Thinking About US Airmails

I am very new to stamp collecting, and I have decided that I just want to do inexpensive but somewhat older ( 1930's-1970's) U.S. stamps. The only catalog I have right now is an older 2012 Scott's volume 1 that I bought used for a cheap price a little while back, just about the time I first started having the urge to get into stamps. I've also been looking through the Ebay listings to see what things are selling for that I am interested in. It pretty overwhelming to see all the stamps in my time range that were issued, and deciding what appeals to me the most has not been an easy task, but I think I'm being drawn initially to the airmails. I admit the designs are fairly plain, but I just like them, and seeing as how special airmail stamps stopped being issued in the 1970's, I think it would be neat to start with them. I'm also leaning towards the booklet panes, just because they are more attractive to me than a single stamp, and the cost really is not that bad for really nice mnh panes. What do you all think about my choice, and any other ways I can collect airmails that are popular? Also, are there any particular sellers who have good reputations that you can point me too, and that includes Ebay. Thanks!

It is a good choice you have made, and except for the Zeps, very affordable. You may wish to get into postal history and look for the stamps on envelopes (covers).
Also check out https://www.americanairmailsociety.org/

Thanks for your words of encouragement, and the link! And yes, I may look into airmail stamped covers at some point, that seems interesting to me also. Are there certain things that collectors of airmail covers look for in a good cover? Thanks!

I am not an expert on that---Interesting cities and the like. Also, some people like crash covers---not to my taste, but certainly of historical importance. Hopefully some of the air mail people will toss in their ideas. I am more into revenue stamps and US commemoratives. Good luck

[quote]I am not an expert on that---Interesting cities and the like. Also, some people like crash covers---not to my taste, but certainly of historical importance. Hopefully some of the air mail people will toss in their ideas. I am more into revenue stamps and US commemoratives. Good luck/quote]

Yes, and I would also think that covers in good condition with neatly affixed multiple airmail stamps on them, but what do I know. Hopefully others who collect them will chime in. Thanks!

Apart from C1-6 & the Zepps, you can put together a set of NH singles very easily and at little cost. Since covers have been brought up, something unique to airmail is First Flight covers. FF covers are not my cup of tea, but something you could do to expand a basic collection.

This may interest you:

https://www.americanairmailsociety....irpost-fdcs/

I have a question, but I didn't know which category to ask it in, so I'll ask here and hope for the best. What would be the safest long term storage stamp mount for booklet panes? I was hoping I could use those individual clear plastic (or whatever it is) sleeves with the black background which are large enough for the panes, and then put the pane mounts into some sort of album with pages to accept the mounts. Is there such a thing out there? Just thought I would ask here first. Thanks!

Philatelic storage is probably the number two most discussed topic, being just behind stamps and covers themselves, and the forum search engine will deliver hundreds of useful ideas and thoughts on the subject.

http://goscf.com/t/55286 br /

Airmails are a fun and relatively small area to collect. It's nice that only about 10 get costly. Also, whether mint or used, even collecting the sub-lettered varieties such as booklets and their pane formats, paper direction (C11), wet/dry printings, large/small hole coils, tagged/untagged, line/comb perforation differences will add about 25 additional types. Thus a modestly specialized collection will have about 175 collectible varieties. Quite doable and enjoyable. You will want to consult a more recent copy of the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog - likely available at your local library. Many of the minor varieties are not differentiated by sellers so finding a better C98A offered as the cheaper C98 can be done with a little patience. One might begin by buying a "starter collection" of 100 or 125 different and build from there. Good luck!.

Gotta agree with John here. Like you are thinking, I chose originally to focus on US airmail because of its specific and limited # of stamps. As a point of clarification, while regular first class mail began to be delivered by air in the US in the 1970s, airmail stamps continued to be produced until 2012. Scott's "C" designation runs from C1 to C150. Beginning with the "Scenic American Landscape" series in 1999, the designation "US Airmail" no longer appeared on the stamps, but was replaced with a small airplane icon next to the rate. These last US airmail stamps run from C133-C150, 1999-2012.

If you go this route, I recommend looking into the "White Ace" brand of albums. They have albums specifically for US singles, and US plate blocks I used these album pages to create a rather unique collection that I only recently completed. I interleaved the single and plate block pages, and as needed used some White Ace "blank" pages for booklet panes. On the back sides of the album pages I placed FDCs (for each issue). It took two nice Linder binders to hold the collection, but for all 150 issues, I have singles, plate blocks, and booklet panes (singles only for C1-C6, and the Zepps), plus FDCs. That includes Zepps ($$$), which is why the collection was only recently completed with aquisition of FDCs for the Zepps (the stamps themselves were acquired a few years ago). I don't have all the varieties that John mentions, but with the inclusion of the FDCs it makes for a very distinctive collection.

I also collect US aviation topicals, and recently developed an interest in WWII patriotic covers, specializing in the covers postmarked in Victory, VT. But with my stamp focus limited to US airmail and aviation topicals, I'd guess the that total number of distinct stamps that I collect (not counting what appear on various WWII patriotic covers), my collection is limited to about 230 different stamps. But as John mentions, when you take into considerations variants, errors, and the like, it is a challenging task, and rewarding.

And you could choose to disagree with Scott and include the $1 airlift (#1341) and even the more recent round Global forever stamps (4740 etc).

"If you go this route, I recommend looking into the "White Ace" brand of albums."

Isn't WA the ones that have spaces for both singles and blocks for the multi-design issues (C101-4 etc)? I consider this silly.

eyeonwall, I considered the series itself silly -- the stamps had nothing to do with air mail or aviators (could be said of other air mail stamps) -- but the blocks make sense to me to illustrate the se-tenant relationship of the stamps. The four stamp block for C122-C125 -- Futuristic Mail Delivery -- was handled the same way in the album: a place for each stamp individually, and then one for the block of four. I was okay with that, but I would have been okay with just the block of four in the WA pages for singles. Here's what a page for C101-104 looks like:

Another possible solution is to start collecting using Vario pages. This flexible option allows to you arrange/re-arrange the way you organize your material until to get more confident in how you might like to see your long term solution.
Don