Fifty-Four Bucks o' Fun! Eastern Ontario Stamp Festival

Crossroads United Church on Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard was once again the site of the Kingston Stamp Club fall stamp festival. As usual, I adopted a focused, budget-limited, bottom-feeder mindset on the way to the show. I also decided against large boxes or ziplock bags of on-paper stamps (though I did find a couple - but the better angels won out and I was happy to see someone pick one of the latter up from the consignment table for three bucks)! I already have a tea box of US/international and a second one of Canada ready for some colder-months soaking. I watched another collecting tonging through a plastic tub of stamps - the cost of each was 10 cents - and though it looked like fun, I know that circuits and exchanges I participate in garner stamps for my collection at the two-to-four-cents-each price point. Colour me cost-conscious. Nah, go ahead, just call me cheap. It's true!

Views of what I came home with (above and below), mostly from the club consignment table. Always good bargains and great variety and constantly replenished by Val, "I just put those out". Yes, and now they're going home with me! Thank you! 

Two boxes and three bags of Commonwealth/world. They will all comprise a fun sort! Decision point - hold up the Long & Noble Crusade 3.0 for these late-arrivals or keep the gate to Departure closed? A page of Mint Hinged early Canada that looks like a nice upgrade for my Canada album.

Also, one set of mounts from Roy and two from another dealer. The last six dollars of my budget was applied to an 'ice cap' and coffee from Timmies for my return home! I heard one dealer say that nothing is increasing in value anymore, and another making comment on the market [I can't get rid of this stuff] that confirmed to me that one should be a collector for the joy collecting brings, not the value a collection will command [or not!] someday.

Thanks to the club for hosting another well-attended show!

That little children's Size 7 shoebox at bottom right simply called 'All Countries box 1' that I bought for the princely sum of $3 was packed full of goodies, up to the early-60s. Someone had taken time to sort by countries and in some cases (US, Canada, Newfoundland) there were deep pockets of duplicates. Generally in good condition albeit some heavily-cancelled. Here are some samples of the contents:

Newfoundland in depth

Newfoundland mostly singles

Early Canada with some interesting postmarks shown

Worldwide

Early US with pre-cancels!

Lots of US Postage Dues!

Long & Noble Crusade 3.0

Now that I've had a chance to finish sorting MaxSold box contents, two tins from the previous Kingston stamp show (another coming up next weekend!), trades from exchange partners and stamps selected from circuits, I've grouped them by continent or colonies and it will soon be Long & Noble (that's starting to sound like the name of a law firm!) Crusade 3.0 over the coming colder months.

The cornucopic crusade contents continuation can comprise: 

• checking each zip-loc bag for duplicates and sending the duplicates for disposition,
• sorting each zip-loc into country-glassines,
• checking those sorted-by-country stamps against what's already in my collection, 
• and finally albumizing them.

It's impossible to albumize without sorting, and what's the point of sorting if there's no albumizing?

The United Stamps of America!

My very basic Freedom U.S. album by H.E. Harris (at left in these photos) covered all of the 19th century in one page. Compact yes, but I had accumulated an abundance of early U.S. with no little black & white album-page illustrations in which to put them.

As a result of my recent MaxSold win I ended up with an 1960s Minkus All-American and an H.E. Harris Liberty U.S. album (at right in these photos). Both had very good descriptions and excellent coverage of the early U.S. issues, but I couldn't keep all three U.S. albums. With the Liberty being superior, I wondered if I could combine its early U.S. pages with my Freedom pages. (A long time ago, I had removed and three-hole punched the pages from the Liberty and added them to my own album pages for superseding U.S. issues.)

Yes, I could. I drew a line in the American sand, in the early 1930s, and transferred my early U.S. issues to the Liberty pages. There is one page of overlap and I used that to double up my coverage of the Washington centennial other period stamps. I used a USPS Guide to U.S. Stamps and Google to try to get the right stamp on the right illustration.