Just Starting Out My Mother Left Me Some Stamps And Album

I see that Mystic sells the Statesman on their website for about $50 per volume (Countries A-L and M-Z). That's about the going rate for that album and Mystic is as good a place to get it from as any. You might be able to save $5 or $10 somewhere else, but not much more than that.

+1 on the Mystic American Heirloom if you want to collect USA; 3 vol. covering 1847-present for $40.

+1 on the Steiner (stampalbums.com) for a worldwide collection. I recently downloaded all pages and just print the pages I need as I go. But as has been mentioned before, it will help to have a set of Scott catalogs.

I'd argue against an album. I think they are a great, unwarranted expense. There are on-line sites that will allow you to print album pages - if you are really into that notion - but why not use blank pages and mount your stamps in a way that pleases you? To tell the truth I've never understood the drive to collect a whole country - guess I'm more connected to younger collectors today who are interested in specific topics or categories - and more world than country specific. Look at the forum in here on engraved stamps as an example.

I go with a combination of fimpster and CanadaStamp.

1. I got the Mystic Heirloom 3-volume set and like it very much. The only negative thing - and you can see why from the publisher's point of view - is that it leaves room to mount most multi-design issues (se-tentant) as one piece (say the Disney stamps as a block of four), but not as singles. I would like to see it displayed both ways. So I might mount the block for now and eventually create extra pages showing just the singles.

2. I like CanadaStamp's idea of just focusing on the issues and stamps I want to collect, so I just purchased the Steiner online subscription that allows you to print all the pages from one country or as few as one page. That way, I can just focus on the years or issues I want. I don't need pages for the whole country. Maybe only 1 .. or 6 .. or 10 .. whatever I want. The reason I like these pages is that they give a frame and format in a very professional look, whereas making my own pages would be messy and sloppy. My computer doesn't have a decent graphics program and even if it did, you would have to try and measure each stamp and create a mounting box for it. The Steiner stamp album pages do that for you.

This seems to be a common criticism of the Heirloom. SCF user apastuszak addresses this issue by offering his "hacked" versions of those pages.

Good luck in your quest dkbigsky

You have received a lot of great feedback here already. It is difficult to decide what direction to head in when there are so many options out there.

Dianne

OK I am a little overwhelmed I did get a statesman world album as my mom had a pile of world stamps that were in envelopes. I thought I would sit down and put a few in the album. First stamp had magyar on it after looking for a country named Magyar for a while. I did figure out it was probably from Hungary, but how do I know what year. Would it be asking that much to have a date on them. Ha

Don't get discouraged, things can look a little intimidating at first. It won't be long before you can identify the country and general era with a glance. One of the first things that really piqued my interest about stamp collecting was learning that other countries don't always use the same names for their countries that we do. For me, it was that learning process that really kept me going at first. Just remember that there's no wrong way to go about starting your collection. Are you interested in a certain part of the world? Maybe a certain era, like World War II? Certain topics, like sports or ships? Try a few different things and see what you like. Probably not everything is going to trip your trigger.

Dk

I'm gonna see if I can find the link to the stamp identifier I found when I first started out again it was a great help. I'll get back to you as soon as I find it.
Dianne

Me again

Apparently I'm technicaly challenged and could figure out how to post a link but if you google ISWSC Worldwide stamp identifier it should be the first site that comes up. I printed the list and still use it often.

Dianne

Dianne, very useful ummm link... I was going to post a picture of a mystery stamp I was looking at this morning. Using the site you posted and searching the word secours I found it to be a Saudi Arabian postal tax stamp. Thanks!

Glad to be of assistance stampcrow. I remember being stuck on Identifying stamps when I first started.

Dianne

centerstage98 - Here's the most important thing about philately. You do it the way you want to do it - there is no "right" way. Each and every stamp collection is different - they always tend to reflect the collector's special interests.

http://www.iswsc.org/iswsc_ident.html

Yes Dianne and I remember being stuck on posting links.....

I think I should follow up. Dianne, that last post was me attempting to be funny, sarcastic etc. I'm pretty new here so probably shouldn't assume that it might not be offensive. It was meant as jest.