Pushing 330,000 All Different Worldwide Stamps In One Collection .

"Watching how this message of stamp collecting is getting out to the general public ."

My observations on this thread are:
* Full sets & pages of material less frequently seen is of interest and the posts are motivational in wanting to collect similar vs samples per page often found when buying ebay collections
* The best process to obtain similar pages and budget needed to participate is of interest. I have found that buying 5 country specific collections on ebay rarely fill pages as the same stamps tend to repeat w/o filling the toughest holes. Shopping for the missing high values often leaves me thinking I would have been better off just paying the higher price to get the full sets from the start
* Not solving for the ways to get better issues starts to diminish collecting interest.
* The thought of buying into a hobby that has rising supply and declining value creates a value shopper mentality. It puts the better items more in reach and belief a collection of interest could be built where in past that would be too hard.
* Finding "golden tickets" in lots is a motivator. Learning where and how to buy so that surprises can be found is a motivator...not that I'm looking to make money but there needs to be a surprise or it becomes like a kid's sticker book...blank pages with all the stickers known to be on the last few pages ready for relocation.

Perhaps the availability of page printing and even making plus the growing supply of collections coming to market will create new opportunities, ways to collect and motivation for new collectors.

The Dahomey and Fiji pages spark the following:
* They Harris & Scott International collections purchased tend to provide the same few Dahomey (and other formr French Africa) stamps from the first few years of independence but getting all the 1960's French Africa stamps seems harder and more expensive that initial thought... If I am going to spend $1+ per stamp do I really want these or more from the classic era?

* Fiji is a country that doesn't show up as often in variety as many others like Jamaica. I printed all the Fiji pages to 1970....I think I have more pages than Fiji stamps. I want to solve that....even if I just populate half of each page.


Finally...I think fewer, more focused and more expensive purchases is my future vs more frequent lower cost ebay buys that probably add up to similar.

Quanah ---- I think people who are stamp collectors enjoy seeing full pages completed with stamps ,to me there is something impressive with seeing a full page , second I believe collectors enjoy seeing how others are working on their stamp collections .

Agree…full pages are impressive and other collector approaches are of interest and inspirational—even if personalized for slightly different approach. Interesting thread any many nice pages.

Quanah --- I view that stamp collecting needs a different approach in 2020's .

That is what I was hoping that is what readers and maybe new collectors see a different approach .

Let me explain what readers are seeing here . First printing of my own pages done at home on my computer .The software was $40.00 to load myself . Decide my self what color and type of paper .Why pay $5,000 to $20,000 for a set of worldwide albums . The speciality albums are hundreds to thousands of dollars each .
Anybody can fill a complete page with less than $5.00 that is stamps plus the page , cost wise . Everybody can enjoy building a collection over the next 20 years, sure some will spend more and develop a decent showing .

Makes sense.

I believe printed pages are one big change in collecting. Not only have Steiner pages been transformational but there is a growing number of free pages available on line (Germanstamps.net as example plus all the Album Easy free downloads from their users). The option to create pages is even another level. The choice of paper size, weight, color, binders, etc. all create new collecting opportunities.

The focus on completed pages is another with mixed adoption. I see 20th century collections in pre-printed commercial WW albums (Scott, Harris, etc.) with holes throughout the printed album where the focus seemed to be more on adding to album than completing pages. With Printed pages there can be far fewer spots, pages can be all common stamps and yet I still see a lot of collections for sale where printed pages are used in the same way the Scott Internationals, etc were used. There may not be a focus on completed pages...some may happen due to some pages being all commons but the focus still seemed to be on get as many stamps as possible and find spots to place them. Steiner pages are less dense (well spaced for mounts) but printing a country and buying a lot of 100 different stamps from that country can result in one stamp per page....the opposite result vs a passion for complete pages.

The other big trend I see in 21th Century collecting is bargain hunting from all the casual and mainstream collections for sale on line (i.e. a Scott International Album with 1,500 stamps). Few of these collections seem to have many complete pages and transferring a collection to Steiner can create a lot of blank space.

This leads us to the value of complete pages. A new buying strategy is needed. If I go to a show and buy sets from the red boxes and runs per country and narrow time frame then I can build beautiful complete pages in a binder that seems complete and well presented vs 100 stamps diluted across a 3" binder of pages. The complete pages can be 1 cent per stamp, 3cents per printed page + paper cost of all ranges.

Buying with complete pages in mind and printing just the pages where you have stamps is a conscience act. The joys of sorting kiloware, buying collections off ebay, etc. may be contrary to a focus on fewer complete pages (although auction houses seem to have more complete collections so attention to lots with complete pages can be a good option.

I am interested in how consistent many readers are in completing pages vs the few I see where it's stated "complete as I define complete" meaning all the affordable with no attention to getting the higher values. How do other buy so that their collection is mostly complete pages vs "buck shot" across pages in a 100 binders.

I love the full pages posted here...it motivates me to buy more with that in mind. I have some completed pages but I still buy a lot of Memel stamps, print the Steiner pages and neatly mount my buy appreciating some coverage but moving on to Lithuania without completing any Memel pages only to get a few more down the road that end up being doubles :).