Who is....Alex?

Alex Trebek's long career getting the stamp of approval that is so richly-deserved!

 

The Start of (Round 2 of) a Long and Noble Crusade

I began my Long and Noble Crusade in March 2024. My goal was to albumize as many stamps, organized by continent and country, from my 'Keep' baggie as I could. After all, that baggie had been bulging and burgeoning for years, and procrastination was no longer something I could put off any longer.

I reached Germany by April, then Libya and Mongolia by about June. I took some sidetrips as engorged envelopes for several sizeable country collections arrived, like Finland, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, most earning their own albums.

Now it's fifteen months and four stamp shows later. That means the ever-popular 'Keep' baggie is expanding again. It's about time to embark on Round 2! Unlike last time, I plan to cherry-pick a 'best of' selection to share with the five or six of you who are actually reading this*. And there are some goodies, trust me!

As I sort the stamp-show material, largely (and very affordably) from Roy Lingen's table, as well as circuit and exchange keepers, I'm using a four-divider tray labelled with Post-its. This will easily help me direct the final disposition, as well as making sure I'm not mixing keepers with traders. 

This round, I have the advantage of several countries that have been albumized. This makes checking for doubles among newly-received stamps SOOOO much simpler. Also, if it's just a few stamps received, I can easily add them to pages I've already begun for each country [in Round 1]. Still escaping me is the will to albumize daunting, large countries like Bulgaria, China, Poland and Russia. I've already bit some big chunks off like India and Japan. I'll get there. I think.

* Of course this blog exists for my own documentary purposes as well, to track my progress, save some super stamp sites for future reference, and just to post pictures of stamps! But due to this blog's soft launch and low profile, I'm not kidding myself that Working Stamps is as fully seen as it is seen fully!

My Simple Second-Hand Stamp Secretary

In one corner of our family room sits a simple stamp secretary that I've found very useful for my stamp mail. Previously, I used a photo-box for this purpose, but it always looked like a photo box with a bunch of stuff stuffed into it. This simple stamp secretary actually looks like a piece of nice furniture. Google shows me this for secretaries of the non-human variety:

Someday, I'll have a Smithsonian-quality room called The Stamp Room. Lined with oaken shelves, it will contain all my albums, my rack of tongs, a soaking set-up, a roll-top desk, boxes full of stamps, an easy chair, brandy and snifter, smoking jacket, well you get the idea. Until then, this secretary can be placed on any table in the house and look useful as well as ornamental. How did I come by it? I normally self-ban from thrift stores. But one day, in a weak moment, I found myself inside our local Value Village and this little wooden number called my name. Seven bucks later, I had it home and safely stowed on a shelf. Like dollar stores, thrift stores show us things we didn't know we needed to buy! 

Then, one bright and shining day I had an epiphany that this second-hand secretary just might be useful for the sending of stamp mail. That's likely what it was intended to hold - paper items. So I got it down from the shelf it was stowed on to actually use it! Let's look inside:

Back-to-front and left-to-right, I have current postal rates (always too high!), my book of exchange partners, notepads, postcards and envelopes, pens, address labels, mint stamps, and in the drawer, Canadian stamps for exchange, stamps I need, and stamps to soak (before they go in the stamps-to-soak boxes!).

Then, when the mail is ready to go, close up the doors until next time!

To Soak or Not To Soak....

Today's mail brought a nice mailing from TradeOnlyStamps exchange partner Michael Ravis of West Virginia. Michael's note said, "Enclosed are Forever-rate stamps that can not be soaked with water - so that is why they have the backing of the envelope. I saw that there is a way to remove the backing but seems like too much time, compared to the old-fashion way with just water." 

The self-adhesive stamp wave has caused ripples through my soaking process. There's nothing worse than immersing a handful or two of on-paper stamps only to realize that the self-adhesive ones are NEVER going to come off the backing paper. And now you have a bunch of wrinkly-paper stamps on your hands! Or worse, ripping the layers of the wet stamp apart creating misery.

To try to paper over this problem, I created my own DNS list - Do Not Soak. I haven't found an official list  anywhere, and this list has worked so far. It's on a post-it note, stuck inside the lid of my tea-box of world stamps to soak. So far, Canada's self-adhesive issues have not been an issue.

I know there are chemical solutions for sale that break the adhesive-to-paper barrier, but they cost money, unlike scissors.

So, knowing a stamp is self-adhesive, either by my list or the appearance of its perforations, I happily close-crop around them, keeping paper and all together. I still use stamp hinges, but I suppose tape or some other paper-to-paper glue or adhesive would work equally well in my album.

Two quadrilled pages of recent self-adhesive U.S. stamps-on-paper, mounted by year of issue, from my U.S. album. Looks like I already have one or two - no problem, duplicates will go on to another collector in my small network!

My U.S. album's homemade cover (above). I recognized Gerald Ford's likeness by Michael Deas. I featured Michael's creations in this previous post.

85 Bucks o' Fun - Kingston Spring Stamp Festival

My subscription to Canadian Stamp News brings me a listing of upcoming stamp shows. So I'm constantly reminded of them, especially today's show right here in Kingston. Over the years, I've gone, not gone, gone again....depending on the backlog of material I still hadn't dealt with from the last show. Due to my diligence and downright enjoyment of dealing with the last show's material, I was refreshed, relaxed and ready to receive more material when this morning rolled around. Being only ten minutes from the show, free admission and ample parking, and the possibility of finding yet another Scott Traveler album. (Success!!) got me rolling out of my rack with relish. I even correctly titled this post in reference to the biannual occurrence of the Kingston Stamp Club shows. 

At the admission table, I picked up a postcard publicizing the 75th BNAPS show, to be held at St Lawrence College, my old alma mater, in August. Good thing there's free parking and free admission. The air will be rarefied, lofty and high-minded. I hear the dealers don't bring in boxes, they bring in briefcases, maybe chained to their wrists like the [BNAPS] Blues Brothers! Provinces and pre-Confederation, perhaps not for the provincially-minded like me!

My first stop, as always, was the club Consignment Table. I'm being more careful this year to acquire fewer routine definitives and less on-paper material. (Success - success!!) In all (below), seven consignment lots of Bahamas, Canada, worldwide and three partial stock sheets of Aden! All abetting my collecting interests. That's Aden and abettin' all at one table! Actual, several table-feet of tables chock-full of goodies. I narrowly swerved to miss acquiring a $40 shoe-box full!

Dealer Don said he had a Traveler album somewhere, and he was right. There, among several boxes of assorted albums and stock books, I spied its cheery red-and-white spine showing through like a diamond atop a garbage dump, shimmering and shining in the fluorescent-tube church-hall glow! Unwanted and untaken seriously, I scooped it up at a bargain price. It's a 1964 edition (top photo), with all pages, binding and even including some stamps inside. My fifth Traveler! I also got two packs of Dennisens from the hall-corner denizen Don! 

But the big philatelic phinds of the day were to be found at Roy Lingen's groaning tables of baggie-based goodness! (Success-success-success!!!) Roy's Discount Stamp Shop site deserves a look! Listen to his philosophy: "We are collection liquidators -unlike most stamp dealers, we do not try to stock any particular area or type of stamps. We buy collections and break them down. We never know what the next collection will bring to us. The key to our site is that we start with reasonable prices and then aggressively discount anything that doesn't sell." And that's where I come in...

As a self-described bottom feeder, rather like a collecting carp or a marauding mudcat, I monitor the murky bottom of the philatelic world for fun stuff to sort, soak if necessary, stock-book, spread around to neighbourhood sidewalk libraries or OXFAM, swap with exchange partners, and save. Roy did not disappoint. Fifty percent off all these 15 bagged lots? WOW! That's nothing over $10 a bag, including some nifty packets of Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands. Roy made me a deal I couldn't refuse and I got a summer (and fall?)* of entertainment I couldn't deny. Thanks, Roy! 

*As two fellow attendees reminded me, I should be done with my dizzying disposition by October - in time for the next Kingston stamp show. Challenge accepted! To the tweezers, mes amis!