Questions On Russian Stamps

Hi,
I've recently gotten back into world collecting (have been a USA collector) with a Scotts Big Blue Part 1 and 2.

I noticed that Russia put out quite a few large and apparently very striking stamps in the 1930s - but I've never seen any.

I'm "assuming" these must be fairly rare, due to the politics of the 30s and after, and of course to the horrible war damage.

Is this about right, or have I been looking in the wrong places?
Thanks,
Mobilman44

I guess you are looking at the wrong place... There are plenty of common low catalog value stamps issued in USSR in the 30's. I definitely would not say "rare". Don't try to look from a Worldwide mixture because most of them tend to be overloaded with western countries and post-WWII topical stamps of 3rd world and ex-communist countries. I collect prewar stamps of the Baltic republics but never saw them in a worldwide mixture.

My Blue collection is the same way. I'm practically complete through 1923, and then I drop off to no more than 50% for years between 1923-1940 for regular issues/commems, and less than that for BOB.

Ever so often, I decide to monitor ebay for Russia collections, but the few that have good coverage of 1920-1940 have brought more money than I am prepared to spend.

I do think this is one of the fascinating aspects of using the Scott Blue International. Since most of the stamps in the album don't have that high a catalog value, as you start to complete the album, you often find cases where low catalog value is inversely proportional to availability.

A lot of Russian stamps of the time in question are hard to get in good condition, yet many are not at all rare. There are some on line catalogues to see them and there should be good examples in Wikipedia.