philatelia
Member 
Captain Jack - my best kiloware find ever!
Posts: 3,655
What I collect: Ireland, Japan, Scandy, USA, Venezuela, Vatican, Bermuda, Austria
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Post by philatelia on Aug 4, 2022 18:47:10 GMT
I just decided to start working on Japan next after I finish uploading my USA duplicates on colnect. But it got me wondering, how do all of you decide what part of your collection to work on next? Right now, my choices are mainly determined by how much excess duplication I have to cull and then sell. If I wasn’t selling, I’d be just working on recently acquired material or digging in and flyspecking a few issues.
What are your priorities? Organizing? Creating an album? Selling? Studying? Searching for missing items?
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daveg28
Member
Posts: 1,062 
What I collect: U.S., Canada, Great Britain & Commonwealth, France (esp. 1950-80), DDR, USSR
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Post by daveg28 on Aug 4, 2022 18:55:07 GMT
Acquire new issues and search for affordable classics in U.S. Search for missing issues in Canada and UK. Build the new albums for France, DDR, and USSR, and add the stamps I have to them. And then realize that I don't have NEAR as many stamps for the new countries I decide to pursue as I thought I had.
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 4, 2022 18:58:33 GMT
The next project for me is usually what has come in the mail.
Other projects are what is lying around, like those smelly Belgians or that large package of Bulgarians. Or spreadsheet entries, Want List updates. It seems whatever my mind wanders to is the next project. But for me, it has to be within sight, or it is forgotten! So spreadsheets and want list updates are easily forgotten!
I need to update my want lists if I'm going to head to Ottawa someday...
Peter
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paul1
Member
Posts: 1,207
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Post by paul1 on Aug 4, 2022 20:09:37 GMT
If I didn't keep acquiring albums - buying from ebay - trying to condense by moving stamps around .......... then I might be able to look at what I do have with an eye to finding errors etc., and actually enjoying looking at what I do have - As it is I spend too much time moving stamps around, de-hinging - putting into stock books - I might have something truly stunning but likely will never know :-):-) Anyway, will be absent for the next 48 hours - am going to be in Oxford (U.K.) for the weekend and no stamping allowed - it's Grandchildren time for a change.
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator 
Posts: 5,909
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
Member is Online
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Aug 4, 2022 20:29:45 GMT
It's a great question, Terri ( philatelia)! As a WW collector, of course, I could choose to do anything next. Originally, I started out working alphabetically, but I got mired in Austria, and started to lose interest. So, I started to prioritize on the countries for which I had the most stamps, like Germany. After months of working on Germany, I started to tire of that, and needed to find something else. Since then, I follow something more akin to Peter's ( brightonpete) system. I often allow what arrives in the mail, or what someone else trades to me, or what is trending on TSF to sway my next project choice. I wish I could say it was something more logical or even planned, but at this point, it really isn't. I work on one country until I get it in good order, and more often than not, circumstances will dictate which country will grab my attention next. Nice idea for a thread!  |
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renden
Member
Posts: 9,162
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Aug 4, 2022 22:04:59 GMT
Summer is here, for a few weeks with unusual high temps - so the collection is on vacation - I only do TSF  A break was warranted - YES - René |
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Mr. H
Member
Member - APS #129381
Posts: 952
What I collect: US, Netherlands, Whatever suits my fancy.
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Post by Mr. H on Aug 4, 2022 22:18:19 GMT
I first look at what I get in the mail from the AFSEC exchange club - the quicker I get it turned around the quicker I get another exchange package. After that it's whatever I feel like looking at - I still have tons of material from the floor sweeping lot I bought a year ago to go through. It's all sorted by country, so picking what to work on is akin to Beryllium Guy. I sometimes do some small countries just to get them out of the way or I might work on a slightly bigger collection, but the choice is really just random, whatever hits me at the moment or sometimes I just reach into the box of envelopes and pull something out. I'm saving the really big collections for last - US, Netherlands, GB, Germany, Japan, France, etc. I know those are going take a whole lot of time and space to get organized and most need to be completely remounted. Over the last few weeks I've done - Chile, Lithuania, Central Lithuania, Jordan, Mongolia (I had already gone through it and then found another envelope full), and am now working on Manana. Then onto ?. |
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Post by carabop on Aug 5, 2022 2:23:52 GMT
Right now it depends on how I am feeling. If it doesn’t take much concentration I will work on used USA or soak stamps or put stamps in stock pages. If I am feeling good I will put MNH stamps in my USA albums or look up stamps.
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Cephus
Member
Posts: 169
What I collect: U.S. 1847-1993, Australia, China, New Zealand
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Post by Cephus on Aug 5, 2022 2:37:16 GMT
Honestly, it's kind of random. I'll work on one country for a while until I get bored, or I'll just see something online that I want and start working on that until I find something else that appeals to me. Sometimes it's just going through albums and wanting to finish pages, things like that.
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Jerry B
Departed
Rest in Peace
Marietta, Georgia USA
Posts: 1,485
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Post by Jerry B on Aug 5, 2022 8:40:14 GMT
Hi Terri
I sold my France collection. I then used the funds to start a Colombia collection. My wife's house in Tunja, Boyaca, Colombia was on a stamp as well as some relatives. I then added Ecuador as my sister-in-law lives in Quito, Ecuador. Later I added Venezuela to round out Gran Colombia. So, except for Venezuela (we now have friends from Caracas) it not only became a stamp collection but a sort of family album as some of my wife's relatives are on Colombian stamps.
Jerry B
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,550
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Aug 5, 2022 8:56:47 GMT
Every so often I get a call from our Club Webmaster to assess and assist with a “Advice on my father’s/ late husband’s , family inheritance collection”. As my wife reckoned I was a huckster born , I then have a project which can run for months as I can purchase or assist with the sale of a collection.
I then will have items to play with on eBay or stamps to make up Club circuit on approval booklets ( I am a member of 5 circuit clubs) What remains after about six months on one circuit gets recombined in a booklet for a second club. At any one time I can have 100 items on eBay and 20-25 booklets on circuit .Basically my next project gets decided for me 👍😎
My own purchases are just occasional and infrequent so writing up pages for one or other collection gets squeezed in once the latest enquiry has been worked on.
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djcmh
Member
Posts: 794
What I collect: Worldwide
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Post by djcmh on Aug 5, 2022 13:47:01 GMT
When I get caught up on Colnect my personal focuses are making albums for the stamp collections and stamp dealer stock balance I inherited from my late father, and then move from there. Right now the goal this year will to get Canada albums all set up as I inherited my father's dealer stock. Have done 4 volumes and only through 1983, still have a decade's worth of material to lay out. After that will be Newfoundland, and after that I will move on to Turkey (have a whole stock book of stamps from 1962 to 2019 (not complete, mind) that needs albums made). Also have stockbooks of 1990s-2010s Malaysia and Singapore to set up (have already made albums for both up to 1990). Then at some point will start working on my father's red dealer boxes of general foreign.
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darkormex
Member
Swinging through Switzerland and getting tied up in Thailand
Posts: 2,197
What I collect: The World...just printing and mounting as I go...call me crazy!
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Post by darkormex on Aug 6, 2022 1:48:55 GMT
I sit at my desk sometimes, when I actually feel like working on my stamps, and contemplate what I am going to work on. Sometimes I will continue with the project I had been working on previously and sometimes I will let it sit there for a while and then one day decide that I am tired of it and move onto the next thing. What I am happy to know is that I am not alone in this. I have often tried to stay with one project until complete, but I always seem to get tired of it or I lose my enthusiasm and inevitably put it all away and go rummage through some of the old albums I have on the shelf and find something new, bright and shiny to work on.
I had been working on Korea on one side of my desk and now that seems to be abandoned and I am back to working on Romania on the other. Who knows if I will continue working on either in the coming days.
I have goals and ambitions and they are only very slowly being met...but I will get there someday. After all, I can't collect and organize the world in a day.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,698
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Aug 6, 2022 9:37:13 GMT
Since I do worldwide, I am more the butterfly and usually wait on what comes my way. I have had a stronger interest in southeast Asia.
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Post by dgdecker on Aug 6, 2022 18:07:43 GMT
I usually start with what ever has fallen of a shelf or out of a box. I try to stay with one country for as long as I can. At this time of year because of heat and humidity I do not handle stamps all that much. I am catching up on reading and research or planning and printing pages. Next printing will be for my recently acquired Vatican collection from a Forum member.
None of my Canada collection is in albums in a way that satisfies me. I am trying to break the work up into smaller jobs. I am making progress. We all have our way that works or does not work for us.
Today I am on shaded deck of friends cottage and there is no way I would want to be inside on a day like this.
David
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tobben63
Member
Stamp eat sleep repeat
Posts: 1,874
What I collect: I collect to much, world wide!
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Post by tobben63 on Aug 7, 2022 4:04:58 GMT
I use the good old "the ingenuity method".
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator
Posts: 5,909
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
Member is Online
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Aug 7, 2022 8:28:01 GMT
OK, Torbjørn ( tobben63), you got me there…. I never heard of the old “ingenuity method”. What does it mean? Just figure it out for yourself? Invent something? Do tell! |
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tobben63
Member
Stamp eat sleep repeat
Posts: 1,874
What I collect: I collect to much, world wide!
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Post by tobben63 on Aug 7, 2022 9:53:48 GMT
OK, Torbjørn ( tobben63 ), you got me there…. I never heard of the old “ingenuity method”. What does it mean? Just figure it out for yourself? Invent something? Do tell!  It is a Norwegian 'saying' that I tried to translate with Google, not always the best. I means I do whatever comes to my mind right now. ( and that does not necessarily be the best way to work efficiency) Innfallsmetoden |
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 7, 2022 13:20:38 GMT
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gotstamps85
Member
Inactive
Knee deep in Ebay listings
Posts: 129
What I collect: Classic GB Empire &World
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Post by gotstamps85 on Aug 7, 2022 14:20:15 GMT
If I didn't keep acquiring albums - buying from ebay - trying to condense by moving stamps around .......... then I might be able to look at what I do have with an eye to finding errors etc., and actually enjoying looking at what I do have - As it is I spend too much time moving stamps around, de-hinging - putting into stock books - I might have something truly stunning but likely will never know :-):-) Anyway, will be absent for the next 48 hours - am going to be in Oxford (U.K.) for the weekend and no stamping allowed - it's Grandchildren time for a change. Ditto... Even when I acquire new lots, I haven't even sorted them before I'm looking at other lots on ebay. |
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Post by nbstamper on Oct 2, 2022 12:56:35 GMT
Usually, if something arrives in the mail, I turn to that country and try to mount a set or a year; then try to order the next missing item; turn to the next stamp(s) that have arrived and work on that for a while or until the next interesting item arrives. Right now jumping between 1930s France, U Series Machins and Regionals and Canadian OHMS five-hole issues.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,698
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Oct 2, 2022 17:53:05 GMT
For my Machins, it was the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
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bobstew617
Member
Posts: 376
What I collect: Switzerland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Channel Islands, Hong Kong (British Admin), PNG, others...
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Post by bobstew617 on Oct 2, 2022 18:22:06 GMT
For me, it's a bit random, but focuses around what area I realize I have not worked on in a while. I will first go through the envelopes from purchases and pull out all of them that have a country I am looking to do. For me, the next one is the Isle of Man. Including this interesting item tied to the Bee Gees:  |
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blaamand
Member
Currently creating custom pages until 1940.
Posts: 1,459
What I collect: Worldwide - Stamps and Postmarks - not enough time...
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Post by blaamand on Oct 2, 2022 20:58:41 GMT
For me I tend to focus on whichever county I have the most feeder-albums and material waiting to be be organized. The aim is to go through it and get rid of stuff as quickly as possible to allow more shelf-space - which allows me to buy more stuff....and so it continues 🙂
Right now Denmark and Sweden are taking up lots of space, so focusing on reducing it.
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sharonb
Member
Posts: 63
What I collect: Used only - Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, Western Europe, and Scandinavia, from 1900 to date. That keeps me busy. To be honest I am trying to avoid becoming a WW collector.
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Post by sharonb on Oct 3, 2022 0:51:00 GMT
I am in the middle of a long process of sorting out what I realise now is a huge accumulation that I inherited a few years ago. My aim is to oraganise what I have. It is a used material and on and off paper. The stage I am at is that its all sorted to country and I am now soak kiloware and move to the next stage of sort and putting into stockbooks by chronological order. On each page of the stockbook on small slips of paper is the date of issue then next to the stamp on slips of paper is the catalogue number. My aim once I have the countries organised like this is to mount them on albums.So I do have a long term goal. I think it's important to do that as I will feel I will have moved from accumulation to collection.
How do I decide once one country is organsied what next to do? To be honest it's mood. For instance I have half soaked and roughly organised Great Britain with the Queens death I felt like working on another bag of GB that I have in a crate. Now I am side tracked on machins but I don't worry as its all fun and I learn heaps (and I take notes) along the way. I do set myself goals however.
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