Interesting Russian Stockbooks

Thought I'd share pictures of some interesting Russian stockbooks I picked up in a garage sale lot a couple of years back. Have 4 of these but only took pictures of 3 as one is duplicate. The good thing was they all came packed with mint Russian stamps. The person who bought them definitely purchased them in Russia, most likely in the late 70's.

This kind of stock books were produced and sold in large quantities in the USSR, they were mostly meant for young and starting collectors.

The stockbooks had different designs of their covers and were sold without stamps. Yours were bought by a foreigner in the USSR, in a shop of the Beriozka foreign trade network (that sold goods for hard currency or Soyuzvneshtorg notes). The stickers on the back of the books show it.

I've given up on Garage sales and Antique shops/barns as a source for finding new stamps. You just never know what's out there though.

The first one is the mascotte of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. So (very) late seventies sounds right.

Very interesting find!

Those are pretty cool - thanks for sharing.

Those are pretty cool items to have in the collection. Congrats.

Thanks everyone




Casey, My wife is dragging me to the garage sales anyway. Only see something stamp related at 1 out of every 50, so it's not the best way to find stamps.

Soviet stamp books written in English... interesting.

Russia/Soviet Union have been at the forefront since the early 20th century of extracting as much revenue as possible from collectors. They are pretty much the gold standard.

My mother went to St Petersburg 15 or 20 years ago. She asked me what she could get for me while she was there. I said I would be happy if she just went to the post office and bought a bunch of stamps. When she went tot eh PO, there were a bunch of 'vendors' outside selling self-assembled stockbooks of various stamps. Rather than go in and wait in line, she bought one of the stockbooks and gave it to me after she got home. Lots of pretty stamps. Anyway, it isn't just the Soviet/Russian postal service making money off of collector interest. I am sure the postal service represents the lion's share of stamp revenue there, though.

They're cute!