What Country Do You Wish You Were Collecting And Why?

I collect WW, though there are many countries of which have so few stamps and some (mostly dead countries) where I have none what so ever (of course those are the ones that I wish to beef-up so to speak).

Regards,
Stampalotapus

I wish I collected World Wide, but I don't have the time.

My wife is recovering from a medical procedure (nothing critical, but she will be less than 100% for a while). I knew I'd have some extra time to make little piles, so I sent off for a couple of "lots of stamps for $25" offers.

The most striking revelation so far: Greece. I tend not to get really involved in the philately of nations that use non-Roman alphabets, but one of the lots I got had a bunch of things from Greece, and some of the engraving on these things is really cool. The craft and the designs are a bit obscured perhaps by indifferent paper and the occasional uninspired color choice, but intrigue awaits.

I collect worldwide but last few years have focused on French Colonials. Next focus will be probably Turkey though the siren song of Argentina and other
Latin American nations is becoming quite strong too.

Ditto. I'm a worldwide collector at heart, but there's only so much time, budget and shelf space available at any given time.

I'm just getting back into the hobby after a 15 year break and I have discovered "Steiner" pages. I can print an album for any country in the world in a few minutes so I have gone crazy. In the last 3 months I have printed over 1500 pages. I have always wished I could collect worldwide and tried the scott internationals years ago. It was frustrating because there were always stamps that had no space in the album. If I have a stamp in my hand... I want to collect that stamp so I need a space in an album. So now I am a "worldwide collector" for sure. I don't have many stamps but when I get one I am going to have a place to put it...

ronv,

Just be careful what you wish for…I went down the Steiner pages avenue, but didn't want to end up with 50 binders with pages containing only 2-3 stamps per page. I think they would be great if you specialized in a handful of countries, but I found them to be "too much" for a WW collection. Plus, I just didn't like the "8.5 x 11 page in a 3-ring binder" format.

Just my opinion though…

That was also my dissatisfaction with stamp albums. Having a stamp that wasn't included in the album hanging on the edge like a barnacle or on a blank page just wasn't my cup of tea.

I've been a "Steiner Head" for a number of years. It was his pages that helped keep me collecting.

I think a lot of us go crazy when we first find Steiner pages and print everything in sight. I did too. Outside of the countries I actively collect, I now just print the pages for which I have stamps. It doesn't always solve the "2 or 3 stamps on a page problem" but it does give the impression of a more complete album and still gives me an incentive to fill those holes! I can collect any country I want in as much depth as I want.

You can also "tweak" the pages with a Pdf editor to include information and variations not included on the pages. I find it a very flexible system.

Dan

That was me, about 3 years ago. My collecting has since evolved and narrowed somewhat, and if I had to do it over again, there would be at least a half-dozen countries I wouldn't have printed, and I'd have set some different cutoff dates for the countries I still want to collect. However, It's doubtful I'd be collecting to the extent that I am today had I not discovered Steiner, so I owe him a debt of gratitude for his work.




I finally stopped at 54 binders, although some of them are just 1" binders with maybe 40-50 pages in them. Most are 2" binders stuffed pretty full, though - and that's just for maybe 2/3 of Europe plus a handful of other countries.

Steiner pages are great for individual countries or a small handful of countries. If one tries to collect the entire world, Steiner pages are probably the least efficient use of space of any album or storage solution on the market. I'm not saying that to denigrate Steiner's pages or his work - I can't praise him enough, but the space factor is definitely a consideration for worlwide collections or those spanning more than a few countries. If I had to pick one nit about Steiner's work, it's that I wish he'd have been a little more efficient with space on the page.

Modern albums are characterised by extensive white space, which sometimes works aesthetically, but, as Artful says, means more pages and more binders. Gibbons Ideal and Imperial albums get the whole world up to 1936 into six, fastbound volumes, which is much more manageable. Unfortunately, after 1936, my collection explodes into dozens of printed albums. Most recently, my "France Timbres" free pages for French Colonies have generated four Lighthouse binders-worth ...

In general I like the sparser layout of Steiner's pages. I find it somewhat more aesthetically pleasing, plus it leaves room for mounts. Yes, you'll get more pages, but over time you'll have more full pages, which I think enhances the overall presentation of a collection. With fewer stamps on a page, it's less likely that any given page is going to have some expensive rarity on it. That being said, Steiner has a lot of pages with just 1 or 2 regular-sized stamps on them which goes a little too far in the "sparse" direction, in my book. Someday I'll have to get around to using a PDF editing tool to consolidate those kinds of pages, if it makes sense to do so.

I came across Steiner's pages, when I started doing Australia and wanted the respective pages as per a particular catalouge format and these Steiner pages were of great help. I'm very grateful to him for creating such pages.

Apart from Australia I use these pages and edit them as per my liking and add plenty of information as required and print them. But doing the whole world would be another dimension. In my personal view, when I've a handful of stamps from a particular nation, taking prints of those pages makes sense otherwise one ends up in lots of binders with empty pages.

Now I only use these pages as refrences and create my own for my personal needs. I have created a complete album for Miniature Sheets, Se-tenants, Sheetlets, etc issued by India for my own collection. Similar way I have done for my flower thematic collection. Presently I'm working on 1935 Silver Jubilee Omnibus Series of King George V, which I'm proud of.

This fall I want to start collecting Finland on Steiner pages. Except for Faroe Islands and Finland, I had collected all Scandinavians countries before one after another. I collect a country from the beginning of fall until next summer intensively. As i'm not always working in summer that's when I sell my collections. I don't accumulate. Selling to dealers can be deceiving because you never get the money you hope from you collection but in my case it's quick and safe. Daniel

@timbres667, that is a good idea of dedicating a season for collecting and concentrating on a country. I always wanted to collect Sweden, one of my favorites in the Scandinavian region. I just love the engraved stamps its produced. I have a few from Sweden, but will collect all some day...

Best of luck for your Finland.

This topic has veered off a bit into a discussion of WW collecting and albums, but since it has, I'll add my 2 cents.

Big Blue (Scott International Part I 1840-1940):
I still think for the intermediate WW collector, this might be the best choice. 34,000+ spaces for 80,000+ possible stamps during this era. If one would like to collect without worrying about watermarks, or perforation changes, even better. A very big challenge, and difficult to reach 90% level of completeness for all countries (from personal experience!). Still, one will accumulate many stamps that are not in the album. Adding quadrilled pages works. A less frustrating technique is collecting to the album. That also limits expensive purchases, as BB generally will have affordable stamps. If one becomes particularly attracted to a country, then those stamps could be put into Steiner pages.

Steiner pages:
For a WW collection (1840-1940, but -1952 for British Commonwealth)- one will need 6,500 pages. I have mine in 44 binders. For the intermediate-advanced WW collector with at least 20,000+ stamps for the era (my opinion). Works very well, but requires shelf space, and the obsessive/completist will have to get used to empty spaces.

Minkus Supreme Global 1840-1952:
More spaces (generally) than Big Blue, obviously less than Steiner. Particular advantage if one wishes to collect to 1952 with one album. This might very well be the first choice for intermediate + WW collectors. Does have the most "energy of activation" required. (Chemical term for how much energy is required to get a chemical process going.) That is because of the format- (regular, semipostal, air post on same page if issued same year)- and "Minkus numbers"- now no longer used for practical purposes. Will need to be translated into Scott equivalent.