World Stamps Early 20th Century-How Should I Proceed?

These are the pages from a book given to me some time ago. It is part of a larger accumulation. I realize the vast majority are common, but I thought I'd put them up in case someone might spot something "other than common".

My question is, how would you collectors suggest I remove them from this dirty, damaged book and transfer them to a better album. I asked the question about albums in another thread and got some great tips about stock-books, which I have been checking out on eBay.

The boy who had this collection, although many are obviously in poor to fair condition, also has a surprising number of nicely centered new and lightly cancelled examples. My guess is that he sent away for some of them. I think many are worth preserving and a great start to my collection.
Stephen

I would leave them on the pages, unless as a whole the thing is damaged with pages removed, moldy in spots. I don't see a need for immediate action. To proceed I would keep this as is and keep on buying more of what I (you) like.

I didn't say rare. I used the word unique in it's normal definition, "uncommon." I don't have a collecting style because I am not a collector, rather someone interested in becoming one. I know absolutely nothing about stamps. If someone from this forum sees a stamp that he or she finds interesting,or uncommon, and tells me about it, then I've learned something, and I have a place to begin some sort of research.

I would leave them on the pages, unless as a whole the thing is damaged with pages removed, moldy in spots. I don't see a need for immediate action. To proceed I would keep this as is and keep on buying more of what I (you) like.

Thanks, Casey.

Thank you, sorry I mentioned rare, you didn't

Dorset - The Finland stamps are actually Russian stamps.

Yeah, Rogdcam, the kid sometimes mixed up countries. I found an Ireland stamp in with India!

ADD: I must say, those Russian ones on the Finland page really caught my eye as being very pretty. The colors are gorgeous.

Just Fella,
Thanks. No problem.

I must disagree with your above definition as normal.

"Unique" = a supply of 1. Period.

Hi, I like the cancel on your first GB stamp on the page - I have not seen it. Very interesting that the collector placed Russian stamps on the Finland page. The stamps are pretty common - definitely a great start to a collection. In terms of keeping them on the pages - if the pages or album shows any signs of toning (yellowing/darkening), mold, etc - I personally would take them off (I assume they are hinged on?) I would clean them up and place them in order in your stock book. Once you find the countries that you really want to focus on, you can put them in a new album that suits your needs.

Me personally - since I am a novice, I purchased pages from Stamp Albums.com and I get access to all the countries and print the countries and dates that I want (only exception is Mexico which is my prized collection - I did invest in a Scott specialized album through a dealer).

I tried black mounts with my US. collection (and regretted it personally) so I use clear mounts on everything else that I collect. I love your passion for learning about stamp collecting and learning - I am on a similar path. Nora.

"I must disagree with your above definition as normal.

"Unique" = a supply of 1. Period."


I can see that I must be very careful with my terminology around here. I will edit the original post so we don't get hung up in semantics. I apologize for the confusion I've caused. I simply wanted to know if there was anything, shall I say, "other than common" in this book. Not rare, not valuable, just something, be it a stamp or cancellation, that one doesn't come across every day.

PLEASE, do not go back and edit previous posts once additional posts have been made afterwards. It destroys the continuity of the thread and often makes the later posts meaningless to the flow.

Hi, I like the cancel on your first GB stamp on the page - I have not seen it. Very interesting that the collector placed Russian stamps on the Finland page. The stamps are pretty common - definitely a great start to a collection. In terms of keeping them on the pages - if the pages or album shows any signs of toning (yellowing/darkening), mold, etc - I personally would take them off (I assume they are hinged on?) I would clean them up and place them in order in your stock book. Once you find the countries that you really want to focus on, you can put them in a new album that suits your needs.

Me personally - since I am a novice, I purchased pages from Stamp Albums.com and I get access to all the countries and print the countries and dates that I want (only exception is Mexico which is my prized collection - I did invest in a Scott specialized album through a dealer).

I tried black mounts with my US. collection (and regretted it personally) so I use clear mounts on everything else that I collect. I love your passion for learning about stamp collecting and learning - I am on a similar path. Nora.

Nora, I noticed that cancellation as well. I thought it was quite neat. Have you put any pics up?
Thanks,
Stephen

Hi Stephen - haha - yes many many pictures. I am sure my friends on the forum smiled at that comment. If you click on my profile, you can see my posts and pictures. I most actively post on my Mexico Stamp Album (Scott), Great Britain Novice edition, recently the stamps of Sweden on Steiner pages and also France. I joined the site two years ago and have been on a journey learning so much from everyone here. I still call my self a new/novice collector because 2 years is truly a newbie! I still hesitate to ask certain things on here feeling a bit shy or that I might embarrass myself. Like I said if you click on my profile and look at past posts (choose more then last 20 posts so you can get more examples), you will see my progression from knowing nothing to let's say something. :). I also collect WW in general - for the learning and I ask a lot of questions, from watermarking to perfs, cancels you name it.

Glad you are here!

What album is this? It is definitely Harris. I compared it to my 1935 Captain Tim which has very similar layout although only half as many pages, so I'm guessing this is the Harris intermediate WW line which existed then (which I'm guessing also was 30's/40's). I'm a huge fan of children's albums from this period and I have always wanted to fill every single space in one.

tsmatx,
You got it right. Harris (1934) Boston. The pages were falling out, and yellowing, foxing. That's why l I'd like to remove the stamps.