The 100,000 Stamp Club

I got this idea from one of floortrader's posts somewhere. I think I might try to form a 100,000 stamp club for folks who have been able to collect at least 100,000 different stamps. I'm at 68,000 so technically I can't be a member as of yet. I put a button together. I could put together a certificate of sorts. This might be fun. Does anyone have any ideas?

Interesting thought. I have may missed an earlier thread, but I guess there needs to be some criteria set up:

-- are you just going to take someone's word for it, or is there some kind of proof requirement?
-- how do you define "different"? even if we ignore mint/used, different plate/position identifiers, there are still many stamps that have minor varieties

k

Good questions... Minor varieties would count, although one might quibble with a catalog. I'm not sure about all the plate numbers... A mint stamp is the same as a used stamp. Having a US Scott #1 in both mint and used would count as one different stamp. CTOs and Sand Dunes would count... Cinderellas wouldn't. Local posts? I would have to think about that one. Ludy would count in my book although one could debate about that.

As for proof? It might have to be on scout's honor. For a general world collector it might be possible to choose a country or two and have a pretty good idea how complete their world collection is.

Just random thoughts.

Lets not make it too complicated...stamps that a person counts as part of their collection should do it in my opinion...and I doubt if proof has to be established....a person knows if they have a 100 thousand stamps or not..i just take the number of albums x the stamps in each !!

yes... some approximate counts: at least 150,000
US precancel types: 40,000
US Alabama precancels: 25,000
US Vermont precancels: 15,000
US Washington precancels: 10,000
US overrun countries precancels: 8,000
US plate number singles: 25,000
Canada precancels: 2,000
Machin head perfins: 5,000
Denmark perfins: 5,000
US Montana precancels: 3,000
US perfins: 4,000
US DLE precancels: 7,000
US precancel special denoms: 3,000
..... when summarizing like this, its obvious I have a sickness!

gee Chasa I had a bed waiting at the rehab...but I think your need is greater than mine !!

So if you are not sure you have 100,000 stamps you might need a few more. And if you have given up on counting them and just weigh by the pound you may have more than 100,000.



Them thar might be fighting words to a few. Don't forget we have made a separate area just for Cinderella collectors because of the amount of topics.

Then there are the Federal Revenues, imperf, part perf and full perf and what about the state revenues? And the list goes on... Don't forget the embossed & stamped paper revenues either. They are part of many collections.

100,000 stamps would be attainable by a lot of collectors but not most of us. Just how "exclusive" do you want this "club" to be? I think you can count me out as I already belong to enough groups.

Art

What Art says is true, say a collector only collects the United States..or specializes in one small field..so its not really quantity that makes us collectors !

Good points in these posts, I forgot about revenues. I could restrict it to scott catalog numbers only, or Minkus, Michel etc. I think Keijo summed up the different worldwide stamps really well on his blog. I might restrict the stamps to ones that would be included on his counts. Now that I think of it. I think I got the idea from a post on his blog.

And does it matter if we're talking about 100,000 stamps, stored and arranged in some orderly manner, or would possessing a copier paper box of assorted stamps, on or off piece count?

As long as they are all different it would count :)

Landoquakes ---thanks for opening up this link,its a subject matter a lot of collectors need to address and sometimes a serious discussion is lost in a general chatroom .
I don't think any of us are looking to join a club thats out to exclued anybody.
There are many speciality clubs like the revenue stamp clubs and special clubs for pre-cancel collectors .
The idea of a "seasoned worldwide collectors" club was started back in 1980 by Aubrey Dunne ,whos writtings started the ISWSC {International Society of Worldwide Stamp Collectors } ,its a fine club with hundreds of members but some how to me it missed the purpose of being for ,as she would say "seasoned worldwide collectors" ,it is a general club and deals with basics of stamp collecting .{nothing wrong with the idea}.
But the problems and concerns of serious collectors and the discussions of a more serious nature is missing ,I don't want to read about basic questions and answers over the next few years ,but I like to see and hear of what worldwide collectors are doing .I don't think most long time collectors care to see or answer the same questions from beginners . They want tips on storage,sorting, mounting and places to buy better lots not kilo junk lots ,they want to know were to buy better lots and who sells more exciting lots and not hundreds and hundreds of the same stamp in a offer thats called worldwide better stuff.
Excuse me but as a reader im looking for experience collectors discussing issues that im faceing and things to help my collection grow and if I can answer someone elses concerns great ,and as always enjoy seeing what someone have to show and what their doing ......hope I didn't tee off anyone .

well it sounds like a challenge :)

however, i'm far from the goal since i'm sitting on around 20,000.

regarding a proof, I doubt that any fellow philatelist would lie ;)

A 100,000 stamp club sounds really interesting! I have recently been going through a major reorganization of my world wide collection and have been counting what I have along the way. Right now I am at about 29,800 and that is stamps from countries A-H, so I still have a ways to go before I get my final total. I have made a spreadsheet in Excel to track my progress. Floortrader's comments are interesting as well. I too would like to discuss things other than basic collecting, which I have had down pat for a while!

That's kind of what I'm thinking of floortrader. It would be great to have a club to have exchanges of ideas. The matter of storage is one of the big ones be it albums, stockbooks, 102 cards etc.
A newsletter would be interesting but would be a challenge. I did wind up ordering buttons with the logo for the fun of it. I'll wear one when I go to shows to see what kind of feedback there would be.

km41566 let us know how your progress goes! I found counting the stamps to be kind of fun and it helps to target what you need. I don't do county counting, just era. EX for Scott International Vol 4 (1956-59) I have 3,500 or something like that. In hunting for stamps I look for the eras I'm missing the most. I've found that finding stamps cheaply after about 1980 is a real challenge since the number of folks collecting those seems to be a lot less. My rough guide is to try to only spend about 10 cents each on a stamp, preferably less if I can. I usually then buy collections or box lots. So far, I have never regretted buying an album with stamps in it. Buying from dealer's red boxes is usually too expensive for me, unless there is something I really want (which does happen). The thrill of the hunt is half the fun in box lots, although it does take time to go through them.

Sometimes I have found that dealers will loan out a collection and let you choose what you want for seven cents or a dime a stamp. I was able to build a collection quickly this way. There are lots of ways to get stamps and one size doesn't fit all. I still soak newer world stamps, not really kiloware, but usually country specific. It seems to be one of the only ways to get used modern stamps. I also love tracking down family, friends and co workers that get mail from foreign countries to save the stamps for me.