David, whenever i sit for a few minutes i reach for a stamp !!!
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stampmanjack APS Life Member 20 Jun 2015 01:03:49am
re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !
Phil
I had a coffee cup that said, "I finally got it all together but now I can't remember where I put it" which fits me more and more as I get older. More appropriate however, was the one that said, "I'm finally getting organized" and then showed two piles on the floor labeled Mess A and Mess B.
On June 7, I wrote a check for an auction lot and mailed it on June 8 or 9. Yesterday, June18, I got an email from the seller that he had not received the check. I told him I would clean my desk (Mess A) and see if I forgot to mail it. I did that and now have Mess A, B and C. While I did not find the check, I "cleaned up" Mess A. Mess B is the basement table. The check arrived today Jun 19th so the Post Office only took 10 or 11 days to get from Illinois to Florida. Now I need a reason to tackle Mess B.
Jack
Stampmanjack, i do not dare to take a picture of our Stamproom..its crazy sometimes how much stuff i have to move to get at one item. When i list something on auction...there should be one place i should stash it..but thats never the case..i end up looking through a dozen different places. You are not alone !!
Stamp room, stamp room.... I have half the spare room for any personal items. Everything is stacked floor to ceiling and is in perpetual shift to access stamps and reading material, plus an odd cigar or two.
My wife will not go near my "den". Not only stamp collection, but building period wooden sailing ships, and tying trout flies.
If you aren't stepping on a stamp, it's a bit of wood, or feathers.
Every several months I "clean" and straighten it up. Two days later...looked like it did the week before.
I sort by country, and then, when applicable, sort by postage value within that country. One country at a time, and a glass of wine.
Cheers!
Eric
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stampmanjack APS Life Member 21 Apr 2017 05:03:45am
re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !
The unsorted just seems to multiply over night. I sort every day and seem to fall behind even further. It probably doesn't help that I am temporarily not doing shows and still keep buying. For some reason, yesterday, I bought 4 - 10 ream paper boxes full of covers in albums. About half is US FDC's (870 at first count) and the rest is U.S. event covers and foreign covers. There was one bunch of foreign stamps in envelopes sorted by country which I sorted down yesterday and today my wife mailed a pound and a half of stamps off to the Holocaust project. There were a few good stamps including 5 used copies of the Berlin bells.
I now have one full room here on first floor, one bookcase in my bedroom, one room in the basement and all of my show stock piled up in the main basement. In addition, for as long as my wife will tolerate it, the dining room table is full of the latest purchase. I think she mentioned Memorial Day as an outside limit to her patience.
I can't even imagine having that many stamps to sort through, what fun!! At any given time, I might have a couple of thousand to go through, but never the numbers being talked about here. I'm not sure if I'm inspired or scared of what could happen in the future.
It depends your priorities (or weaknesses). I have no problem deciding that I really need that stamp or that collection (except the price of course). But when it comes time to decide what to do with them, that exposes my weakness: what to do with the material once have it in hand? Do I just add to to a stock book? Do I create custom pages? Maybe I need to buy a new album. Easy enough maybe, but then I need to know exactly which variety it is, what its "worth", etc. So many decisions and so much work. Its much easier to just acquire and then stow it away for a future day.
A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent). 21 Apr 2017 05:02:20pm
re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !
This is my sorting weekend. Clean out the stockbooks - pull out what I need for my collection and put them into the right stockbooks and put the others into envelopes that will - I pray soon - go into approvals, give-aways and whatevers!
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A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent). 23 Apr 2017 01:51:46am
re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !
My eyes are shot but I've managed to sort out quite a few stamps into country envelopes. I have one more stockbook to work through tomorrow and then I'll start sorting the stamps in envelopes to the years I collect and put the others away for Approvals, Auctions and Give-Aways.
Now starting my WW collection up to 1950, I regret having sold off my "unwanted" stamps a few years back and when Approvals first started - I threw a lot of older stamps in there that now I have to get back to fill my albums! LOL
Oh well, a new adventure. I've decided that weekends will be my stamp days.
I've accumulated two envelopes of "I don't know" stamps so I'll have to post them to find out which countries they are! The downfall of spending years on only two countries - both of whom are on temporary hold as I've caught the WW bug!
Fun to do though - I'm really enjoying myself!
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"Let's find a cure for Still's Disease, Breast Cancer and Canine Addison's Disease. We CAN find a cure and save lives!!"
A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent). 23 Apr 2017 11:37:11pm
re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !
Decided to mount the stamps I sorted into stock books into my Scott albums. Brilliant idea but I can't see the albums! So I successfully completed 2 countries. Considering my collection stops circa 1946, not a great accomplishment, but I did free up 4 stock books by throwing them into envelopes.
Some of me earlier ones are basically space fillers though. Got a good deal on a lot about 10 years on ebay and figured I would at least have the stamps even if they are just space fillers.
Only thing about the Jr albums is there is no space for the higher numbers so I'm going to have to just put some spare pages in eventually so it doesn't look ridiculous. The previous and probably only owner has US mounted everywhere. It's going to be tough to figure out what they all are.
I'll do some more work on them this week if I find time and then hit my Belgian Railways for fun.
Cataloguing as I go so I can get some ideas of what I'm going to be putting into Approvals and Auctions.
Not too sure what to do with my QVs since they should go into the Scott albums but on the other hand I don't want to see my Penny Black in an album. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
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"Let's find a cure for Still's Disease, Breast Cancer and Canine Addison's Disease. We CAN find a cure and save lives!!"
I can relate to most of you people when it comes to having a 'mess' around themselves when working on stamps.
When I was trying to find enough room on the top of my computer desk to put an envelope beside my monitor so I could address it, I decided it was time that I cleared everything off this desk except my computer and printer/scanner. What did I do? I moved everything from Desk A to Desk B. The mess will sit on Desk B for a while until I get fed up looking at it and then I'll find an empty box and put everything into the box. I'll look at that box that I put under Desk B for a few months and then I'll move the box into the closet in the spare bedroom or put it on top of another pile of boxes. Desk C & Desk D are behind me piled with containers of filled with envelopes of unsorted, uncatalogued stamps. My stamp catalogues, which at one time were neatly contained in a small bookcase at the end of Desk A, are now piled on the floor beside my feet so I can quickly grab one of the books when I need it. I tell myself it's too time consuming to stand up, walk 5 steps to & from the bookcase every time I need to look at a catalogue.
Every once in a while I ask myself why I have so many boxes of stamp related unsorted material hidden in closets and piled in corners. I get a very pleasant surprise when I open some of these boxes months after I stash them away.
The only part of this office that is organized is a bookcase/shelving of office supplies that is built into the wall over Desk B and a wall of shelves over Desk C & D that hold stock books, albums & containers of catalogued stamps.
I keep telling myself I should put some sort of a bar in front of all those stock books and containers in case we should have an earthquake. What a mess I would have if all those stamps came tumbling down to the floor
During my working years, people would remark on how neat and organized my office was. If they could only see my 'office' now their comment would be 'how can you work with all that mess around you?'.
I do keep a space cleared on my desk for my coffee warmer
I forgot to mention that I have Desk E that is only used for stamps that are or have been listed in the auction. That desk is fairly organized although the number of Vario stock sheets containing unsold stamps from previous auctions is starting to pile up. The pile hasn't toppled over yet
Is there an easy way to sort and catalogue large lots of stamps? If there is, I haven't found it yet. Other than sorting the stamps by country and then by denomination I cannot offer any time saving suggestions that have worked for me. My suggestion would be to grab 25 or 50 stamps, catalogue & put them away then go on to the next 25-50 stamps. Otherwise the task becomes overwhelming.
I've always wondered how you worldwide collectors arrange your stamps.
I've mainly collected a number of countries up to now - France, Sweden, Iceland etc and that's simple. I have catalogues and I use stockbooks and at the beginning I work out how many pages I need to allocate per year, and put in bits of paper to help me work out which page each issue will go on. So I have now 13 stockbooks - 9 with different countries in, and the others with the remainder - an assortment of bits and bobs accumulated over more than 30 years and countries I once looked at but have decided against for various reasons (sorry, Greenland and Faroes!).
Now I'd like to get some order into this motley assortment of "others" - but how? Do I have a page for the As, then one for the Bs etc? But what if Australia, Anguilla and Austria fill more than a page - what then? And the Gs may not amount to anything (sorry, Greece) Should I go for loose leaf albums with Vario or Prinz type pages, as I do with my engravers' collection? I can't face the idea of hinges or mounts - life's too short!
How do worldwide collectors keep their collection? Is it in chronological order within the countries? I'd like to be able to find things!!
In reply to bangkokstamp, here is roughly what I do when I am working through a particular country for the first time. First of all find a big flat surface to work on. Then make sure you have pulled together everything you have for the country you are focussing on.
1. Soak all stamps on paper, except those on cover which you should leave intact if they have clear cancels or are somehow of philatelic interest.
2. Rough sort - definitives separately by set, commemoratives/semi-postals/airmails by year ( printed under the stamp design for many countries from the 1970s on) or by denomination. Other BOB by type. Oddball stuff and covers separately. (Note that I strip all stamps from pages, sales sheets, etc. and sort them along with loose stamps.)
2. Identify year of stamps sorted by denomination and add to your year piles. (Note-you need a catalogue for this step!)
3. Put each pile in a separate glassine (old used glassines are great for this) and label them. You can then go through individual glassines at your leisure. I store these glassines in a shoebox with a country label.
4. Process each pile individually. For me, stamps/covers I will collect go onto Vario pages by year (I don't use preprinted albums), and others go into stockbooks (arranged by country by year) for later sale/trading. Damaged stuff goes into a junk box. (You should also have a catalogue for this step to help you identify varieties and increase your knowledge about the stamps you are working on.)
As an aside, I find using varios to store my collection gives me the flexibility to collect what I want without having a lot of blank spaces. I can also put interesting usages on cover of a particular stamp right with that stamp set in my collection.
stampmanjack APS Life Member 04 Jul 2017 04:49:46am
re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !
Instead of sorting and cataloging the stuff I already have, I bought 7 retired APS circuit books from a dealer and just broke them down. They are as follows.
country stamps added to my collection stamp on 102's remainder book lots
Turkey 27 0 $13.75 17SCV
Russia 10 $22.00 71.80
Mali 29 0 26.85
Monaco 2 0 16.10
Austria - BOB 20 56.00 18.70
Ceylon 19 43.00 79.10
Total so far 107 121.00 226.35
I haven't finished the Israel yet and every page is full and mostly mint. Based on his net,I am estimating $200 cat.
I paid $25. I should get $60 for the 102 cards and $72 or the remainder circuit books at the next show or two. That makes $132. So 132 minus the 25 gives me a net of 107. I have a deal with my wife that she gets 50% of the net for putting up with two rooms full and occasionally the dinin room tableso that leaves me with a net net of $54 which will be spent on more lots that will get sorted before the basement room full. Unfortunately it doesn't always work this way but my goal is to grow my collection and sell the leftovers for at least what I paid for the original lot.
Jack
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stampmanjack APS Life Member 04 Jul 2017 04:54:48am
re: Must keep sorting and cataloging stamps !
The post didn't put the columns right but the first numbers are the stamps to my collection, the second number is cat val on 102 cards and the last number is cat val of the remainder of the book (i.e. Russia is 10 stamps to collection, $22 on 102 cards and remainder in the book is $71.80. Hope it is not to confusing.
Jack
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