Help With A Sorting Method

I'm looking at a plastic shoe box with about 10,000 German BRD stamps from 1949 to 1995 that I want to organize. The problem is I've been looking at the box for too long and can't figure out the best way to sort them

Should I first sort by denomination or year or ? Of course while all have a denomination, not all have a year. They're 95% commemoratives, so separating by stamp type doesn't help much.

I really like these stamps and want to make sure that at the end of the sort, I feel the same way about them

Any suggestions how to tackle this sort?

Hi Jenny

I'm note sure what tools you have handy but I found that it was easier to take 100 or so stamps at time and lay them out on the table, same size side by side, recent stamps on one side, older ones on the other.

Then I would catalogue them and place them in a stock book(with small precut pieces of paper to wright the stock no on) or in glassines that have small sticky labels(available at the dollar store) with the stock no written in pencil so I could reuse them.

That being said I would groups sets together to use less glassines.

With the German stamps that have different years of printing within the same set(usually have to check for watermarks)or the deffinatives that are usually plentiful I would group them together and check the watermarks late once I was done the initial sort.

Hope this a little helpful

I am sorting through some Australia right now and I have two boxes full. I have been at it for about a week.

I recently did a huge pile of BRD stamps myself. I used a technique similar to Dianne's but not as sophisticated.
Many BRD stamps have the date on them so they are easy.
I took a number of #6 envelopes (not recommended for long term storage)and started filing them by date of issue and some other rough classification that makes sense to me (castles, portraits, misc.)

As you progress, some definitive issues will become apparent (I don't know how familiar you are with BRD stamps. You may already know the definitive series) You can start a separate envelope for them. This leaves you with more manageable piles.

Then it's time to hit the catalog. I take an envelope and begin cataloging and putting them in their semi-permanent resting place, stock book, glassines, etc. by the appropriate catalog number.
This process works for me. It makes the piles less overwhelming and the cataloging doesn't require as much flipping around.
It's not perfect but working on one envelope at a time gives me a sense of progress.

Hope that helps,
Dan

Anytime I'm sorting a large pile, I just kind of divide and conquer. I start by separating small and large and then by general era, series and/or denomination. Denomination is as good a way as any to start with BRD issues, since most commemoratives of the same denomination were generally issued in the same general era. You can further sort from there, keeping an eye out for stamps of a series with different denominations that belong together. Thankfully, Germany doesn't have too terribly many of those (except in semi-postals), at least when compared to say, Great Britain or Switzerland.

Jenny,
There is no right or wrong. I agree with others, just dive in. It really depends on what you plan to do with them. I just keep breaking things into smaller chunks. The ultimate goal is to have them identified and cataloged, however if you are just looking for items for your collection get those out and get rid of the rest ASAP or you will end up like me with mass accumulations of junk.

Thanks very much everyone for your suggestions. I think I'll do a first rough sort according to denomination (perhaps also easier to find duplicates). Hopefully this will give me manageable piles before moving on to the second sort, where I will sort by year (my goodness though the dates sure are printed in tiny microprinting).

Next I'll put each year in a glassine and start to catalog. I think I have too many stamps to record what I have on a spreadsheet, so I'll probably just mark them off in my catalog. Then hopefully finally I'll get a handle of exactly what I have. I'm already determined to collect all BRD stamps from 1949-1960 though

Hi!
I've just gone thru something like this for about 500 German stamps. I got a real education in the various issuing entities of the late 40s thru the early 60s.

What worked for me (not saying this is the best way, just that it worked for me) was to first sort by the issuing entity on the stamp itself. That was pretty easy, and at least gave me a "country grouping". As my goal was to ultimately set aside post 1960 stamps, I then went thru each group looking for any obvious "post 1960 issues" and moved them aside.

Then I started with a country group, and sorted by "like stamps" of the same outline or face (but different denominations), and for the one of a kind commemoratives, I sorted by horizontal and vertical.

I then went thru the album(s), looking for match-ups. Anything left over had an appointment with the Scott Catalogue.

Once done, I went to the next country grouping, and so on.............

I sort of did the same thing for a friend...unofficially priced his dad's old collection using scotts and other sources to give him an idea of value...most were all on pages, but I gave up trying to catalog/identify the 600 or so china stamps...all look similar but with province changes in the overprints and such...I was crosseyed for days

I subsequently am the owner of this older collection..lots of interesting stuff in here...and not so much to me either..anyone collect easter and christmas seals...I have sheets now

Hi

If anyone is interested in a method for sorting stamps e-mail me with StampSort in the title and I will send a copy of the document.

This method has been used for a number of years. I have a friend who owns a stamp store and I use this method for sorting collections for stock when working at home. In the store the stamps go directly into stock.

I will say that the method seems a little daunting at first but after one try it really is pretty easy.

Jerry B