Scott International- Big Blue Question

When did Scott switch from printing Part 1 (1840-1940) being in 2 parts to 4 parts? As in currently 1A1/1A2/1B1/1B2. If it covered the same territory in years, what prompted that change? I don't think there has been very much change in the overage. Thanks you knowledgeable folks.

svensson - there is a lot of information published already about this. Just rummage around.

Check out..

"Filling Spaces" http://globalstamps.blogspot.com/

and my blog..

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/

Howdy Jim, read the blog religiously. My question stems from sales on the Bay that seem to include L, (or M) to Z as one pack vice the current two. I am guessing they were printed in the 90's, but would reflect what BB edition? I want as much early coverage as possible. So, not 1947's is my guess, which I understand is the earliest non-Junior edition. Sorry to run on....I don't think a Junior was ever printed in a 2 post version, all hard bound?

I can't really add anything to the history of the Scott International. However, I just acquired a brown copy of Part I containing about 1,000 stamps. For the past decade, I've been collecting pre 1950 Great Britain and colonies as well as US stamps. Although I enjoy my US/British collection immensely, I've acquired many older foreign stamps and plan on collecting internationally and will eventually purchase Parts II and III. Looking at all the empty spaces in the Part I takes me back a lot of years and I think there are a lot of cool stamps from these A - Z countries. Looks like fun and I'll continue following the blogs relative to Big Blue!

Here are the dates for when Big Blue 1840-1940 shifted from one part to two parts to four parts..

http://globalstamps.blogspot.com/20...-part-4.html

But Bob of "Filling Spaces" fame reminds us that...

I'm not sure when they made the split into four volumes, but it was just rearranging the pages. Selling four volumes makes them more money than selling two. But they're the same pages. A little like food and drug producers selling for the "same price" a smaller amount of their product, 12 oz. instead of 16 oz.

Scott continues to sell its "junior album" pages as its Scott International ("Big Blue") pages even though they provide only a fairly limited representation of the world's stamps between 1840-1940. And they've been doing this for -- what? -- maybe 50 years now since they moved the original Scott International pages, the previous pages that were completely comprehensive of all stamps issued, over into their Specialty albums for many countries. One way I've resolved my problem with today's Scott International album being too little is to use many Specialty albums for the various countries I prefer to collect in depth. For everything else I use the Scott International, formerly "junior" album, which is good enough for a more modest collection of those countries.

An alternative that I've considered is using the Subway Stamp Shop's "Vintage Reproduction" pages (available from Subway only in both Scott International size pages or Scott Specialty size pages), and combining them with the regular International pages for years after 1940. Since International pages after maybe 1940, and certainly after 1950, were almost completely comprehensive unlike the earlier "junior" pages (today's International album), they don't need to be expanded by someone like Vintage Reproductions.

It's all a bit confusing until you think it through. But the Volume I of the current International album is the same, pretty much, as it's always been for 1840-1940 even if they've spread the pages out into four (not two) volumes.

Whew!

I will second the recommendation to use Subway's reproduction of the old Scott "brown" pages for 1840 to 1940 and then use "blue" for the remaining years. That is exactly what I have done for my WW collection and I could not be happier!