Pushing 330,000 All Different Worldwide Stamps In One Collection .

Agree --- "i find the stories behind large collections fascinating " sad that so many stories are never put to print .

also "especially the ever growing storage problem " life was easier when I had that 50 cents worldwide H.E.Harris album from Woolworth's .

floortrader,

Feel free to ship anything that won't fit in that album to me.

Dale

Hey everyone! Just wanted to say hi and that I am back and enjoying catching up on the thread. I've made almost zero progress on my collection the last 5 months cause as I said before I own a lawncare/landscape business and this year has been one of the busiest years ever. Business has gone well but glad the schedule is finally slowing down so im ready to get back to my stamps and im really looking forward to going all in when I have much more time this winter so id like to share some photos of some new pages when I get them completed and im sure I may have a question ot two from time to time. Have a nice day.

Welcome back Kyle .

Enjoy getting back into your stamp collection .

I am staying with the same goal . Working on building up complete sets from around the world .Sort of self satisfaction in seeing another page filled out with stamps .

Dale ,I would but the shipping cost would be too much for you to handle ,so I will keep it .

You would not believe my cost just to move my collection from Chicago to Florida . The cost of packing , buying a heavy trailer , buying a truck to pull it and the security involued was a lot ,even had to ride shotgun for 24 hours .

Yes riding shotgun means exactly that. That was 12 years ago .

Building a worldwide collection comes with many challenges . Everybody knows the most difficult parts which are time and money . These are the most common answers most collectors have in any discussion about building a massive collection .

As you dig deeper and look at other problems , we get into the discussion of space or room to expand in the house , then we know organization which albums , stockbooks , dealer pages or cards ? How it is kept and the best way to display it . Then the issue of duplicates and how to get rid of them ? Do you sell them in small units like sets, album pages or just box them up and ship to a auction house or look for a dealer and sell by the box .

These are the issues broken down into first and second groups a collector will face .

Also adding
hinge or not to hinge
black mounts vs clear mounts
better stamps or just cheap stamps

Yes hinges have now becoming a decision factor for large collections . Your choice between cheap "hinges of steel " for common stamps and better "peelable " hinges . That now has become a factor .

Black mounts is another factor ,do you use them for better older stamps and for MNH Sets like I do ,or do collectors use them for everything and actually have collections where the cost of mounts excees the value of the stamps .I even seen collections where heavy hinged used stamps are put in mounts .......great way to spend and waste money .

floortrader - All mounts does add consistency though. But waste is relative. You can buy a mounts in bulk (lot) or a used hingeless album. Also clear mounts preserve the album's re-usability whereas black mounts destroy the album.

I mount cheap stamps and I know it is wasteful I just really love the way the stamps look on the black background I do realize though if I ever am to get all my stamps mounted on Steiner pages the mounts are going to be a huge expense and limit the purchase of more stamps

KyleB - At auction, I have noticed that some buyers pay more for neatly mounted collections and/or sloppy collections don't get many bids.

On the subject of spending money on how each of us see this subject is interesting .

Each collector decides where do you spend money and what is a waste to spend money on .

I prefer buying $600.00 oak bookcases ,while telling others spending money on mounts or expensive albums is a waste ,so go figure . Yes I like both peelable hinges {good place to spend money } and matching color binders for your whole collection .

So each of us have different ideas what they see are important part of building their collection .

floortrader. These days you can get expensive albums cheap with shrewd purchasing.

The biggest issue I have with finding stamps in mounts is so often they have hinge marks on them. Seems like a waste to me, but I understand about liking the look of them.

The only time I use mounts is if I have a better complete set that I got MNH then it is worth keeping it that way. Also have a bunch of early stamps and thin paper stamps which I will use black mounts ,trying to avoid damaging it with a hinge .
Over the years of buying large end of stamp auction lots,has given me about two shoe boxes of black mounts ,the clear ones I discard . Like to think I got a life time supply .
On the subject of hinges ,still looking and waiting for another box lot of Dennison Hinges ,I can guarentee you because none were sold yet in 2025 . Than box will go for over $1,000 ,yes watch it yourself $1,000 isn't going to stop that box of 50 packets of hinges