Storing Stamp Collection On Dealer Cards??

After having spent several hours reorganizing my US collection I currently house in Lighthouse stockbooks because I missed a stamp as I was laying out the pages (curses Scott's numbering system sometimes) I starting thinking about alternatives that would give me more flexibility than a stockbook, and that led me to think about dealer cards. A nice 107 size card has a pocket big enough to hold blocks or strips of 5 stamps, and they are inexpensive (Subway sells boxes of 1000 cards, plus box to hold them in, for under US$50.) Anyone ever organize their collection this way, and have any recommendations/caveats on the idea. I have several hundred clean dealer cards already so I was thinking of starting to organize my French Colonies collection (been buying a bunch of stuff in that area lately, love the designs and the price is fairly inexpensive for the period 1910-1940 issues) using dealer cards.

The biggest drawbacks I see is 1) large items like most souvenir sheets sheets won't fit in the cards (can always use dealer sheets with the big pockets for those items and store in binders) and 2) it doesn't have the -wow- factor like looking at a page, though for me not sure if that is really an issue.

Depends on your storage space really. I know some people that use that exact same "system" with the exact same issues too however. I also use a lighthouse binder and vario stock sheets. but recently found that albums seem to offer the best fit. Store them in a nice binder and slip case. Pages and spaces for all the stamps and keep the whole "kit and ka-bootle" on a bookshelf. You can see and access everything nicely too.

The open top of dealer cards allows dust and environmental contamination, at least more so than mounts or glassines. If you keep a lid on the box, not such a big problem. I would never use stockbooks to house a collection unless they are in a slipcase; the material in the top row gets savaged, especially by smokers.

Hint -- I don't like stockbooks, not even to display material I'm selling. Stuff falls out, stamps get bent during insertion, any overlap and the stamps may stick together, etc. The only thing worse than stockbooks is individual manila pages in a 3-ring binder.

When I buy a big mess of stamps, that's the first thing that happens, all the stock pages are thrown away and the stamps put into glassines.

DJC....I keep my duplicates in dealer cards,They are kept in long red boxes and everything is in Scott catalog order.It makes it easy to find and it keeps it highly organized .The cheaper stamps and broken sets are kept on stock pages in three ring binders.

I use a lot of stock pages. The best specimens go in the album, and the rest in stock books. I try to get the sleeves of the page open before inserting the stamps. Keeping them dry is most important in any storage program.

My specialized collections are in hingeless albums, for the most part. My worldwide collection is all stored on 104bk cards and then in 2 Library Card Catalogs. I tried the red boxes, but the stacking and unstacking became cumbersome. For me, this is a great solution. So, with about 50,000 cards already in use @ 5 cents each, it is not cheap, but with everything in inventory in the computer, I have complete fexibility on where the countries are saved. I.E. I don't worry about all countries being in alphabetical order I just have to record which drawer number they are in.

That is a great AAAAA+ arrangement. I use 73 two-piece postcard storage boxes full of glassines, not as elegant; unlike yours, mine need to be in alphabetical order, which means a gigantic reshuffling every two or three years. Same thing for covers, 22 boxes.

Wow Falcon, that is an impressive set up!

FALCON------Very nice set up,I like that neat clean organized .

That is fantastic! I would love to visit an advanced collector sometime and have them show me their collection!

Wow Falcon, that is a beautiful setup you have there. Think that makes my mind up for me :)

First of all, WOW Falcon. That is fantastic.

I am having similar problems as far as organizing. I am about to put up a bunch of stamps to sell, but I am looking to find the best way to store them. Could someone explain what a dealer card is? I can't seem to find a picture of one anywhere.

In answer to the OP, I do use 102 cards to sort/store some of my collection.
I find the re-shuffling in stockbooks a pain as well sometimes.

I don't leave them in the red boxes though. What I have found to work for me is to use the manilla (cardboard) pages with slots. I then place the 102 cards in the slots in a way that allows the stamp(s) in each 102 (or 104) card to be visible on the page. The card can also have a description of the contents (including variety info, date, city, etc. - always in pencil so it can be modified)

If I ever want to sell/trade the item, all I have to do is remove the 102 card and all the info stays with the item(s).
If I add an item, yes I may have to move one of the cards over or down, but as there are maybe 8 cards per manilla page, that is not difficult. These can then be put in a nice binder.

An example would be my Canada Map stamp collection (sorted by plate and position #)

I also use photo albums to house the 102 cards. Again, the info is on the card and if it is moved, the info stays. I leave some empty Pages if I know I will need to add missing items. The ideal photo album has removable pages to make this easy. I house my RPO (Railway cancel) collection this way. One album for each area of Canada. Sometimes the 102 cards slip out, so you need to find an album with the correct size of plastic sleeves (eg. 4x6"). You can often get them with nice binders at a fraction of an album/binder cost (with the pages already included).

The other nice thing about the 102 cards is that when I wish to sell an item, all the info is there and it is easy to scan (without having to remove the stamp. I scan a bunch of cards (say 8) and then crop the stamp image. I like the black background cards for some stamps, for others, the white background shows best - depends on the stamp/cancel, etc.)

The only drawback to this system is if you have 100's or thousands of a certain collection. It would require too many manilla pages.

Here is a picture of a 102 card I found.



Here is an example of a manilla page. This is not one of mine though. I don't like how the manilla pages hide the bottom half of the stamp. Not ideal for scanning purposes as I like to show the entire stamp (unless it is a large lot of common stamps).
The bottom row shows how a 102 card with stamps can be inserted and still show the entire stamp.)

I only use 102 cards for storing stuff I don't want. I do use a stockbook for storing my Panama duplicates and stuff I haven't mounted yet. And one for my CZ plate blocks. And one for postal stationary cut squares. Otherwise it is in albums or stock pages.

Based on what Doug said, will seriously consider making or getting a slipcase to hold my stockbooks.

"I don't like how the manilla pages hide the bottom half of the stamp"

Worse is the fact that they don't hold the stamps well and some people try to cram too many stamps in with overlap like showing in the pictue above. turn the page upside down or drop it and let it be jiggled around in shipping and the stamps will fly out. I have seen it happen countless toimes.

Falcon, you make me sick



While it looks fantastic I think I'd sell my collection before I could ever get it to that point of organization as the time to do it would exceed the years I probably have left.

My organization method.