The Dreaded Gaps

So what is everyone's view on "the gaps". Stamp album pages with a few or many gaps that you will never own. I hate 'em.

Do I scrap the albums and go to stock pages or self created pages leaving out the gaps?

Do I copy fakes into the gaps?

Remove the under used album pages and create a generic page for stamp orphans?

Go the topical route?

Self created pages sans gaps. An excellent example: www.larsdog.com/stamps

I use stockbooks - no such problem

I'm happy with the gaps - collecting would be dull without them. And there's the satisfaction of, very occasionally, filling that last elusive slot on the page. I use Ideal and Imperial albums, so gaps tend to more prevalent than stamps!

Really Scouter...I just picked these up, and yes I cant afford as most people to buy these..But...



1 -They make great fillers.
2 -They are great for identifying any stamps I may purchase.
3 -But most of all, giving them to kids at a stamp club and watching their eyes open wide is a great feeling.

Remember this..Kids are the future of stamp collecting.

Robert

"Tamp em up solid" in Ry Cooder's words?

Geoff

I no longer have a general US collection, but when I did I did not mind the gaps in my Scott National album: I regarded them as incentives. I knew of course that 98 percent of them would never be filled, but there was always the possibility that an undiscovered gem would appear (such as when I found a 4-margin Scott #6 in a lot of #9 seconds)

When I started collecting, I intentionally chose collecting aims that I thought I could meet: US airmail and aviation topical. It took a while to fill the last page of the airmail album -- the one with the Zepps -- but eventually I did. I went on to fill most of the pages for an album of US airmail plate blocks (plus booklet panes and line pairs), with no intention of including the Zepps or C1-C6. For the most part the missing plate blocks are hardly noticed, as I have the mint single pages and plate block pages interleaved within the same album (two Linder binders). Also included in this album are FDC's for everything but C1-C6 and the Zepps. This album is as complete as I intend for it to be, and is "finished."

The aviation topicals (mostly plate blocks, not singles) are in Vario sheets, interleaved with Vario sheets containing covers.

I'm mostly into collecting covers now. Vario sheets in 4 inch D-ring binders. While there are occasional gaps in the cover collection -- meaning covers that I would like to have, but do not yet have -- with Vario pages things can be moved around to keep the gaps from becoming glaring.

When I selected my collecting area I knew I would never complete it, because there are items in the scope that are beyond my means. The gaps didn't bother me at all because I just kept attacking the ones I could afford one by one. I do find a real joy in trying to get as close to completion as is reasonably possible. I have altered my album pages to eliminate stamps that are not in my scope but have not eliminated any stamps that are in my scope; thus there are gaps in my album. The thrill of the hunt is part of the excitement of collecting for me, and that can be hunting for better copies of stamps I already have as well as stamps I don't have. I think that tolerance for gaps in a collection varies by individual.

I read an opinion once that a collection is defined more by what it doesn't contain than by what it does contain. Food for thought.

When I started collecting it was a long while before I purchased some catalogs (even if they were a few years old) The gaps that I had in my album other than the expensive ones reminded me of what I needed to look for to fill the holes. I know I have used a lot of space filler stamps to make the album look more complete. Maybe the gaps that bug me the most are not the stamps I don't have but the ones that there is no space given in a standard album to mount.

For my Lighthouse album of Canada, I just printed a fake 12d as I don't think I will spent $ 23k for it ( catalog value is 40K)
For the US I use also a Lighthouse and move the pages of Grill and Coil to the back of the book. I don't plan to purchase them. I use fake stamps to fill the holes just to give a representation of what look the stamps that will fit there.
My Lighthouse stop at 1999 for Canada and 1965 for US, I print the other pages and places the pages in plastic sheet protector inside Scott Int. Binders. I do it also for the World pages over 1960 as my Scott Int. stop at 1960.
I don't print the souvenirs sheets, I print only the singles stamps, if I obtain a sheet I just place them on a blank pages at the end of the album. The new souvenirs are ridiculous, especially for someone who like engraved stamps.

Some gaps are part of collecting, in my opinion. I have my main collecting area (Germany) divided into 14 different binders, each representing a particular period of history or philatelic area. A few of those areas can be completed on a dedicated but reasonable budget, and many of the rest very nearly so (at least as listed by Scott). If I can pick up a binder with 50-150 pages in it and only have a half dozen or a dozen empty spaces, that's not doing too badly, I don't think. The pride I'd feel from seeing all the filled spaces would outweigh the negatives of a few empty spaces.

I inherited a collection my great-grandfather started. It has contributions, by at least six people, over four generations, each with their own focus of collecting. 'Gaps' should be my ID.

Rhett posted the opinion he'd heard that "a collection is defined more by what it doesn't contain than by what it does".

Our US classic part of the collection doesn't contain the first almost forty years of stamps. It begins in 1887. It doesn't contain every stamp in a series.

I did rough drafts, before deciding whether to create my own pages, or buy albums. I could have pages that look like the one below, and put the rest on stock pages. The bulk of the collection would be in a stock book.



A community member here, suggested I put them all on pages in the 'main album'. While pondering how in the world I was going to do that, I 'chewed over the food for thought' what the collection didn't contain, served up. I came to the conclusion the collection was begun the year my great-grandfather, who started it, was born, and he collected for cancels and postmarks, not individual stamps.

The resulting draft(s) turned out like this first page of the 'Targets' section.



I liked it better, so I created pages that focus on the postmarks and cancels, not the missing stamps. There are sections of pen, manuscript, cork, handstamp, machine cancels, etc. They are in the binders in chronological order of their use. The blank spaces on the page, I can fill in with information about the cancel, or about a particular stamp that might stand out, in the group. I can also arrange them, so the pages lay flat. I like the flexibility creating my own pages gives, and the end results, I'm seeing.

I also like the fact, instead of one binder, filled with the dreaded, hated gaps, and empty pages, with at least two stockbooks, I now have two binders, each page filled, and one stockbook mostly empty.

The missing #214 on the page above doesn't bother me and I'm not inclined to point it out, by putting a filler, or sample in it's place. If I do get one, and it has a target cancel, since I made the page, I can always rearrange it, to fit it in. Not to mention, I might have one, but with a different cancel. You probably won't notice, until you reach the end of the classics section, there isn't a #214 in the collection.

You mentioned topical as an option. If what your collection is missing defines it as a topical one, or that is the route you want to go, then go for it.

A quote I found helpful, and hope it does to you, and others reading.. "It's your collection. Make it how you want it, so you can enjoy it". Good luck with whatever option you decide. I hope you find a way to arrange it so the dreaded, hated gaps don't detract from your enjoyment.

I been a worldwide stamp collector for almost 60 years and my collection has thousands and thousands of gaps .What I see is the thousands and thousands of spots where there is a stamp. It is what I have that makes me happy not what is missing .