Storing Large Used World Wide Collections

I agree...I do something like this for my "extra" quadrille pages.

For me, aside from the space-saving over printed albums, the great benefit of quadrille - whether using pen and ink or Chris's printed labels - is your level of involvement with your stamps and your collection. There's none of the "that's done, next" feeling of sticking stamps on a Steiner or other sheet or inserting your stamps into mounts stuck in by someone in the Lighthouse factory.

Classicalstamps - Thanks for those positive aspects of the Varios

That is exactly some of the superior effects that attracts me to Varios. Which is opposite to what I am experiencing with my present set-up in stockbooks, which is limiting the opportunities and making it troublesome to add any extra material, variations etc. So, I often end up thinking I do not bother. With the Varios, one can simply grab a new page. Without this possibility in the stockbooks, I can admit I often do what I guess most of you consider 'unheard off' : in order to expand my collection I have in some cases added strips of mounts directly on the glassine interleaves . My classic Austria pages have the interleaves almost covered with mounts, effectively doubling the available space for dozens perf variations etc.
It's working - but not looking too good, so I am considering it desperate measures in desperate times, while waiting to make my mind up.

I found this with some auction lots I recently bought - the collector had put all of his blocks or mini-sheets in glassine bags sellotaped to the glassine interleaving. Each with its own Michel number added!

Chris - beautiful and well made page

geoffha -


And to continue on geoffha's statement - it could also give a somewhat different feeling of accomplishment than if one is simply 'filling the spaces' (?) In my opinion that would apply for any self made (DIY) page, whether on traditional album pages or on Varios etc. They all require some effort in terms of planning, creativity and execution. And the reward is a custom made page in a personal style one can be proud off. In addition the quadrille pages would require some artistic skills - of which I have absolutely none

Just to specify - I'm careful to say DIY pages will give any 'better' or 'stronger' feeling of accomplishment - only a 'different' one. For some collectors the accomplishment is all about filling the spaces and enjoying a completed page. Perfect! For others the accomplishment is more about continuously developing the pages, following along the same lines as ClassicalStamps. I'm in the later category, and I believe the Varios are most suitable for anyone with that kind of 'illness'. Flexible - and no need for re-hinging or re-mounting

For Big Blue Collectors and want-to-be's.

This may not be the right thread but I hope it catches the majority of folks who use the Big Blues or like to pick up collections in them to add to their collections. I was browsing some non-traditional auction areas and came upon the following auction.

Fusco Auctions, Sale #125 - lots 0102, 0103, 0104. Platings of Scott 11a for sale

https://new.liveauctioneers.com/cat...-auction-125

I see offered here a number of lots with multiple Big Blue based collections, including one set of unused - possibly mint - albums. They are scattered all over. This looks like the sale of a dealer's stamp store. Start prices seem intriguing. Happy hunting.

[PS: Admin - if there is a better thread, please move this. Thanks]

Mike

Hi. I'm so glad to see new posts on this thread. Chris - great supplement page! :)

I've been stamping in a very good headspace lately, using a combination of Steiner pages, Vario pages and sliding cut-off dates.

Typically I stop a country around 1970, unless there are extenuating circumstances. Monarch change, independence, etc. Can't stop my Lithuania collection in 1970, eh?

I'm using Steiner pages up to my cut off date, printing as I go. But when my stamps get sparse for one country, I'll use a Vario page with tags for each year.

So for the Netherlands, for example, I have Steiner pages up to 1975 then a Vario page with any more modern stamps I'll come across, sorted by year.

What I've found is that when I'm tired from life and I really want to enjoy my hobby, I have the most fun sticking (hinging) stamps into my album. So if I'm sticking with stamps, and not moving to Panini soccer stickers, I'll be happily hinging into my album.

I'll likely never have many early classics, so I tend to start each country around 1880 or 1900 too. That avoids page 1 for a country being blank but for a heavily smudged 'classic'. :)

Mark

Good to hear from you again madbaker

So, I've finally made up my mind when it comes to storage solution. I've made an order for delivery of 60 Lighthouse Grande Signum albums and a mountain of Grande Vario pages. . It's both frightening and exciting. Thank you for all good advice about the Vario pages, think it should work. So, now I am trying to get my head around the daunting task to transfer 150k stamps. Thank heavens it's Hingeless

Welcome to the Vario darkside, Blaamand

One word of advice, create some sort of method to ID which stamps are in which location on each page of the albums you make. I use excel (actually OpenOffice's freeware version) files to create such "keys" and they are very helpful in not only plotting out pages, but also when it comes to any re-arrangement I might want to do. You can then also print a copy of it out, and put it into the vario album to use as an inventory. Kill 2 birds with one stone as it were.

Example for my Alderney Album - column H has the page number, A-G are the columns for up to 7 stamps per row (actually you can fit up to 8 22mmx25mm stamps in a Vario page row quite nicely if needed - just remember that the total length of each row is 195mm so the number of stamps you can fit will be based on their length, not height, with Vario pages. )

"Deep Blue": Ongoing migration of 1840-1940 WW Steiner pages to Vario G & Vario F Binders

Imagine a group of some of the world's most knowledgeable WW collectors around a campfire, talking about their collections all night, until the morning sun emerges.

The pearls and nuggets are on every page of this thread.

Worth a reread by anybody with an interest in collecting WW!

@jkjblue - I would love to get a chance to sit by that campfire - and to have a look into all those albums of yours


- this is one of my favorite threads, time to ramp it up!

We can all sit around the campfire reading Jim's blog to each other

@jkjblue - beautiful pic of the collection in the Varios, but how do you tell what country is in which. I am sure you have a system, but for me, if I didn't have some sort of ID on the spine I'd probably have to keep opening albums until I found the one I wanted.

That is why I put the coat of arms of the nation(s) contained in each album in my collection (shades of how Davo does its album binders for its albums)



On left is my French Caribbean album (coat of arms of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana on spine), Cameroun album and Gabon album.

Mr. Blue must use a color coding system? Learning all that Heraldry would be too much for me though I'm afraid. I do love the Lighthouse albums ...