. My particular way is to keep these pages next to me as I look thru ebay completed listings, sorted by Highest first and hope that something pops up that I have a copy of....and hopefully in the higher end of pricing. I am now starting to take an interest in cancellations, etc, and am yet to ever soak a stamp for watermarks, etc, despite the poundage of US stamps that I have prior to 1900. I may be looking for a diamond in the rough but have come a long way from the day I joined SCF and looked forward to my 14 days and 50 posts so that I could begin to find my fortune. "just when I thought I was out......they pulled me back in"...Thanks a lot, and I sincerely mean that...im glad I decided to start collecting again...i look at things with a different attitude now...and Im lovin it....

David

PS stay tuned for my questions about selling in here...I was curios, and should ask in a different thread, but here it is...what has been the highest auction price or sale price thru SCF that anyone remembers?

IIRC $160

I've posted this before, but my route
buy A5 2 ring binders and 100 pages
You get storage for 100 countries.

My "sort by value" is for my aussie collection
I have a "sort by year" book also

Each book works out at about circa $6

Hi

My method, that I use for my friend's store, is a little complicated to describe. When I work at home I return the stamps in catalog number order (in the store I do not do this as the stamps go directly into the stock books). The Scott Catalog is used but this method could be used with any catalog.

1. I sort all stamps by country and put in glassines (I always have large old ones on hand).

The following is for each country.

2. I sort by what is depicted or printed on a stamp. In most cases the stamp will be part of a set or series.

3. I identify each stamp and put it in a manila stock sheet and lightly pencil the catalog number below it. Since I use the Scott Catalog I usually have three "sets" of stock cards; Regular Issue, Air Mail, Back of Book (postage due, postal tax. semi-postals, etc.). If a lot of Back of Book issues I will have a stock card for each category.

4. Now comes the hard part to describe. Once I finish step 3 I now put the stamps in catalog number order.

a. I have two stock sheets for sorting, more if needed. Sheet 1 is designated 0 to 50 assigning 2 rows to each number (0 10 20 30 40 50) and Sheet 2 is for 60 to 90. If there are too many stamps for a designated row I use an additional sheet but that does not happen often.

b. I now go through the stock cards with the identified stamps looking for catalog numbers in a numerical range. First I pick stamps between catalog numbers 0 and 90 and put them on the "sorting" stock cards in their assigned row(s)and, again, lightly pencil the catalog number below the stamp. When done I put them on the final stock cards in catalog number order. This is easy as I only have to manually sort 10 stamps. I repeat the process for each catalog number range, i.e; 100 to 190, 200 - 290, etc..

It sounds complicated with a lot of writing but once one goes through these steps it is really simple. I can sort piles of stamps very quickly.

I do have one advantage. If I run out of manila stock sheets I can always get more. However, manila stock sheets are relatively inexpensive and can be reused.

Jerry B

From last Summer right up to present day, I have been sorting 250,000 stamps WW off paper that were in 2 plastic bins either in to #8 or #10 envelopes by alphabetical order. With such a large amount, I had to get the countries divided first and then start with the actual different individual stamps or sets.

As of last week, I think I am at the point where I can start to separate the individual stamps either in to my albums or into glassines or 102 cards for trading purposes. Might take another one or two years for that lol.

Chimo

Bujutsu

ROD:

For what it's worth, here's a lesson I learned the HARD way ...

Those labels on your binder are "peel-n-stick" and peel off easily -- when they're new. If you leave them on there a couple years, they get brittle and you'll never get them off.

KirkS

Hi Kirk,
Yep that's cool.
They can go as hard as you like, they aren't going anywhere.

But onto stickers on Albums and Hagners at auction
that is another thing, really annoying to see a Hagner
ruined by cheap stickers, so I know where you are coming from...

Thoughtful vendors purchase the "peelable" stickers.

Just thinking Kirk, White spirits will probably shift old stickers