Confessions Of A Catalog Lemming

51studebaker very nice comment, thank you!

I consider myself as a beginner and always use catalogs only to know the stamps issued by a certain country in a certain year. Using a website (that seems I cant post the name) helps me a lot with this nowadays.

Maybe, since I'm a beginner I dont pay attention to the values yet.

You mentioned that is not buying new catalogues anymore, I would like to ask: How do you track the new stamps of the countries you collect?

Thank you.

Good Day helder,
I do not track new issues for the countries I collect nor do I purchase annual album pages for them anymore. I simply mount the new issues on blank album pages. This gives me flexibility since even for the countries I specialize in I often do not purchase every single new stamp issued but rather only those stamps which appeal to me.
Don

oh I see.
Thank you Don.

What do I need to own in order to have the satisfaction of having completed a country?

Catalogs may include stamps I generally do not, such as unissued sets, souvenir sheets, and very rare provisionals. On the other hand, they often exclude postal stationary and other items that may be regular features of a country's postal history.

Albums following catalog numbering systems may exclude interesting varieties, and separate stamps that are more interesting if displayed on the same page. I am thinking of colonial omnibus sets and regular series published every year such as the French paintings.