At What Date Does Your Stamp Collection End?

I'm finding myself expanding from 2 original country collections, to now 4, to 3 others I am setting aside, and see where I will easily migrate to a worldwide collector. I currently stop at 2000 for my 4 original countries, but imagine I will scale back to 1980 or so for the rest of the world.

I updated my old Harris Liberty album through 2022. Had let it get out of date by about 30 years. I will probably never get even a fair amount of issues from about 1990 to present. But the album is up to date. A while back, I started collecting Germany up to formation of Federal Republic. Also have a pretty good collection of DDR too as it's a dead country with a definite end date. I dabble some in British Empire and colonies up but not including QEII. Have a good size Canada collection up to about 1990 and there's where it ends. Picked up a nice Senior Statesman album. No stop date with this one, just an album to hold all the worldwide that I seemed to have accumulated over the years.

My U.S. collection ends (for the most part) around 1990, which is when I set it aside for 25 years.

I did recently come across some commemoratives from the early 1990s, and I will probably start filling in these years as I spot opportunities to do so. (Most of my energy is spent on collecting the early 20th century, however.)

I have noticed that many people are selling U.S. commemorative sets from the early 1990s. If anyone knows of a good source of definitive sets for this period (or later years), I would welcome suggestions.

Interesting topic as it gives us information on how other collectors think about their end dates. Mine, for Canada, was 2001. This represented 150 years of Canada Post. However, the slow continuation of far too many topics and marketing that only seemed to be directed at collectors, not mail users, blunted my enthusiasm. As well, even many issues in the 1990s are hard to find that have been postally used.

Maybe already said earlier in the thread, but my end date will be on my death

I have a new Minkus set of global albums that end with 1976, therefore I am trying to focus my attention on that as a worldwide cut off date. However, I have many stamps after 1976 so I am still pondering what to do? My US collection I have bought pages through 2020, but have not kept up with the stamps. Some days I wonder if I have made the right decision or not? Perhaps I should tighten up my focus.

Always collect what you like, and only that.

This whole subject is important to the people who print stamp catalogs .

The catalogs printers are way pass the cut off date for their printed catalogs . There is already both a cut-off date and the moving to a CD base catalog for modern issues .

The 1840 to 1940 Classic is fine and sells . What they need is a second volume for 1941 to 1970 Specialise .everything after that date can be on a CD .

My collections don't go too far into the 21st Century. The Ireland collection needs some work and I would appreciate some opinions on building a respectable early Irish collection. Pre 1922. I have a few post cards and covers from 19th Century. There is always good advice on this forum and it is much valued. Thank you.

The subject here is a cut-off date .

I believe this chapter will help the catalog printers understand where many collectors end their area of interest .

The catalogs are now struggling with what direction to go .But everyone knows the 8 volume sets catalogs is too much cost wise the purchase of a set at $600.00 is too much and the price is going higher .

I say make a two or three volume set to 1960's ,1970's or even 1980's for hard copies and CD's the modern stuff . At that level we can specialise a lot of stuff the catalogs are missing .

US current cut off is 2012.

Worldwide ...A none beyond or cutoff date of 1985, no matter how attractive or valuable.
A keep all or cutoff date of 1965, no matter how ugly or cheap the stamps.

As I buy mainly collections, I will occasionally sell off post 1965 issues to get money, make more space or to add to duplicates to increase value of lot.

It would be great if Scott specialized in worldwide to 1960s, as they do in the 'Classic' 1840-1940/1950s for British. Maybe in 3 volumes? But don't use the binding used in the current hard cover. It does not hold up with use as well as the soft cover bindings.

Or I think loose leaf could work too. One page image, one page pricing. Both could increase in print size. They could print areas 'on demand' as they do with their album pages.

my collection will end on the day my obituary shows up in the newspaper.

No end date. Mostly the album I bought used dictates the end year.

Interesting question and one I've been giving some thought to recently. I collect Ireland, which started issuing stamps in 1922, so I am considering ending with 2022, making it a 100-year collection. Nowadays, Ireland issues lots of material that is more like stickers than postage stamps. And I find much of it unattractive—a further reason to stop at 2022 and shift my focus to another area.

But, alas, I already received my 2023 supplement pages, and having come this far and being pretty compulsive, I may not be able to resist buying the 2023 material, pushing the collection into year 101.

Foreign stamps up to 1958. Couple reasons: 1) the album someone gave me ended there, 2) stamp subjects, designs, and # issued seemed to be reasonable.