How About A Big Blue 1840-1940 Thread?

GeoffHa,
Love your pages. For my BB, I just completed Marienwerder today. There are only 12 spaces, but they aren't ever present in feeder collections, so for the general WW and BB Volume 1 collector, they can be a challenge.

I just ordered the last stamp I need to complete all of the Colombian States. I'll enjoy posting those pages when I get that last Santander/Cucuta stamp!! For the non-BB collectors, the newer editions of BB volume 1 no longer list the Colombian States. Santander is elusive, and the listings for Santander/Cucuta are no longer listed in Scott.

That brings up another question for the BB collectors-- How do you handle the non-Scott listed spaces (e.g., Santander/Cucuta, the Haiti set, the Barcelona set from Spain, etc.)? I found several years back, a 1941 edition of the Scott catalogue, and it's been very helpful, and also an older copy of Yvert's Classic catalogue. I've found most of these missing pieces in Yvert.

The Santander/Cucuta stamps were removed because they were issued without government approval .

Thanks, Ray!

I used to have a set of Scott Nationals for South America, which included pages for he states, including Santander. Not sure how easy those are to find now.

On uniformity - I'm not a fan, although I do like it within an area. If I can, I'll keep good albums, rather than gut them and use inferior pages and binders. As an example, some time ago I bought a collection of Monaco from roughly 1950 to 1990 in a set of printed Bolaffi albums. I had some of the earlier material on knocked-about Schaubek leaves. Rather than start again, I investigated the scope for getting the pre-1950 Bolaffi pages (well, I didn't - the email exchanges were conducted by my daughter, who speaks Italian). The earlier pages weren't separately available, so I went with blank leaves, mounts and pasted set titles. So, some messing about and cost, more weight, but something way beyond Steiner or other web-based pages. My floors haven't collapsed yet, although I'm not holding my breath.

Nice pages GeoffHa .

The Bolaffi albums are good-looking, but must have quite a localised market. We got the impression that the albums were a small sideline compared with Bolaffi's main auctions, coins etc business, but I see from ebay that it offers a range of countries, including GB.

I went to the Knoxville show on Saturday and put up some bids in their auction. I bought a set of 2020 Scott catalogs for a 100 bucks. And thought I got a really nice deal there but even better than that, I was the only bidder left at $100 for a 23-volume set of Big Blues.

I hadn't even looked at the collection, and after my first look, there is an over abundance of homemade pages, and it was described to have 16,000 mostly common and used. There is a nice Canada #14, some big queens, Maple leaf queens, Quebec Terc., so it looks like the $100 is ok just for the Canada.

Most of all there are a bunch of the larger binders and a bunch of slipcases. These wew more than worth the $100. Can't believe noone else was interested!

Nice purchase , should be a fun project to work on .

Ray, can't believe you picked up all that for $100! What an amazing purchase.

How often do Blues show up at shows? Went to the New England Stamp Expo back in January and there weren't any there (or if there were, they got snapped up right away).

Thanks you guys.
Gvol, can't help you w/ that one, since most of the shows I'm familiar with don't include an auction.
This was the first show where I've seen something like this.

You can find all the Big Blues in parts or complete thru three stamp auction firms . They have sets and parts of the Scott's International every way you can want them . They have them up for auction a few times each year .

The three firms are Rasdale ,Kelleher and Dutch Country ,prices are all dependent on the stamps mounted on the pages .

WHAT HASN'T BEEN DISCUSSED ------- I never saw a article or a posting on line about getting a better return for the money you spend on your collection of stamps .

I am not talking about investments into high end material . The day comes when your ready to cash out of the hobby . How do you get the best price ?

It doesn't matter if you sell it private or across the desk to a stamp dealer. If it gets large then you can sell it out right to a stamp auction firm or if the size is good enough or meets the standard set by the auction firm
then you can consign it and place it up for public auction .

The key to getting the best price and finding a buyer who wants it . Is in organization of the collection . Your time of having place it in order is a important factor

Great question floortrader. Time is money and that is definitely a factor. I used to have more time and help people out with their estates, ranging from a couple hundred dollars to about 10K or so. There's work involved to max out the return. Knowing the strengths, it could be a straight sale, an auction, etc. Nearly all well established collectors have a box or many boxes of things that are "pending."
I get about a call a month and I ask some key questions. There's the temptation to dismiss a collection that doesn't sound promising, like mentioning German Hitler Stamps, or Elvis Stamps. One ever knows for sure what is in there. Many times it is a kid's collection of course, but it is rare that there isn't something kind of interesting. I'm talking about a full pack of Dennison hinges, or even better, Mint early duck stamps mixed in 3 cent mint stamps, even unfolded Vietnam military payment certificates that wound up on the cover of the auction catalog.
If they have boxes of mint postage, I first tell them to add up the postage as a start. sweat equity pays off. The big question does one get all the $$ they put in. No way with mint postage.
Knowing when to part with your collection would be tough!

Ray.mac any update on the big blues? That was a heck of a purchase!

Hi Ray - wow what a steal! that is awesome. Nora.

@Geoff - beautiful Monaco pages - love them!

Could anyone with a 1947 Edition Big Blue (Part 1, 1840-1940) give me an approximate number of total pages? I haven't been able to find that number anywhere.

Appreciate your help.

John