Storing Large Used World Wide Collections

Exactly, Rene!

@Blaamand - your pages look great too, I especially like the info page about the country you made. I was also tinking about creating an info page but finding the required info for that page was more difficult than I expected

My WW collection is rather small at the moment so that won't be a lot of pages that need to be created at the moment. I will test and compare some different page styles to determen which one fits my collection. I'm a young collector so I hope time will not be an issue.

Vincent

if you are a young collector, as mentioned in your Post, take your time. You do not want to have to re-start 2-3 times in your lifetime. Too precious !!

René

First. Thank you for a wonderful forum and topic. I started some years ago a ww and have only 18k stamps in my collection. I realised that I need a system to store and have control of what stamps I have and miss in my collection. I try some different methods and has a "3 step" setup I use now. All my 18k stamps are registries in an online stamp database so I have control now.

Step 1:

I have lots of stamps book with stamp all over the world in my bookshelves that I accumulates over the years and have no control over what I have in them. I took some old Vario albums and made labels over all countries in the world and placed on one page. I take one book of time and place the stamps in the right page. When a country fills out a page I add another page.



Step 2:

When I got around 300-400 stamps from a country I switch the stamps over to normal stock books. Both the Varios in step 1 and stock books are used from purchases I done to lower the cost. I make number of every 10 and place 10 stamps on the row. I used a ruler to place the stamp every 2 cm. I used the Michel catalogue to find the place for the stamps.



Step 3:

When I got 90% of the stamps in a period I transfer them over to Steiner page. First, I convert the Steiner Pages to PowerPoint and make some change (To add the last type of the Norwegian air post stamp). I print the out on normal office papier and used mount to secure the stamps. The page is placed in plasticleves? (I don't now the English word, sorry) and stored in Lighthouse Grande binders with label field in front.





So far, it's working great. Its only one thing I regret is not to put big counties in stock book at the beginning. The fill the Varios fast and its take time to transfer them over to stock books. I have allot of stamps I need to get sorted. Both collection and duplicates. The duplicates I also have in Grande binders. My Norwegian duplicates are stored after Michel with catalogue price under the Michel number.

@DBakken - neat and efficient set-up, well organised
I particularily like the look of those black Vario Classic Grande albums, 'Signum' version - even with binder labels printed in 'inverted black'.
(....now, should I add, because they look almost exactly as my own albums and labels...? https://goscf.com/t/51092&whichpage=21
There's not too many using the 'Signum' version, glad to see you in the club

I read all the posts... thank you all for this interesting discussion.

I will certainly first use Codehappy method : I had given up collecting for years and just returning now. So when I gived up I emptied all my stockbooks and... put all the stamps in large plastic boxes. All the stamps are mixed. I did that to gain space, thinking that I would never have enough time again to consider stamps collecting (I perhaps have something like 150 - 200 k stamps, counting the duplicates of course)

Anyway the task is huge so the little cards would be a good idea to sort thing first. Then I may search for other means.

I love the idea of self made pages with mounts or hinges but I saw some practical problems with them.

First, the type of paper. The thickness is not a point, it's more the acid free part that annoys me : I would never be sure of the quality. Second point are hinges. I don't want them, even on used stamps : they leaves marks and I feel that they are more a thing of the past than something collectors had to use (everyone has his own view, no problem with that, I am certainly not the keeper of the holy truth on stamps collecting) so... mounts... as it was already said, then you have a page which cost is higher than the stamps on it...

So much for albums, then stockbooks... handy, safe... not appealing to the eyes which was the best point in self made pages... Same things goes with Vario and other same type of pages... even if they are smarter that a plain old stockbook.

I don't consider pages made by seller' they are beautiful but as stated elsewhere, they don't fit the needs of those which also collect things that are not in catalogs.

So... back to the start... I will use the 102 cards, it will needs some times (years ?) then perhap someone will find THE great way of sorting a collection... I would be his or her first customer

Impressive DBakken. I designed an Excel spreadsheet to track my collection. You can easily print the sheet and take it to stamp shows to find what you want.

I'll admit that 102 cards and putting them into red boxes have some appeal.., great way to deal with dupes but would take up a lot of space

Wow! I just read through this entire thread (took most of the day) and none of the approaches really felt right until I finally got to the last couple of pages. The idea of using #102 cards to organize all of my unmounted stamps until I can put them in an album is brilliant. Right now I have stamps in bags, stamps in boxes, stamps in envelopes, stamps in albums and on pages that I bought at auction, and I really have no idea what I have. Maybe this approach is not that different from using stockbooks but it just feels right.

So here is my new plan (my thanks to those of you who described something similar):

1. I will start going through the masses of unorganized stamps and place them in #102 cards labeled by country and year of issue. These cards will be sorted by country and stored in the 14" red boxes. New stamps will be collated in with the existing stamps as I go. This first pass will be my "introduction" to each stamp: a first opportunity to study and admire it. Duplicates will probably share the same #102 card.

2. When I have accumulated a significant number of different stamps for a particular country (one that I do not already have a album for) I will acquire an appropriate album (maybe one that came with an auction lot, maybe DIY, maybe commercial album, probably will differ from country to country) and begin transferring stamps from cards to album. This second pass will give me an opportunity to learn about colors, varieties, etc.

3. If the country interests me enough I will acquire an appropriate non-Scott catalog and really begin collecting that country in depth.

Now all I need is enough time to do all of this! I'll probably die with stamp tongs in my hand - what could be better?