How To Get That Last Stamp You Need For A Set?

Sorry for the many new topics I creat one after the other

My new questions, after about 30 seconds after the previous is how do you get that last stamp you need to complete the set you were working on?

I have some sets with one or two stamps missing and I see them sell on ebay as sets rather than single stamps. What do you do when you see that one stamp you were looking for for ages in a set that you don't need or already have and know that one stamp isn't worth the money and you don't want to bother and post the rest back on ebay?

There are a few stamps that I need to complete my Germany Third Reich collection...as you mentioned I have seen them available mostly within a complete set of 9 stamps but not as a single. So i'd rather wait till a single becomes available....at a reasonable price... the stamps i'm missing have high catalog values...and I don't want to fork out over $50. for a single stamp.
I'm pretty confident that one day i'll eventually acquire those stamps at a price that I am willing to pay.

Hello There,

Are you using all available venues? For example, "Stamps 2 Go" and "Bid Start". Also stamp shows. Sometimes you just have to be patient.

Jack Kelley

To expand on Jack Kelley's comment: stamps2go.com is an aggregate marketplace for sellers who list their stamps by singles (occasionally a full set will be listed as a lot). So you can search through hundreds of thousands of stamps, pick out the exact ones you want and pay only $1.00 shipping for any bunch you buy from a single seller.

So sign up, then shop by choosing the country you want, then searching for one of the Scott numbers you want. There may be a dozen or more sellers offering it. Pick one or two sellers who are offering it and put their listed stamp into your shopping cart. Then do "view cart"--it will show the stamps you selected, listed by seller. There is a button to click to view all other listings by each of the sellers. So you can search only within that seller's holdings for the other single stamps you wsant to buy. You can do the same with the second seller. You'll then see which seller has most of the stamps you want to buy and you can make up a purchase bundle for $1.00 shipping; then remove the other seller's stuff from your cart. You might have to go back to the general listings and choose two or three different sellers, if the first two sellers you sampled only have the one stamp and not any or only a few of the others you want. It takes a bit of patience but it works.

BidStart is also good, tends to have more singles listed than ebay. Just type the Scott number that you are looking for, then pick one or two of the sellers who have that stamp and explore their stores for the other stamps you want. You can do the same thing on EBay--just ignore the sets and focus on the singles that result when you search for a specific Scott number.

In both bidStart and ebay, sellers also list by Stanley Gibbons and Michel numbers. So searching only for Scott numbers might mean you miss out on some singles on offer. The only solution would be to locate Michel or SG equivalent numbers for your desired stamps. But that's not easy to do--no real usable concordance of the three major numbering systems exists. You'd almost have to have Michel and SG catalogues on your desk and look up the numbers. But to buy all those catalogues . . . . not in the cards for me or for you.


Stamps2Go (and the APS Store--American Philatelic Society Stamp Store, similar to Stamps2Go but higher prices in return for more confidence in quality material) use only Scott numbers.

I completely agree. Individual stamps from sets ARE available, eventually. I have a worldwide collection in an album that doesn't always have spaces for full sets (Scott International, Part 1). Usually the high values or most expensive stamps are omitted. So I'm constantly looking for partial sets or individual stamps from sets. I've found that I'm more likely to find those stamps from dealers at a show or bourse as opposed to ebay. So watch for stamp shows in your vicinity. There are normally at least a few worldwide dealers at shows who have singles for sale.

I second Hieronymus's suggestion of Stamps2Go. (I also suggest Poppe Stamps if you can't find what you need elsewhere). And thanks, Hieronymus, for your suggestion of putting multiple copies of the same stamp in your Stamps2Go cart until you find which of the sellers has more of the other stamps you need. I hadn't thought of that.

Mike Sober on bidstart also has a wide stock of the common stamps but doesn't scan and list each one. Contact him with a wantlist--he has pricelists he will mail to you as well.

This would apply to other dealers who advertise in Linns Stamp Weekly or the American Philatelist (Philately Society monthly magazine)--want lists are another way to get singles. How quickly we forget what was once a staple of the hobby--find a dealer you like and trust and send him your want list.

Thanks for all the websites, I will check them out when I get a chance.
What does Scott means?
How do I create a want list? I don't have any catalogs to go by for the number (if there is one) for stamps.

you have on this web site free stamp catalog world wide with cat number
http://www.stampworld.com/hr/

Stamp World uses its own numbering system, which will not be useful when ordering or buying from a U.S. dealer. In the U.S., almost all dealers use Scott catalog numbers, which are different than Stamp World's.

Scott refers to the main catalogue used in the United States to describe and catalogue all the stamps of the world: the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, 6 volumes, 1840-present. The US portion has been hived off and printed as a single volume with a LOT (huge) more detailed information in the Scott United States Specialized Catalogue. The worldwide material from 1840-1940 has been hived off into a single-volume Scott Classic Specialized Postage Stamp Catalogue. If you are doing post-1940 topicals, you almost have to use the 6 volume one. Used, out-of-date copies (2007, 2010 etc.) are availble on ebay for anywhere from $15-50 a volume but even that adds up to a lot of money for a beginnner. It used to be that public libraries kept the current year's six volumes on hand--the cheap out-of-date copies on ebay are often de-accessioned library copies that the library sold for a pittance when the new year's edition came in. Compact disks containing all 6 volumes of the Scott Standard Catalogue and selling for $9.95 on ebay are pirated copies that violate the copyright held by Amos Advantage Publishing in Ohio, the current owner/publisher of the Scott Catalogues. The Scott empire was begun by a New York stamp dealer, John Walter Scott in the 1860s (first "catalogue" in 1868).

Scott numbers are the numbering system used in any of the above Scott catalogues. The first issue of the United States in 1847 is no. 1. The Panama-Pacific commemoratives of
1915 are nos. 398-401. The EInstein issue of 1979 is no. 1774. The Patsy Cline issue of 1993 is no. 2771. The Edgar Allan Poe issue of 2009 is 4377.

Characteristic of the Scott number system is that airmails, semipostals, postage due, parcel post etc. are placed after the "regular issues"-at the Back of the Book, hence "BoB" which you will see on ebay and everywhere else. The regular issues get numbered from 1-4800 something (I only have a 2013 edition so I don't know what number the 2015 issues are at), then the Airmails all have a C: C1, C2, C57 and so forth. Then the Postage Dues all have a J number: J1, J7, J127 and so forth. Semipostals get a B number (B1, B7, B28) but the US issued virtually no semipostals. Since Scott Catalogue does cover the world, of course, it will have B number for Swiss semipostals, for German semipostals etc. Each country's listings start with a no. 1, so you can't just write, "Scott 13 or Scott 331." You have to specify "German Scott 13 or US Scott 24." However, on SCF, since it's heavily US dominated, people get lazy and write "Scott 534A," assuming everyone knows it's US Scott 534A. When posters on the Canada stamps section post without specifying, they usually mean Canada Scott no. 341 or whatever. Context, context, context.

The other two most extensive worldwide catalogue systems are, first, Michel from Germany, has differing number system that goes by years: regular issues, semi-postals, postage due, officials all get a running number. The second is Stanley Gibbons, from the UK, which does a bit of both--official stamps are integrated in the catalogue with the regular issues but get a "D1, D14" etc. number, while postage dues are put at the "back of the book" like Scott does.

Canada has the Unitrade Catalogue, which is highly preferred by Canadian specialists.

The US is dominated by the Scott system. UK and British Empire collectors almost always use Stanley Gibbons, European collectors swear by Michel. And there are other catalogues (Yvert for France and French Colonies and so on and so forth). But Scott, Michel, and Stanley Gibbons are the most comprehensive and widely used.


The StampWorld.com "catalogue" uses it's own numbering system, different from all the above.

We all wish there were at least a good concordance of these numbering systems but it's next to impossible (or else someone would have created it) because what one system treats as a major number another may treat as a variation. To actually line each system up alongside each other is nearly impossible.

If you want to specify a certain stamp in a manner that speaks to all users of all the catalogue systems, you describe it by year, color, denomination etc.: Scott US no. 1 would be United States 1847 5c red brown. Since only two stamps were issued in 1847, all you really need is 1847 5c.

But in some other year there might have been two or four 3c issued, so you have to specify color. If two of the same denomination and color were issued, you'd have to find something to distinguish (probably the motif).

You can see why it's easier to say "US Scott 301" or "Great Britain SG 5. Notice that SG gives 6 numbers (7-12) to what Scott calls GB no. 3.

For Scott, being US oriented, when it looks at Great Britain, it see merely this 1 penny red stamp from 1841 (Scott GB no. 3) and that 1 penny black from 1840 (Scott GB no. 1).

But for SG, in England, where these Great Britain stamps have been scrutinized in detail for a century and a half, there are 3 variants of the 1d black and each gets its own number, SG 1, SG 2, SG 3. Then there are 3 variants of 2 penny blue. For Scott it's merely GB no. 2 but for SG it's GB no 4, GB no 5, GB no 6. You get the picture!

An outsider looks what at Scott does with the simple 1c blue Franklin of 1851 and gags--Scott nos 5-9 and 18-24 (12 Scott numbers) are all basically the same stamp design but printed from a few different plates at different times between 1851 and 1861. The difference between 5-9 and 18-24 can depend on which part of the same plate the stamp came from--one part of the plate printed the side ornaments more or less completely than another part of the plate. Stamps fron the one part of the plate get a different Scott number than those from the other part of the plate--12 different variants.



edited for clarity

I'll reiterate that BidStart is a great location to find cheap singles. Another potential avenue is to find a dealer who specializes in the country in question. Such dealers generally keep a pretty comprehensive stock and can provide almost any item, particularly common ones. A full-time dealer will likely be more expensive than buying off BidStart, but you can generally provide them with a long list of items and they may well have them all, as compared to a BidStart seller who might only have a handful of them.

Use StampWorld.com to locate the series and figure out which denominations you are missing. Note the year, missing denominations and their colors and motifs, but don't use the Stampworld.com number. Or use the StampWorld.com number but tell the dealer you are sending your want list to that it's a StampWorld number. Then send a list arranged by year, series, missing denominations to a dealer.

Many listings on ebay or BidStart or Stamps2Go give year and denomination so you can search by those criteria, though the search results won't be as complete as they would be if you used Scott numbers.

But what listings do come up as a result of an ebay or bidStart search by country, year, denomination will usually have the Scott number. So you can use that technique to acquire the Scott numbers for the denominations you are missing. Then you can revise your want list to include Scott numbers and do Scott number searches on ebay, BidStart, Stamps2Go, the APS Store and send a want list with Scott numbers to a dealer.

Just make sure that when you search by country, year, denomination, color you do a search for "all words included" -- if not you'll end up with all the 20c stamps from that country rather than the 20c stamps of that year in the color you want.

Many people find them in our listings.

So long as you are after very modern Australia.

I buy complete sets 95% of the time but occasionally will buy a broken set if the price is right. It can be tough to complete sets this way so I usually search for the stamp first to see if there is one available out there.

Some other suggestions for finding singles:

Delcampe.com has many thousands of singles for sale. Most of the sellers are European so shipping is usually high (and somewhat unreliable). I also feel, based on experience, that the average European seller is MUCH less reliable on accurate descriptions than American sellers.

Downtown Stamp Company is a want list specialist http://www.downtownstamp.com/

Poppe Stamps has about 2 million single stamps listed online. They are very expensive but sometimes have very tough to find items. http://www.poppe-stamps.com/

Bejjco Of Florida is mainly a show dealer but he has a HUGE WW stock of single stamps and he does encourage want lists. arnsel@verizon.net

Not to veer too far off topic here, but I think the lack of a concordance for the various catalogs has something to do with the publishers themselves. While there's nothing preventing one from creating one from scratch for your own purposes, I think if you tried publishing it or otherwise making it available in the wider collecting community, one or more catalog publishers would try to shut you down. It's not in Scott's interest, for example, for a Michel user to easily find a Scott# using Michel. They'd rather have that Michel user buying a Scott catalog to find the Scott#. The same goes for Michel, if the situation were reversed.

Most major numbers would map fairly easily to other major numbers (with some exceptions, of course), but the more specialized information just really wouldn't cross reference. For Germany, for example, Michel lists a large number of varieties that aren't mentioned anywhere in Scott. Those types of stamps would just be blank spaces in a concordance. The utility, therefore, of a concordance would pretty much be limited to the major types. It would still be a very useful tool, however. It would make it much easier to shop for stamps on ebay Germany (for any country's stamps) for example. I have a Michel Deutschland Spezial, but I'll likely never own any of Michel's other catalogs, making it difficult to shop German sellers for other areas I collect, like Scandinavia and Switzerland, etc.