Collecting Matched Set Plate Blocks

There must still be a few hardy souls out there doing this- I see mention of it in dealer ads, etc. It sort of became difficult in the late 60's or so due to the multiple numbers and changed production methods of stamp printers.

I would like to hear from anyone who collects these- what limits do you place on your collection, just certain issues, time frames, what?

Also how the heck do you display them, if you do so? I cannot find any stock sheets that would accommodate matched sets displayed in a block of four positions. Many years ago Ace Art Company made some sheets specifically for them with 8 PB sized pockets on each side of a page.

Thanks for any input!

I see them for sale sometimes, there used to be alot more hard core plate block collectors than there are now. I think nowdays you would just have to use mounts and pake your own pages because some stamps have alot more available numbers than others.

Yeah, I still do, but only for selected issues. For example, certain definitive series (Prexie, Liberty, Prominent Americans, Americana...), airmails, select commemoratives or special issues (Airlift, Hammarksjold invert, early setenants, continuous/contiguous design setenants...)

Since mostly definitive PBs, they will fit easily on Vario-type stockpages. For airmails/larger/oversized PBs, I use the full-size mint sheet pages (SuperSafe style), as it is more economical and I don't have to worry about mix/match page types if the PB size varies for the category. You do have to place them well and turn pages in a special way so the PBs don't slip around.

I do usually keep the PBs packed in glassines until I get enough to start putting in the stockpages or mint sheet pages.

I saw where there is an auction lot coming up soon for the Famous Americans, complete matched sets for all plates and all positions. That would have been a very hot lot 40 or 50 years ago, but now????

You can bet that someone will be interested

Sure, but today it cats about $2200 and will probably bring around $400 or so. Fifty years ago it probably cat about $750 and probably would have brought close to $300.