Complete US Collections

You will see it all within the next two years.

Well if you are going for completeness then Scott is including Tupes 4 and 5 in the 1911 Christmas Seals in the 2020 catalog finally. There are a total of 3 pairs and one single of the Type V. And one pair is in the Miller collection. I own the single so that leaves just the 2 pairs. And I know who have those. I don't see those showing up until death occurs.

So I guess you can skip the 164 for a "complete" collection? Or do you need to own the one certified copy?

"Complete" usually refers only to postage. So it's unlikely that anyone trying for completeness is going to get involved with revenues (there are a few unique ones), or Christmas Seals, or other BOB areas.

To Turff49's point, I believe many rarities are tucked in collections that noone knows about until estates try to cash out. I focus on modern 20th EFO and there is a trickling of offerings a year aside from the more common 50+ issue stuff). It's largely a take what you can get as they get auctioned. Numerous hunts of mine for seemingly cheap stamps (<$1000) have gone nowhere. Then you lose an auction and you can say goodbye to that item. Unless you can get that person's identity.

At this point of my collecting career, the stamps I want are either hard to come by, very expensive, or both. I've starting putting crazy high bids in auctions on stuff relatively low-catalog-value items for things I never see offered (mostly minor varieties) - There are stamps under $100 in cv that I cannot find. I have a bunch of expensive, but commonly-available stuff I want (like a 27 or 263), but I'll just buy those one at a time as budget allows.

The Gross collection includes BoB. The first auction accounted for just 25 percent of his collections value. The multiples auction will account for another 15 to 20 percent. There is so much more to come.

But you don't have the kind of resources that a major player like Mr. Gross has. You probably don't have a philatelic secretary, or 20 or 30 dealers looking specifically with you in mind, or unlimited funds to outbid anyone else who might be interested.

My philatelic secretarys have the month of May off for emotional recharging whilst traveling by private jet (mine) around the World. My network of dealers is on the Island through the Summer months. As for the other "players" well we all know how important they are, don't we?

I would expect most "Complete" though to include Airmail, as they are also postage.
So that would need a C3a...

And if you're going on "postage" as the definition, then you need to add in:
Officials
Parcel Post
Air Post
Special Delivery
Air Post Special Deliver
Special Delivery

And what about postal stationary...

If we just wanted to cover postage, we'd need that...

And does "complete" cover all the minor (a,b,c,d, etc.) varieties including the EFOs (imperf in between that have minor varieties, which I never really agreed with... but the color variations make sense).

Natch

As if a C3a is so difficult to obtain. Several usually sell every year. All that takes is having a lot of disposable income.

Revcollector, I get what you are saying, but there are many modern omits/imperfs/untagged that simply don't matter if you have 10k,100k, 1M to drop. The cat value might just be $100 as mentioned but it doesn't mean you can just elicit it from the ether. Having a secretary, or a team of philatelist hunters may help, but if some guy or 5 guys have 5/5 locked up and you don't know their identity, I don't know what else you can do beside wait. Money doesn't address liquidity unless it's already out there.

What's interesting is folks mention c3a. That's a minor, no? So it doesn't add completeness to a collection unless you have all the other minors, even if you scope it to airmails.

Unless "some guy or 5 guys" bought the items directly from the Post Office a dealer or auction house knows where they are or can make inquiries. The dealer or auction house probably will not disclose the identity of the buyer but will typically pass on a message or offer. I have received inquiries and offers for material in my collection from dealers trying to locate a piece for a client. A buyer (especially with the resources of Gross) doesn't need to wait for material to come on the market because they can often shake things loose.

Technically the C3a is a minor number, but anyone with a major US collection of this magnitude is going to have all the inverts. They would be conspicuous by their absence.