Thursday, June 13, 2013

Organizing stamps (not over all but the method)

On Stamp Bears we have talked about using boxes, bins, stock pages, stock books, albums, envelopes, and even ziplock bags to organize our collections. 

We have talked about working our way through a pile of mixed stamps and kiloware on more than one occasion. 

but we have never fully explored the order in which we organize our material into our collections. 

please allow me to expand on this thought. 

For example with my US & Canada collections i tend to work through all of the commemorative stamps first. Identifying, looking for variety's and then placing them in my album(s). and then later when time or the need for a challenge arises i will work on definitive issues. 

So i put forth this question to our members 

so how do YOU go through your material? what order is there to your organizing method?

I am eager to see their responses, and yours if you care to come share it with us. To see what our members say read More HERE ...

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Looking at this hobby with "new" eyes

From time to time Stamp Collecting as a whole gets overwhelming or seems to be "work" in that the collector seems to be loosing stamina to keep going through piles of material and placing them in various albums.  some collectors shut down for a time or switch to another area of their collection and get refocused on the fun part of the hobby again.

Anytime you take a break form one collection and go back to it that collection appears "new" again. This is a wonderful thing and very helpful for people like me and some of my members who have multiple focused collections..

But, every now and again, just to really shake things up - a new collection (or two) gets born! Often its a spontaneous decision with little regard for how it will happen. no real planning at all. These "new" collections often get attention for a short period of time and either fade away or quickly turn to "work" and lose their appeal all together rapidly.

In light of this trend, i have started 2 new collections with much more careful planning. In fact i have not even begun fully to start these collections. I have bought the albums and i am planning out carefully each and every step i take before i do so.

In the past not planning has cost me a lot of time and money that could otherwise been spent on stamps instead of restarting the collection 3 times (my US collection for example). Another big step is getting advice BEFORE even buying the albums!

Our members are great at this and more often than not shed some much needed light on aspects of starting (or re-starting) a collection that perhaps had not been considered before.

These next 2 links are to threads on our forum in relation to starting these new adventures and I hope that you not only enjoy reading them, but that you may stop in and share your experiences or ask questions that may help you get started on a new adventure with Stamp Collecting.

Read more at
World Wide Album Discussion

When Collecting is New Again

We hope to see you on the boards..

Happy Stamping!!

Bear