What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

I won an album on an ebay auction for $67. When I got the album, I was surprised to see that the first page states that the album was for the first 100 years of stamp collecting. As I reviewed the album, I found that the stamps ranged from 1883 to 1945. Absolutely no modern stamps past 1945. At least this is what I could gather about the album.

Anyway, I enjoyed filling the first couple of pages of each country in my album. The condition of the album is very poor. Hinged stamps came off the pages easily and the hinge would fall off without a problem. The album only goes to Jugoslavia. I wish I could find the K-Z album and I would be set.

@CoffeeRules The first 100 years is 1840 to 1940. Can you post a picture of the album (outside) and perhaps that first page? Is this a Scott International album? Or something else?

Today I spent nearly five hours at Hal Lutsky's Vintage Paper Fair's "$1 Anti-Inflation Sale" in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. I mostly bought unused picture postcards, but I did get a few used ones, including one that is now the earliest postally used picture postcard in my collection, postmarked 13 Dec. 1902. I also found a couple of mint Official Souvenir Postal Cards from the World's Columbian Exposition in 1892: Designs No. 3 (Manufacturers and Liberal Arts) and No. 5 (The Electrical Building). Not bad for a buck apiece.

I spent some time inventorying (location on Vario page) my stamps for "A Stamp for Every Country" Collection. They are stored on Vario pages in no particular order until I decide on a custom page design.

Saturday I spent the middle part of the day at Huntspex 2022 in Huntsville ,Al. Good show with multiple dealers in postcards and stamps,etc; Well attended ,also. Added items to my U.S. ,Ireland, GB, and Dutch Indies collections. It is nice to be able to attend in - person shows again.

Mounted 265 stamps for French Offices Abroad on specialty pages. Recounted France Part I on specialty that I mounted just prior to using Steiner pages. There are 1116 of those. Will be counting China later this week.

Earlier tonight I drove 40 minutes to see a widows stamp accumulation. Her husband collected them for 60 years, but they fit in two boxes. Nothing worth buying for me, but we had a nice 25 minute chat. When she learns how to post pictures, they will sell.

Nothing, although I've just eaten the best calf's liver I've ever tasted at Chez Georges, near the Paris bourse. If it rains, I may do some shopping, and pick up some supplies from Yvert, otherwise I'll concentrate on pastis and Gitanes.

Counted unique stamps that remain in my very thin Part II album and recorded by country in my spreadsheet. Came up with 4208. The all-China count came out to be 1865. I'm at about 54000 unique stamps without having counted the vast majority of Part III thru Part VIII or anything in South America or the U.S.

Part III still in the old album came to 4429 stamps. That brings me to about 59K unique. Also added 96 stamps to Andorra (4 Spanish, 92 French) and 79 stamps to Ruanda-Urundi on Steiner pages.

Seems like a good couple of months. We have now happily moved to a point where there is much more freedom of movement and stamp and collector fairs have re-started.

The atmosphere is much more promising.

After months of procrastinating, I mounted and wrote up my Ireland issues from 2021 and even made a start on 2022.

I think I will never complete Ireland mint and used from 1922. I remain stubbornly 20 stamps short. And I can compromise with myself and say that the overprints are not "Irish" in the fullest sense.
Or I can re-think the concept of "variety"...

For example yesterday picked up two new printings of booklets first issued three years ago. Did I really need to do that?

Well yes...I did. Because I have all the varieties from Architecture, Birds, Treasures...chalk paper, ordinary paper, perforations.
So an obsessive has limited choice.

With the sunshine and daylight hours and free travel on public transport, I just feel more optimistic than at any point in recent years.

I have now completed my collection of Stamps on a Roll for all 933 current post offices in the Republic of Ireland.

Earlier in this week, my wife and I drove to two rural post offices in County Dublin..so I could complete my collection of photographs of post offices in the county...138.
It is easy to think of Dublin as a sprawling metropolis that covers the entirety of a geographically small county but there a pockets that are rural and remote.

Promised my wife I would do "something" about storage boxes of unwanted SOARs etc. But I feel I need to procrastinate about at least one thing

Continuing to count unique stamps. I'm through International Part IV and at around 63000 unique (still not included are the U.S. and the 10 large countries in South America). As I'm going, I am pulling quite a few more stamps to remount on Steiner up through end of Part IV or some sensible stopping point before that. This will take care of quite a few colonies that achieved independence later on and most of the occupation stamps and special areas that continued into the 1950s.

In my effort to identify collectible issues for my A Stamp for Every Country (includes administration changes), I have a list of over 900 stamps. I scanned an index in the back of a Scott catalog and then after doing an OCR, I came up with over 2000 references. Many of these are the back of the country issues (offices, occupations, treaty ports, dependencies, etc). I am not counting military issues. The quest continues.

NicholasC, you are a true collector!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Been laying out all the Part II, Part III, and Part IV stamps I pulled. Through Saudia Arabia at the moment, so getting close to the mounting frenzy that will follow.

Today I got distracted and forgot to bid on something that I really need for one of my collections. Someone else got it for a winning bid of only $1.25.