Worldwide Stamps - What To Do With Them?

I'm currently re-housing my entire collection, and have got down to the final part - Worldwide various. I don't actively collect worldwide, but have two album loads accumulated from here and there.

I just picked up another tattered old album full, which adds to mine to make maybe four albums worth of stamps in total. So, what to do with them all?

I want to keep them. The main problem is, whether to just put everything I've got into new albums, as per my re-housing project, in the spirit of collecting all stamps from far and wide - or alternatively, to select the nicest stamps and sets, so that the album pages are more attractive. The latter would mean dropping multiple lone stamps I have from countries like Argentina and France, and heavy-used stamps which don't look good. I guess I'd store them in stockbooks.

I just can't decide what to do - everything goes, or select the nicest ones to make the albums better looking. Any thoughts gratefully received...

Hi,
I've wrestled with similar situations so I can relate. If you are really into the hobby, and have years ahead to enjoy it, I suggest just putting those albums/stamps aside for a later time. There is no need to make a decision now, and frankly what decision you come to today might not be one you will appreciate doing down the road.

One other comment..... If your worldwide spans 1840 to 2015, that is a huge undertaking to put in albums - or collect for that matter. Maybe you will decide to concentrate on the classic years (1840-1940) and get an appropriate album. Or, you may decide to concentrate on other time frames or countries. Or, you may just want to put the whole thing up for auction on ebay.

But whatever the case, take your time and think it over carefully!

Thanks for your comments. It's a good point about years to come. That would make sense with random ones and twos which tend to clutter the pages. They could be put aside and should I ever come across more to make up sets, then they could be integrated into the collection down the line - although as I mentioned, I'm not actively looking for worldwide.

My album pages are blank, loose leaf by the way, so it's completely open how much I put in, and if I want to add to them later on. I have and still do dispose of practically everything after 1960-1970-ish, so the collection only goes up to then. It's not even remotely complete and never will be, and that's fine by me! I just don't want to part with what I have, some of which was from my childhood collection, and some from my grandfather's.

My general worldwide collection is not something I deliberately focus on. It is more that occasionally, when I get a little tired of my "specialized" areas, I do turn my attention to the worldwide material for a few weeks.

Mine is mounted on Bill Steiner's pages, printed as needed, and placed in 3-ring binders. It works well for me. At one time I thought about buying a worldwide album of some manner, but I'm far enough along in the Steiner pages that I'm just not changing now. Admittedly, it has taken years to get the worldwide to the point it is now, partially because of volume, and partially because it is a secondary interest. Regardless, I'm not really at a point where I'd want to change my organization of the collection.

I do have specific albums for the countries in which I specialize.

Ringo

I wanted to collect world issues, so I bought the SG Ideal albums (3 vols) for foreign issues to 1936. They aren't cheap, and they're fastbound. If it isn't going to be your main interest, perhaps stock-books until you've got enough of a country to merit wasting some money on alternative storage!

Regards.

Geoff

I have Steiner pages printed for a few dozen countries, which I collect with varying degrees of serious-ness. If I don't have printed Steiner pages and it's something I want to save, I put it in a stockbook or an older one-volume ("beginner") WW album where I'll hinge them. You can fit thousands of stamps in a stockbook (or stock pages, etc) and they're a great place to hold miscellaneous items until you figure out what you want to do with them.

I use also Steiner but you need the Scott catalogs to use it.

I also use steiner pages. I purchase good quality binders at staples to house them in. Eventually I would like to find some nicer ones and have them all the same (binders) but for now these work well for me.

Dianne

Ringo - as your are not actively collecting worldwide, I suppose you only pick up whatever WW stamps that 'comes your way'. For storage in that purpose I think you would need a very flexible system which is not aiming towards any degree of completion. If I had been in that situation I would certainly have gone for the Vario stock pages in proper binders. Very flexible, nice looking and easy to use. And you will get to organise your stamps exactly as you feel like yourself. The Steiner would absolutely be a very flexibel alternative as you could print only the pages you need, but as you are not actively collecting the risk is you will still end up with very many pages with only a few stamps on them, which I myself would find a bit frustrating. In that respect I think the vario's would better suit your need.

For the selection of only nice looking items....Well, I think any stamp is nice looking even if heavily cancelled or even slightly damaged - I simply collect any stamp disregarding the look of it until an even nicer copy comes around

Enjoy - sound like lots of fun to organize your material!