Diary Of A Wannabe Worldwide Collector

Inspired by spain_1950's thread https://goscf.com/t/63909, I have decided to document my own worldwide collecting journey here.

After a 6 year hiatus from collecting (for reasons I wont go into here), I had a sudden urge to get back into it and for the past couple of weeks I've been living, breathing and even dreaming (yes very strange) stamps.

I dug out the stockbook of Great Britain stamps I'd catalogued previously, which has little bits of paper with the cat numbers printed on. This is fine, but I decided to be a bit more ambitious and start making my own pages. So in effect I'm starting over.

I aspire to be a worldwide collector as there are so many beautiful stamps with various histories attached to them from the world over, I don't want to confine myself to just a few countries.

Eventually the '100,000 club' is a target to aim for, but as I currently only have 117 mounted at the moment, plus I work full time and am making my own pages, this seems a long way off, but I'll be happy to click off milestones as I go along; 500, 1000, 2500, 5000 etc; when all is said and done, it's a hobby, not a race.

Hopefully this thread will keep me focused, and it will be interesting to me to see how I've got on in a years time.

Congratulation on joining a race that you will never finish .The challenge is to stay with it ,you will never run out of material to buy . My advice is to stay organized .

Great idea I will see how you go with your endevour, Good luck

<Eventually the '100,000 club' is a target to aim for,>
There are plenty of countries that have issued at least 5,000 stamps (the US is one, also Russia, Hungary many others) so theoretically you could reach 100,000 with just 20 countries!

WW is fun, especially in a hobby where everybody tends to specialize in tiny fragments of the BIG picture and gets lost in the details while a vast universe of stamps awaits to be collected.

Welcome back. Maiden. You've joined the right forum. We have all experienced hiatus' at one time or another, but we always seem to come back. That said, your 100,000 stamp goal is entirely doable.

Jack Kelley

Welcome to the club!

One of the best things about WW collecting is there will be areas you enjoy better than others, and you will get really knowledgeable about the stamps in that area. More likely than not, it will be some obscure area you might never have tried if you didn't collect the whole world.

Do you collect all eras? I collect up to today, though for more recent material I strongly prefer postally used (purchasing mint or CTO new issues for most countries is easy, postally used is often more of a challenge, and incredibly satisfying to complete).

Thanks for the encouragement all, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into this, it promises to be an interesting journey.

As for eras, I've set myself a cutoff of 2010, and ideally postally used where possible.

I had a good tidy up yesterday of all the stamps, covers etc that I've accumulated and need sorting, cateloguing and mounting (I'll post some pictures tomorrow); I have a lot more than I realised.

I echo that, excellent advice.
100,000 will just be a basic start.

Organisation Tip:
Purchase 2 only Plastic 5 drawer, chest of drawers, approx $50 each at red dot stores.
1st chest is for your stamps on hand, to be sorted, keep in cheap envelopes
and named, sorted alphabetically

2nd lot of drawers, envelopes named again, but these are for duplicates, swaps, sales.

Vary from that and you will visit a version of stamp hell.

Good luck, Maiden. It is a great and fun journey to be on. Lots of good advice on here!!
Hey Rod...my version of stamp hell happened when my wife saw the UPS man unloading 23 boxes I had recently won in an auction. I still feel the pain...but I do not regret it!! Lol

Are the rules of engagement that for a stamp to be counted it has to be mounted? (Yes, I know it rhymes). Subscribed.

Rod,the plastic drawer organisation thing sounds like a good idea :)




Yup. For it to be counted, must be catalogued, mounted and added to my spreadsheet.

Caveat: You will only need to select a plastic chest of drawers, where the drawers can be removed, if they have stops, preventing removal, move on.

You need the drawer with the alphabet you are working on, on your stamp desk, to slip the envelopes in order.

Duplicates drawer C,D,E,F.G countries

Taking Stock

On Monday I had a good tidy up, re-arranging shelving etc and had a look through what I had accumulated 6 years ago of stuff that needs sorting, cataloguing and mounting. Not including the 4 stockbooks of Great Britain, Channel Islands and Austria that I sorted years ago (and the various dupes to go with them), suffice to say, I had more than I remember:

Box of world on paper

1.5kg bag on paper - mostly European

Box of world off paper

Another box of world off paper

The Dutch Beast sorted into glassines

Definitives from the Dutch Beast

Large envelope of various

15 tubs of European on paper sorted into countries

Pack of about 80 covers that I think I bought from Londonbus back in the day

Carrier bag of on paper Machins

Box of assorted pages

Box of FDC's

Boxfile of assorted Germany (also 7 more boxfiles for Africa, Americas, Asia, Spain,Eire, Holland, Oceania)

Large box of 12 stockbooks with worldwide assortment

Last but not least, 500 Spain stamps from Rod's giveaway


So, that little lot should keep me busy for a while, but at least I have some help

Yikes, You've got a lot on your plate there, Maiden. Where are you going to start? Machins?

Jack Kelley

Maiden - Great start to your own journey! It sure does look like you have your work cut out, but just remember it's the journey that counts and not the finish line.

Like you, I have my sight set on 100,000, just as a milestone to work towards. If for some reason I reach it fairly quickly (doubtful) I would just extend it to 150,000.

I also use the "if it's mounted, it's counted" system.

Do you have a gameplan as to how you will proceed? Like, will you sort everything by country, then soak each country? Or will you soak everything then sort them out by country?

You said you will be making your own pages? You gonna design your own with computer software or something different?