Without devaluing his impressive collection and respecting his hobby, can you confirm that Stamp albums do not suggest all the available stamps printed for any given country / years?

I’m about 99,9% positive on this. There are two reasons for this.

First, catalogs evolve constantly. New additions come in every year, whereas (old) erratas are removed. It’s nothing major, but if you compare say a 1990 edition to 2010 edition, you are guaranteed to spot some differences every now and then. Stamp albums on the other hand are largely “fixed” presentation of past situation.

Secondly, catalog publishers can’t agree on what is worth a major number and what is not. Take a look for say US, UK or France: each catalog points out a different number of stamps. Even at best cases (pre-printed) stamp album pages are nothing more than a representation of single catalog publishers opinion of what to include and what not to include. There is lots of “grey area” that makes stamp albums appear either incomplete or extremely detailed. The more knowledgeable the collector, the higher the demands.

Also, can you identify the brand or make of Dr. Cheng’s preferred stock album of choice?

I recall reading somewhere that it was housed on Scott International.

however if you had to hinge your stamps on a stock album, do you have a particular brand you prefer?

Likely I would choose Bill Steiner’s pages (read my review) as they are the most detailed “commercial” worldwide albums I’ve seen.

If I had the time, then I’d likely build my own pages.

I’ve been collecting stamps on and off for years and I enjoy this hobby immensely when I have the “time”; however, I consider myself a beginner. I think a complete era worldwide collection is beyond me. So, I will slowly add countries and eras which interest me.

I am trying to ascertain the number of methods available in collecting stamps and which ones would I find most rewarding for the time being. Currently, my stamps are stored mostly in stock books and album pages I’ve designed and produced myself. It can be a bit of work to produce your own stamp pages; but I enjoy this because it allows me to hinge stamps of my choice, identify and describe them however I wish, and make me feel that my collection is fairly “complete” to my satisfaction.

Having said that, I browsed Dr. Chang Cheng’s website (worldstampalbum.com) and found his stamp collection to be quite impressive. Dr. Cheng uses stamp albums to store his collection. Without devaluing his impressive collection and respecting his hobby, can you confirm that Stamp albums do not suggest all the available stamps printed for any given country / years? Also, can you identify the brand or make of Dr. Cheng’s preferred stock album of choice?

If I’m correct, you stated that you prefer stock books for various reasons explained in your previous blogs, however if you had to hinge your stamps on a stock album, do you have a particular brand you prefer? I’m looking forward to reading tips from your readers’ response as well.

Thanks in advance!

Virgil

Keijo… No one (except for a few nuts like me) wants to collect duplicates and definitives, ergo, they can be more scarce.

Large print runs is likely the most major contributor for countries like US, Germany or Australia to be found so commonly. They do have very large populations, and people in these countries do mail a lot. That aside, I can’t honestly understand why finding some “supposedly common” issues from these countries is so difficult (and why some “supposedly better” stamps pop up much more often than I’d expect).

And I’m quite sure that the language barrier does have some effect too.

By trade I am an archaeologist and my specialist field is in ceramics. My job involves sorting though often tens of thousands of pieces of broken pottery trying seek improved forms of classification and dating and ultimately trying explain the meaning behind why a ceramic assemblage takes on the particular form and composition it does. ‘Formation processes’ as we call them are crucial here, and in this I see obvious parallels.

One thing I don’t really understand about the composition of the stamps I buy is why particular countries always appear to be so well represented. I guess if I was buying bulk world accumulation in China they might look quite different, but at least in the batches I have purchased from the UK and America certain counties always feature heavily: America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Germany and the UK. Obviously there is also always a massive weighting in favour of Europe and currently 55% of my collection is European despite my attempts to balance things out. Conversely, I find Middle Eastern stamps some of the most difficult to come by. Why do you think these patters occur? Particularly with the countries, do America and Australia produce larger print runs of stamps than say Bulgaria? Is it simply that my stamp assemblage reflects postal communication within the traditional English speaking world?