Collecting Booklets

I have been collecting US booklets over many years now. However, even as my collection grows, I am frustrated not by the fact that I know I will never be able to complete it in my life time, but by not knowing how far I still fall short from completion. I have consulted all the relevant literature, such as Furman's well known book. I just find it amazing that there is no definitive answer as to how many booklets there actually are.

Does anyone have any information on large booklet collections being sold/auctioned during the last decade? I'd love to find out more details about them.

I recently stumbled across this article, which is a nice summary of the challenges one faces when collecting booklets.

http://www.philatelicdatabase.com/u...s-challenge/

Don't be frustrated. It is a basic fact of collecting that even for specializing in an area, both the knowledge base and available literature are often incomplete. There are only a handful of books I can think of that contained everything I would ever need to know if I were to specialize in that area -- but even then, I still hear other specialists bemoan about "missing information" in them.

It is unfortunate that the Furman catalog has not been updated and is no longer in print. I did enjoy the catalog, as it filled in many blanks unanswered in the Scott US Specialized. Furman is pretty good, but we know that it wasn't as comprehensive as the catalog title claimed. It was a great deal for the price at the time, though; and also a pioneering work at the time.

The Furmam book was not without some factual errors and there were issues with the prices too (at least on the modern material I am familiar with).

For the modern material (after the booklets had staples), I suggext you get the Folded Style Booklet Checklist - it covers booklets (including the blue MDI makeshift booklets), never folded booklet panes, self-adhesive convertible booklets and ATM panes), all in great detail. It is put out by the United States Stamp Society.

There was a very major booklet collection auctioned off a few years ago, but the auction house just lumped almost all of his modern booklets into one giant lot, so there are no details to read.

Yes, this is one of the sources I consulted. It's useful, but does not answer the ultimate question I have. Perhaps that question is simply unanswerable, because no one has the answer.

Why do you not ask your 'ultimate question?"

I assumed it was

Exactly, kjh.

The answer depends on exactly how you define what varieties count as being a different booklet. Since you have not defined that, it is impossible to say. Even if you do define that, it may still be impossible to say as there are certain varieties that are theoretically possible that no one has reported to the booklet gurus. But what does an exact number matter anyway? You track down what you can of what you want.

Well, it matters greatly to a completest like me. I want every booklet that has ever been produced (inclusive of all varieties). I know this is an impossible quest. But it would be good to know how far I still fall short.