Stamp Booklets: Questions

I've built a friendship of sorts with my local post office and thus have begun to acquire new Canadian issues of stamps when they come. However some of these stamps have been in booklets which cause me to buy said booklets because they wouldn't break one up for me. In any case, I have more of these stamps than I need so my question is how does one trade or take out one if they wanted to trade or sell them? I assume that I would but it on paper but then they would become used. How do you separate them so they are "mint"?

Secondly how does one display said material? I was assuming to open and display them in my North American stock books but I'm not quite sure thats the right path or that my stock books would survive.

How to display booklets has been a continuous debate for nearly many decades. In the past, almost all collectors would open up the booklets and remove the stamps. Intact booklets were largely from dealers, accumulations, or duplicates purchased by collectors at the post office.

There are some collectors who prefer "unexploded booklets". I personally do not understand the logic behind this, but I do understand that is a preference that some collectors have. Some collectors insist on removing the stamps from the booklet, although that option is largely gone with many of the self-adhesive stamps.

I think this is a good thread topic, and I will interested in reading how others approach this issue. I'm sure Katchem_ash will find it helpful and I certainly will find it interesting reading.

That being said, I only have one bit of warning. On some booklets, when you open them up, there is some residual glue/adhesive. It would be wise to "rub" off as much as you can if you are not putting them in fully enclosed mounts, because one day you will open up your stockbook and find that residual adhesive stuck to the stamp on the opposite page and you just took a surface chunk off that stamp! It also applies to multiple booklet panes you might be storing in glassines.

I have seen sellers an ebay selling single booklet stamps and self adhesive coils stamps singly also. I was thinking they just cut around the stamp, including the backing paper.

I am not sure (I haven't tried) if you can peel off a stamp and stick it to some other backing paper and it would stick and stay, or would continue to be curled up.

With Picture Postage which I collect and make, so I receive a sheet of 21 or 40 stamps, I peel off the stamps around a mint stamp and put the others on envelopes and mail them to myself so one then has really good mint stamps and used. I think I can do this with these because of the rarity and scarcity factor with these. Also I am happy with used stamps.

Other common stamps I think I would try to cut around or get some excess backing paper from a post office that did sell singles and see if peeling and re-sticking works at all.

Perhaps try the franchise post offices in drug stores. They are more willing to separate booklets or sell single stamps. It is a book keeping concern. If the postmaster does not want to do more book keeping then he/she won't and you can't make them.

How do you actually remove the stamps without them sticking to the stock book or something else? Unless I'm mistaken and please someone can clear this for me, they are sticky from the back and if stuck on something you'll have to remove the old fashioned way. Do you stick them on and then remove them through the usual process in water? Or stick them on a paper and put it in a stock book?

Edit:

Puzzler thanks for the info. I did get them though the drug store post office and he was not willing to break it up.

When I said backing paper I meant the shiny release paper that he stamps come on originally that you can peel them off of easily.

I am not sure though if they would stick again to this or, once exposed to air, start some chemical process that would prevent that.

It would be like if you removed a stamp from the booklet and then decided not to use it for mailing right then so stuck it back in the booklet.

I still think is is best to cut around stamps, leaving them where they are, after removing the stamps/margins around them. Bit I realize that not everyone can do this for finacial reasons or they just do not have access to singles or 2-3 stamps at a time from the post office.

maybe I should try this and start selling singles. Put my stamps where my mouth is, so to speak.

Just as a suggestion - - - why not cut 'around' the stamp or stamps needed, leave them on the backing they were produced with and use the rest as postage??

Mount the stamp with hte back-paper since the glue used nowadays is really hard to soak on some issues (for some countries) and once removed from it's 'natural ' backing will most likely cause problems if you try to put them in a mount.

I don't have this problem because I simply keep the booklet intact since this is the way they most likely will be listed in the catalogues (?)

Wish I could offer more information

Chimo

Bujutsu

I'm with Bujutsu on this one. I've seen examples where collectors cut them out using pinking shears or scissors with a wavy pattern. They look really nice.

I used to collect booklet panes only for my German collection, but now I pretty much limit myself to full booklets and keep them intact for my US and Israel. I don't think there is a "right" answer, but I suspect full booklets will hold their value better.

Some of us had a related conversation a short while back. See https://goscf.com/t/8429 for some other questions and the answers that were given.

For my part, I tend to buy a few booklets of the self-adhesive variety and in irder to get singles, I use stamps all around a single as postage, until I have a suitable amount of backing paper around the stamp and then I cut it out for placement in the album. I say get a few booklets because it will take some thought to be sure you get each single done this way. The nice thing about the "remainders" is that they are valid for postage...right away.

Peter

I've actually saved empty booklet covers and sold them as other collectors want them to display next to their opened booklets.
Will

my booklets are still unopened... so I really don't get to enjoy the stamps..
has anyone tried putting a self adhesive stamp on a piece of wax paper? I can't imagine that it would be stuck and not removable.

Peter, that is exactly what I do with Canadian booklets . I also buy the quarterly stamp packs from Canada Post, because they usually include the die-cut to shape singles from the booklets, which most often get a separate Unitrade "sub" number.

Same here, BeeSee. PLUS I buy several quarterly packs, knowing that one day, they will be traders or sellable. Maybe this is the place to do that! I've got a bit of inventory at this point. Again with the quarterlies, I end up with lots of postage on hand. When it becomes too big a pile, I sell it.

Peter