A Method For Sorting Large Volumes Of Stamps

Oh, man! If I was even in the same time zone, Frog, I would start driving right now....

Now for the teeny tiny issue of airfare...

I use the envelope by country method too. Then everything is in alphabetical order stored in a container.

I keep all my tongs in an eyeglass case so I never lose them. Granted I actually use 4 different sets of glasses personally everyday so I have to make sure they go back into the envelope box when I finish working with them or they'll get mixed up with my actual glasses! Lol

Hi frog

I never had as many stamps to sort as you are describing. In practice, if the volume was humongous, I would stop at a point and sort. Then, process the remainder. Only once did I have more than 1 "batch" of sorted stamps.

The method was developed for a single country at any one time.  According to your description, it seems you are trying to do many countries at once using my method.  Truthfully, I don't think it would work . After getting everything in an A-Z folder, sort each A-Z  folder by country, one folder at a time.  Then use my method for each country.

BTW:  I never claimed that the sorting process was easy  After a while it was boring , but, never easy.

Jerry B

Hi frog

I have a small desk area to work on stamps. When I was doing sorting for the store,I would close the room door and work on the floor. The door was closed so that the cat would not think it was a neat litter box or cool toy

Jerry B

Hi Steve

I got used to the floor when I was programming RPG (had a lot of forms). The "stamp room" is the one that has the window the cat sits in. When I close the door, I will eventually hear scratching and see a paw sticking under the door to try to open it. This event is getting close to marital un-bliss as my wife thinks I am being cruel to the cat.

Jerry B

P.S, Nice cat! Almost like our second which was a 25 pound orange monster.

Was a long time coming the last stamp has been emptied from all the bowls.We still need to do a final country sort but almost there.In the meantime I have these little gems among others waiting to be examined and mounted.That's a #150 imperf and #OA175 along with some company.

I am over half way mark in final country sort and wish to share the following for those facing a large (poundage) sort.
First my method of initial sort by letter is definitely the easiest way to work through the large volume especially for limited space.
An improvement would have been a separate pile for the most common countries encountered.this of course will depend on your source but seems countries like Russia,Romania,Germany,and Hungary should rate their own piles.
The use of larger manilla envelopes for each country is almost a given at least for the larger volume countries.For smaller countries legal size envelopes will work nicely.I folded the back flap over 1/2 way and stuck it to itself,labeling the country there for easily visibility.
A basic major letter envelope catch all for country sort is used for countries with limited issues.These will be sorted at the end when you can then put them separately into their own envelope for cataloging.
To speed the process a large envelope for unknowns is used this includes those that have heavy cancels that will require some extra louping time to identify.
By working country sort one letter at a time things move along and give you easy stopping places,which allows time to clear up your work area.
A shoebox or other suitable box to hold envelopes in alphabetical order is essential.I found another taller box to file the taller manillas upright also alphabetical.
I used one set of legal size envelopes each labeled with letter to clear my table as piles grew.As they filled up I passed them to my spouse to country sort.If your working alone not to worry just make a new letter envelope and set the full one aside til country sort.
I hope this helps.Sorting pounds of stamps is a task that can be conquered easily with just a little organizing.
Now to tackle that envelope of unknowns......

Hi nickmang
Personally I wouldn't soak all of them before sorting into "piles".  Soak a batch and when that batch is dry, sort them into any piles you want, I assume by country, which would be logical.  You have to put the dried stamps someplace   When all done, you can use my method to sort the country "piles".

Just a suggestion.

Jerry B