Still Building!!

Wow we have done an amazing job building the forum back up from the troubles back in August 2013.  In fact we have done such a great job I personally have been too busy to post here! We have brought back a number of great members and gained a lot of new ones.

OH and before I forget the threads are teaching us a lot!!

Here are a few teasers to show you what I mean -

On May 15th Member dcstamps writes about album creation -

As many of you have probably seen, I create my own Stamp albums, customized for my area of collection and the specific stamps I have.   Some of the threads on Stamp Bears which I have shown the albums are:

    Newfoundland

    Italian Social Republic

    AMG Occupation of Germany post WW2

While the designs are fairly simplistic, you can view all of the 160+ albums I have put together to date HERE.  I continually add to this list as I complete them.

Several folks have asked for more information on how I actually go about making these albums, so in response - I am creating this thread to walk through the process.

Over the next few weeks I will create two new albums (one small and one large) from scratch with uncatalogued stamps in my collection.  I will try and document all of the steps along the way: everything from scanning, identifying and cataloging to creating albums and displaying on the web.  I would hope this generates questions, comments and suggestions for improving the albums from our wonderful Stamp Bears members.  Hopefully we will all learn things. 

Read More - Here

 Are you a person who enjoys a lot (and i mean A LOT) of eye candy?

khj started a thread on stamp panes on March 12th that just keeps on going!!! In the opening post her writes -

You know how it goes.  You got the stamp, it fills the spot in your album.  You're happy.

You obtain a few duplicates over time.  Well, that's nice.   I can choose the best copy, trade the rest;  even if nobody wants them, the more the merrier.

Then you see attached multiples, plate blocks, booklets... and duplication becomes the rule, not the exception.

Then you see a stack of mint sheets, and the gears start moving in your brain (what's left).  Hmmm...

We call them mint sheets, but technically they are panes (I'll explain in another future thread).

Krash and Zeph's threads inspired me to start a thread for everyone to post their full intact panes of stamps.  All I ask is that they are full intact panes -- no half-sheets (e.g., US WWII panes must be complete matching pair), no souvenir sheets (that's for another thread;  unless it's a full intact pane of several souvenir sheets such as the CAPEX '78 panes), no booklet panes (that's for another future thread, too)...

Here are the links to Krash and Zeph's great threads:
Krash:  some of my full stamp panes
Zeph:  Zeph's US Sheets, mini-sheet, panes, etc. Collection

There are probably some other threads, but those 2 come to mind.

Because of the expense, I focus primarily on the contemporary regular issues (Liberty Series, Prominent Americans, Americana) and airmails, although I'll keep some commemoratives for various reasons.  I put limits, because it gets pretty painful on the wallet.

Show me yours because I'm gonna show you mine!

Remember, no pane no gain!

k

Read more: Here

 

Hopefully we will highlight a few more threads in the coming days and weeks. Remember to join in any of these conversations just register to join us at http://stampbears.net/

Keep it Stampy!!

Bear

Thoughts of my collection...

I am certain that most collectors will understand....

I ran home today to grab some lunch and decided to sit at my desk... recently i moved a large portion of my collection to the shelf above my seat and to a beautiful bakers rack located to my right. I was just kind of free thinking about nothing in particular when i recalled how each and every album came to me. How each collection started and grew into what it is now and where various important (to me) pieces came from.

Oddly enough I posted a game clue in the same fashion of a game we played on the old board and I started to hunt through some of my Picasa albums.. Sure enough - the beginnings of a lot of things are there.

My album move after deciding to expand and move the US album, the large lot I bought with the binders and dust covers that became home to my Canadian collection.. Pictures of purchases I have shared, stamps in various collections, and even stamps I have swapped away a long time ago..

Funny how some non-collectors think things do not change in this hobby or in one’s own collection and growth...

Ever have a day like this?

Find out what our members have to say HERE

Happy Stamping, 

Bear

October 2013

For those who are not members yet, I want to say I am sorry.

Sorry that you are missing Member appreciation month at Stamp Bears!!

After all this time we recently brought back the Member of the Month, a Member of the Month Highlight thread, we are running contests and games all month long AND in general have a great time sharing our collections, ideas, and questions..

In a recent email I was asked why the Blog and other sites slowed down over the last year. Well, I do not have a clear or simple answer to that. One of the reasons is that our member ship has become very active over these last few months and life off line has added various demands on my time.

Not to mention the collection!!

As my collection and I grow and change I share it on Stamp Bears. its hard to share it here since I know many of our readers are members also.. If by chance you are not a member - Please join us, we want to hear form you.

Happy Stamping,

Bear

Short update

This is a copy and paste from our new home at www.stampbears.net

[quote author="@admin" source="/post/919/thread" timestamp="1376004300"]Before the history of our site is lost in the ashes of its previous incarnation i will recap where, how, and why we got started. Please bear with me as I recap our story.


originally i had posted in January 2013 -

[quote]In later 2010 i was at work and more than a little frustrated that my hobby at the time was not "doing it" for me any more. i sat and thought about what i could get into that would not cost a ton and would hit on my personal interests (and not always interrupt the family if i could help it).. so Google being my friend got me searching.

Recalling a stamp that was given to me years ago i thought i would look into stamp collecting. being (at the time) a moderator on a fish keeping site i was comfortable with forums and thought i would look for that type of place to get broken into the hobby. that day i signed up as a member on 2 boards.

one of these boards was nice enough at first but i found that more often than not my questions were met with an attitude that conveyed the overall membership was more interested in investment type collecting (not my thing) or they treated me with thin patience at best. over time (about 2 months) i had more than a few bump ins with the Administration and Moderators and chose to leave since i was feeling that they were generally targeting ANYONE who was not part of the inner click.

The other board lasted all of about 1 week. this fairly large forum treated me VERY poorly and started sending me emails about grammar and these often included direct personal insults. obviously i left them post haste!!! and have never looked back..

oh i was mad as a hatter!! so while venting to the better half one night she said (innocently enough) "So why not start your own forum?"

i sat in total stunned silence... i thought for what seemed like for ever but was all of 40-50 seconds, and replied "Will you help me?"... so the next day on March 12th 2011 Stamp Bears was born under the name "Bears Stamp Family"... over the next year the mods that volunteered to help out, my wife, my brother, and i built this site a change this week a change that week sometimes 4-9 changes at a time.. ironing out the feel and tone of the board.

New moderators have come on board, other have left us, the member ship grows and falls, participation varies, But as we close on our 2 year anniversary we can say that we are still standing, we are still growing, we are still learning, we are still having fun, we are still a hobby site by hobbyists, and we may have plenty more growing pains to come but we are growing!!![/quote]so now i will fast forward to August 2013 -

We have built a force to be reckoned with, 2 1/2 years, 90,000 posts, a great Moderating team, a great Administrative partnership, and members that i would not trade for the world....

then....

some nub sucker attacked our home with some insidious virus. They tried to block even me from our work of joy and passion. Our forum provider could not and would not help us solve the issue and essentially tore me up for asking.

So we chose a new provider.

[s]My[/s] OUR amazing team pulled out all the stops.

[s]My[/s] OUR members threw themselves into the mix and asked "what can I do to help"

We united and built this new chapter from the ground up. when i signed in a little over 24 hours ago there was ONE content area and ONE thread. in less than 24 hours this team has built from the ashes a new Stamp Bears Adventure.

I do not care what site you are from, what site you are on now, WE (STAMP BEARS) have the BEST team and members on the internet.

End of this chapter.

let the adventure continue.

[/quote]

Please note that all previous links will be removed as the former site is no loner available. 

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 ...

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

Our Story

From time to time you find yourself in a conversation that wanders in many directions and leads to some really interesting ideas and/or memories.

Such a conversation occurred between the Administrating and Moderating team. Because I am an overly curious person at times, I thought it would be fun to share Our stories and see how the conversation turned out.

In order to facilitate this i started off the new topic with Some details such as

In later 2010 i was at work and more than a little frustrated that my hobby at the time was not "doing it" for me any more. i sat and thought about what i could get into that would not cost a ton and would hit on my personal interests (and not always interrupt the family if i could help it).. so Google being my friend got me searching. 

Recalling a stamp that was given to me years ago i thought i would look into stamp collecting. being (at the time) a moderator on a fish keeping site i was comfortable with forums and thought i would look for that type of place to get broken into the hobby. that day i signed up as a member on 2 boards. 

And then really opened up... But why Ruin the whole conversation? As we wait for member replies you can follow along The Story of Stamp Bears and its Members. We hope you may also share your experiences with us and help us in our persistent pursuit of growth and improvement.

Happy Stamping!!!

Bear