Scott #505 Error - Best Way To Collect

Of course you can collect however you want. Singles, pairs, full sheets, punch holes in your stamps, glue them to an album with glitter glue or anything else you want. Saying so is useless. The OP wanted to know the "best" way to collect a 505. "Best" is, of course, subjective, and an badly worded question has resulted in useless advice of "do whatever you want, they are your stamps." I think he's asking how these 3 5-cent error stamps are usually collected. Look at auction history, album layouts, etc., and you can see that the conventional way to collect these is in blocks of 9 or 12. But if you or he wants to collect them as singles or folded into origami swans, go for it. They are your stamps and you can collect them however you want.

Phil - Actually, albums are designed for singles of 505 as well as the other errors in that threesome, not blocks. As far as auctions go singles are quite sought after because of that fact. I personally like strips of three but have a se-tenant pair because I desired a well centered 505 and they are pretty difficult to find in the blocks now. Blocks do have more visual impact but at the end of the day all of those other stamps are window dressing for the star of the show. To each their own however. I would not recommend origami swans due to the impact on resale value and I do not think that they would get a certificate.

Recent Scott National album pages do provide space for collecting all three varieties of this error in blocks of 9 or blocks of 12. The album page has only three spaces on it, with large margins around them where blocks will fit.

Fair enough. Most US collectors go for singles, but I think most US collectors are not rigid in ONLY collecting singles. "Classic" coils are collected in pairs. Modern coils are collected in pairs or strips of 5. Souvenir sheets are collected intact. Se-tenants are collected as pairs or blocks. Booklets are collected as panes. Farleys are collected as position pieces. Etc.

Couldn't find any origami swans, but here is an origami beetle...

Here's my album page with these errors.

I would want a block if I could afford it, but at last a pair to show it is ab error in a 2c sheet.

Phil - The blocks look good. I think that I will add blocks to the mix. It is just so hard to find them with really nice centering.

Philazilla: The two blocks with the 467 & 505 errors are beautiful. This may be a bit of wishful thinking, but wouldn't it be great if you could add a block with the 485 imperf to these some day?

Someday a 485. :)

Where the National Album provides space for a coil pair, I try to fill it with a line pair.

Phil - very nice examples!!!! Please note my previous rant was about the early coil pairs, not the 2 cent red errors. Even with my "singles only" scope, I could use these type hybrid blocks in my collection if I chose to because I consider your examples above to be singles of 467 and 505. The expertizing agencies would describe your items above that way (e.g."505 in a block with eight 499") so why would we call them blocks of 467 and 505? Just food for thought.

I just picked up a double error block of 467. The error stamps are XF. I will post shortly. Thank you for the inspiration!

This has been helpful. And yes, I was looking for what the experts, or better, major collectors thought was the "Best Way". Money is secondary, I want to gather the best representation of this stamp, then worry about the money. I think seeing the examples and reading the comments, I like the 9 stamp block. Collecting this way gives a very good representation of what occurred and why its an error. The single stamp is ok, but it just shows as a single stamp and you have to reference to what occurred and why it got screwed up unless you have a pretty good knowledge of stamps. The block is pretty much idiot proof!! My dad's collection is pretty amazing, all focused on pre-1920 stamps. I'm going to look to sell duplicates in order to fund the purchase of the stamp holes and also upgrade the stamps that I feel are not good representations. All my stamps past the 1909 Bluish Gray Paper are new, never used but a few have hinge marks. A few he didn't have --- Scott #595 and #613. I'll leave those for my son to get!!! Hahhaaa

The 595 is plentiful and cheap. The 613 on the other hand...…..