World Largest -Biggest Stamp Collection

"space for stamps in the garage..." One of my goals each year is to help an avid accumulator fit his car in his double garage before winter. I only succeed part of the time. I hear you about the volume and storage issues though. Fun to look at though and makes you want to get those stamps in your own closet out of cigar boxes and into albums! There is a collection in there, but plenty of "pending" items. Good boat analogy, but I have to admit, it is fun to go through a hoard, you never know what you might find... If one has he time. ;)

One thing this guy does that I found handy is that milk crates are excellent for moving binders of stamps around. They're sturdy and not too heavy to move compared to Banker's boxes.

Landoquakes

Nice posting of a full stamp room. For those that share photos, I find it interesting to see how they operate in their hobby.

I wish a photo was made of Ferrary's collection while he was active in the hobby. I never could really envision the setup of Ferrary's stamp collection and stamp rooms in his palace.

According to Stanley Bierman's account he had 3 philatelic rooms. One room was stamps, the second was postal stationery and money cards and the 3rd was not identified as to what it held. According to Bierman, the walls of each room were covered by wooden cupboards consisting of shelves positioned 6 inches apart. I assume they were 6 inches high? How deep? Being a palace how high were the walls? Stamps were placed on the shelves in alphabetic order in bundles, not conventional albums and often covered in years of dust. I assume stamps were on some kind of card or page as Bierman said all stamps were in 2 rows of 10 each. Each leaf was reserved for one issue to show all shades and varieties.

I guess Ferrary knew how to find or view something in his collection, or did he ever view it once purchased? Really, YEARS of dust on top of bundles!

The large WW collection of 128 albums, Lot #700 at ABC auctions, sold today for $5000. When they originally listed it, the starting bid was supposed to be $8000. Unlike Cherrystone, they appear to be willing to adjust their pricing to get something sold.

So only abt $40 and album. Must be pretty mundane stuff

Whomever bought that collection got a steal. Certainly worth more than 40-50 an album

Thinkstamp. Agreed! A couple photos would be really fun to see of his collection. I guess the closest we will get are the descriptions and the auction catalogues. From what I can gather, Ferraray's collection was housed in albums kind of like folding an 81/2 by 11 sheet in half and having each page devoted to one stamp, kind of like a custom homemade album so maybe a dozen stamps of different shades and varieties. You are right about the dust, especially for the extra dusty extras stored on top of cupboards that Charles Phillips mentions (and wished he could take a look at them) The 3rd room was the kind of where the secretary was and where the money was on a nail board to spend on stamps, with entrances to the other rooms. I wonder if this building still exists in Paris. It very well could be. I kind of remember dogs being part of the security system somehow?

Large worldwide postal stationery collection. 97% complete to 1940. 143 volumes.

If my below typed link does not work, then you can search the collectors name Arthur Eugene Michel to read a bit about him and his collection. He donated it to the museum in 1940. There is also a photo of him with his collection at another spot at museum site.

https://postalmuseum.si.edu>the-...l-collection

This link may work.

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/the-art...l-stationery

Thanks THINKSTAMP for that link to the A.E.Michel Collection .

The Hotel Matignon, owned by his mother, was where Ferrary was born and mostly lived and had his collection. It is exists today as the official residence of the Prime Minister of France.

The Conclusion of the Postal Stationery link is worth repeating and can be applied to all collections.

Regular survey and assessment of a collection is essential to its long term preservation.

Checking the condition of paper objects such as stamps and stationery – and the condition of object mounts such as corner mounts -- affords the opportunity to make minor repairs before more serious damage occurs.

Collection housing, including albums and boxes, should be evaluated periodically. In some cases, it may be advisable to transfer objects to new housings if the original housings cannot be repaired.

One of the major keys to preserving any collection is storage in a climate controlled environment. For personal collections, this translates to keeping materials in a stable environment of approximately 70°F and 50% RH, typically in the main part of your home, avoiding basements and attics.

This was a very interesting thread to go through. The future of stamp collecting is probably "money stamps" You can see this in the high-end market. People are using stamps as a store of value. It is at least better than worthless cryptos. Cheap stamps and even middle tier stamps will probably get cheaper over time. The young collectors today are collecting pokemon, magic and One Piece cards called table top game cards. This is today's stamp collector. The reason those are hot is because you can play and interact with the cards. Some of the better interactions with stamp collecting is mounting stamps and perhaps stamp exhibits if you are in to that. There is no solution other than for dinosaur collectors introducing stamp collecting to young people. When I go to stamp shows there are great stamp collectors who do that.

Stamps shows in my opinion are one of the keys to get young people into collecting. That and YouTube shows like exploring stamps.

For WW collecting, I would think about not the largest but attainable. A Stamp for Every Country collection is attainable but still difficult enough. Also, you could collect 100, 1000, 2000 etc from every major country which is also attainable. And that is precisely what I am shooting for.

Also, you don't want to go your whole life as a WW collector and not fill a big blue or Minkus Red. You should absolutely dump some stock books and give yourself the pleasure of filling one out.