What Are Worldwide Stamp Collections Worth?

This can be really frustrating. I picked up a fifty-odd year-old Yvert peg-fitting album covering France to 1959. It would be ideal for my used stamps, but I just don't think I can use it. On the other hand, I've had older Borek and Schaubek albums where the leaves have been unaffected by time.

Am I correct in my assumption that "Big Blue" is only Volume I 1840-1940?

KRelyea--- No ,it is a four volume set ,let me put up a picture of the set later.

You both are correct in my opinion.

Scott International Part I 1840-1940 is "Big Blue"(Because the binder is blue). Many people refer to them as "volumes", although Scott/Amos uses "Parts".

Then Scott/Amos subdivided Part I and sold them as Part Ia1 (Aden-Ethiopia), Part Ia2 (Falkland Islands-Latvia), Part Ib1 (Lebanon-Quelimane), Part Ib2 (Reunion-Zululand). - Four "volumes", each in their own binder. But they have the same coverage essentially as the undivided Part I.

"Big Blue" can either refer to Part I 1840-1940, or to the series of parts (Scott International Part I,II,III etc) -"Big Blues".

Amazing information, thank you very much for sharing this!

Odd, my Volume I Big Blue contains the "A" countries! Many people, like myself, re-arranged 'Big Blues' parts into 'country' organization and do not stick with the original organization by years. I think I have about 15 Big Blue volumes organized this way (A-Z 1840-1980).

The downfall of doing this was that some pages were not originally designed to be organized by country and there was the possibility of having two countries on the same page. Scott later addressed this issue and began trying to print the pages so that two countries would not be on the same page.

The various page design revisions over the years makes 'mixing and matching' used albums and pages a real problem. Adding to the confusion is that the pages themselves do not carry any kind of revision number(s). And as far as I know, there is no comprehensive published documentation of the running revisions.

Whomever ends up with my Big Blue collection will find a nice world-wide collection with stamps gathered over 45 years. But they will also find a jumbled mix of pages that have been customized; some due from decades of Big Blue page revisions and others which are personalized quadrille pages.
Don

Indeed, there is not a small number that do that, especially when the WW collection runs past 1960+.




Don, I'm sure you have an absolutely lovely collection, and it must be a sight to behold!

To add to Don, not only the countries was on the same pages, but you may have as example Postage due to the back of Air mail. This is why I suggest to purchase the new edition, they don't have this problem.

All the more reason to start out with the new (1997) version if at all possible.

I didn't do that, of course, I have a 1985 version, back from when they were in two volumes. But the paper is nice and thick and the images are clear, so I just kept going with it.

This topic tries to answer so many questions. I
started my classical collection on Minkus supreme global pages 1840-1952 in 2014. I find the Minkus pages a bit much. I have realized filling a page gives me great pleasure and to that end a big blue is a much more manageable proposition. I got a couple of feeder big blues on ebay and am currently filling a 1943 edition which is in reasonable shape. I still collect 1841-1952 in my Minkus worldwide. It's getting harder to get new classical stamps after I reached about 13.5K ish since I live in a small Midwest town. My only option is ebay. The big difficulty for me at this time is how do I resell the feeder albums once I remove the stamps I need and hopefully recoup some of my investment..

Selling your feeder collections shouldn't be a problem. Collections that are sold at auction with a low starting price get plenty of bids. When I sell a collection I present 50-100 pictures and occasionally count the stamps if there are a lot of them.

If you are limited to 12 pictures I would suggest you show the better pages ie not Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia etc. and I would probably include a count. I would also tell the story that this is a feeder album and explain that you will have more offerings in the future. I think bidders really appreciate sincerity.

Good luck.

Thank you krelya. That was very helpful. If anybody has feeder albums or lots they want to get rid of please remember the many new worldwide classical collectors on this forum
aragorn

That was highlighted recently, when I bought a page of early Turkey. ($28) from my dealer.
One stamp was marked RRR (CV $200) however another with a rare overprint (CV $275) was not. It turned out a forgery, now, whilst it wasn't highlighted as such, it wasn't also highlighted as rare, which would give valid reason to return the lot, if needed.