Minkus Supreme Global Albums (The Big Red Thread)

APS had a "Black Blot" program and discussed in this article in AP in 1967. I believe what is circled in blue is related to Stolow's various stamp marketing projects with emerging or revolutionary governments.



Scott has been added omitted countries such as the Vienna printings of Indonesia (still not in Gibbins) in 2008 and many Trucial States. I do not know if they created album pages for them.

I now find the "sand dunes" stamps more collectible as the modern stuff coming out from many legitimate countries including the US. Who needs all these Lady Di, Michael Jackson, Disney stamps, Harry Potter, etc. These are the issues that cause the catalog bloat.

Angore ----- You can add me to the list as a "Black Blot " collector . I had to collector what my 10 cent monthly budget allowed . It wasn't fun to go to the U.S.Post Office and buy 3 stamps a month . It was a lot of fun to go to the library and see ads for 100 or 120 stamps in BOYS LIFE magazine for 10 cents .

The joy of getting 100 stamps in the mail was like Christmas every month , then it was getting a ORANGE BAG from the store for $1.00 ,the bag had treasures in it .

It is hard to explain to people here ,about all the treasures I had in my stamp album which I hid under my mattress at home away from my younger brothers and sisters .

The APS can call it BLACK BLOT STAMPS but to me it was entering a world nobody care and wasn't interested in ,it was my world away from others .

DrewM imagine collecting postally used Mongolia. I think I have seen exactly one used stamp on a postcard. I draw the line at true fantasy issues, but I even have a soft spot for some of those like Lundy (I suppose the argument for Local Posts could be inserted here.) 40 volumes though 1975 is pretty impressive! I have 17 volumes though 1975, but not as much interleaving as I should. Once in a while someone looks for a catalog for Trucial States. I don't think one exists.

Michel produces a catalogue including the Trucial States stamps.

Minkus also published a Trucial States catalog.

Just to be clear, I never liked, and I do not like, the old APS Black Blot program.

My remark was about wanting some common sense limit on silly non-postally used stamps in popular worldwide albums in order reduce the huge numbers of pages devoted to the Upper Volta's of the world -- for the sake of collectors who can then collect real stamps used postally or mint which were issued for that purpose and not just to take collectors' money. A lot of these stamps never even reach the country supposedly issuing them but go immediately to stamp resellers in Europe or elsewhere. Most Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) or Burundi and other stamps never go to those countries. And if they do, they are rarely used to mail a letter. Some stamps those are!

My thinking is that people end up wasting their money on this stuff. But it's a free country and they should not be restricted from doing that if that's what they want.

The Black Blot program, as it was once tried, is some "know-it-alls" telling everyone else what they should collect. I'm never for that. I imagine many of us once collected what is now considered mostly "junk" because that's what was cheap. I loved ordering stamps from H.E. Harris and other dealers for a quarter or a dime and receiving them in the mail, even if they were utterly cliched, common stamps. The interesting APS editorial about why stamps should be censored in some way by the U.S. Congress is bizarre, to say the least. That makes no sense at all.

In their catalogues, Scott's response to this excessive flood of barely-real stamps is to list them but not to emphasize them with images or details, and that seems reasonable to me. Did you now that in 1998 Mongolia issued a series of six souvenir sheets honoring The Grateful Dead? I'd call that really strange -- but for some reason, I actually own all of them. Holy smokes, I'm addicted to Black Blot nonsense! See, I told you this would happen!

The cure for this explosion would be for Scott Catalog would be to continue with their 1840 - 1940 Classic Catalog then offer a 1941 to 1970 Golden era Catalog ,maybe 3 volumes . Everything after that can be on a CD format .
My talks with Sergio Sismondo was something he wanted to do also ,his feeling was there was a lot of good collectible stuff in that time frame .

That's why Gibbons moved back to a 1970 end-date for its Commonwealth catalogue - which happens to fit with what I want. Yvert does a two-volume 1940-60 world catalogue.

The cure for this explosion would be for Scott Catalog would be to continue with their 1840 - 1940 Classic Catalog then offer a 1941 to 1970 Golden era Catalog ,maybe 3 volumes . Everything after that can be on a CD format .
- I would purchase this catalog

Scott Catalog has to be at a breaking point with 8 volumes for a complete set each year . Cost is getting to a level for these 8 volumes to the point where collectors are not buying new sets every 2 or 3 years ,it has gotten to buying a set once every 10 years .

What I am saying is they need to reroute direction now before they run into that brickwall of weak sales and coming to the end of the line and shut down .

Don't worry, they could always make the print smaller

Today the worldwide is in 12 printed books. I also would prefer 1840 to 1970 type set. Many modern issues are not worth collecting especially since many are topical souvenir sheets with thumbnail images.

Angore --- Your right ,it is 12 volumes my 2021 set of Scott Catalogs are 12 volumes .

That is too many volumes for collectors to purchase ,I bought mine at a Kelleher auction ,never used them because I keep a 2015 set for day to day use .

My 2017 set is 6 volumes - no A and B.

Not sure what most of this has to do with the Minkus Global albums. Sounds like a separate topic of what Scott needs to do with their catalogues.