Pushing on

am up to ~70 countries with at least one page ... through the big binders and am cleaning up the smaller ones. 

scanned a binder full of Canada pages yesterday ... some of them below 

Progress Report

been scanning every morning ... am up to ~65 countries with a number of subcategories, especially in my US collections. This morning I started on my Canada. Lots of pages, lots of holes, lots of loose stamps to see if I can fill those holes. Seems it's easier for me to just go look and buy stamps to fill the holes while I'm working on a country than it is to go though my loose stamps collections to fill those holes. Meanwhile, while I'm waiting for the mail, I move on ... and rinse and repeat.

So trying to stop buying while I'm scanning. It's hard.

once I have my pages all scanned (around Thanksgiving hopefully), I can then start sorting though my boxes of purchased materials ... and THEN if I don't already have a space printed, I can print more pages.

Sigh ... I AM making progress though.

couldn't resist trying to get this set started. This is not my collection ... but rather a facebook pic posted to show completion. The entire set used runs ~$1300 catalog value. I purchased a set of the first six with nice cancels for $65. Of course the last five in the set are the most expensive ... but maybe one every month or so.

Belgium -- part 1

Minkus pages for Belgium through 1952.

Chile -- part 1

scanned in some old pages of Chile that I had printed and mounted a few stamps onto ... also some varios with some random Chilean stamps. I think I have a whole stack of Chile pages printed somewhere so I will hold off printing more until I get further through phase 1 of  my project.

My Journey out of Stamp Chaos -- Step 1

This last summer I found my myself in a deep funk. I am buried in stamps, stamp paraphernalia, stamp albums, etc. I considered just selling out completely ... I knew that I wouldn't get a tenth of what it was all worth but I was on the verge of just not caring.

Well Diane talked me out of that ... so after a lot of thinking about how to proceed,  I may have got a start on bringing some order into my world.

Step 1 is to scan and record ALL of the album pages that I have printed and/or purchased. Yes this may take a while. I hope to get ~50 pages scanned per day for the foreseeable future ... I have ~20 binders (1 inch, 2 inch, and 3 inch) full of Steiner pages that I've printed over the years (plus multiple various piles and folders of printed pages). A few are full of the black vario-brand pages. Plus I have a full set of Minkus albums, a Revenue stamp album, a plate block album, a set of Mystic heirloom US Stamp albums, and a dozen various stockbooks.

So scanning will take a while.

 

Seaboard Bank

As I was sorting material in the never-ending quest for organization, I came across this piece of postal stationary.  I don't remember where I got it, probably from a lot or collection that I picked up somewhere. Anyway, thought I'd do some research on it. One of the previous owners, probably a dealer, has optimistically suggested that this is a U329 valued at $14.00 (see the faint pencil marks left side).  We will see. 

My first stop is the Scott Specialized catalog where I find U329 to be one of five catalog numbers for this image, each with a couple of varieties. Pretty sure I can immediately rule out U327 as the envelope is not blue.

Christmas List -- 2016

in conversations with friends and family I often mention stamp-related things I wouldn't mind receiving as Christmas and/or birthday gifts. It was pointed out to me that non-stampy people would have a hard time finding or knowing what or how to obtain such items to give as gifts. 

So here's a list with links. Any time I actually receive, or purchase for myself, any of these items I'll cross them off the list. 

*I am a member of several of the stamp societies listed below and as such receive a fairly significant discount on publications. Those will be noted with an * and if you want my membership number I'll be happy to provide you a list. 

so here we go in no particular order of desirability

1) The Complete Deegam Machin Handbook -- THE bible for anyone who wants to seriously collect this fascinating set of stamps. £39 postpaid and can be purchased with paypal. 

2) EricJackson.com -- revenue stamps and revenue stamp literature. Pretty much any of the publications listed on the linked page. Here are several that stand out:

• Cox, Terry. Collectible Stocks and Bonds from North American Railroads Guide with Prices -- link
• Michigan Copper Mining Stocks and Bonds by Lee DeGood -- link
• Railroad Names by William D. Edson -- link
• The Pony Express, A Postal History by Richard C. Frajola, George J. Kramer & Steven C. Walske -- link
• Drummond's Catalog of Philatelic Miscellany, Part Three by James N. Drummond -- link

3) Plugable USB 2.0 Digital Microscope -- Amazon

4) The PSS Town & Type Catalog * -- link

5) The State Revenue Catalog ed. Dave Wrisley * -- link

6)