Catalogued

Finally getting my son's stamps re-catalogued. He inherited them from my father. Nice collection but it is quite large.Been looking for a stamp forum to see how others collect and keep track
Warren

Welcome to Stamp Community Forum, Warren!

Some people use some philatelic inventory software, but I find that limiting. But if you are a collector of a specific country, it might be a little more practical.

I use 2 ways -- old-fashioned and computerized.

The old-fashioned way, I just mark with a red pencil the stamps I have on the catalog pages.

The computerized way, I use an Excel spreadsheet to list the Scott catalog and catalog value.

As you may have guessed, I've got maybe 1% of my stamps "inventoried". It's more fun to sort/ID/enjoy stamps than it is to inventory.

Hope your son will really get into collecting! We need the younger generation to keep coming in!

Kim

Hi Lumberman,

Welcome to the forum!

I use excel spreadsheets for inventory list and also wantlists/duplicate lists.

For USA stamps I have a Mystic Stamp catalog that I mark off as I add a stamp to my USA collection.

Dave N.
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Welcome Lumberman

I use to inventory every stamp I had in excel with condition and approximate value. I then took my stamps to be valued for insurance purposes (with the inventory) and the insurance value was so low compared with the value I thought I had I gave up listing values. The dealer didn't need to look at the inventory, just the stamps. These days I know the stamps I haven't got - there is a gap on the page!

I second using Excel spreadsheet to keep track of your collections. You may even find Excel spreadsheet templates for various countries on the Internet.

I too have been working on cataloging my thematic aircraft collection primarily for insurance purposes. Having a personal record is good and the old fashioned method is Ok if you keep it up to date. I started with a downloadable tool which allows a scanned image of each individual stamp or set. This was taking hours so stopped somewhere around China!

This got me thinking. After we were robbed and they made off with my wife's wedding and engagement rings, we were advised by the insurance company to have a digital photo of expensive jewellery so that proof of ownership was available and replacement was of similar size and value.

What I have done instead is set up my digital camera on a tripod and taken a digital photo of each opened page. This method does not give detail on each stamp or set but is a record of what you have for insurance proof purposes should you have the misfortune to lose a collection - and providing you keep the digital record in a separate location to your stamps! It is not too arduous to do on a yearly basis to keep your digital record up to date with recent additions. A benefit is that if you have an iPad or similar you can have a record on hand to view when attending shows/dealers. I have bought stamps on more than one occasion only to find I already had them in my album!

Wrote my own software to track my collection; it's pretty big but I insist on keeping a full inventory. I enter the data into an Excel spreadsheet first, and from that spreadsheet my program generates inventory lists, want lists, breakdowns by country, era, percent completion, etc.

Welcome!!

Note: This was an old thread that was bumped, lumberman has not logged back in for over 5 years.
Don