A Stamp For Every Country Collection

ajuchum - I recommend using Scott Stamp Atlas instead. Much more suitable for this purpose

Thank You!

I have 50 years experience in collecting ASFE (A Stamp From Everywhere), so my recommendation, as I saw much discussion on lists.

The ASFE collector should use 2 lists. The objective and the subjective one.

The objective one (you can google it at ASFE Slovakia site as Updated List of 780 ASFE stamp issuing entities ) serves for comparison how ASFE collectors are advanced. Do not expect to collect it in one month, even one year or one decade. I have never heard of anybody to have completed it. The list is named 780, as it is number of entities in Stamp Atlas by Mr. Hlinka from 1971. And updated, as 1971 was rather long ago....

The subjective list is the one you adjust for your needs. I have added local stamps, telegraphic stamps, 21 thousand precancels and even some artistamps (Cinderellas) and revenues. And I have based on it my wantlist. You can see it on that site of ASFE Slovakia. The goal is to get offers.

Have you guys seen this?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Collection...AOSw-RdZxlmE

I think this would be a really fun thing to do. So long as it doesn't matter which stamp you use per country - it might be very difficult to do if you could only select certain stamps.

I just finished my end of 2017 collection statistics and can share a couple of things which may be relevant to this thread.
1. Based in North America, my catalog budget goes to Scott - have 2012/2013 volumes - and my worldwide collection is now 21,772.
2. Also just finished compiling all the different entities in Scott - 690.
3. My collection has 373 different stamp collecting entities as per Scott, so 54% of the total.
4. This is based on a peanuts budget so I would say it is very possible to get close to a complete ASFE collection - say 90%, not withstanding that the first 50% of countries is much easier than second 50%.

KRelyea --Lots of interesting stamps in that collection ,thanks for linking it .

Conker -


What are those 21.722 ? Entries form Scott catalog + US precancels ?

Valdpete,
This may be a number format difference between North America and Europe.
My collection currently has a total of just over 21 thousand items - everything in my worldwide collection.
I was trying to illustrate that assembling this modest collection still generates 373 different stamp producing entities (as defined by my Scott catalogs)

Hi Conker,




I agree with what you say here. For me this is one of the joys of worldwide collecting that you build a collection that represents the world very cheaply.

I recently saw a collection of all #1's on the Sandafayre website. I had always dismissed doing something like that outright, thinking it would just be too expensive to even consider. But, I wonder if there would be enough countries with reasonably priced #1's that it would be doable for at least a certain percentage of all the stamp issuing countries?...especially if you were a little "flexible" regarding used vs. unused and condition.

If I were to do something like that, I'd make my own pages, having one for each country with some introductory information about the country at the top of the page and a box for the stamp right in the middle of the page to really show it off

Think what a learning experience it would be "exploring" all those countries and all the fun in hunting down those stamps. Of course, there's be a lot I'd never be able to afford, but I bet enough of the ones I could that would keep me busy the rest of my time on this Earth.

Something to think about...

Hi Conker,

thanks, I understand,now. Most of ASFE collectors started as whole world collectors. Me too 60 years ago. After 10 years I specialized in ASFE.


Peter

Here is another quick data point from my collection.
Out of my 373 different stamp issuing entities, 26 of them are the first stamp issued.
This is totally by serendipity, have never focused on ASFE (until now maybe!)
As an example, Pakistan #1 popped up in a $3 e Bay India assortment.
Have to agree with Chris 2015, there are probably enough #1's out there at minimal pricing to assemble a very respectable collection.

I was doing some research for a word search puzzle I created on stamp issuing entities with 30 or fewer issued stamps. The list below should not be taken to be complete as I normally exclude words arbitrarily. If nothing else, it may provide insight on some tougher countries to collect. The table includes number of Scott-listed stamps issued.

Hi shermae,

Here's my favourite complete "country", the single stamp issued by the local post in Tierra del Fuego:



I don't think it's in Scott but it does have a full listing in SG.