Getting Organized?

Hi everyone,

As I indicated in my welcome post, I just un-earthed my old childhood stamp collection. My biggest problem with all my collections is that I'm more of an acquirer. My wife calls me a hoarder. When I get started, I get excited, and start amassing a ton of what I'm into. Then I find I have too much to be manageable. I now see I started this habit as a child!

I do have some fond childhood memories gathering stamps from relatives, so I would like to put together a little collection to keep, and display. I'm really liking my space and Olympic stamps.

Here's how I propose tackling this endeavor:

1) Start going through what I have, and putting the ones I'd like to collect off to the side.
2) How should I organize the rest, and why? By subject matter? By country? I'll probably try to trade away what I don't keep.
3) If the entire postmark is intact, I'll keep them on paper for now. If they were torn, I'll try soaking them to reduce the volume.

Any advice on getting started would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Eric

Welcome to the site, Eric. I was in a similar position and it sounds like you have a good game plan. The first step is to sort through your old stamps. Not only will this tell you what you have, but will also help you figure out what interests you now. I wouldn't make any big decisions until this is done.

As for the sorting itself, I would do so by country, setting aside your space and Olympic stamps as well as any other topics that especially interest you. How you sort is less important than getting started.

I know there are topical albums specializing in the Olympics available.

I wouldn't worry so much about albums vs. stockbooks vs homemade pages, etc., until you figure out what and how you are going to collect as that will help determine how you store them. Also, do lots of research on the different options available. The most important consideration here is to pick a system that works for you.

You can use this forum to ask questions and help you brainstorm ideas.

Charles