The anatomy of fun
For the last 4 weeks me and my wife have been somewhat occupied with sorting a 1kg box of worldwide off-paper stamps. It’s been a lot of fun, so I thought to share some details about it.
First, to put the box contents into some kind of perspective… One kilo of off-paper stamps equals around 10-15,000 stamps, possibly a lot more if most stamps are small. It’s simply a HUGE number of stamps…For the box I paid 20€ (30USD), and 9€ (14USD) for the postage from Germany to Finland. Usually off-paper box lots like this pay at least twice as much, but as the seller had removed valuable items, it had a bargain price.
Contents of the "have box" (see chapters below). Very likely most of these I will pass on either as trades material, donations etc.
After receiving the lot, I (and my wife) started to divide the lot into four boxes:
The first box holds on-paper items as well as stamps that need soaking.
The second box holds mint items – as there are something we don’t collect, putting them straight into separate space makes the rotation (=selling, exchange etc) a whole lot easier.
And finally there are the have and have-not boxes. The first box contains items we very likely have in our collection, the other box contains new arrivals. Classification is based purely on visual memory, so it’s not 100% reliable. But it’s a fun way to spend cold autumn/winter evenings together and enjoy new findings. And above all, it gives a good summary whether the buyout was good or not.
Contents of have-not box. Most of these will find a new home at our collections.
This process took roughly nearly 3 weeks to compensate. The output was pretty average (despite low price and expectations): about half of the stamps ended up in have box while about one fourth was new items.
This is just one way to look the contents of a box lot
For the past few late nights I’ve been sorting the content of have-not box to smaller, country specific piles. As the lot came from Germany, a large part of the content is from central-European countries. But like most box lots, there is a plethora of randomly seen stamp nations – like Tunisia, Iraq, Jordan etc - with just few stamps.Very likely this box provides somewhere around 1-2,000 new stamps to our collections.
As a rough estimate I’d say that about 20% of the stamps in the box are damaged (folds,tears,thins etc), and they will move on towards the junk bin. This is suprisingly little, but a lot might be explained by the fact that the box contains material mainly from the 1970’s onwards.
Was it worth it? Well, I can say that 20 euros + postage is not a bad price for fun that lasts for months.
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Loved this post. It brought back so many great memories from younger days. I still think of myself as a stamp collector even though I haven’t really looked at my collection in years. But I still have it and I still tear off stamps from envelopes when I run across them and put them in a big envelope.
But yes, hours of enjoyment can be gotten from sorting stamps and organizing ones collection–you are so right. Someday I’ll have to delve back into mine.
Lee
Sounds very fun indeed. Thanks for publishing your numbers and percentages, they really help with a study that I have been trying to perform recently.
I have been crunching some numbers in order to determine the best way to accomplish my goal of all world collecting. Like any ambitious goal, I need a good plan based on realities. Using some simple probability theory and a spreadsheet I have realized how daunting the task is and how much more intriguing it has become.
The idea is simple. Assume your goal is to collect all the world’s stamps (Total of 500,000 for this example). Assume you sort through appoximately the same number of stamps per year (from your favorite source, kiloware, old collections, etc.) and that among those, you find 20,000 different and undamaged per year. The probability of finding “have-not” stamps within those 20,000 different decreases as your collection grows like,
probability of need = 1 – #have/Total
The first year you keep 20,000, the second year you keep 19,200, the third year 18,432, etc.
Of course, this can only be applied to the “common” stamps, the ones that you might expect to show up in kiloware and the assumption is made that every “common” stamp is just as “common” as another. A very simple model so far, but let’s see what the numbers say.
It would take between 3-4 years to reach 10% completion, 18yrs to reach 50%, 75yrs to reach 95%, and nearly 400yrs to completion. Interesting, but hardly reality.
With your numbers above and from your previous article about the feasibility of collecting all world all era, I have come up with a missing piece. I considered a correction factor, a number to scale the duplication probability to account for some “common” stamps being more scarce than another due to supply and demand (think topical collectors and postal use). Since this relationship between stamps is mostly constant over time, the correction acts as a linear scale factor. I tried a couple of different numbers based on your “average” results from your kiloware and inferred from your other post about your completion %. (Contact me if you want the nitty gritty details).
First I tried a factor of 2.0, the odds of finding duplicates is doubled. This drastically changes the results, 10% completion still takes 3-4 years, but 50% takes over 100 years! A scale factor of 4, perhaps more realistic, increases the 50% level to … actually, I ran out of space on the spreadsheet. Clearly this correction factor has a large effect and fine tuning with more data should be necessary.
I guess the point is that eventually, buying large lots of stamps has diminishing returns, and that happens quicker than I expected. So, either I have to increase the number of large lots I buy each year to account for the increased number of duplicates or buy more specific lots and increase the trading. My dreams of making it to 90% on a shoe string budget and then buying the rest individually are probably just dreams, but I will have a lot of fun trying.
David
Thanks Lee,
It’s great to hear to the post brought back good memories. That’s what (stamp) collecting is made of
Hi David,
Having fun while trying to build as complete ww collection as possible is the best part. Definitely.
And I certainly try not to take things too seriously either
As for working low budget solution, I think you it’s a combination of lots of things. In the beginning, large bulk lots like this work. But sooner or later, there is no other choise than to buy more specific lots and increase the trading. For example I’m in a situation where I have approx. every fourth European postage stamp in the collection, but only 5/100 stamps from elsewhere.
The geek inside me loves the math part. I will be definitely sending you email.
Hi Keijo,
I’m enjoying reading your blog. I’m new in stamp collecting. I only have about 50 stamps and they are all used. I’m just wondering that if ever you will just put some of your unwanted stamps in the trash bin I would glady welcome them to help my small collection. I’m willing to pay for the postage.
Keep on writing about interesting articles about stamps. Looking forward on your next.
Best regards
Hi Aries,
Any “unwanted stamp” donations I give, go directly to local charity organizations or kids/youth at my local area. That is the most convenient way for me, as I have no means to check if everyone asking for “free stamps” is what they claim to be. I hope you understand my policy.
best,
-keijo-
Hi Keijo,
Thanks for the reply.
Best regards
“Classification is based purely on visual memory”
Really amazing….
I just happen to have a good visual memory (but unfortunately it’s not eidetic). And if it’s of any comfort, my memory is absolutely hopeless with dates (like birthdays, anniversaries etc).
I remember reading somewhere that a person’s memory is at it’s peak in the age of 30-35. So in few years time I’ll be going merrily downhill… LOL
Hello Keijo,
This is the first time I have posted here, but I enjoy your blog very much. I have learned a lot from your insights. This entry makes me want to order a box of kiloware again! Have a wonderful day!
Sincerely, Ted
Hi Ted,
and thanks. Words of appreciation feel very nice
Hi Keijo,
I’m into “rekindling” my old passion, that is stamp collecting, after a 25 year hiatus. I really enjoyed your blog. Im wondering where i can buy a 1kg box full of worlwide stamps just like yours.
Warm regards,
Chris
@Chris… Personally I’ve bought most of my mixtures from various online auctions (mostly eBay, but some stamp auctions too).
Keijo, how do you go about shopping for lots like this? Online? From particular websites? Thanks!
@Rick… Just head to your favorite online auction, select proper category for mixtures like this (such as Rest of world > Collections/ Mixture on eBay), and start seeking for proper lots.
Keijo…as I said before on this post…without you, where this people find the pleasure of a hobby so stupid like ours?
Salute Keijo and live long!!!
Keijo!!!! you never give up isn’t?…what I discovered now, is another of your gimmicks on this post…you really are something!…how did you that?… I mean, when you click twice the mouse(left button)over a word on the comments,it gives you the significance of it!!! amazing!…really you deserve the wimbledon trophy for that!… L O L ! ! !
@Fred… Stamp collecting stupid?… Yesterday I faced the same opinion from my oldest kid while I was sorting about two gazillion copies of the same stamp
Of course it’s stupid if you try to explain it with reason. But it’s still so relaxing and fun, at least in my honest opinion 
Re, the gimmick… Actually it’s not by me, but likely some add-on / built-in functionality of your web browser.
You see!…without you…99.9% of your customers, will be going mental, how can a poor soul like me, know things like that?…I hate computers and cables!…I love the most simple things of this world…
Re; stupid…don’t take it personal!… I should wrote it with ” ” in between …but if your kid thinks so…alas!
it means that changes coming your way…be prepared Keijo! these things happen when the family has more than one member…
Kiloware relaxing?…Ja,Ja,Ja,…for my birthday’s present a lady friend of mine, brought me from USA 3Kg off paper stamps in a big plastic box! I don’t need to tell you how enjoy the next 4 weeks: lots of duplicates, dirty, super heavy postmarks (I would kill someone for this)bad cuts from paper, stamps with corners missing, and tears on most of them…at the end I’ve got about 50grams of more or less useful stamps…Relaxing ah?…I’ll go along singing!
Your kid is just giving you a reality (insanity) check.
I love the ‘anatomy graph’. Do you think that stamp geeks are more likely to be maths/statistics geeks? For fun (yes, it’s true) I analyzed the exchanges you have had with other people. There seems to be a general decrease over time from about 50% to 40% of the stamps you select from them. Maybe your goal will take 90 years
I have moved to Japan recently and had to leave my collection in New Zealand in storage. Now I am awaiting a few bulk auction wins to arrive for some hours of fun. I tell everyone that it is harmless. And when they disagree, I hit them!
@William… I would definitely say that most stamp geeks are also highly interested of math/statistics as well as tracking of their collections.
Re, the decrease in exchanges… I’d say it’s just normal flux caused by number of variables. The BIG picture is that I still need about 85-90% of published worldwide stamps, and 99% of these should be relatively low value/common if stamp catalogs are to be trusted.
For example my US collection alone needs another 2,300 stamps. My Japan collection is short for 3,500 stamps. etc. And these are countries that I’m doing “well”
I should just have completed sorting my Japanese stamps after the summer when you have had your break. I should have some of those 3500
And I understand your reasoning behind your exchange strategy too. Life is never black and white or easy. On a non-related topic, I’ve been trying to find on your site your opinion about using tweezers. It would be useful IMO if your blog had an internal search function. Or maybe it has, but my eyesight has failed me. (Posted at 7 pm when it ought to be 1 p.m. in Finland.)
@William… (Internal) Search can be found on every page. It is located on top of third column (far right), just right above the commercials/ads.
Re, tweezers… Use them, always. The rest (what kind of tweezer tip, material etc. to choose) is IMHO just a matter of personal taste.
Tweezers ah?….L O L…see Roosevelt digging stamps…up to six fingers on one hand!…tweezers? what for?
@Fred… By jove. You are correct!!! There are even multiple images of Roosevelt using fingers to hold stamps. LOL.
But seriously… Touch anything with finger, and you will leave a grease/oil mark to it. The more often you touch, the better growing ground for bacteria that specific spot will be. Especially stamps with gold or silver coating seem to be very prone to fingerprint damages. But I guess you could call them “owners marks”
Yeah! you’re right, I know that… but in your case,is only used stamps in the collection that you has amassed, so…imagine how many hands has touched that stamp…auchhh!!
Likely very true
Keijo-san
Thanks for informing me about tweezers and the search button over on the right. I hadn’t thought to scroll that far. I think it might also be useful for your blog readers to know that they can alter the blog settings to four different settings according to what size font, and black-on-white/grey or white-on-black background they wish to read. (In one of your blog posts people were exchanging information about age/health/eyesight issues.)