Ideas on how to organize your (my) entire stamp collection!!

Hi tobben63 ,

It sounds as though we have faced similar challenges in the past in arranging our worldwide collections.

When I was at school I started collecting with Simplex springback binders, blank quadrille pages and traditional stamp hinges.

This kept me happy for a few years but I was frustrated that I couldn't easily rearrange my stamps and I became concerned about damaging them using hinges.

My next step was to use 64-sided Prinz stock books and I still have dozens of these at home.

This again worked well for a long time but after a point it again became difficult to reorganise my stamps and I also wasn't able to see them to their best advantage.

My next step was to start using black Prinz-system or Hagner stamp sheets and this is what I still use.

I arrange these geographically as much as I can and follow a sequence which runs around the world starting in the UK and ending with Mauritania.

For example, I keep my foreign post office in Morocco close to my Morocco stamps and not with those of the foreign country.

This currently takes up 141 binders. I find I'm adding about 10 binders (about 400 sheets) a year.

I label each binder to identify which country each binder starts with and keep a spreadsheet of the individual countries and the corresponding binders.

I don't record each stamp in the spreadsheet or the page number that each country starts on.

For example, my first shelf has the following 11 binders:

- Great Britain 1, 2, 3 & 4

- Guernsey 1 & 2 (including Alderney etc.)

- Jersey

- Isle of Man (& Ireland)

- Faroe Islands

- Norway 1 & 2 (including Sweden & Swedish local issues)

I generally set out the stamps in SG catalogue order but I'm not strict on what I include. If I have them, I'll include both mint and used stamps, and will generally set out incomplete sets separately as two separate incomplete mint and used sets.

I'll also include any shades, multiples or minor varieties that are not listed in the catalogues.

At the end of each country I'll included pages for any booklets, postal stationery, postmarks, perfins, telegraphs, revenues, poster stamps etc. where I have them.

I also include a small number of covers, sometimes with the corresponding stamps, sometimes at the end of the country.

I only set out the stamps I have and I do not leave spaces for missing stamps. However, I try to keep the arrangement fairly generous in terms of space so I can often add a stamp here or there without having to insert a new page or rearrange complete pages.

When I get new stamps that I don't immediately have time to arrange I include them on extra pages at the end of each country and they stay there until I get around to updating the pages.

I have been building this collection for years and am still only about half way through arranging it the way I want.

Many countries are still only roughly sorted by date or design and are awaiting proper attention. This includes all the countries that I mentioned above that are sitting on my first shelf!

I've started keeping some of my duplicates in a similar set of binders but most of my duplicates and unsorted stamps still live in my old stockbooks.

I also have a small specialised collection which I keep separately in blank Linder-T pages and albums.  

I like the quality and flexibility of the Linder-T system but this would be far too expensive for me for a general collection.

I have some Lindner/ Vario albums and I really like them. But they are to expensive here in Norway. Those I have has come to me as a part of auction lots containing the collection I have bought. I have a lot of empty 16p stock books, I think I have to use them for now. If I winn the big price in Lotto I always can bay something nicer and more practical. 

Nice to hear how you do it nigelc. I hope more people will shear ideas an tell how they organize (finally I did find out how to write ORGANIZE   ) their collection. 

Personally, I've kept my worldwide collection pretty simple. I don't actively pursue them, but I don't so no to anything that comes my way. I have friends that travel a lot and pick up stamps for me. As I type, my daughter is in Europe for two weeks...Amsterdam, Paris, parts of Germany. She knows the drill...bring daddy some stamps!

Anyway, I have been creating my own albums for my main non-U.S. interests: Stiener pages for Canada, and another maker's pages for Great Britain. I found the GB pages on line offered for free, and they're great, although they are not letter size format. A little tweaking when I print them solved that. For my WW album I'm building, I use a blank page from Steiner that allows me to enter the country name at the top before I print it. I use 60# card stock for my pages. I simply create a new page or two as I need it for whatever country I'm working on. This way, my albums have no blank pages waiting for stamps. No, there are no boxes to frame the stamps I add, and they are not in chronological order, but I don't mind. I just arrange them on the page in a please layout and I'm happy with it.

It's all a little low-tech, but it works. it's inexpensive (I'd rather spend my money on stamps anyway), it does make a nice presentation, and my album is full of stamps instead of empty pages!