My Worldwide Collection: An Ongoing Journey

Spain, how do you accumulate used stamps? Kiloware, small lots online, ...?

I've wondered about that also.

51studebaker - Thank you. I really like sharing my journey here, although sometimes I get so caught up in the collecting process I actually forget to share things I intended to.

As far as the album pages go, I have printed other things,mostly small graphics for some pages, in grey scale with some success. The ink usage is only a small problem I would have. Even though those pages are very comprehensive, they still represent spaces that, for my purpose, would not be expandable. One of the things I enjoy is making pages for oddball, semi-specialized items. Some of which I've shared here. I can do this very easy using the AlbumEasy app, for which I can make pages that resemble the Steiner format. Those pages then can be inserted into the albums with a seamless flow.

The Chilean pages would require me to redesign my AlbumEasy template in order to approximate the look. I'm sure it can be done, but I would end up with an album that didn't match the format I was after.

I'd say that if I was collecting Chile as a single country, I would definitely consider those pages.




shermae, Coastwatcher - That's kind of a difficult question to answer. Looking back, I'm not sure if I mentioned anything about that.

In general, I would say all of the above. I have bought kiloware, small unsorted lots, large unsorted lots, small/large collections, glassines full, individual items, etc...
I'm also very opportunistic.....and cheap. The overwhelming majority of what I am working with right now came from the collection/accumulation that I talked about at the beginning of this thread. The rest is mostly what I have been saving since childhood.
For instance. Many of the Chilean stamps I will be mounting came from a small S. American collection I bought at a swap meet when I was 12 or 13 (early 1970's), just never had it organized or mounted anywhere.
The modernish Fance I posted about recently all came from a hoard un stamps on paper that I recently purchased at a local consignment auction.

Almost everything I buy comes from non-stamp sources. Me and my wile love antiquing and gong to swap meets, so I am always keeping my eyes open, Mostly what you find is junk, but every once in a while you find something good. It's not always a big score, sometimes it's just a sandwich bag full of stamps.

I'm also not opposed to taking chances on accumulations of duplicate stamps. These are like treasure hunts for me even though sometimes they turn out to be duds.

Here is a recent purchase I made from an online, non-stamp (not ebay) auction. 63 bundles of 100 of 2c red US Washingtons (Baby Bureaus). Don't know what I'll do with them yet, but the price was so cheap I would have been a fool to let them go. Might be a dud, might not.

If I am working on a country that is sparsely filled I will intentionally look for an "all-different" selection of stamps to fill as many holes as possible, but they have to be cheap.

Other than that I haunt flea markets, swap meets, antique stores and consignment auctions as well. About the only places I haven't found anything are thrift stores (charity shops to some). I also don't look at large stamp auction houses, but that's mostly because they are out of my budget.

GeoffHa - Do you happen to know what the signficant differences are between these 4 different types of this 10c stamp? I am aware of the various printings of them, but these are on one of those Chilean album pages you linked to. I was intrigued because, as usual, Scott doesn't mention anything about types.


I tried some googling but came up empty. I might have to see if the APRL has a specialized catalog.

EDITED:
Geez! Maybe I need glasses! The answer is right on that very website.https://www.chilecollector.com/arch...0121_48.html

Glad you found it, because the question was well beyond my limited expertise in Chilean stamps! And I pretty much got rid of central and south America (aside from Cuba) in my ongoing efforts to downsize.

Usually, the "local" catalogue will be much better on "types" of stamps, hidden marks, slight color differences and so on. These are often ignored by larger catalogues like Scott. Is there a Chile stamp catalogue published? It's your best bet. Google to find it. The American Philatelic Society has a wealth of catalogues available. If you're a member.

there is a specialized catalog produced by the Sociedad Filatelica de Chile. It was last published in 2006 and is a gorgeous book. You can still order directly from the society.

http://www.sociedadfilatelica.cl/SO..._indice.html

All the types described here:
https://www.chilecollector.com/arch...0121_48.html

Spain_1850, the way your Washingtons have been tied, almost every one of those stamps would be having weak or damages perfs. As they don't already cost much individually, damaged perfs would make them worth even lesser. I will never buy stamps bundled up in this manner, unless they are dirt cheap.

pennyblackie - I've bought bundles tied like this on several occasions and never really had a problem with damage due to the bundling, with the exception of a few on the top and bottom of the bundles. But most of the time they can be soaked, dried and pressed out nicely. This particular batch I've opened 3 bundles already, just to see what I got myself into. Like many old time bundles quality is all over the place. Many are still attached to envelope paper. Most of the damaged ones are either cut badly from the envelope (clipped perfs) or have tears in them. I'll estimate I had to toss about 15% due to that. From being bundled and compressed for so long, they are kind of stuck together, so soaking was necessary anyway.

So if I extend the survival rate of, say 80%, for the entire lot, then I should have 5000+ usable stamps. As for being cheap, well, 5000 stamps means I paid about 1/10th of a penny per stamp. I guess that's cheap enough for the entertainment value alone. All it take is to find 1 or 2 better items to make it all worthwhile to me. I love the hunt.

A batch of Danish bundles I bought a while back yielded 1 stamp with a CV in excess of $1500, which were tied similarly.

perf12 - Not sure if I want to buy a specialized catalog for every country, but I will certainly consider borrowing from the APS library. Thanks for the link.

DJCMHOH - That's going to be a very useful website. Here is another site I just, accidentally came across while investigating watermark varieties. Same basic information, in a different format.
http://www.sociedadfilatelica.cl/SO...1915_28.html

Something fun and unexpected!:

I really haven't been in the market recently to too much stuff to the accumulations I am already working on, but this little Egypt collection presented itself to me yesterday, while looking in on one of the Facebook groups I belong to.

I already knew I was weak in Egypt and this will, no doubt, fill holes, when I get around to exploring this country.

These are the sellers pictures, and they told me there was some other stuff that was going to be added as soon as they found it.

Looks like some pretty nifty things here, some with decent value. Now, it's all the waiting game and checking the tracking status, like every 2 hours.

Ok, the fun begins with Chile:

I finally have all the stamps sorted with a preliminary identification, or as I like to say "bagged and tagged!". Everything is id'd and sorted by Scott number for now. As I progress, I'll be making custom pages for certain things that I wish to expand on.

Sorted and lined up in my "sorting box", ready for mounting.

The early issues will not be a problem, and I will use the Steiner pages as they are, mostly because I just don't have enough of them to do any expanding. It's the issues during the 1920's-50's that I'm probably going to have a time with. There looks like there is plenty of watermark varieties to look for, as in inverted, sideways etc.. And I have quite a few duplicates of this stuff to do some searching.

After that, again, it looks like it will be pretty straight forward for me and I am probably going to be cutting off at around 1980, at least for printing all the pages.

There are also some revenues and other non-Scott listed items I will make pages for.

And here is the first non-Scott listed page I made. These are Telegrpah stamps from 1883. I use this website for telegraph stamp referencing.
https://gb-precancels.org/Telegraph...d/Chile.html

Close up of the 10p. I just love the design of these. Printed by the American Bank Note Company, as were many of the early issues of Chile.

Here are the first 4 pages for Chile. Not much to see on the first page, mostly the cheaper stamps.

All I can say is wow! What an amazing thread.

Thank you for sharing your process and progress with us.

I have an accumulation of worldwide that I have amassed off and on over the last couple decades that I always mean to begin working on. Life gets in the way a little too often, but your work makes me want to dig in and start sorting and identifying.

I'm not sure I have it in me to go into it as deeply as you have been doing, though, but then again I don't think I have any of the more specialized material you have in your collection.

I look forward to more posts on this thread.

Dale

Dale - Welcome to my little slice philately.
I too amassed for quite a while (like 45 years) before finally deciding to take the plunge. It was actually the large hoard/accumulation I bought not too long ago, that I talked a little about at the beginning of this thread, that pushed me that extra step.

I've always admired the large worldwide collections you see around, including on this forum, so that was my inspiration. Evey collector decides how far they can/want to go, and every collection is unique and yours to enjoy.

Believe me, I know about life getting in the way. We recently moved into our "forever" home and all the kids are grown and have families of their own now, so I can finally sit back and enjoy these things.

If I can help in any way, just ask. I don't always have the right answers, but I'll darn sure give you some kind of answer at least, even if it's "I don't know".

Check in here every once in a while, and all comments and questions are welcome.