State of my stamp collection 2011/2012
Yet another year has gone by, and it’s time to look back for the year 2011 and what’s ahead in 2012 for my stamp collection. In 2011 my collection grew with over 6,600 stamps, and my worldwide collection contains now 70,519 stamps (listed with major catalog number in Michel).
The greatest contributor to growth of was a GIGANTIC Czechoslovakia hoard I purchased: it filled nearly 1,000 spaces spaces in my Czechoslovakia collection. Other areas where my collection enhanced notably were:
- Japan (500+ stamps)
- France and Burundi (300+ new stamps ea)
- Romania , Netherlands, USA, Sweden, Canada and Australia (~200 new stamps ea).
I think the above list doesn’t surprise any worldwide collectors as stamps from these countries are plenty and common…. I managed to make lots of additions for randomly seen countries from A(den) to Z(ambia), but these were usually somewhat minor, usually just 1-20 stamps per country.
The list of my most complete collections hasn’t changed much in a year. My Finland collection continues to thrive with 93% completion, but there are some runner ups closing behind. My collections of Sweden, East Germany and Czechoslovakia are all now roughly 60% complete; and my collections for US, Canada and Australia have progressed nicely to 50% completion.
Possibly my greatest achievement in 2011 is finalizing the color coding of my collection. All the stamps are now in matching colored stockbooks: Africa in blue, Europe in red, North America in Blue, South America in green etc. At the same process I’ve also gotten rid of the last black background stockbooks I had: I’m now using them to house the secondary parts of my collection (bogus / cinderella items).
Part of my collection pictured on Jan 1st 2012. Top row contains Africa and Americas, bottom row is Europe.
The new version of my stamp inventory is sadly still under progress. I had great hopes to get it up and running in late 2011, but it’s a task size of an mammoth and the health issues I’ve suffered throughout the end of year have slowed down my pace in recent months. Very likely this will be one of the areas where I will try to put up more weight / focus on early 2012, as I want to have a more detailed picture of what I have and what I’m still missing.
What I hope / expect from 2012? Well… During the Christmas I spent several days going through a mixed lot of Greece, and I had so much fun with it that I want lots and lots of more of the same. And it’s not just Greece: I’m having an serious itch for all stamps from Mediterranean nations (Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey etc) and colonies. I already got some stamps lots coming my way for these countries 
Also stamps from South and Central American nations are something that I intend to look deeper this year. As my collections from all these areas are somewhat small, I should have no problem finding plenty of new stamps from these.
Happy collecting and prosperous New Year 2012!
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I recognize that picture from some where else on the web…
@Joe Rubin… I posted the same pic on StampCommunity last night. So possibly you saw it there.
Hi Keijo,
Happy New Year! I love it, you’re the perfect example of how wonderful it is to be an all-world collector! I like your colour coding as well, I might try that myself! I’m so amazed that you find the time and the effort and the guts to actually keep track of everything you add to your collection! Well done, you’re an inspiration!
Thanks Adrian… I simply enjoy working with my collection and keeping it in order; nothing special about that. The rest is simply pure guts and devotion
Nah! Keijo you have guts!!! … devotion and…looking at your library, I’m ashamed of what I got, blimey! …I tell you what Keijo…you’re going to get the Guinness record this year as the biggest stamp collector of the world, sooner or later…think about it! I bet to that… Happy new year 2012 LOL!
@Fred… I’m still a small fish compared to more advanced (and older) worldwide collectors. They have collections, private libraries and knowledge that makes me feel like very much ashamed of my limited accumulation. But maybe when I retire in 2043 I’ll be more like those guys (and gals
I KNOW I saw it on Stamp Community! Just wasnt sure if you would care if I identified where else you hang out, so I left … instead.
Thanks for the update! You’ve inspired me to take a more disciplined approach to my worldwide collection. I had catalogued most of my Scandinavian stamps but moving forward will be cataloguing and and counting them up too.
So my “official” worldwide collection is 110 stamps from Luxembourg and 125 British Machin definitives. Forward ho!
Hi Keijo, First reply for me. I have collected on and off for 50 years and I believe you have more different worldwide stamps than me. Good going! Besides the trading you do, where and how do you purchase most of your stamps? Collections or individual purchases? From Finnish dealers and collectors or from other countries? Any pointers for buying?
Wow! Those pics of all your albums make my mouth drool!
I don’t have nearly that many precious stamp “gems”(They are almost all “gems”)
@Walt Bauer:
I buy one or two larger (1kg or so)worldwide off-paper mixtures per year.Either from eBay or straight from dealer or charity; all come from EU (because of customs, taxes, delivery fees etc). These usually cost around 30-50€+postage depending on source and quality.
Then I usually buy few some smaller collections, mixtures or packages – anywhere between 100-5, 000 stamps. These I get usually from stamp auctions, local dealers or eBay; anywhere between few euros up to roughly 30€ per lot.
Most of kiloware I buy from local mail order company, or when visiting stamp stores.
Finally I do buy some smaller lots from time to time – these are usually stuff I don’t expect to see otherwise. These come mainly from other collectors selling their excess items. Usually stuff from few euros up to 20€.
Any pointers for buying…Come up with a bid/price you are willing to pay, and stick to it. If it goes higher than that (or it doesn’t feel like a bargain), just let it go. There’s usually another (similar) lot coming up in matter of days/weeks…. That’s pretty much the best advice I can give.
@Roger…
In another website I was dubbed as the “Lighthouse man”
Seriously speaking there’s also many Lindner (most of the blue ones), and Davo (green ones) stockbooks.
Nothing compared to your collection Keijo but mine is approaching a very minor milestone – almost 5000 entered into the spreadsheet. Since I got back to stamp collecting, I have noticed two big trends – i) it takes a long time to catalog each stamp and enter it correctly into a spreadsheet and ii) the wonderful possibilities of using newer technology. I think what most of we whole world collectors do is to examine each stamp, after maybe sorting by country, find correct catalog number and get it into the collection and spreadsheet.
Bear with me because this is where my newer technology idea comes in – in the form of a question. What is the current status of picture recognition technology as regards to the world of stamp identification? I do not believe there is an available database of the 600,000 stamp images? But let’s turn this idea around. For my modest 5000 collection so far it is possible to consider having an image database of it. Now let’s consider a quicker scenario when we have some new stamps to sort. The process would be to scan in the new items, say 50 at a time and then using some image recognition software tell me which ones I do NOT have in my 5000 database. What are the chances of finding or developing such software?
Cheers.
@Andy… Congratulations on reaching a milestone
Re, state of technology… As far as I know, there is no (consistent) database /datasource to provide high quality images and other accurate data for all 600,000+ worldwide stamps. Likely stamp catalog publishers are closest to that goal, but I fear even they have long road ahead before getting it all up and running. There are multiple complete databases for “popular” countries (=US,UK,Australia etc) , but very few outside those.
Re, reversing the process…. In theory it could work… After a bit of Googling, I landed few pieces of software that might do the job; likely there are several other similar tools (as this kind of tools are not rocket science/cutting edge). I haven’t tried out either of these, so try them out at your own risk
* Image Comparer from Bolide Software – a commercial program with 30 day free trial. Based on screenshots and description, this seems pretty slick. And the price is not bad either (35$)
* ImageMacikc-library – open source tool. It’s all command line, but hey – it’s free. Only for serious geeks who know a thing or two working on command line (and preferrably a bit more)
If you decide to try either (or both of these), please do share how it all turned out.
Hi Keijo,
Very impressed with your country identification! I started off collecting a couple of countries, but now find myself beginning very different interests…..as well as adding to the originals!!
will have to get a stamp exchange happening soon.
cheers
Glenis
@Glenis… Thanks. Worldwide collecting is definitely lots of fun. So give yourself to the “dark side”