Ww Acquisition Strategies? Need For Focus?

What are some good ideas for aquiring a worldwide stamps?

1. Worldwide collection buys (i.e. thousands of stamps in an International Vol 1) with hopes of getting a good mix of "better stamps" and not just a box of commons? These aren't cheap.

2. Focus on one country for awhile before moving on to the next buying single country collections and selling off the dupes to buy more and then finally filling in the remaining (obtainable) holes with single stamp purchases?

I find that I can spend years buying stamps in <$100 lots at an average price of 10cents each and build a high volume collection but one that is mostly the <$1 more common items. When I buy a more expensive single country collection to fill more holes I find I rebuy what I already had. If I buy singles I often have to buy entire sets to get ones I'm missing.

In the end it seems I should either admit I'm just accumulating commons and will have all the expected holes or save up for bigger buys much spaced much farther apart....probably start with a much narrower focus an then expand over time as get one collection more advanced.

I like all the albums I've build by region/empire/etc. but I've created a lot more pages than had I stayed with International Albums.

I think you get the idea of the questions.

One idea I had was to select highlights of a country (A1, A2, A3 etc. numbers for major catalog numbers)....or just those few stamps I really like even if there ar multiple variations of one number...and build a custom album where eash stamp was hand selected and the pages have good descriptions. Each page would merit more attention vs. just flipping through a huge binder of looking at the arrangement of spots.

I'm going through a phase of asking "what am I trying to accomplish and if I will really ever get there". At first I just liked finding the spot in my albums for a stamp.

Buying one or two really HUGE (100K items or more) w/w collection could do a lot of wonders.

Personally I haven't done that, but I know few collectors who have done so. Yes, it requires serious "loose cash", but I guess one could spent their money on much worse (like getting a brand new car that will lose most of it's value in decade or so). LOL.

It sounds like you enjoyed the achieving of a goal (by filling a hole on your album page) and now you are over-whelming yourself with too much info and stamps to really appreciate that you have reached a goal or not as there are too many to get to.(?)

Perhaps setting realistic goals and setting a time frame to achieve them in, and writing them down (it helps) would calm the waters of your ever questing mind.

It is fascinating to read your posts as you seem most focused but say you are worried about not being focused enough. Maybe reviewing what you have accomplished as you travelled along the stamp collecting road, see how far you've come and the mile posts you've passed would also help.(?)

Speculation on my part of course. You are you. You know best. And I do tend to meander off on side paths at times.

I used to have this as my wallpaper on my computer:

At least it has a nice stamp on it.

First you must realize you will never complete a worldwide collection because of the cost, the number of stamps or because there is only one copy of the stamp. I am a worldwide collector of stamps through 2000. I have signed up for a lot of different circuit books through the APS. My strategy is just to buy as many stamps as I can under $10.00 and get the most coverage I can. I find I can get more stamps for the dollar this way. Most approvals are overpriced. Buying large lots I get a lot of dup's and a lot of damaged stamps. Buying kiloware is a waste because its all duplicate material or mostly definitives. We have a dealer that supplies our stamp club with stamps that have a catalogue value of less than $1. He charges 5 cents a stamp. This helps a lot. I answered an ad in Linn's for nickle approvals. I'll just have to wait and see how that works. I'm just trying to get as much coverage as I can before my collection is stamped canceled and turned over to someone else to sell. Good luck on your collecting. Most of all keep it fun.

Do you have much luck...or try....buying collections of ebay (say a $100-$300 Scott/Minkus albums) plucking the few you need and then reselling....or single country collections on pages? I bought 6 Mexico collections and combined them and then sold the duplicates...there was a lot of duplicates but about 3 of the lots combined pretty well and it was easy to resell with the stamps on pages.

I know I won't be complete but I would like to get a good value and have a few gems mixed in so each country isn't totally predictable on what is there and not there. Some countries provide greater coverage than others...

Keeping if fun is key....I'm almost done getting all my albums/pages organized the way I like (i.e I have a big album of nothing but French territory/colonies minus Africa and another two of just French Africa and a third of France. I stop at Independence for the colonies.