Re-Building A Collection

That is what my Scott Catalog says also SP542 Pg 896 Scott #1899 Souvenir Page and the FDC Page 412 is $2.00 for
Scott# 1899. All are in Scott Specialized 2013 Edition.

So Walkman82 we wt1 and I must be missing something here.

TinMan, the page I'm talking about has a plate number coil for plate number 3. It's listed in the Mellone catalog in the PNC section. Plates 1 and 2 were common on FDCs, but plates 3 and 4 are extremely rare on FDCs. The same is true with a few other early transportation series coils.

I believe there are approximately 30-40 known.

TinMan, It's always nice to have trading material, and besides I love to help any youngster willing to sit a minute, listen and learn about a great hobby. when I was eight a 85 yr. old women got me interested in stamps. She paid me in stamps and supplies for mowing her lawn and raking leaves. When she was about 90 and I had learned enough to classify, she would send me home with a shoe box full of stamps and a can of energine and gave me 25% of all I could classify. She had been a stamp dealer in the 40's and her father had also been a collector. She would sit with me half the day checking my work. that's how I learned the hobby, if she didn't have all those duplicates It would have taken me many years to get the knowledge I got from the 10 yrs. I new that wonderful women.

wash
Oh I know that is how I got started a teacher introduced me. Kids now days are so glued to the computer and computer games they don't want to learn about stamps. They're not interested. My wife isn't interested, My Son who is 44 isn't interested and my four Grand-kids aren't interested. That old lady bribed you. Ha! Ha! I have tons of used stamps. I would love to befriend a kid or adult and get them started. I just gave away about 8,000 used U.S. stamps a couple months ago to two other adult collectors and I still have about 4 or 5,000 left. I collect U.S. Mint but use a used stamp to fill a hole until I can get a mint stamp for my collection to replace the used one. I tried to start a Stamp Club in our town a couple years ago. We met for a year. Most times there was only two or three people come to the meetings counting me. I'm really afraid Stamp Collecting is becoming a dying hobby.

Walkman82
Why would there be a lot of Plate's 1 and 2 but plates 3 and 4 would be scarce?

In these circumstances, sometimes the best strategy is to drop the 'club', call it 'stamp night', and meet at a local restaurant for coffee/snacks. Reduces the expectations, moving the success/failure hurdle down a bit, and easily works even if, G-d Forbid, a half-dozen people show-up.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

We called it the Rosco Area Stamp Club. Anyway everybody it seems that came with an exception or two just wanted to sell their stamp Collection because they were no longer interested in collecting. A couple had switched to coins. One of the regulars was going to Fla for the winter so it would have just been me and one other person. We are in Northern Michigan. Way up. Just an hour and a half from the Mackinaw Bridge so the area and lack of population hurt us.I have several threads and posts here at SCF pertaining to the Club. We had the APS backing and support. It just didn't fly. We met in a popular restaurant.

Walkman, funny you bring up the Prexie collection, because it was the first one that got me back into collecting. I was browsing Craigslist and found the 1938 stamps, in a "collective display foldout". Every stamp, behind a plastic protective mount, is in absolutely 100% perfect unused condition. The woman sold it to me for $10. I was so impressed with the way it is presented, I continued from there.

Oh and I fully understand those "lots" on ebay becoming nothing more than a box full of unwanted stamps. They're great when you are just starting out. Sometimes I get lucky though, as I recently purchased a 5# box for $8 and there were 503 stamps that I didn't have in my books. I was pretty excited, as the 16# box I bought previous to that didn't yield not ONE single stamp I needed. I'm just about through with the ebay collection boxes. I've just recently started buying the individuals I need. From that point I'll move out into replacing my inferior stamps with better copies, new if possible and financially feasible.

So back to the thread at hand, everyone has their own design on how to build a collection. To me, a stamp collection is just like personal photography. It's all objective and caters to the individual - there's just no wrong way to do something you love as long as you enjoy it.

TinMan,
It's only the FDCs of plates 3 and 4 that are scarce. Scott 1899 plates 1 and 2 went to press in August, 1983 and the First Day was October 10, 1983. Plates 3 and 4 went to press after plates 1 and 2 and subsequently were not available during the entire FDC servicing period, only at the end. As a result, they are extremely scarce. You would probably be surprised what some of the PNCs and PNC FDCs are worth to PNC collectors, it's a very interesting area to collect.

dpoul34,
That's great that you picked up the Prexies that way, sometimes the brightest gems in our collections are the ones we stumble upon. When I lived in Las Vegas years ago, I was browsing Scott 599 2¢ red coil singles in a dealer's shop (Charleston Stamps) and found a 599A. I paid the 25¢ and happily added it to my collection.

dpoul34 I bought about four lots last year and I got a lot of fillers but after a couple of lots I just started getting fewer and fewer so that is when I decided I had pretty well exhausted that source. You are correct though it is a great way for a new collector to start out. I'm thinking of starting a Canada collection and I will probably do the same thing to get started. First thing I have to do though is to find reasonably priced Canadian Albums. Something similar to the Mystic's American Heirloom Collection three volume.

TinMan-
We must be living duplicate lives, only in different locations because I've decided to keep the "newness" of this going by doing Canada as well, and need to find a binder. I haven't found any complete Canadian binders yet though, either some that have a majority of them but not all or pages without any pictures printed to let you know you've got the right one. I've got about 4-500 Canada stamps that magically appear in the box every time I buy a US collection. Go figure!

If you stumble across something before I do in the binder department, please let me know. Stampparaphernalia.com will print the pages w/pictures for the complete Canada stamp collection, but he quoted me $675 to do so.

dpoul34 $675 is way too expensive or a stamp album for me. I couldn't go over $100. So I will just have to keep looking. I don't have any Canadian stamps yet so I'm not in any hurry.I chose Canada because they are our Neighbors and I think Canadian Stamps are beautiful.

Stampparaphernalia......
Some how some where.....
I have aquired a set of the US album pages and US Airs, BOB, etc....
They are NICE!
They are printed in nice color....on heavy card stock.
Each Scott # has a space for every variety, color variety, etc....
These I have are never used....if anyone is interested please contact me @
kevin80334@aol.com
I can make a great deal.

Oh they definitely do make a very beautiful product. I just purchased back of the book pages and 2014 from them. Very nice, and only $19, comparable to Mystic, plus Stamp Para. has rights to use the images.

I won't spend that kind of money either on an album. Not worth it but I'll figure something out. I found a website while cruising at work the other day that lists every Canadian stamp from beginning to end. I'll post it here tomorrow if I remember, but it was very informative, all specs and history behind each stamp as well.

When I was a kid I used a liberty album and stepped up to a national as a teen, They are expensive enough. I wouldn't pay the price they're asking now.