What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

I get the feeling I could be easily distracted from this when the going gets tough.

I tried several ways to dive into Machins (closer to Deegam level) but very frustrating.

Thank you Peter and Eligibles for your info. I guess Tom Bansak has stopped doing bourses.

Angore- I have started SLOWLY accumulating material however general Machin lots are kind of scarce at this point in time. So far I have resisted acquiring pre-identified collections of material as they are generally priced very high and I don't have a context for fair pricing.

I am having similar indecisiveness on how to collect them so I am curious as to how have you decided to move forward.

I worked some more on old Mexico. I'm in the process of merging 4 old collections (including mine in Global) into one new collection of Mexico's first 85 years (1856 through 1940) on 104 Steiner pages.

Lightly please upload some images!

I have been spending what available time I have identifying and mounting a lot of Australian States I got recently. I really like the look of these, especially the Western Australia swans.

I also work periodically on the Machins - working first on filling the Steiner pages to a 'one of each with a few minor varieties' level and putting the others in Vario pages for further study as I get to more detailed varieties. I have a few lots of these that I should start soaking off.

I sold 19 stamp Lots at a general auction last night. Drew $614 before I pay their cut. I'm happy to part with bulk I don't look at anymore.

Stopped by a local dealer friend's shop to chat and ogle some of the better inventory.

Mounted 160+ stamps from India, mostly 1950-1959. Only missing a small handul. Nice to get them off the old International pages (and some out of glassines) into mounts on Steiner pages.

I am working on mounting Indonesia stamps.

Thanks for the reminder, @angore. I just printed pages for Indonesia to 1959. Stamps are somewhat ready for mounting. Just need to find the best ones (so many duplicates).

I started mounting Indonesia. Only been able to get through what I had for Java and Sumatra, and for the Vienna Issue. Only about 30-40 stamps. I had to redo several Steiner pages, so that slowed me down. I have another 250+ stamps laid out, almost complete coverage of regular and semi-postal issues from from 1950-1959 and postage due issues through 1967.

On a side note: I found the South Moluccas pages under Indonesia. Too bad I had already created my own a while ago.

@NicholasC, what pages did you redo? I have not identifiedf all I have yet but do not think I have any pre-Vienna issues. I mounted ones that I already had printed pages.

@angore, I redid all of the Java and Sumatra pages from the PDF that goes through 1949 because the frames didn't follow my Scott 2012 Catalog. There were some extra things in there that I didn't understand (appeared to be items not listed in Scott), so I just modified them to match the sequence of the catalog. I also adjusted (I think) the first 3 pages of the PDF that goes through 1960. The reason was there were frames that were (very obviously) the wrong number of millimeters apart. Steiner usually has 4mm between frames horizontally and 5 vertically within the same set. And last, I reworked some of the Postage Due pages because I wanted to mount out to 1967. I saved a printed page by doing so. I'll probably regret that last change because I like to have consistent and clean stopping points. In other words, if I am going to mount to end of 1959, then the final page in each section should stop at 1959. If there are any 1960 or later stamps on that page, then I move them to a new page to start the next section.

Btw, I don't like the Vienna Issue pages layout. Steiner mixed BOB issues with general issues. I didn't change those though. Perhaps I will grow to hate them and redo the pages.

I always look at the Steiner pages before printing. I look to ensure they follow the catalog (though I allow for minor varieties to be added) and that the frames correctly spaced.