Collecting The First 100 Years - Scott Intl. Junior Album

Drilmaye:

Over the past few months, I've commented in regards to valuating one's collection. Regardless of which approach is utilized, I believe it's more important that it be documented than how it's to be documented. I present the following only as one approach, which has worked for me over the years. Let me say at the outset, had I to do it over again, I would start with a good set of stamp software. Why spend the time to build one when you can purchase COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) software that does a more comprehensive job? The 'fly in the ointment,' of course, is what countries the COTS software does not support.

After building spreadsheets for a few years, I did invest in professional stamp software, and now use it on the countries that it supports. I have not maintained it up to the current level, however, largely due to price. I must admit that if I had software that supported all countries, I would prefer it. When XP is no longer supported (not too long in the future,) I'll need to revisit that decision.

Initially, I collected and displayed my collection in albums, most acquired through collections, then later, garage and estate sales. Some were 'loose groups,' glassine envelopes and a variety of methodologies. Then, several years ago, I happened to be at the right place at the right time, and acquired a dealer's inventory of stamps from world-wide countries, contained in several large cartons. It consisted of a variety of packaging:

White books: - mini-collections of hinged stamps by country or several books for a country, ID'd by the user.
White boxes – groups by country contained in glassine envelopes, catalogued and priced.
Shoe boxes filled with large envelopes, marked by country, uncatalogued and unpriced.
Small cartons of bulk stamps in cubes – typically 100, 200, per cube.
Sheet stamps .
Souvenir sheets, many oversize
Loose stamps:

Clearly, given the volume, I would need a roomful of albums to contain them all, and for the shoe boxes, years of posting. For me, I would rather spend my time determining their value.

I believe that collectors love to purview their collection, or prefer to possess it, but are happy to store it, determine its value, and deal with the presentations later. Since I consider myself in the latter category, I'm perfectly happy to keep the bulk of the inventory in a desk custom built for storage of stamps. The remainder, albums, books, etc., are kept in traditional files, cabinets, etc.

Prior to acquiring the Stamp software, to computerize my inventory I developed my Excel spreadsheets with the following features:

Separate spreadsheets with tabs for each country. I have mine in two physical files, but they will vary according to the physical characteristics of the inventory and the ability to consolidate them.

Summary data: the First Tab in a file contains a summary of values for all countries, (I also identify the name of the 'collection' in the summary, which ties to album, etc. ) I also plug in the values from the COTS software for supported countries in order to get a full valuation of the inventory. I have another tab for bulk stamps, and one for Souvenir Sheets (kept in Stock Books)
.

Values are linked from the summary to the country spreadsheets so they change automatically with updates. A grand total for all countries is also calculated. I have tabs for approximately 250 countries, with the bulk being in US, Germany, New Zealand, and British Commonwealth, including Australia, and Canada. For many countries, I have less than $50.00 worth.

Detail data:
I enter stamp attributes necessary to identify it, without having to resort to the Catalog.
(Scott#, Year, Illustration #, Subject, color and denomination. I chose not to keep Perf or WM's.) inventory. My COTS stamp software also identifies 'location' which is implied in the Excel Spreadsheets.

Key to my assumptions and validity of the calcs is to separate line items by condition; Used, MNH, and MH.

Calculated summaries of total prices for singles, for blocks, and for totals of singles and blocks.

Calcs for blocks vary; a) individual stamp price * No. in the block)
b) fixed price per block
c) For US blocks, Zip Block Value, Plate Block value, and remainder.
Calculations for plateblocks are embedded in the cell formulae.

Quantity; both of number of singles and Plate blocks
Comments; both in the ID data and before the price section.
Price info; both of Singles and Plate Blocks.

Prior to each Group Classification (Regular Issue, Semi-Postal, Air Post, ) source of the data is identified; specifically Year of Scott Catalog, Volume, Starting Page of the section, and summary calculation of total for that section . I find this invaluable in trying to review the source of previously entered data. Where data is cumbersome, 'Rhodesia' includes 'Northern Rhodesia,' 'Southern Rhodesia' and 'Rhodesia,' I include all in the same spreadsheet, but it's personal preference. I find the same issue with 'Palestine.'

Some customization may be necessary: US vs. foreign; For U.S., I like to calculate the book value of the single and block issues. Since I have purchasing info for only two countries (US and New Zealand,) I don't have a provision to enter purchase price and resulting profit/loss calculations.

Let me also say that documenting the value also works well with albums, by preceding the data with a page number.

To reduce the work in building a file, I thought about sending the data base populated with my data, but there's a tradeoff as to 'reworking' the data vs entering the original data.

I can send a sample of the spreadsheet by email.

I'm sure there's something I forgot, but there's always the 'edit' provision.

Sorry if I've gotten a little wordy.

I posted this image in another thread on how I keep track. I've used an assortment of albums to the present. My 1840-1940 is in two volumes and I use blank pages too for all those stamps not in the Big Blue PT 1. For me post 1980's stamps are a problem. I use Harris albums for those, which works pretty well up until the last few years (about 2004 onward, when the supplements really started to shrink)

I too trim Specialty Pages to Scott International size. You can't waste those stamps already mounted!

As I posted earlier ,I don't keep a inventory or spread sheet .But for those who are thinking of some kind of inventory record keeping .
My thinking is to buy a CLASSIC CATALOG which is a few years old and use that as your inventory .It would be simpler to underline those stamps that are in or would fit into the 1840-1940 Big Blue and then when you acquire the stamp ,then turn that underline to a red circle around the catalog number ,fast simple and neat ,that way your carrying one inventory book to each store,bourse,or stamp show .Also the old price in the catalog will give you a idea of what to pay.

Hi Floortrader

I do something like that.

When I am putting together a checklist for a country in Big Blue, I also put a small circle in front of the number in the Scott Classic. When I have the stamp, I draw a line through the circle.

This works O.K., but there are not a small number of spaces where 2-3 different numbers could be put in a BB space. Then I make a small box (to indicate there are other choices for the space) in front of the number. As before, I draw a line through the box when I have the stamp.

I am then able to take the Scott classic to the Stamp Club meeting or Stamp bourse, and have quick access to the inventory I already have.

Another fellow in the Stamp Club does a similar thing, except he uses different color markers for his inventory.

Great minds think alike on the use of a old catalog to watch your inventory.-----We got a lot of stamp auctions coming up over the next few days and for the next few weeks.Are there others who are actively bidding for material.

Still a little confused. What is the difference between the 1941 Scott International Junior album & the Scott International album Part 1? What year was the first Part 1 album? 1941 or 1943 or?

Laying by the computer is a 1941- a Junior. Also there is a 1969 edition here - Part I. So somewhere in-between.

The really is no difference in the contents as such, whether it is a "Junior" or "Part I". There are some differences, though, with editions.

When Scott came out with Part II- which covers the 1940s, then they needed to change the name of the Junior to Part I...

Bob's "Filling Spaces" blog http://globalstamps.blogspot.com/
Has specific entries about this very topic.

Thank you. I understand now.

1947 was the first edition that had the "Part I"
1943 was the last edition that had the "Junior"

http://globalstamps.blogspot.com/20...tt-blue.html

Thanks for the follow up on the Part 1 1947 question.

About how many pages in a 1941 Junior Part 1 Big Blue?

The number of pages varies for two reasons: 1) Scott was always tinkering and each revision adds or eliminates a few pages; 2) the current four part version has considerably more pages than any of the previous versions because all countries and major types of stamps (i.e., airmails, postage dues, etc.) within a country now begin on the front of a page--i.e., a lot more blank "side twos."

But for what it is worth, my 1969 edition has 1312 pages front and back, not counting title page, etc. The current version has 2288 pages according to Amos Advantage.

Hi everyone
i wasn't aware that so many collected this subject.
i restarted collecting a few years ago.

Being Danish I started there, which quickly spread to germany, sweden, iceland - and then to norway, Finland and England.
and I figured I might as well just do the entire europe and voila! I now collect the entire World from the 1st stamp and 100years forth.

BUT, I seem to collect in a more strict way. I do not tolerate any flaws, stamp must have all perfs, or good margins if imperforated. no thins and decent center and to top that 1 single clear cancel.
i'd rahter destroy a spacefiller than put it in my Collection.
i only collect used stamps, and in cases of stamps being worth less unused I only accept stamps which have no gum on the backside and a readable cancel that looks genuine.

i do of course realize that I will, in no way ever get a near complete Collection. noone will not even with spacefillers.
But i'm happy to have empty pages, if the NeXT page springs into my eyes with beautifully perserved stamps.

the way I collect is I have small albums 1 for each country, and place stamps with a piece of paper with a note of the date, perf, watermark and so on. I Refer to the online catalogue at stampworld which of course is very thin.

when I have more than half of a country I will form a customized Collection with loads of text following the creation of the first stamp and then timeline my way on and outwards from great britain.

creating Little pathways to other countries when they start publishing.

it's a huge chunk of Work and might prove impossible, but i'm Young and stubborn.

i have a very solid Danish Collection and stockbooks so if anyone need to get empty spots filled there, let me know.

I started collecting the first 100 years in the early 1980s, although I don't remember exactly when. I had reached the point in my U.S. collection where I could only afford to buy, at most, one or two stamps at a time.

At the suggestion of a friend, I purchased a used Scott International Part One at a local stamp shop. It cost $10. It contained a few stamps but was mostly empty. The binder was in good condition, and I would describe the condition of the pages as generally fine and overall "good enough." The album is the 1947 edition, with maps and a list of all the stamp-issuing entities recognized at the time. The idea was to be able to go to a stamp store or a stamp show and buy a lot of stamps for not very much money. And to recreate the feelings and fun I had when I started collecting as a kid by buying packets and sending in dimes in response to ads in the back of comic books and Boys Life.

After a short period of buying worldwide stamps randomly, I got some out-of-date Scott catalogs and, over a period of many months, created a worldwide checklist on notebook paper that I placed in a cheap 3-ring binder. The methodology of my checklist is somewhat similar to that of the ones featured on the Big Blue blog (big shout-out to Jkjblue!). I'd list the stamps that had actual spaces in the album, with catalog numbers in parentheses for blank spaces and spaces where there was more than one option. Most of the time, I would remember to cross out numbers as I acquired stamps, but there were many lapses and I have lots of duplicates.

I definitely "collected to the album," as stated in one of the earlier posts. Many years ago, there was an article in Linns about two collectors who collaborated and eventually succeeded in filling the International Part One. With that in the back of my head, my goal was to fill the spaces, maybe not all of them but as many as I could. A more attainable goal was to get at least one stamp from every entity, which actually took me a LONG time. (The last was La Aguera; after perhaps 15 years I finally found a set on ebay listed by a dealer from Argentina!) As for completeness, I've lost count but think I have filled somewhere around 30,000 of the "more than 35,000" spaces that the title page says are in the album. If I had it to do over again, I might use hinges, but I started with and still use black-backed mounts. As a result, I now need 3 binders to hold the pages and probably should be using 4. I keep leftovers from sets and other stamps that don't have spaces in the album on Vario stock pages in their own 3-ring binder.

I have few hard and fast rules. The stamps have to be sound. No space fillers allowed. I try to avoid extremely poor centering and heavy cancellations that obscure the stamp design. U.S. stamps have to be used (so I can afford them!) but otherwise stamps can be mint or used, hinged or unhinged.

Eventually, I got back into my longtime love of collecting 19th century U.S. revenues, and my worldwide collecting slowed down. But I still carry the old notebook with the now-tattered checklist pages to every stamp show, and if I can't find any revenues, I'll try to fill a few more spaces in the International.

I have a collector mentality. I will always collect something. But I truly believe that today my primary hobby would be collecting comics or sports cards or postcards or who-knows-what instead of stamps but for the Scott International Part One.