Not So New Member, But Would Like To Introduce Myself And Ask A Question Or Two

Hi all,

I'm Nick and I live in Poughkeepsie, NY in the USA. I acquired a collection just over a year ago that has upwards of 150,00 to 200,000 stamps (no lie). Fourteen International binders (older medium sized ones) absolutely stuffed up through 1973, plus much more. Needless to say this got me interested again after many years of not doing much with what I had. I've taken the time to go through all of the pages, carefully removing excess stamps from the margins, removing excess pages, and adding interleaves so that no stamps remaining in the albums touch facing pages. I even removed all of the 1840-1940 pages and put them in a safer place. I have pretty much sorted everything into its correct country and stored the stamps not in the albums in several thousand glassines. I'm dedicated to cataloging and remounting everything from 1840 to mid-1949 and many countries even further. The primary reason is that the current pages are very old, acidic, dirty, and just not in good shape (almost every page has torn from the album at some point). I'm printing Steiner pages on heavy cream colored card stock, have some Scott specialty pages (Germany, France, China), and I create my own pages where Steiner falls short. My guess is that I will not finish this project in my lifetime.

I've seen many people share their pages in the various forums here. Is this encouraged? Do people really want to see these? Are there specific forums suited for this? I'm considering creating some kind of digital album (at the page level), but not sure yet where best to do so.

The collection certainly has its share of fakes, forgeries, and damaged stamps, but I assure you it is not just common stamps. I don't care much about the value of the collection. I simply love the history of it all! I'm no expert and I lack the proper tools, but I try very hard to identify every stamp, including minor varieties, as listed in the 2012 Scott Catalog. I know it's not the best catalog, but it's what the Steiner pages follow, so it's good enough for me. As I come across things I cannot find, I just search the web and usually find the information I need, and I know I can use this community as well.

Glad to be here.

Why don't you post some pictures? I'm sure many of us would love to see them.

Welcome.

That's quite a large "starter" collection.

Yes, post a few sample pages. Recommend focusing on a single country or theme to start.

The more interesting the material the more likely the response.

NicholasC,

What a wonderful project!

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences. Russ

Welcome! so glad you jumped in. I am amazed at all the work you have done - what a large collection to wrangle. I inherited stamps about a year ago - but really small potatoes + common (with the exception of some of the 19th century Mexican stamps I was gifted).

I, like you, have been sorting, mounting, researching, acquiring stamps and catalogues - basically I started with 0 knowledge and tools. Thus far I have bought a couple of Albums - my best one is a Scott Specialty for Mexico. I also am printing pages for GB and France in Cream colored card stock paper and place them in nice looking Binders. I love to share my stamps - as a novice I do not have many uncommon stamps - however, not a lot of Mexico collectors on here, so I do share those and the Community seems very responsive and encouraging. Please do share your stamps - I love seeing stamps from the Community - be it to learn, be wowed, and at times to share a bit of knowledge. Glad you are here. Nora

Here's some samples, this the kind of thing desired?

Are they too large?

Is there a way to bulk upload?

Very Nice! Great looking pages and stamps that I have not seen often - especially Guatemala - Love the Quetzal stamps. Funny, I printed the same Album pages and most likely similar card stock paper. Thank you for sharing.

Nicholas, we always seem to like more photos; so post away. I'm not sure there is a way to upload in bulk, but your scans look great. Yes, you will find forums for various time periods/regions and so forth, jut look around.

Welcome, and keep posting!

Thanks. I just posted a dozen Guatemala in the Worldwide Classic forum. I guess posting there for 1840-1940 is the best place. For things after 1940, I will post in the Modern forum.

Found a sheet among the collection where the original owner tried to keep track of how many stamps he had...



I was thinking of creating a diary topic for my world remounting project. Could document what I have done as time goes on and post random pics of pages along the way. If that's a good idea, what forum is best?

Similar to John Lennon,
The front flyleaf of his Stamp Album has "800 Stamps" crossed out
and "657" noted in biro.

Displaying a lot of pages/photos is hard to do on a FORUM like this but might I suggest a website to display pages? A simple website wouldn't be as hard as you might think. I can give you some tips and suggestions if you'd like.

Yeah, I was thinking a website, too, but I haven't looked into it yet. I'm technical enough, just not sure where to begin as there are so many options. I just want something where I can organize by country and then be able to post scans and control sequence of the scans. Having a place for running comments to chronicle the journey would also be desired.