H.e. Harris Mystery Bags.

I assume these are the "guys" you're talking about:



These examples may have very well come from a bag of those Worldwide Stamps, too!

While I agree they were boring, at least they came in an array of bright colors.

Love those definitives (all of them, not just Franco & co.). I remember buying those bags in the '80s.

Robert

Yep, those are the ones. I was just looking at the Belgian ones last night (as I continue my quest to deconstruct the old Minkus and Harris ablums).

I shouldn't have blamed the stamps, entirely for my boredom. The blame probably rests more on the bag sellers, e.g., Mystic, Harris, etc. The stamps themselves are not horrible (but they aren't at the top of the heap aesthetically either). But, as a kid, eagerly awaiting the discovery of some new treasure, and instead finding the 10th Franco in the same color - this can leave you scarred a bit for life.

I'm joking, but then again, this is probably a factor in why Spain and Belgium are at the bottom of my list of European countries to collect. It doesn't help that Franco looks a little ticked off (and smug at the same time) in the portrait.

Just noticed, but King Baudouin looks like one of my older brothers when he was in high school.

Buddy Holly was Belgian?

Anyway, several years ago I got one bag of of Whitman's 300 U.S. stamp cloth bags. Found a couple interesting stamps, but nothing all too valuable. It still provided me with the most new stamps I have purchased at one time. Oldest was a green Washington 1 cent, I believe 405 or so, heavily damaged. I also got enough Flag over Porch stamps to last me a lifetime of trading xp

There is one thing to look for in the U.S. Harris mystery bags....The last one I bought was about 3 years ago and it yielded 5 different transportaion coil stamps with plate numbers. It's likely that whoever puts the bags together does not cherry pick these out!