Just Finished A Major Stamp "Relocation"...

Hi,
I collect worldwide from 1840-1960 utilizing Scott International albums. Two years ago I moved the "part 1" stamps from a 1947 edition to a new one. Today I just finished moving the "part 2" stamps from the old pages to new ones.

It was a huge job, and now I'm wrestling with doing Parts 3&4 to get me through to 1960 with all new pages. Right now, the collection (ex USA) fills 8 Internationals.......perhaps 50k stamps in total.

In hindsight, I probably should have made 1950 my end point but I've gone too far with the 1950s to backtrack.

Point to ponder....... if I knew 5 years ago how heavy I would be getting back into the hobby, I would have bought the new Internationals to start with, and been way ahead of the game.

On the other hand, going back thru each stamp has shown me some errors I made, and helped me better organize the collection.

Thank goodness I've used nothing but the old Dennison hinges, for the made the job that much easier.

Whew!

Congratulations on finishing your Parts 1/2 task. I've been there myself; and know how tedious such re-locations can be. My world wide collection of Big Blue International Parts I through V; 1840-1965; topped out at 13 binders. With the downsizing now underway; and sale of parts of the collection coming later this year; I expect to end up at 8-9 binders of regional collections on International pages, including USA, and no longer world wide.

Congrats and good luck with the continuing relocation. I very recently decided to take the plunge into truly worldwide collecting, and after some deliberation, I decided to go the stockbook route. I think if I had known how my collecting was going to take off, I'd have gone straight to stockbooks. Given that you don't have to buy binders, pages or paper, mounts or hinges, it has to be the most economical way to store a lot of stamps. I anticipate doing some moving around, but thankfully I won't have to worry about removing hinges.

I have the USA (thru 2000) in three Scott National books. Again, I wish I had just stopped at 1950 or 1960. The later stamps are pretty, and I paid good money (all are unused), but I could have put that money against early USA stamps instead - like the three zeps.

mobilman44,

How do you like the "newer" Scott International compared to your 1947 edition. Of course, better paper quality, but what about illustration quality and coverage? Are you finding your are having to use a lot of blank/quadrille pages too?

Chris

Hi,
The new ones, vs. the older ones is a mixed bag.
On the pro side, I really appreciate the heavier paper, the holes backed up a bit more from the edges, and the fact that each type of postage and country ends on a single page. This of course makes it nicer when merging Parts 1,2, 3 and so on.

On the con side, the new pages have eliminated a lot of stamps present on the earlier versions. I could understand if the omissions were consistent for each country, but they are not. In example, if you are going to eliminate "war stamps" (wwI) from some countries, eliminate them from all.
The other negative is that the new pages are "over copied" with darker and sometimes blurred pictures.
So, yes, I've got quadrille pages behind every country and the major sections of bigger countries.
The whole thing is a trade-off, but the better paper is the key to the change, giving your collection more security for a long future.

The quality of illustration in reprinted albums is a real drawback. I use the Gibbons reprints of the New Ideal for most of my pre-war collection of foreign stamps

http://globalstamps.blogspot.co.uk/...verview.html

Paper is much better than the originals, but illustrations are much less clear - and, in some cases, have vanished altogether!

Guess I'm lucky; I have one of the 2-volume Part I Scott International (c1985), which has very nice thick paper and clear stamp images. Doesn't always break at new countries and the coverage is the same as your 1997 version.

As you say, trade-offs.

Sounds like a lot of work mobilman

I have a couple of albums that needs similar work but I'm afraid it's going to have to wait until I retire.

Dianne

Hi!
While I've been off the forum for a month, I have been working with the albums during that time. I did pick up Scotts newer version of Parts 3 & 4, and I'm in the process of moving stamps from the older Parts 3 & 4 to the newer ones. I just finished converting the 5th album (of 8) yesterday. As you would expect, it moves fairly fast until you get to those countries that put out a plethora of stamps during the 1950s (i.e. Hungary, Poland, Germany, Czech, Romania, Russia, etc.).

The newer Scotts are not everything I would like them to be, but they do a nice job and the quality is definitely there.

ENJOY !

Hi!
I've been off the forum for a good 6 weeks, but have been spending a lot of time moving WW stamps from the 50s from the old Scotts International pages to the "new" ones. I have finished 6 of 8 albums, and am working on the 7th, and in the middle of Romania......... I won't lie (or brag), for this has been one heck of a task. I suspect I'll finish by year end, assuming I don't get distracted as I have - by picking up more auction albums and collections and melding them into what I already have - rather than concentrating on moving those 1950s stamps to the new pages.

Yes, I'm glad I made the decision to get the new pages, but sure wish I did that to begin with. I strongly urge you "newbies" to consider getting the best albums or page layouts you can afford first - rather than going through a major upgrade process later on.............

The voice of experience... Congrats mobilman44 on your move to the thick paper International Albums.

So how many hinges have you licked so far?
Don

Haven't licked any stamps, but have licked almost 8k (keep count of the MT packages of Dennisons)for this 1950s project.

I did the same thing with my USA collection. When I retired, my wife kept telling me I needed a hobby so I dug two old trunks out of the attic and returned to my stamp collection. For the first time in 50 years, the light of day fell upon their contents.

To make a long and familiar story shorter, I began the process of bringing it up to date. Most of the stamps and plate blocks were falling out of the albums, as the adhesive on those old PM Protective Mounts - remember those? - had dried up. Getting more PMs was my 1st mistake; most of the unopened packages I was able to locate were also dried; enter new Scott mounts. I soon had a larger inventory of those than did the dealer from whom I was ordering them on a weekly basis.

Naturally I needed the supplements - also not available any more - so new H.E. Harris albums were bought. Halfway through the remounting process, I decided to 3-hole punch the Harris pages to get away from the time-consuming process of opening and closing the #$%^ screw posts. That meant new ring binders. Again the cash register sang.

Finally, I threw in the towel and bought the Scott Commemorative and Regular Issue/Airmail Plate Block Albums as well as the Scott National Album supplements to come up to 2005, although I stopped with the last gummed stamp.

Wiser I would have been to have bitten the bullet and paid for the needed Scott albums and mounts on day one AND sold off my US singles collection to concentrate on the plate blocks. The lost dollars would have gone far to fill in my more expensive missing plate blocks.

SIGH.......

Sound like a tough job. I think I know what your pain is like. But when you are done you will be well pleased.


-IBFS