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

Paul, do you think you've gotten to 330,000 all different? (I consider shades, perfs, papers, date imprints, plates as different)

SHERMAE---- I know the number is north of 330,000 . ,I haven't done a count in 3 years but have been adding to my total each month . My goal was never to grow a stamp collection for the sake of having a large number ,it was to see how far down the path I could go to have a decent collection .

Today I plan to start a separate binder for 1914 Mexico Local Civil War issues . These are not listed in the Scott catalog ,mostly local overprints . I have some 150 stamps with many sets .Don't have any reference material for these issues but was on ebay last night and many where listed for sale at $25.00 to $40.00 a piece but no sets for sale .The stamps are in a 1930's or 1940's album .

floortrader: in this link Mexico 1914 civil war overprints.Perhaps it may be of help to you.
https://stamp-auctions.de/sammlunge...8140_web.pdf

Thanks Perf . 12 ,just what I need . It covers 80% of the stamps . I hope to have a set of pages to make a separate binder of Civil War Locals.

That link has a impressive collection with a lot of research done. My first attempt will be a fraction of that collection .

". My goal was never to grow a stamp collection for the sake of having a large number " - I wonder how far someone could get though if they just sought out cheap stamps, avg 3 cents a stamp to free.

floortrader:

Check out:
The Stamps of the Mexican Revolution: 1913-1916, by Nicholas Follansbee here...
https://www.collectorsclubchicago.o...ansbee-1996/

Mike

Thanks Mike ,I purchased the book this morning . This will add to the information that Perf 12 link to above .

Once I get it ,will match that to the info linked above ,then will making up my album pages ,so it will be a month long project .

My goal of having a worldwide collection that is different and going into many sub areas of country collecting .

StampDragon ------ Interesting question you asked , I am sure many collectors have thought of doing the same .I believe also many others have also done it in the past .

I am going to be Negative about the idea ,even tho I done it for years . First to answer your question directly ,you can achieve maybe 100,000 to 130,000 different worldwide stamps .

The problem is I was getting bored of doing it , it is what others call "filling spaces in a album " after a few years of doing the same most collectors quit .

Any large collection that wants to attract attention from dealers or stamp auction firms must have a few features that will bring in buyers ,it has to have a few outstanding interest points, the biggest is high catalog stamps the second item is lots of unusual items to get everyone's interest .

Since my financial interest is elsewhere ,I don't go after the high cost items ,but it does give me the ability to go after unusual items ,which I enjoy the hunt for .

Here is one of those items which I hope to have thousands of ,to spice up a collection with .

This month two news articles have been put out about stamp collecting and the philatelic market place .

Really they talk about nothing ,both talk about investing in stamps . One on stamps above $500.00 and the other above the $1,000 range . Those type of articles miss 95% of the people who buy stamps .

It would take me two pages to write about the PRESENT market place . It comes down to the bottom falling out that the beginner level and poor sales on ebay with sales off by 30% or more . The printed album business is dying so is the supplies market .

We are in a period of big changes and nobody is talking about it ,but it is like these two authors of the article are talking about 30 years ago .

stampgreendragon I'm an odd one. I really like keeping track of the number of stamps in albums. Once you have the base count down, then you just keep track to what you add. There's a wife of a dealer who goes to the next level and counts up all the stamps in each album that he sells at shows (wow!) It is kind of cool to look at the first page of an album and if the stamp count is 5K or higher, you have a pretty good idea that there will be stamps you don't have. Like Floortrader says, it isn't always about the cost, there are lots of minimum and near minimum cat stamps that just don't show up.

Andrew McGavin in the UK has these little books that has "Top Tips of the Trade." In one of them he had the story of a collector that went for 100K different stamps costing very little or nothing and he did it. The collection filled a room of albums. I think the albums were budget-minded too. They guy did sell, but in the end the stamps were to be plucked from the albums and put back into bags for the next pickers.

So how high could one go? There are two tracks here. One-by-one with LOTS of time and a steady supply to work from, You might be able to do 200K. I think the cheapest a dealer will go stamp by stamp is a dime each.. Of course, bulk sales would always be better. ;)

Floortrader any more details on those articles you mentioned? Links?

And we'd all love to read two pages of current market analysis. You have a lot of info packed into 2 lines there, I didn't know ebay has been off 30% and would be interested to learn about what effect falling out of beginner level has on overall hobby.

Very pretty set of St. Helena Stamps!

I just love this thread. I currently use a 1947 year big blue for my 1840-1940 collection. I have broken down my Big blue into 4 parts and housed them in 4 scott specialty binders. Each page is now in Scott page protectors .I do have a part 2 and part 3 ( mainly to collect british commonwealth) as well which I am in the process of slowly housing in scott specialty albums as and when I can procure them used.
I thought that I am going to stop lurking here and start posting some album pages as I work on my big blue. Please pardon the limiting size and quality of my fledgling collection.
I am going to start with a picture of my stamp shelf.

Great variety of albums! Kind of looks like my shelf… is that a three volume minkus supreme? That may be the most comprehensive album for the size… What do you think of those?