Old World Wide Collector Always Searching For New Information.

Hello. I guess I registered here sometime & got lost afterwards. I am a world wide collector who has over my 80 years accumulated at least some representation of postage stamps from 536 sources. I use the scott platform. Unfortunately I have also became somewhat of a hoarder. My secondary philosophy is no stamp is truly collectible until it has completed its intended use. I have maintained that by accumulating my collection primarily with kiloware. Puts a whole new meaning to completing a set or series. After being away for some time I returned to a very changed hobby that, long story short, caused me to abandon placing stamps in an album & now keep my inventory electronically with an associated thumbnail picture. Whole lot easier. Currently closing in on half a million stamps (some duplication may exist lol). I am still much of an amateur although it's scary when processing new lots that I can almost tell if I already have one. The hours melt away.

Welcome.
Don

Butchie - you will enjoy it here. Nora

I'm a new member (joined yesterday) and like Butchie I collect worldwide both mint & used. Since I turned 84 today and started collecting somewhere between Pearl Harbor and 1st nuclear explosion I can't profess to being a newbie. I did have a hiatus while putting 4 kids through college, but back again now for 20 plus years. My initial investment was a pack of hinges, tongs, magnifying glass and for an album I used one of those school notebooks (with the black&white marbled cover). Around war's end I switched to a HE Harris album - but after Harris moved from Boston to Portsmouth their products got junkier. About 10 years ago I purchased software (with which I have now produced about 975 pages). Still many more to go. My collection is basically broken down by continent with Mint & Used intermixed.
Albums are "Americas", "Europe", "Africa", "Asia", "Oceana" & "USA/UN". My mint are both hinged & non-hinged (in Prinz mounts). Hinges I now use are Lindner, a far cry from my 1st pack of hinges (19cents for 750 unfolded from Harris). BUT, I do have one question - does anyone know of a source (paper or software) of info regarding the dimensions of stamps? Width&Height (by scott#). While free would be nice, I'm willing to spend money - but robbing Fort Knox is NOT an option. Anybody still with me, I thank you for listening to an old fogey. Stay well and live every day as if it's your last. Capt154

Welcome!

You can get an approximation by counting perfs, and using the perf size as given in the catalog.

For example:

1. Count Perfs

# of Perfs Width: 22
# of Perfs Length: 22

2. Perf Size

Perf size Width: 12
Perf size Length: 13

3. First Calculation

Divide # Perfs by Perf size (Width) = 1.833
Divide # Perfs by Perf size (Lenth) = 1.692

4. Final Calcuation

Take figure calculated in #3 above, multiply x2, multiply by 10

Size Width: 36.67 mm
Size Length: 33.85 mm

5. Conclusion:

Our stamp box (not counting padding or border) should be about 37Wx34Lmm.

Adding padding (2mm) for the box

39(W)x36mm(L)

p.s. I can't take credit for this formula, I learned it here on SCF!

p.s.s. Welcome to both of you!

John

Welcome!

Dale

Welcome to you both, and thank you for sharing your hobby stories.

Welcome! Enjoy the SCF.

Welcome!

Welcome!!

Butchie,

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences. Russ

Reply to "johnsim03" from Capt154. Thanks so very much for the speedy reply to my query re: stamp size. How utterly simple, and yet I feel like a simpleton. Don't know why it never occurred to me. Danke, Gratias, Merci and Gratsie. You are a true gentleman.

To all you folks who welcomed us, Capt154 sez Howdy, y'all! Who sez you can't teach an old dog new tricks? 8 decades & still learning. Humbly, I DON'T know it all and I'm happy to be with all of you on this site.

Your method of acquiring stamps via kiloware sounds like an adventure every time. Plus it's fun to find what you need. Thanks for sharing.

Welcome!