What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

Wellp, Snowmageddon has begun here in the USA, so I need to try and do something useful indoors. The last few years have been tough since my mom passed away, and my hobbies are only just now starting to interest me again.

I MIGHT go and get the two boxes across the room from me, marked KEEP and DON'T KEEP, and put together stamps to donate to the huge world show in May here in Boston.

Just finished spending the last 3 weeks working on my winter Machin project, fueled by 3lbs of Machins on and off paper. I used a combination of the SG Concise catalog and the Adminware website with the goal of identifying as many varieties as I could without going too off the rails. I already had a basic Machin layout with one of each denomination/color and decided not to touch them for this project (I still enjoy the way those pages look). I also did not raid my perfin collection. Just using the duplicates I came up with over 400 different varieties in pre-decimal, decimal, and NVI. Also identified an additional 100+ varieties in regionals.
Below is an example page from this exercise. Once I got going I found the Adminware site and the Concise complemented each other pretty well with the SG providing the framework and Adminware giving me all the details to look for. 99.9% of my stamps were used and this actually helped as cancel dates were often invaluable in determining some of the varieties. Also a digital microscope was crucial in checking for photo/litho, head types, screened values, etc. Overall it was a fun (with just a little frustration) three weeks with a close to zero hourly cost spent working on stamps.

I spent today placing several orders for more topical sets. 35 sets total, which will bring my collection to 911 sets once they arrive. Placed an order for more supplies as well. Finally, fixed up some details in my inventory documents. Stamps sure are fun!

gnstamps80, how does this work? 35 sets of 35 different topics? Or are you collecting to just a few topics? Certainly you don't run 911 different topics?

How do you sort topics?

Cjd - No, just a few general topics... birds, fish, some transportation. I usually have no set method to buying, just what appeals to me. Lots of British Empire. For example, today was heavy on birds, and sea shells. 35 sets covered about 4-5 topics. As for sorting, again, no real organization. I place each set into the next space in the stockbook. However, I keep a country list in alphabetical order, Scott # order on MS Word. One thing I love about stamps - no rules! I will admit, however - I really should get a bit more into order! How about you? What do you collect, and how? Thanks for replying!

I'd say I don't collect topically, but if you looked at my accumulation, you'd say, "no, sir, your topic is King George V." Touché.

My British Commonwealth KGV is pretty strong, but I will pick up the odd motorsports stamps, sailing stamps, airmails, angelfish, birds that pass through my area. But only if I like them. I have zero need for completeness.

Interesting. I know what you mean - although we have different areas of collecting, I have no need for completeness either. If the hobby stops being fun, its not a hobby. Also, I agree with you - if I like it, and can afford it, I often buy it. Thanks for sharing!

Continued the commemoratives in US 1999 -2000. Plenty of holes there.
Not real fond of commemoratives.
I prefer the difinitives
Commems were just a money scheme by the post office.
Once I get through 2006, I'll do no more.
I may pick up from where I left off with Difinitives though. Some nice high value ones and lots of varieties.

My first French Equatorial Africa.

Came across this rather interesting cover in a box of junk purchased locally. Someone at Raytheon was a collector and had company envelopes of stamps torn off the corners of envelopes from the 70s and 80s, but this one was (thankfully) kept intact!

Very interesting cover! Thanks for sharing it.

I added a few more items to my digitized collection on a professional archival website. To my surprise, the site designated my collection as a "Featured Collections", and I'm just a little guy. For the few who are interested in Hawaii's History, you can see my collection at: https://hub.catalogit.app/

Very interesting collection based on Hawaii! Thanks for sharing, it is very intriguing! How long have you specialized on this topic? Your material appears very expansive. Cool!

Not sure if I will continue this, but I scanned in pages ABYSSINIA through BULGARIA from my mostly very clean and empty 1947 International Part I. Not quite sure of the goal yet, but I'm thinking of building a checklist or at least just mark the spaces for which I have the stamp (obviously some spaces can be one of many varieties). Flipping through images on the computer will mean I no longer need to handle the nearly 80 year old fragile pages. I guess I'm curious as to the percent complete. I'm sure it's less than I think. I was also thinking of creating an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the Scott numbers on each page, but after the first 32 pages, I feel it would take more time than I want to spend. I can more easily mark up the images with what I have and then document what I don't have. Maybe I should just create spreadsheets for all the stamps in the classic catalog and then identify which ones are in the International Part I from 1947. This way I get two checklists in one.