Piece De Resistance On Steiner Pages .

GeoffHa ---- On the subject of not liking the subject on the face of a stamp . A few years ago I sold a worldwide mixture of cheap stamps for $6.00 on ebay . In that mixture was a Hitler Head German stamp . The buyer gave me a negative feedback on ebay . I try to reverse that negative with ebay and nobody wanted to listen to my compliant at ebay .

If he'd been one of those odd people who fill their homes with SS memorabilia, he'd probably have complained that there was only one Hitler stamp.

I have very few covers in my collection but the few I have are spectacular pieces of postal history .

To many collectors ,they understand what a WORLDWIDE collection has in it and how it is put together . Stamp dealers also have the idea of what they are going to be looking at and have already seen dozens of them .

My thinking on this subject went in a different direction . I didn't want the typical worldwide collection that many serious worldwide collectors have . I seen over 100 nice WW collections at stamp auctions from Harmers and Rumsey both in California to Kelleher's in Boston ..

There was the idea of first going SPECIALIZED with shades ,perforations and watermarks all identified and written up on a album page . The second approach was going after those stamps that rarely show up in WW collections . This doesn't mean high price stamps only but you would be surprised how many WW collections are missing the same cheaper stamps .

That was my goal -- go where other collections don't go or are lacking .

floortrader: Since you have a very big and impressive worldwide stamp collection that you have posted on here, which countries do you have that are complete or complete up to a certain date? This question could also apply to other collectors as well since it is usually hard to find a complete country collection due to some key stamp(s) being scarce and/or expensive.

Great set Paul! That one is really tough to find!

JOGIL ---- Never had a goal or desire to complete any country ,other than completing pages in the Scott Internationals . In the course of collecting the world I am sure I completed a few countries but couldn't tell which ones .It was never a high point to me .

Trying to be different and enjoying the hunt for stamps to build a collection . I trended for hard to get complete sets.

I have a few countries that are "complete", but they are never "complete enough". Remember I only collect to 1940... One is Greenland, of which I have at least a single example of every stamp issued between 1905 and 1940, some are unused, some used. I don't, however have the pakke porto reperfs, where the outer stamps on the sheet had added perforations after the actual issue, and I don't have both unused and used examples of each. Another is Allenstein, where I do have both mint and used for each stamp issued. I don't, however, have covers showing the normal usage for each stamp, or any, for that matter. Another is the Ionian Islands, where only three stamps were issued. As with most collections that include these I have all three unused, but no used. The used examples, and especially covers are quite scarce.
I do tend to go specialized, as Paul defines it. I make sure I understand perforation and shade varieties well enough to have at least spaces for pretty much everything issued for a country before I stop working on my pages. I tend to steer clear of shade varieties that don't tie directly to a printing, so if they ended up with several shades during the same print run I don't put extra spaces in for them. I do sometimes put spaces in for unissued stamps, when they are plentiful and able to be differentiated from the issued version. An example of that is the 1864 Juarez issue from Mexico. The first printing was actually issued in very small quantities for use in two districts, then remaindered to the collectors market later. They did a second printing just for collectors and those are officially unissued, but very common. I went ahead and put places in for both the issued and unissued, with the expectation I would likely never have postally used examples of the issued stamps, but at the least the page wouldn't stay completely empty. :)
I'm currently working on Luxembourg and Mexico (I know, but they are close alphabetically). For Mexico my pages are ready up to the eagles issues of the 1860s (which are complex), for Luxembourg I'm working on the Industry and Commerce issues of the early 1880s. I&C alone takes up something like eight pages, since each denomination has up to four perforations as well as the official overprints.

complete is a loaded question. Even the catalogs can't agree. To me complete is 90% of xyz catalog to 19XX. You can all decide what is complete for you.

@ Floortrader, just noticed the Zanzibar covers you posted. What beauties! Your passion for complete sets has definitely rubbed off on me and I've been wondering how many complete sets are available on cover. The first one is clearly an FDC, not sure if the second one is also. I'm not sure if serious postal history specialists are interested in this type of material since they are "philatelic", but I think they are wonderful and offer much insight into how stamps were originally used even if a bit contrived. I wonder if there are any cases of actual postal usages of a complete set (with at least 3-4 stamps)? I'm sure there must be some example, somewhere.

Sharing a similar-ish piece from my collection (Middle Congo) I don't have many covers but love material like this and would love to start collecting more of it.

Here is a complete set that is getting harder to find complete . A nice set from the A & D stamp inventory . A & D must of been a big buyer of many well intact country collections over the years giving many collectors a chance to pick out some better stamps normal not seen or offered by a dealer .

TSMATX ---- Nice cover if it was mine I have it on a page with maybe a short write up in my album .

While the three British Ionian Islands stamps are a favorite of those looking for a complete (country like) stamp listing, there are other listings for Ionian Islands under Italian occupation found elsewhere in the catalogue.

Ah, but remember I only collect to 1940, the Italian occupation was after that.

@floortrader, I also have that complete set of Italy parcel post. Guess I should feel great about that if it is hard to acquire these days. I also have the complete set without the overprint, but no idea if that is also harder to find.