Truer Words were Never Spoken...

 

...when this appeared on Wheel of Fortune. The category at bottom also describes my collection's location in my house! Although I will always treasure and honour my mother-in-law's bestowing the shelf above the coats in the front hall closet as a good place for my collection. At least the albums!

This blog has been an enjoyable outlet over the past year as I continue to improve my collection...around the house.

Happy New Year to the three of you who may be reading this!

--Eric

Re-homing and Enjoying a Stamp Collection

In this previous post, I gratefully accepted the gift of a nearly-forgotten stamp collection. In this post, I'll detail how I processed the collection once it came into my possession. First of all, the album itself - oversized pages with spaces for a lot of older stamps. It's even more unlikely I'll find many of these stamps in 2023 than when they were printed in 1959. Many of the countries no longer exist, though I really liked the map and information provided for each country. Unique! So, I decided to recycle some of the album pages as envelopes for stamps. I reverse-engineered a glassine envelope I had handy, traced its outline onto some cardboard, and traced around it on the album pages in various orientations, folding then finishing them with two 7 cm strips of Scotch tape.

Plucked from the two albums, here is the plethora of stamps I need:

Another envelope contained this amazing collection of Canada pre-cancels and perfins:

Any common stamps I didn't need went into this on-the-go baggie that I will send to Oxfam's stamp program:

I made another pass through the albums. I'd missed a small pile of stamps that blended in to the pages (top right) and I noticed the country seals had been hinged. I was able to remove them and will add them to my own album pages as needed:

Even the reusable stamp hinges did not go to waste. I will indeed reuse them!

Stamp collections are like model railway layouts. Even though they bear the fingerprints of one enthusiast, when the time comes, they can still be re-homed and enjoyed by others!

All Day, All Night, Marianne!

Marianne is the famed feminine emblem of France. She has been described as a version of Lady Liberty, and she is usually depicted wearing a phyrygian cap and Grecian robes usually over one shoulder. This capped female allegory was first used in France at the time of the Revolution to symbolize Liberty. 

How she got to be called Marianne is uncertain.   Each French president selects a Marianne image for use during his presidency. Some images of my 2+ pages of Marianne, many obtained from department store grab bags, no doubt. I assembled them over time without even trying! Pas de probleme!

I decided to try to make sense of the various versions of Marianne in my France collection. Searching online for useful articles, I found:

• this post in French contains several images of Marianne stamps through the years.
• this post contains a handy graphic that I've included below:

                        

My second page of Mariannes, all albumized though not in chronological order. As I add more denominations to my collection, these may move around a bit on the page. To try to bring order to chaos, I added small bleu pieces of Post-it notes with their release years in pencil:

 

This one is a bit of a mystery. An undenominated Marianne that defied albumizing. More research needed:

It's actually a 1993 self-adhesive booklet stamp: Yvert catalogue 2806. Scott catalogue 2340.

Eric to Eric Inhericance

Since I launched this blog back in February, its journey has been what the marketing types might call a 'soft launch'. As in, who would ever find this blog? Telling someone you're a stamp collector can be daunting. And dangerous. The danger being that they now believe you're a bigger nerd than they had previously thought! Then, throwing caution to the wind, I added this blog to the top of the sidebar of my main Canadian railway blog, Trackside Treasure. Until now, there was absolutely no evidence that anyone really noticed or cared, and the blog view statistics bore that out. Did I say bore?

I'm OK with keeping it quiet, even boring. Sorting stamps ain't exactly the Super Bowl - definitely not a spectator sport. Not everyone finds the careful exploration, examination and arranging of these microscopic, monumental and amazing works of art interesting at all. Until now. Fellow rail enthusiast, model railroader (and fellow Eric) Eric May sent me an email enticingly entitled 'SURPLUS STAMPS'. Oh, I thought, great! A small packet of old stamps heading my way. He had found some older stamps during a basement reorganization. Startlingly, Eric's subsequent email referenced getting a hernia, lifting with the knees, and "should have included a protein bar". 

While going out to retrieve the recycling box six short days later, imagine my surprise when my peripheral vision perceived a Large Canada Post Flat Rate Box. If it fits, it ships, with a maximum weight of 5 kilograms! The 1944 Germany semi-postal set issued for National Hero Day caught my eye:

I didn't have any trouble lifting it, I had trouble believing it. If I was any kind of YouTuber, I would have done an un-boxing video. No time for that! I unglued the flap, and out slid a substantial 1959 Illustrated Around-the-World Stamp Album binder album produced by the Educational Book Guild, and a smaller 1975 Harris Explorer World-Wide Postage Stamp Album. That's not all! Some Canada Post millennium material, several covers and two small stamp packets were also in the sturdy, well-packed box. The stamps likely belonged to Eric's wife's grandfather, and that no-one in the family had taken up philately, a common situation.

I seem to have a thing for old stamp albums. Maybe I was born in the wrong decade. Or century. Most of the stamp illustrations represent stamps I'll never find. And that's okay. I see that as the progression from albums in which you feel compelled to cover each illustration and fill each space, to ones where the collector can print his own pages, making each one seem as full as desired.

What really caught my eye was the extensive explanations of early U.S. commemoratives. And many of the spaces had been filled! Some intriguing covers:

A simple, sample spread from the smaller album:

Now the big question. What to do with this amazing gift? I hope to incorporate the early US pages in my own collection, which my paperback US album is really lacking in. I will add many of the stamps to my own collection. Others will be shared with fellow collectors, as Eric had suggested. I have to thank my fellow Eric for his generosity. I'll leave the last words of this post to Eric, who generously declined any payment for his postage costs. 

"Don't worry about the postage, your blog posts provide more than enough entertainment and education."

105 Bucks of Fun! Kingston October Stamp Show

 

Kingston Stamp Club's October Stamp Show was held today at Crossroads United Church on Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard. I went with my requisite two reuseable shopping bags which did not go home unfilled. My second stop was Roy Lingen's table at which Roy had a suitably situated box of $5 grab bags. I picked up around 15 to give me a winter's worth, and Roy kindly gave me a volume discount! I've since checked them all out: I selected mostly off paper, but there are some real goodies in here! More of my haul:

My third stop was a dealer's table (sorry, didn't get the name to link to) where I found a jam-packed stockbook of US (top right, below) and a stock page full. Again, the dealer gave a volume discount.

But my first stop was the huge spread of consignment tables at the Kingston Stamp Club end of the hall. Constantly refreshed, and in some dire cases repriced by Val during my visit there, I found the cigar box of my dreams (above, including neat in-the-lid artwork!). And below, some ready-to-use album pages (very similar to the ones I've been making, shown in my previous post), a small stockbook of Canada corner blocks, three black stock pages or groupings of British Commonwealth, and another super grab bag. I intend to post my finds from the two club grab bags in an upcoming post. (Though I was hoping to keep my purchases to my previous 80-buck limit, that $10 grouping of Commonwealth pages seemed just to good to pass up, thereby putting me over the top!)

Except for Roy, most of the dealers were in the courteous but ho-hum variety and one even commented on his wish to liquidate his entire stock due to his age. I've discussed this syndrome in a previous post. The venue was good, ample parking and well-attended show although I failed to find a fifth Harris Traveler album, despite checking in with Roy, Val and what I could see at other dealers' tables. I'm currently completing country pages and placing them in a file folder. When it comes time to albumize those pages, I'll do an appreciation of remaining space in my four albums and go from there. Until then, it's sorting time!

(My) Stamp Pages Through the Ages

As I've been continuing my albumizing crusade up to about the M-countries, I've had a chance to look back on the four Traveler albums I've filled. There are probably about two albums' worth of original Traveler pages spread across all four binders, at least one of which I bought without pages inside. Originally, like any early collector, I was most likely to collect common stamps that matched the illustrations Mr. H.E. Harris, who it is noted inside the album personally designed the album pages, put on the pages. Then, I'd fill in the blank spaces with more modern or higher-value stamps. I went to my second of four Travelers to snap photos of some sample pages. The top photos shows a good example of an original Traveler album page that I've been able to completely fill with Ghana.

I was able to print some of my own pages, at least a decade or two ago, using a template I found online. However, it's difficult to estimate while randomly printing pages just how many you'll need for a given country's stamps. The template comprised a title block, border, and quadrille background, leaving me free to arrange stamps as I liked. Again, the page gets filled (above) with only a little white-space. I purchased blank quadrille album pages from Canadian Wholesale Supply for a time, both heavy and light paper stock. I'd write in the country name in pencil, again freely arranging in rows on each page:

Let's travel down a slippery slope a few pages later to Greece. This is again a Traveler page, obverse of the main country page, and again filled:

A few years ago, with template pages and a catalogue in hand, I was able to space the stamps out a little and write in some details on some of the older issues. This was during the long period when I was accumulating stamps, but paralyzed by not being able to check for duplicates and albumize them. I was just filling zip-loc bags labelled for each country. And, this was before I had several years' accumulation of stamps from exchanges that really outweighed the comparatively few stamps I had albumized up to that point. I've since checked each zip-loc bags stamps against each other for duplicates, then checked those against what was already in the album pages. Lots of duplicates emerged for exchanges!

State-of-the-art, almost to the extreme. Looking back on some of the quadrilled pages, there is so little white-space that it's a little claustrophobic! At this point, with a recent incursion into South and Central America, I'll be getting back to albumizing from the N-countries onwards. The four Travelers are quite full, so I'm now looking for a fifth! Placing more stamps per page at least cuts down on the number of pages and gives the viewer lots to look at. 

Or to quote an auction listing, "Nothing particular valuable in this collector's album, just a LOT of stamps!"

 

Look What the [Stamp]cat Dragged In!

 

Every so often on my journey to restore the fun of philately into what is increasingly a stodgy, money-driven, unattainable and inaccessible, only-experts-need-apply-old-retired-guy-in-his-basement-with-dusty-old-albums hobby, I encounter a fellow traveller who successfully fights the inertia and keeps travails in the mail enjoyable. Such is StampCat (Lisa) from the GTA. A regular Youtuber, StampCat often features mail-call videos that are well-paced, well-produced and the polar opposite of many philatelic videos. I thought I would send in a mailing to say 'hi' and 'thanks'. It was nice to see it in MailDay#10 - It's Caturday Morning Mail posted three days ago.

Writing on some decidedly-unprototypical scrapbook paper as stationery (above), on the other side I endeavoured to find an alphabetical compendium of stamps from my duplicates. A non-conventional presentation which was a good exercise for me. It got me going through my duplicates, which I'm always trying to improve and streamline. My cardboard mailer exterior included a hand-drawn facsimile of the StampCat logo:

It was a treat to be 'mentioned-in-despatches' by a fellow collector who is also trying to stay above the dusty world of really boring philately and bringing new life to this old hobby of ours!

In the same mail-call video, another collector sent in a set I hadn't seen before. Hong Kong stamp-on-stamp featuring my favourite stamp, namely the Hong Kong mythical phoenix (I initially typo'd this as 'Hong King' but it does in fact feature King George VI!).

This also illustrates a nice feature of many StampCat videos - holding the stamp with tongs up to the camera and in-focus. Takes a lot of editing and the proper use of techology to get these results!

Dutch Deep Dive

Thanks to an exchange with Vincent in the Netherlands, I was able to send two packets of 300 topicals in exchange for two packets of Netherlands. This grew my fledgling Netherlands collection about ten-fold! Sure there were a few doubles, and those have made their way into my Netherlands doubles for re-trading with other exchngers.

Sorting by orientation - vertical vs. horizontal.

Then grouping by face value. This elucidated several sets.

My original Netherlands page. Definitely definitive-heavy:

I then put the sorted stamps into a stock book. Then it's time to albumize. I like to have all supplies ready at this point: stamp hinges separated and folded ready for use, my custom stamp pages printed on home printer, both ready for the sorted stamps!

Joining NTSC

As a Canadian Stamp News subscriber, I read an article last issue about exchanges and stamp club outreach. I was pleasantly surprised to find the North Toronto Stamp Club does not require you to live in...North Toronto! In fact, as part of their so-far successful campaign to increase their membership in their 85th anniversary year, membership dues have been reduced. I was definitely interested! Especially when I read about the club's swap circuits, of which there are several. I've found this to be an inexpensive way to:

• choose high-quality stamps for my collection
• deal with duplicates someone else might enjoy more
• enjoy a cost-effective scheme, ideally with less-costly domestic postage rates
• get stamp mail!

Before long, I'd completed the easy online membership form, sent dues, and had a nice, prompt reply from the club president. I'm looking forward to next 16 months of NTSC fun. This is a great example of stamp club outreach. And another example of how the pandemic was not all bad - Youtube, Zoom, online newsletters as well as encouraging out-of-town participation will no doubt grow the NTSC's membership by leaps and bounds! I received the NTSC Member's Guide by email. Say hello to the club's newest member #930!

ISWSC Swap Circuits and Grab Bag Time!

In the latest edition of the September-October 2023 ISWSC The Circuit, I noted notices about the renewal time for circuits and the ISWSC Grab Bag program.

The swap circuits are a nice, inexpensive program. For a nominal $3 US membership fee, then a small fee per circuit joined averaging $5, an ISWSC member gets two years of circuits by mail! I signed up for three of the 100 large size exchanges. They're loaded with nice stamps, many contributed by fellow circuit members. Application form:

I tried the Grab Bag in the spring, and I sent in two entries for the second time this year. This is a true swap, where my 100 stamps are swapped with another entrants. Perhaps a short- or long-term exchange will ensue. Either way, I had to be careful to put US postage on my SASE! I'm looking forward to the results appearing in my mailbox!

 

Standing Up my Soak Box*

I have been checking out two stamp forums lately. Stamporama is extensive but requires a registration fee after the first month. Meanwhile, over on the Stamp Community Forum, an equally extensive site awaits, at zero cost for registration. However, access to buy, sell and exchange takes 50 posts. OK, challenge accepted!

A community member commented on the daunting contents of his soak box. This resonated with me because I was not daunted, diving into the soak box and filling two five-foot paper towel sections with the results! Most of what's shown here is on-paper from stamp show purchases, and some from incoming stamp mail. First was worldwide, then my less-full Canada soak box.

As usual, I soak en masse, in this case in two Tupperware pans of warm water, then spread to dry on paper towels. Once dry, I carefully dump them off the paper towels (to black plastic tray, above) then press in large, hardcover books, then the fun begins once the flattened stamps are dumped out and sorted.

Here's my sorting hierarchy:

• stamps for my collection or further triage
• stamps for specific collectors: space, music, triangles, topicals
• stamps for envelopes of in-demand countries' duplicates for exchanges i.e. UK, Scandinavia
• stamps for the duplicates box for exchanges of worldwide
• stamps for Oxfam

*You read that right! Not standing on my soap box, though I've regularly done that and will continue to do so, sometimes preaching to the converted.