Worldwide Virtual Stamp Collection

"Your honor, the witness is being nonresponsive."

(I watched a bit of Perry Mason as a child.)

I don't know. This whole thing seems like it would eventually mission-creep into "Hey, let's create another online stamp catalog."

Absolutely agree PostmasterGS,

Sometimes I think I am doing the very same with my scanning and cataloguing.
The pay off for me, is many fold,
I have instant access to "want lists"
What I have in a particular collection discipline, notes, catalogues,
pmk images etc & etc.

The only worldwide catalogue, I have yet to see, is a simple text based
database with brevity in information.

Say, if I ran a "generate a file listing" of my 5000 Romania stamps
and kept them in simple database.
As a collector beginning in Philately, he/she would simply make a query
"surch" or "5b" (5 bani) or PD (postage due) Heron, Chisinau, Train etc &etc,
and be rewarded of every stamp that fits that criteria.
You could then consult whatever catalogue you prefer and ID in detail, your stamp.

Of course, with my image based database, I already do that.

The problem with publishing everyone's Steiner pages is that the project becomes "let's create a mishmash of incomplete pages".
Stamp Smarter already supports anyone who may want to show off their album pages.

I thought what Al (OP) was describing was a community effort to get a single, complete set of pages based upon Steiner organization.
Don

It would not be Steiner-centric but with work one could create a very complete WW "collection" pulling images from SAN auction listings archives and other sources. Kind of achieve the same end result. OR I suppose you could use Steiner pages as the background for the individual stamp images. It seems the only way to avoid the inevitable disagreements that will arise with a hundred parties involved. It also would more easily provide the ability to place stamps in their space that are fine examples. If a better image came along, you could simply replace the existing one. It does seem though to be creating yet another image database just in its own format.

Example: I had a complete collection of Russia from 1917-1956 except for a couple of real rarities. I could have provided the page images and filled in the rarities with images from auctions and other online sources. OR I could build the same thing electronically and nobody would care whether or not the originals were on paper album pages or were electronic creations. No?

PS: Siegel just had some auctions of amazing US stamps and material that the average collector will never own. It would look amazing on pages, but you can get as much pleasure looking at the catalog. Plus, the catalog adds so much context with the detailed descriptions and history.

From my prspective, it is black, GB1 being intensive black.
Let me add it is not blue.

Roger,

Forgive this obvious question, but exactly how does one go about doing this? Converting Steiner PDFs to JPG images, for example, is trivial using online tools. The problem I always run into is when I try to copy/paste my stamp images into the Steiner boxes. I have to do them one by one, and the sizing always seems to be off (i.e., the stamp images at 100% are always bigger than the blank Steiner boxes, and must be reduced in size). Does anyone have a method of doing this that an elderly gentleman like me can understand?

John

Some see obstacles, others see opportunities. Yes such a project could be a lot of work if one tries to make it the end all especially if one wants strict organization but it could be done with Scott pages as well.

I still watch Perry Mason - have them all on DVD and several streaming channels stream 24 hrs a day. "The Case of the Fugitive Ink"

I think the system we have now is the best , each collector can do it their way .

Putting your material mixed in with hundreds of other collectors on some 60,000 pages loses something ,besides who really careless to look at some 40,000 pages of post -1980 wallpaper that rarely will have viewers ,maybe just pre-1960's would cut the project down to a more resonable level like 75%.

Scott Catalog has this same problem ,I am buying their catalog but using less than 30% of it ,never turning to pages that I spend hundreds of dollars for . If they came out with a extended Classic series that ended in 1960's or 1970's even 1980's I would never buy those monsters that are over taking the top of my desk .

Agreed. I like looking at Floortrader's stamps, knowing the personal connection, not an anonymised page.