philatelia
Member 
Captain Jack - my best kiloware find ever!
Posts: 3,415
What I collect: Ireland, Japan, Scandy, USA, Venezuela, Vatican, Bermuda, Austria
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Post by philatelia on Apr 13, 2023 16:13:12 GMT
Most of my collections are fairly chronological and follow whatever catalog I use for that area. But sometimes I arrange definitive sets or other issues differently. For example, I pulled all the Danish definitives out and arranged them by types. Those long sets are so scattered that it made finding them too time consuming.
I am thinking of doing the same thing with Japanese definitives. When I sort and file issues, I start by separating the commemoratives from the definitives. Japan has so many commemoratives that I might page past 50 Hagnar sheets to get to the next definitive set when I try to file them. That’s clunky and time consuming. I did the same thing with a few definitive series for Sweden and Finland. I have multiple binders for some Irish definitive issues. I’ll probably reunite some of the Venezuela air mail portion of sets with the regular issues, too. Right now I have them in Scott’s order, but it isn’t very convenient.
I also like to group varieties together.
Let’s hear about some of your rearrangements.
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,644
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Apr 13, 2023 16:20:59 GMT
I also tend to group most definitives together. Those that were issued in groups every few years get placed chronologically.
Commemoratives follow catalogue numbering (a few exceptions) and I insert BoB chronologically as well.
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alexcandy
**Member** 
Posts: 13 
What I collect: Postboxes, French & UK Stamps
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Post by alexcandy on Apr 13, 2023 16:31:38 GMT
My collections are maybe a bit messy.. I tend just to file in series under the year and don't really worry about the actual issue date . With regards to definitive they usually get filled separately
Alex
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Post by greaden on Apr 13, 2023 18:51:13 GMT
For countries where my collection is thin: I organize the stamps by theme. Faces, buildings, landscapes, etc. That way, I can identify duplicates more easily. Maybe I might subdivide the country into rough chronological units: earlies, prewar, postwar, post 1989 eastern Europe.
When I reach a critical mass, I might organize it according to Scott only to make it easier to make and fill a wantlist.
Once I start to close in on actual completion, I prefer to order chronologically and follow a specialized catalog.
For France after my old album stopped, I spun out categories that work better together such as paintings, tourism, semipostals, mariannes, etc. Then the remaining stamps fit nicely onto one page per year.
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Post by classicalstamps on Apr 13, 2023 19:43:05 GMT
One of the pivotal moments of my philatelic journey has been to free myself from catalogs.
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firstfrog2013
Member
Posts: 3,276
What I collect: BNA Liberia St Pierre U.S. Bolivia Turkey
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Post by firstfrog2013 on Apr 13, 2023 19:57:39 GMT
I settled on using date of issue to put things in order. Even my revenues are in the mix not always great but to me it makes more sense.
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Post by greaden on Apr 13, 2023 20:02:27 GMT
Arranging stamps is really about how to tell the story of a country. Catalogs are not necessarily the best way to accomplish that.
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,269
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Apr 13, 2023 20:12:15 GMT
I agree with greaden’s sentiments, I like to tell a story. The first 70 years of my Samoa collection 1877- 1940s was strictly chronological until I started showing to other stamp clubs . To make it more varied and more interesting to the member who knows nothing of Samoa I interspersed pages arranged thematically including postcards to illustrate lifestyle , scenery, historical events, politics, transport, wildlife , plants ,animals , birds , insects, people, religion, Robert Louis Stevenson , etc etc these ,were far from chronological. |
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator 
Posts: 5,659
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Apr 13, 2023 20:14:44 GMT
Terri ( philatelia), thanks for starting this thread. Just as a comment to your original post, I note that the oft-maligned Scott Catalogues generally handle definitive sets just as you have described doing. They put the sets together by design types, and they number them that way, even if the original set had other denominations added in at later dates, even years later. In my experience, that way of doing things is different than what Gibbons usually does. I am not sure about other catalogue makers, but the way your post is phrased, it sounds like you may not realize this. Just FYI--you may be following a catalogue listing method after all, just not the one you think! |
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dorincard
Member
Posts: 1,453
What I collect: My focus is on Wild Mammals on maximum cards. Occasionally, I get or create maximum cards with other animals, or any other topic.
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Post by dorincard on Apr 13, 2023 21:19:39 GMT
Never by catalog.
No country issues stamps that interest me to buy or even study EVERY single time.
Some countries have stamps that are cool, for most issues, though.
Exhaustiveness of a collection is a myth, in most cases. Including varieties, EFOs, etc.
I arrange by theme/subject.
My wild mammals on stamps are arranged taxonomically.
Same thing with them on maxicards.
I also have sampler collection: at least 1 stamp for every sport, etc.
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hdm1950
Member
Posts: 1,611
What I collect: I collect world wide up to 1965 with several specialty albums added due to volume of material I have acquired. At this point I am focused on Canada and British America. I am always on the lookout for stamps and covers with postmarks from communities in Queens County, Nova Scotia. I do list various goods including stamps occasionally on eBay as hdm50
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Post by hdm1950 on Apr 13, 2023 21:33:30 GMT
Because I am still married to my preprinted albums my 6 volumes of Scott International I follow what Scott has printed. Because there is never spots for all the stamps from the classic era I am afraid most of my countries are a dogs breakfast mounting where I find room. I was quite happy with that till I joined this forum and saw so many nice home printed pages. My several specialized albums are in better order but still tend to follow my Scott catalogues. I really do not see myself attempting to change this at this point in my life.
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Post by greaden on Apr 13, 2023 22:16:20 GMT
For my US collection, I inherited much of it in Scott National albums. For the earlies, I realized I was never going to care enough to fork out the cash for reprints of 1 and 2, nor for all those minor differences in the blue 7c scrollwork. I just set up Vario pages for the most basic simple selection that best told the story of nineteenth century US. I included the Confederate stamps with those of the Union. From there, I kept with Scott National for most areas, but ripped out coils and grills.
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hrdoktorx
Member
Posts: 6,616
What I collect: France (and French territories), Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Guatemala, stamps about science, flags, maps, stamps on stamps...
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Post by hrdoktorx on Apr 14, 2023 5:15:59 GMT
I usually arrange my countries in stockbooks geometrically. I keep stamps of the same size and orientation together, which gives a nice uniform feel to each stockbook page that way. Within each section, sometimes I will have them ordered by face value, although that can break sets, so I sometimes keep sets together in a separate section and only order single commemoratives this way. For a few countries, like Canada and colonial Tunisia, I have gone by catalog order. For France, I went thematic. For the USA, I went by face value first, and then geometrically.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,358
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Apr 14, 2023 11:35:31 GMT
So we have:
1. chronological
2. Catalog
3. Definitives vs commemorative
4. Geometric
5. Theme or subject (not necessarily by country)
I will add
6 Denomination order (Machin are often done this way)
7. Pile (no organization)
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Post by carabop on Apr 14, 2023 12:38:22 GMT
For my US collection commemoratives are in different albums then definitives and airmail (back of book) are in another album. Seven albums all total for my US collection. For my other collections they are in vario pages in chronological order by Scott number or year of issue.
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rednaxela
Member
Posts: 177
What I collect: Germany in all its facets since 1871 (especially German Reich used including postal statinoneries, used), USSR, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Denmark, France. I design all album pages for my collection myself and partly make them available to the general public for use.
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Post by rednaxela on Apr 14, 2023 22:07:06 GMT
I basically arrange - as far as country collections are considered - my own album pages chronologically by year of issue.
Philatelically socialized with the Michel catalogs, I do not distinguish between postal, and semi-postal issues, and airmail issues. Only official stamps and postage due stamps are grouped separately - also chronologically by year - at the end of the county album.
I arrange the stamps on the individual pages for the respective year of issue in such a way that, if possible, a symmetrical arrangement is created on the pages (the widest row at the top, the narrowest row or a single stamp at the bottom).
Definitive stamps are grouped on their own pages, sorted by face value. In a chronological context, these pages are included in the collection according to the year in which the first stamp of each specific definitive series appeared.
With regard to souvenir sheets, I also take into account the respective single stamps (now and then a letter arrives that has been franked with such a single stamp, not with a souvenir sheet...).
Postal stationery is also arranged chronologically and by year and if possible together with the "normal" stamps of the respective motif on the album pages.
Varieties e.g. with regard to watermark, paper type, perforation are summarized.
Se-tenants, tête bêche etc. are usually arranged on their own pages and also in chronological context of the whole album.
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karelm
**Member**
Posts: 19
What I collect: Austria Empire varieties & cancellations
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Post by karelm on Apr 15, 2023 0:59:37 GMT
I've split my collection in 2 halves- A specialized Austrian Empire (1850-19180), on purpose written up pages / albums, followed by normal issue by issue till 1937 in standard albums and the other section with is dedicated to Cancellations used in the Austrian Empire. The latter is arranged in stock books and are sorted in "Province" order, the challenge is to provide enough space for expansion and avoid having to re arrange stamps all the time. I have compiled a spreadsheet database which allows me to sort into catagories / provinces etc. and this helps with planning the layout / space. The province cancels are arranged in alphabetical order. Can share link to samples for those intersted.
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eggdog
Member
I want a new Harley!
Posts: 464
What I collect: It's complicated....
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Post by eggdog on Apr 16, 2023 3:12:26 GMT
I'll unite definitive series into one. The German Historic Sites and Eminent German Women series that spanned the Deutschemark and the Euro, and the subsequent Flowers series, have several separate blocks in Scott (and even more in Michel) but I combine them. Same with Norway, and same with most other countries that ever had long, sprawling definitive styles. I used to further sort them by denominational order, but that actually impeded my ability to track what I had, and sometimes the print runs have different qualities that make them look slightly better when kept on separate rows.
At one point I had all 130 years of the Norwegian posthorns together on six pages, but that was carrying things a bit too far even for me.
Sometimes I'll combine commemorative or pictorial series. Example: Germany had several look-alike semi-postal sets that were issued a year or two apart. I'll mash them together. Same with the lighthouses that they issued one or two a year of for a decade or more. Poland had a series of stamps for various kings over the centuries; that was one of the very few series of any kind that kept going after the transfer of power from the Communist Party to the Solidarność movement. Usually I'll split any series if it spans a major transfer of political structure (which that certainly was), but I kept the kings all together largely because they were, well, large. They needed Vario 4S pages, and definitives and horizontally-pitched commemoratives/pictorials look anemic and even helpless on 4S pages.
I also juggle the order so that vertically-pitched standard-size stamps get Vario 5Ses or 6Ses and definitives and horizontally-pitched get 7Ses. This can put stamps out of whack chronologically by up to two years, but I can live with that, because using the space on each Vario sheet efficiently lightens the albums and keeps the wallet a bit heavier, so to speak. (Even bought in bulk, those things are 75¢ each. That's like 4 cups of tea right there!) Certain annoying but very interesting countries will stick one vertical stamp in with a set that has 3 or 4 horizontal stamps. I wish they'd cut it out, but I hardly ever split those series.
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