New To Stamps, Have Some Questions. (Albums, Etc.)

Hi all,

Over the holidays, my grandfather gave me some old stamps. He didn't have them in an album, they were mostly in ziploc bags, but I sorted them all out. He said he got them a long time ago from a friend who was postmaster near our small town.

I put them in a stock book according to country and started doing some research about the hobby in general. They aren't in terrible shape, but not great either. Most of them are acceptable. There are a lot of duplicates.

I discovered I have a stamp store like 10 minutes from my house! I was excited! I went in to buy the stock book and the guy could not have looked more bored. There were piles of stuff everywhere, some of it looked interesting, but honestly I got the feeling I was annoying him.

So now I'm left with what to collect and how to collect it. I wanted to focus on stamps with rainbows, but I have no idea how to put them in albums. I like how album pages look, with the blank areas you fill in, but is there a way to make your own pages with the specific topic you collect?

I've read about Vario and Lightning and Mystic and .... it's all so overwhelming, I wish I could just see samples of what you're all talking about. Might all the different kinds of albums be in a stamp store? Or a show? I think there will be one in April around here.

Would ebay be the best way to find stamps for such a specific topic?

That Smithsonian album where you collect one from each country looked interesting too. Intimidating as heck, but interesting...

Thanks for any info you can give! I'm working on using the Scott catalogs at my library to identify what I have.

Album pages can be custom made. Stock pages can be utilized. Try the search window at the upper right of page as all of these topics have been discussed. Others will also chime in.

I recommend the American Topical Association. They have a checklist of rainbows on stamps and list 391 items.

http://americantopicalassn.org/checklists.shtml

http://americantopicalassn.org/pdf/...al020117.pdf

Rainbows

http://www.zazzle.com/rainbow+stamps

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...ws_on_stamps

Albums,custom pages,stock pages. There are tons more in the search function.

https://goscf.com/t/37191&SearchTer...,album,pages

https://goscf.com/t/23335&SearchTer...,album,pages

https://goscf.com/t/8740&SearchTerm...,album,pages

.stampcommunity.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=41544&SearchTerms=custom,album,pages

Hi geinah, and welcome to the forum. I like your idea of collecting rainbows, and you are not the only one!
As a matter of fact there is a post on this forum "rainbows on stamps". If you use the "search" button on top of this page you can search for this post and you might come up with an idea or two.


Peter

The title of the rainbows post is just "rainbows". Sorry for the wrong title!

Peter

Found under "rainbows" so I decided to help out.

https://goscf.com/t/20490&SearchTerms=rainbows,

More rainbows. ROYGBIV

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...s&_sacat=260

A profitable collectible.

Looks like I have a lot of reading to do! Thank you so much for the specific links, they are really helpful <3 Collecting rainbows seemed like a small enough task - there are hundreds, but not thousands!

Welcome to the hobby, geinah! I hope you find it as enjoyable as the rest of us do, and good luck with your topical collection. And thumbs down to that storefront dealer. With so few of them left you'd think the guy would fall all over himself to please a new customer. Don't be discouraged by him.

Welcome! You've come to the right place and you'll be sure to get lots of helpful advice here. There are a lot of options for mounting and displaying your stamps. For a topical collection like rainbows, Vario sheets work well. Here are some various options from a seller many of us buy from regularly:

http://stores.ebay.com/Designer-Sta...4634.c0.m322

You need to store these pages in a binder of some sort. The same seller sells some really nice ones, but regular ol' office binders will work in a pinch, too. Some people custom make their own albums on the computer or even draw them out by hand.