The 100,000 Stamp Club

OK, I'm back from Cozumel in a much better mood. Sun and pina coladas are great therapy!

I should know better than to post when I'm stressed. At the time, the discussion seemed that the proposal was elitist and exclusionary.

After re-reading the entire thread I realized that I over-reacted. Everyone was just spit-balling about what a '100,000 Club' would look like. The discussion took off into dozens of directions that each could have started a new thread.

First of all, as many of you mentioned, this topic just reminded everyone that there are many, many ways to collect stamps. Collecting as many catalogue numbers as possible is only one of them.

The second main topic discussed is how to connect with others who who collect in the same way that you do in order to discuss challenges and arcane matters related to your way of collecting. I'm wondering, do people feel they are not getting those questions answered or at least discussed in the forum as it exists now? Or is it that when those type of questions are asked the newbies jump in with questions or comments that side-track the discussion?

The third topic is celebrating your way of collecting: Hence the buttons. (Landoquakes, have I interpreted your intention correctly? A button gives you a way to easily recognize others afflicted by your own style of insanity and to enjoy the camaraderie of others who understand you. A button also provides an opportunity for recognition for accomplishments achieved. 100,000 stamps, for example.

I think it would be fun to have SCF buttons that we could write our handles on so we could recognize each other at shows!

Karen

Dear londonbus1,

The stamps you sent to my brother (in the myth) arrived today whilst he was away, I wanted you to know they arrived safely and well packaged and he will thank you himself when he gets home.

I apologise in advance for breaking rules whilst being on here but manners sometimes dictates rule bending

KEHESS/KAREN--------good to see your in a better mood.
--------------------I thought I would clearify a few things about some of those who would join a 100,000 different club. For myself and im sure others ,there are many stamps in our collection that go beyond the stamp catalogs,we use foregien catalogs and even include unlisted varieties.
Also its not a arcane method of collecting ,it is the way stamp collecting was many years ago,the philatelic world changed ,but we stayed with the old method.
Newbies can ask all the questions they want and some will answer back,but others are tired of the old questions,which show up regularly on all stamp chat boards,they just scroll past those basic questions.
About celebrate "your way" of collecting ,see above,its not our way ,its others moved to a different defination of stamp collecting,we stayed with the old method.
About being afflicted by our style of insanity------well,to tell you the truth I think the world has gone insane and im normal and collect stamps so that their insanety doesn't include me.

In my opinion, any goal that a collector strives for and achieves is admirable. I wish I could pick one topic and stick with it long enough to pursue it in depth. However, my minds wanders and I cannot seem to settle on one thing for very long. I love world wide collecting because, well, I can enjoy everything, and move from one area to another when I get bored. I have spent more time on some countries than others, and have even collected some stamps and covers to create some topical collections. However, I keep coming back to my world wide collection. My current count on my world wide collection is 31,000 stamps from A-Ireland. I've still got a long way to go until I complete this reorganization process I began a year ago in May.

Floortrader,
I didn't mean 'your way' to refer to the 100,000 stamp idea. I meant 'your way' in a broader sense---That we ALL like to celebrate what we do and I was interpreting the 100,000 stamp buttons as a way to celebrate that particular way of collecting. Our avatars express another way.

Also I wasn't saying that collecting the 100,000 stamps way is arcane. I meant that it sounded as if the 100,000 stamps style collectors wanted a separate discussion to talk about the specific details of collecting that way. I called those details 'arcane' to allude to the suggestion that maybe the average collector or someone who doesn't collect in the 100,000 stamp way may not have the background to discuss these details.

And I didn't mean to call 100,000 stamp style collectors insane. I was making a poor attempt at humor to suggest that ALL stamp collectors are insane in their own way--- Except you, of course--- Ha, Ha Another lame attempt at humor...

Insanely yours,
Karen

The biggest hurdle for anyone who collects worldwide stamps is that after a certain point ,you don't remember what you have and after a while the sorting and checking what is and what is missing becomes a real issue .For me the problem gets serious when you have to find the better stamps stamps without buying all the duplicates that come with it . I rarely purchase single stamps and perfer the larger collections and dealer inventory lots .

HAHA, I was a member of the 500,000 stamp club for two weeks, until I sold the collection.

STAMPVIRGIN ------your confusing 500,000 stamps with 500,000 DIFFERENT stamps .You can reach 500,000 stamps by purchasing a few KILO mixtures for a few hundred dollars ,but getting to 500,000 different stamps your going to have to win the lottery.....lol .....big difference .

floortrader.. okay maybe not 500,000 different stamps but definitely 100000 different ones.

getting to 100,000 different stamps mounted in ONE collection ,my guess is a few hundred people have done it ,mostly by people in the U.S. .But once you go up to 200,000 different stamps in one collection ,there are only a dozen people or so .Now once you get over 250,000 different stamps that has to be very rare and maybe one or two people .
There are always people who say they heard or they know someone who has a bigger collection ,but when you press them for a name and location then ,it gets more fuzzy .Many times I hear stories of huge worldwide collections but once you ask to meet that person then you get a "gee im not really sure".Some one who reachs those top tier levels would be proud and happy to show a fellow collector their achievement .
Having attended many large stamp auctions and talked to the auction staff ,they gave me the impression once these serious collectors get to a level of defeat were they just become accumaltors and never really organize their holdings .

Floortrader,

Thank you for making this topic "alive" again. I'm still working on this project. One thing I did was perform a survey of the general worldwide collectors in my club. It turns out that at least 4 or 5 have reached the 100K different mark, with 1 or 2 around 200K or so. I think only one other collector other than myself has actually has counted their stamps, so it is hard to know for sure. I might have to bring this survey to the forum here. You bring up a good point about when does a collector reach defeat. The serious worldwide collectors that I have surveyed keep plugging along no matter where they're at. Sometimes the focus changes about what year to stop at. One collector I surveyed who is probably in the neighborhood of 150K different still looks through worldwide mixtures. I think some people enjoy the "hunt".

I reached the 70K milestone on Monday... yeah!

Ouch... I do find very alarming that so many "advanced" worldwide collector don't know the size or extend of their collections more precisely. I know many will say that they have "more important" things to do than count the number of stamps in their collection, but I disagree. It is the simplest way to keep some kind of track of extend, and completion rate (and even the value) of large scale stamp collection.



Congrats... I'm going at 72+K :lol:

Karen had the best idea.
Keep the buttons to show your SCF handle at shows. I like that.

Even if I were a WW collector and even if I had 100,000 stamps I would not want a badge to show the world this amazing achievment.
[The appropraite smiley is not available at this point !].

In any case, I would not know if I had 100,000 stamps because I would not be counting them. Life is too short.

Londonbus1.....great idea Karen on the SCF badges !

Speaking from experience, I'd say it should not take more than maybe 70-75 working hours to go through & count 100K stamps (assuming they are properly put in albums/stockbooks). So it's really not that impossible or time consuming task as many might think.

And above all, it's only necessary to do once. Afterwards you really need to add to original numbers every time you add new items (unless you want to recount for for some specific reason - been there, and done it several times )