Nixer;
Welcome to SCF. I've only been here a couple weeks myself, and I've learned tons of new stuff; I'm sure you will too.
A lot of folks here use scanners; they're nice but not required. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to offer a suggestion for your photos....
Move your camera so you're not at an angle - you want to be looking straight down at the stamp, so your camera is parallel to the flat surface of the stamp. Experiment by moving the camera up/down to find the closest distance that keeps the stamp in focus. Too far away and they're too small, too close and they're blurry.
For U.S. stamps, retailers like Mystic and Global have online catalogs that make good resource materials (although most folks here agree their prices are too high). Read this thread for more info:
https://goscf.com/t/3939Welcome to the board,
KirkS
Posted 03/25/2009 10:56 am
