Struggles Collecting World Wide

I'm more or less resigned to moving stamps around on occasion. I'm collecting the entire world to date, and I don't want to have to plot out pages for every country, particularly for stamps I will almost certainly never have. And I don't want to have 300 stockbooks on a shelf sitting 90% empty.

I typically buy small collections of a few hundred stamps and add them as I receive them. I place them in Scott order and leave a prudent amount of space for the occasional lone set or single I might acquire, but I place them there with the full expectation that they'll be moved at some point, probably to a completely different stockbook. For example My nascent Monaco collection has no stamps between roughly Scott 650 and Scott 1100. I think I left about a half a page or a page for those missing stamps, which is just for the odd one here or there I might happen across. I'll also leave open spaces and rows here and there, but usually not enough to cover all potential missing stamps. I do it this way because it could potentially be years before I buy another Monaco lot, and I don't want that album real estate going to waste. I'll make a move when I buy another sizable collection/lot, but not for the stray stamp or set, if that makes sense. If I start to approach completion of a country or would have a reasonable expectation of getting close, I'd probably plot out a permanent home, or even just spring for a nice hingeless album if I'm that far along in a country.

I use Lighthouse LS4/32's, the 64-page black background, and I buy them in all 4 colors (black, blue, green red). I color code by region. Black is for Europe and colonies, as well as US and UN. Blue is for Africa and the Middle East, red is for Asia and Oceania, and Green is for Latin America and the Caribbean. When I buy a new blue (Africa) stockbook, for example, in goes the first Africa collection I buy afterwards, along with the stamps I might have had for that country in another stockbook, in Scott order, again leaving a few spaces and rows here and there. Next time I buy a collection for that country, it'll probably get moved again to a new one. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I had considered Vario pages and I think I will use them for certain things, like omnibus issues. What swung me to the stockbooks was primarily cost (no binders necessary) but also convenience. I'd need to keep several size Vario sheets on hand, plus I find placing stamps neatly is easier in a stockbook than on Vario pages. Vario pages require a little more effort to place the stamp correctly. This definitely matters if you have 500 stamps you want to place. I also think stamps shift around more in Vario pages as well. It's hard to beat them for flexibility, though. In my aforementioned Monaco scenario, a missing chunk of 450 stamps is of absolutely no concern with Vario pages.

Look at the price for the Lighthouse stockbook

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-list...ondition=all

IN REGARDS to the earlier comments about not being able to collect the world, well it's all relative and how you define that phrase.

I have collected US, Canada, covers, topicals, etc. for many years. But I decided I missed collecting the world ... so my new tact is to just take as many countries as I care to and collect something from them all. It might be a single stamp, a single set, a set of years ... for a few of countries I have decided to collect the first 400 or so. It gives me plenty of variety to work on and, hopefully, in the end, I will have a "world" collection that is somewhat meaningful - at least to me.

(For the record, I started this about a year ago and I don't have any of my first dozen-or-so selected countries complete yet, but I am getting close with a few.)

or these:

https://www.amazon.com/Lighthouse-6...p/B00V4SZ2IM

I usually pay US$37 each with shipping on Amazon. In reality, I get most of them for somewhere between $10 and free. I have an Amazon rewards card that I use for all my shopping and bill paying, and I end up getting a free stockbook's worth of points about every six weeks or so. I got almost two free stockbooks out of my vacation trip. This actually removed one of my concerns about worldwide collecting, as I really don't even have to consider storage costs, for the most part.

Artful that is just like me. I use my Amazon Visa and use the points to defray cost of pages and binders. Vario F binders can be picked up on Amazon for approx US$25 each and a pack of 25 pages (50 sides) for US$20. A bit more expensive than the 64pg stockbook but with a lot greater flexibility I find in laying out pages.

CENTERSTAGE98----I been a worldwide collector for 60 years ,every week of every month for every year . I spend thousands of hours on my collection ,it will be another 20 years before I have a decent worldwide collection .

Honestly, I think I could live with the cost, if that were my only quibble. It's also much easier, in my experience, to place stamps in a stockbook as compared to a Vario page. If I buy a lot of 500 stamps, I don't want to have to fight with each one to get it situated just right behind the strip, particularly when dealing with sets that have stamps with both vertical and horizontal orientations (e.g. placing a stamp 25mm high in a Vario 5s sheet). Given the narrow width of the strips in stockbooks, this isn't an issue with them.

I do think I'm going to start to use Vario pages somewhat for some specific purposes, though. Who knows, I might get used to them enough to make the switch someday.

floortrader - I am glad you (or anyone) is pleased with their system of collecting. For me, I just figure out a way to shrink the world that makes sense to me.

The collecting of worldwide stamps doesn't mean collecting every country for completion . I see no fun in mounting page after page of all the Eastern Europe CTO or having hundreds of pages of wallpaper from all the sand dunes. I find collecting all the recent MNH sets of the past 20 years a waste of money with no future chance of return on the money spend or the modern stamps telling the story or history of those countries .
I like to say my collection has more stamps from more countries ,states ,occupations,revolutionary groups and factions ,liberations areas than any collector in history . So it isn't incorrect to say my collection covers more countries than any collector in the past .Why even my SOUTH SUDAN page will be soon dived into the two warring tribes as each starts to issue their own stamps .
Collecting stamps to current events keeps one on their toes and makes for interesting discussions .

floortrader, what is your count up to? I would love to see an updated collection photo. Used Modern stamps can be a fun challenge.

Floortrader - I forgive the hyperbole, because I do think you have, for sure, picked up some very interesting collections based on your approach of bidding on material that intrigues over the years.

In fact, I would pay to see your collections.

I'm sure it would be a most enjoyable experience.

Thanks for the positive responds . About the hyperbole ,if you think about it for a moment its true during my lifetime we have seen all the changes in Africa ,the Sand Dunes , the breakup of the Soviet State and all the new stuff coming from China Liberated areas is just to name a few of the collecting areas that wasn't part of any massive worldwide collection of the past . So it safe to say a collection today has a lot more countries and much bigger .
I have not been keeping up with my worldwide collection the past three years because I moved to Florida and started attending Rogers auctions and buying China related collections . Then Jim Czyl died and his fabulous Cinderella inventory came on the market and I over did it and purchased his stuff thru 5 different stamp auctions .Now this coming year I hope to organize all that stuff into a collection.

....JKBLUE ,over the years of collecting and posting of pictures on the internet chatboards .I found the posting high value stamps from my collection didn't impress people and got very few comments . But what other readers here like is unusual stuff and out of the norm stuff like the German Blue Flea or the different types of Heglioland reprints ,the stamps of Central Albania all gets positive feedback . So I hope to buy and display more off the wall collecting areas .
Hey my next project will be used U.S. PNC {Plate Numbered Coils} why? Because I never seen a collection of them ....reason enough .

floortrader are any of your "off the wall" collections on the net, would be cool to see some of those collections.

And the cinderella collection should be lots of fun to organize and will definitely keep you busy the next couple years.