Good News/Bad News

I just inventoried my collection and I only need 59 more stamps to complete my 19th Century US stamp collection! Unfortunately the average cost per remaining stamp is about $5,000, or $20,000 if you include the Z-grill.

I'm in the same situation. I need 39 more stamps to complete my Canadian collection of every mint stamp (as of the end of 2013). If I count the used stamps I have, I need only 27. Of these 39, there are seven stamps that have a catalogue value under $1000, which means that I should be able to find them for a few hundred each in auctions. The rest go for much much more. Adding up all of mine needed, it will average about $11,000 per stamp. I plan on lots of proofs and specimens instead of the originals.

Those last three pages in my album taunt me with their incompleteness, especially since I have a 5-volume collection, every position filled.

I feel for you howell1018. Do you have the option of proofs and specimens instead? If I go that route, the price of some stamps drop drop from $20,000 to about $100 each.

You are both on the exponential end of the curve, where acquiring more stamps, the cost heads towards infinity (for all practical purposes).

The good news is you two already have amazing collections.

Congratulations!

I can sympathize - I take either used or mint, so my Canadian collection needs 14 more to be complete (to the end of 2010, when I decided to stop getting newer issues, and if I consider "major" numbers only). Of course, those 14 include the 3 Large Queens on laid paper (one of three known copies of the 2-cent sold last week for $475K). I expect there are about 6 of the 14 that I can realistically expect to acquire.

I don't count the Large Queens on laid paper since they are too expensive. I also don't count the Ottawa and Montreal variations on the Small Queens either since I don't really care about that. The ones I am worried about are the high value Jubilees. It seems like most of the other stuff I want are available in proofs or specimens or cheap used except for these. Still, those three pages taunt me. I am spending way to much now trying to fill every spot.

Are you just collecting either the laid or wove of Canada # 1-5 or settling for proofs of these or consider the first Large Queens as the first for Canada? Also, do you consider Canada # 31-33 Large Queens laid as paper varieties of Canada # 22-25?

I will be probably getting proofs for most of the early stuff (I count it as part of Canada) and since I don't really worry about varieties (like I mentioned before, I don't care about Small Queen printings), I have no plans for the laid paper Large Queens (not that I could ever afford them anyway).

And I whine about filling $100 holes in my US National used album.

I'm so glad that I use stockbooks. There are tons of stamps that I would love to own, but at least the holes don't haunt me. :-)

I'm with Rev on this one- Have a few albums and its actually painful so stockbooks and vario pages work great. Not to mention you can have 5-10-50 of a specialty item and it all fits no matter what.
I have those high dollar jubilees but all heavily roller canceled . Hindsight the proofs or specimens would be nicer . Mine will be up for grabs very soon as we are just buying a house and could use a few pennies extra just incase.

Oops - I mis-spoke earlier. I'm missing 18 stamps, not 14.

Anyway, I'm torn on roller cancels. As I've posted elsewhere, I prefer used stamps in general, since it shows the stamps were used for their intended purpose, and most of the dollar-valued Jubilees (I have the $1, but need the rest) were used in such a way that roller cancels are not unusual. On the other hand, a lot of the ones I've seen are quite ugly and obliterate too much of the design. Sure, it's the same design throughout the set, but some of them look like a rectangular ink blob with a bit of background colour instead of a stamp. I would almost prefer pen cancels to roller cancels.

To jogil, that's an interesting perspective - if I consider different papers as varieties, that takes care of 4 of my 18, and if I consider "Canada" as starting with the Large Queens (the first post-confederation issue), then all I'm missing is the 4 highest Jubilees (and the 3 laid paper Large Queens). Of course, the collector in me wouldn't allow that much liberty with the definition of complete.

The only concession I make in terms of not looking for a particular stamp is to ignore the Port Hood provisionals (88B/C), since these were not authorized by the post office, but merely issued by a rogue postmaster for the sake of expediency.

I'm not quite that close, but I have entered the zone where stamps are costing me more and more each time I buy them. The real question is: What do I do with them after I end my quest? They aren't worth much to sell, and there aren't many people who can appreciate seeing them...kind of leaves me in a quandary.

While I'm not that close, I realized that more and more stamps in my U.S. collection were going to be headed straight up in cost, that's why I started collecting a couple of other countries so I could continue to get stamps regularly without breaking the bank. If I never finish my U.S. collection, so be it. It really doesn't bother me a bit, I'm in this to have fun.

Buck don't be so hard on yourself! I, for one, would love to see your collection and can appreciate your hard work as I know first hand what your dealing with.