Impressive International Collection

Hey! I got my hands on this Stamps Collection of multiple countries around the world, It is impressive to me as an newb to this world, most of the are in mint condition (I've been reading a little about this) and well organized.
Some of the countries are:
Colombia
Spain
Italy
Netherlands
Belgium
Rhodesia
Uruguay
Singapore
Philipines
Aruba
New Zealand
Preu
Trinidad & Tobago
Uganda
Finland
Denmark
Djibouti
Czech Republic
Suriname
Dominica
Egypt
Portugal
Jordan
Jamaica
Pakistan
Panama
Poland
Saudi Arabia
And more...
Ah United States too
So what do you guys think?
Here's a link with the photos till I figure out hot to put em here. Sorry about that.
Photo Album

Welcome to the board. I browsed your pictures briefly, and it looks like a nice collection for a beginner, with a lot of variety, and some interesting stamps. You're probably looking at hours of enjoyment in organizing, displaying and studying them. The stamps themselves are pretty common, but there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. Even the most advanced collections still contain stamps such as these. Do you plan on leaving them on these pages, or do you plan on mounting them in an album or stockbook? A nice presntation in the form of a good album can really enhance your enjoyment.

First of all, welcome to the forum! You've come to the right place if you are interested in collecting!

To echo what Art has already said, it is a nice start to beginning a collection. Pretty soon you will be faced with the question of how to store/display your stamps: traditional albums, stock sheets, homemade pages or Steiner (computer Pdf files) pages. Then it's on to hinges or mounts. The list goes on and on. You will find these topics all discussed in threads here.

One note of caution, however. Some of the pages appear to have been wet at one point. I even see some signs of mold. Mold and dampness are big enemies of stamps! I suggest you remove the stamps from those pages asap. Examine each stamp carefully for signs of mold or mildew. Affected stamps should be isolated or even discarded so the mold doesn't spread to the remainder of the collection. You also might want to consider giving the used stamps a soak (lots of threads on how to do this) It will give them a fresher, crisper look and remove any grime.

Have fun with your new collection!

Dan

Thanks! I'll be looking the best way to orginize them here on the forum, and yes it would be hours of fun




Thanks! I'll look for this mold you saw thank you very much to point it out, Im from Panama and this is a very humid country, any advices on how to take care of that? maybe a dehumidifier? or that would harm them?

Humidity isn't much of an issue where I live (Northern Michigan)so I'm no expert. My house is air conditioned so the temperature and humidity are pretty constant.

Here's one thread on the issue that might help. https://goscf.com/t/34144&SearchTerms=humidity

Dan

We all started like you. It bring back memories. Hope you can find a stamp catalogue. It help to organize your stamps. Maybe at your library. Look for Scott catalogue. It doesn't have to be a recent one. This website is full of stamp info. It's up to you. Welcome in our great community. Daniel

Thanks for the input Daniel, very much appreciated!

David.

Your best bet is to start off with older Scott catalogs. You can get like 2006 or so for a few bucks per volume (6 volumes). Shipping cost is usually higher than the price of the older books. Album choice is important. It is what will make or discourage a new collector. If the stamps you have are not in the album, it turns new collectors off. But to get all of them included, it is real expensive. My 37 volume Scott International album costs about $4000 or more to put together. And it is still not complete enough for me. The advantage is that it is expandable. You can keep buying supplements. Or if you pick a certain country, try the Scott Specialty albums. They are a bit more complete than the international. Minkus also puts out good albums. Good luck with your hobby and do not get discouraged. Try not to try to collect every country. It will frustrate you. Pick a country or area that does interest you.

Wow, that must be quite a set. Does it have a Japanese section?

Nice stamps by the way.

I have all the Scott supplements to 1992. I sorted all the pages to country from year setup. It took me two weeks. I did not like that idea of albums being sorted by year. The stack of pages after the big sort was 5'-7" tall. I put them in 37 - 3" and 4" binders. I think it is impressive. A lot of treasures hidden in those books. The costs of the supplements is getting out of hand.

If you don't ever want to worry about having to buy supplements (or mounts or hinges or binders) again, stockbooks such as these are a good option:

http://www.amazon.com/Lighthouse-64...page_o03_s00

knotbad, welcome to the forum. I have some of my collection in stockbooks and you will find people here that are big fans of that method. I also went the route like jaxom100 with the Scott Internationals (very impressive by the way!) I am up to 98K different stamps and it seems to take forever to get to 100,000 different. Some have reached the 200K level, which takes a long time! Start small and work your way into worldwide collecting.

Welcome to the forum and a great hobby Knotbad.
Your start into collecting is bringing sweet memories. I sincerely hope you like it.
I just wanted to say I think you have already gotten a good advice from TheArtfulHinger and landoquakes. I have my WW collection in Lighthouse myself, and it's working very well for me. If anything I would suggest to consider Vario stockpages. They offer all the benefits of stockbooks but with additional maximum flexibility as your collection grows.
Whatever - enjoy

How did you get your collection? An auction? A family member?
Best thing you can get now is an old Scott catalog as previously mentioned. That will help you figure things out.

Thanks for the rommendation! will look into this.



Thanks TheArtfulHinger thats a grat option since I didnt knew this was such a expensive hobby.



Whoa and I thought I had a lot of them.. 200k thats crazy!



Thanks for the welcome! Im really enjoying it, these Vario Stockpages look like a nice method too, kind of what I have right now.



Actually those are my girlfriend stamps, she inherited them from her grandpa, but since shes not very interested on such a "time consuming" hobby she let me handle them, so yeah lucky me.

Thanks for all your answers, you guys are most helpful!

knotbad,

Looks like you have a fun project ahead of you.

I'm about 3/4 finished sorting out my old used dealer stock. I just ran across a bunch of old Berlin semi-postals. Those are next on my agenda.

After cataloging them, I'm just dropping them into 9 X 11 manila envelopes and plan to sell them as is.

Good luck!

Tom Kaye