Organizing your collection

[SavMousehammer]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this Flatelist lark (can't believe its taken me 6 years to find these stamps, I'm really miffed that it's taken me so long!)
and I was wondering how you all organised your collections?

At the moment my plan is to use a stockbook and have a page each for each year ( well this and last year anyway) then a page for each guild, country, 'one offs' etc with a printed label at the top of each page. This should work for the moment but as my collection grows I can forsee a few problems...

So i'm looking for any ideas you may have, do you keep each years definatives separate? do you keep the common, sport and any variations in colour etc together?
What about stamps with selvidge (the bit from around the outside of the sheet, right?), do you keep each different selvidge in your display collection or just one stamp?

I'm looking for a way to keep my whole collection - when it gets bigger than the starter pack and 2 LBE's worth! - in a a clear and orgnaised way for my son. He loves looking for the sports, they really fascinate him, but his Autism means that everything has to be organised, in a clear pattern, from the start. If I start chopping and changing the layout it will upset him and put him off.

I've thought about using a 'proper' stamp album, but the ones i have seen either have rectangular pockets for the stamps - how do you display tall stamps such as the Tower of art?, or are laid out like a stockbook but dont appear to have the tracing paper to protect the stamps.

Any opinions/experience/knoweledge/ideas you may have would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, aren't the Thieves Guild reciepts just fantastic? Mind you I wasn't impressed that a gold chain was taken from my order , I could have used that for Valentines Day!


Cheers
Sav

[Catch-up]

First of all, welcome!!

I had a reallly difficult time finding anything to store the DW stamps in that would easily fit everything. By the second year the sheets started to get way too large for anything I could find here, and the stamps themselves vary in size and shape a lot. I ended up getting a 12 x 12 scrapbook to store them in. I'm embarrassed to say that after 5 or so years of collecting, I've just recently gotten around to this. I also couldn't easily find stamp mount sheets to cut to size (and before someone else beats me to it - don't use hinged!), so I opted for photo corners because I can easily get those. The photo corners eliminate the size/shape problem, but I would definitely recommend stamp mounts over them. They can be really tedious to work with and you have to be very careful not to crease the corners or accidentally stick them to your stamp. I group the sheets, commons, sports and color variants within that year's issue, together. Although there's often an odd stamp or two issued that isn't easily categorized. My album is very plain, but others here have done some pretty amazing artwork to go on their album pages.

Have fun!

[annebn]

Welcome to the Forum!

I think stockbooks are the most handy way to store the stamps. Although it is also fun to make a "proper stamp album", and I am in the process of doing so, that is in my experience a slow process with quite a lot of trial and error that may not suit you son (although I'm sure it would be possible to be more organised about it than I am).
As for stockbooks, I started with one, but now have three: One for Ankh-Morpork stamps, one for Guild stamps and one for stamps from "forreign parts" (including the peoples republic of Wincanton and similar). So far all the stamps fit there (I obviously don't have ALL the stamps, but all the regular issues).

[AshloreDarkShadow]

Hi and welcome...

I've just got a stock book

I list all the
Guilds
REGIONAL
A.M. Year stamps
Specials
Duty Paid /VAT + Postage Due
+ Wincaton Post stamps/Labels.

I think whatever though as your collection grows you may have to change everything about to fit it all in

You could also go for an album with pages - so you could fit in extra pages where ever you want
- speak to some of the others on site - they might give you better direction.

I, like you was miffed at only finding these after missing the first 4 years.

Anyway - have fun and enjoy them

Cheers
Mark

[phalarope]

Stamp mounts will help protect your stamps (don't use hinges), whether you put them in a stockbook or eventually move into an album. Showgards are excellent; so are Hawid. They come precut (generally not useful for DW stuff) and in strips of various heights. These are what you will find most useful. You will need a cutter or guillotine to trim them to the correct width. I'm in the USA so can't recommend a handy supplier, but one UK website you can look at is http://www.mycollectors.co.uk/content/accessories/Showgard-Mounts.aspx. Google around on "philatelic mounts" or "stamp mounts" or brand names. These have moisture activated adhesive on the back, but are very easy to handle. Once you have a stamp in a mount, it is much safer to handle and examine than unprotected (safe from fingerprints, creasing or crumpling, and tears).

I'm also a RW philatelist, with all our attendant hangups about the 'right' way to handle and protect stamps (my other advice is USE STAMP TONGS!). If you get into some of the earlier stamps you might want to get a perforation (perf) gauge, although with experience one can tell the perf styles and sizes by sight.

Welcome to the obsession

[phalarope]

http://www.discworldstamps.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14094&start=0 is an earlier newbie thread with useful advice, too.

Gosh, you inspired me to go back through old threads; what a treasure trove of memories and fun Highly recommended

[Squigglyx]

Hi and welcome,


I prefer to make my own 'stamp album pages' usign acid free pastel coloured card and 'borrowed' pictures I find on the web for backgrounds.
I try to collect the four corners from a sheet and the sport and display these on one page with a bit of blurb from the shop pages.

Some examples of my pages can be found here

Most important is to do what looks and feels good to you and your son and have fun.

Remember, the right way is your way...

Also I buy Hawid mounts in strips from that famous auction site

[SavMousehammer]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your replies, its very much appreciated!

I've decided to go for a two pronged attack;

An old stockbook and stocksheets in a ring album

The stockbook is for the duplicates, stamps with selvige etc
and the album is for Mikey with commons (no selvige) and sports, by using stock sheets it means he can add new years or series as and when we get them.

I've printed off a frontspiece using discworldy type fonts and loads of labels so i shall be cutting them out soon
I think the layout will be AMPO years, then guilds, then UU, then series (explorers etc),then countries/regions and then one offs/misc.

I think mounts covering the stamps is a good idea, will have to do some research and measuring... and costing; more money on 'hardware means less on LBE's!

Cheers
Sav

ps. Guilds - by order of size? importance? influence? alphabetically? thats gonna keep me awake for a while!!

[Squigglyx]

.....
ps. Guilds - by order of size? importance? influence? alphabetically? thats gonna keep me awake for a while!!

But how do you sort out the order in those categories.

Size: The Seamstress guiild will probably be interested in this method
Importance: Giving one guild more importance than the others would cause chaos in the city, not recommended
Influence: Probably Assassins would have greatest influence

[Kelshandra]

Chronological date of release may be the most diplomatic method if you were worried about members of any guild coming around and having words

[SavMousehammer]

...... if you were worried about members of any guild coming around and having words

I wasn't.... I am now!

[AshloreDarkShadow]

Guilds - alphabetically for me...

[Kelshandra]

...... if you were worried about members of any guild coming around and having words

I wasn't.... I am now!

Well then I guess you have to work out which guild you have to be the most afraid of... Personally I'd go the fools guild. Imagine being stalked by a fool. Or a mime...

[Muba]

Guilds - alphabetically for me...

or according to which ones you spend the most with

[Murgatroyd]

For the time being, I am using The Emporium's ring binder stamp albums, with plastic sleeve pockets. I have downloaded the Emporium album pages onto 180 gm card, which I insert into the clear pockets, and use glassine bags to store the stamps in. At least that way the stamps are all organised, and visible. Whilst this method is a long way from being perfect, and the album pages so far released don't cover all the stamps by a long way, it will serve until the great task of adding images to the pages of the Martin Ransom Stamp Album has been completed. Then I'll print off those pages and use proper stamp mounts. I can also store my sheets and FDC's in the same pockets and keep them with the corresponding single stamps and sports. So far I've only found one sheet that doesn't fit (Lengthwise) into the pockets, and that was the UU Penny Farthing. I have had to fold that sheet along a perforation line... I guess it will separate eventually... so it goes.

Instead of arranging everything by release dates, I have five albums, one for Ankh Morpork definitives, One for the Guilds, One for regional stamps, One for Hogswatch, Jamboree and other misc stamps, and one for other non-stamp paper DW collectables
I store the AM definitives by value, oldest through to newest, (With extra pages for sports en-route) then postage due, duty paid and tax stamps. In the other albums, I store Guilds and regional stamps alphabetically, Hogswatch by year, and the last album I use for storing oddments like AM banknotes, Chequebook, assassins writing kit, Watch warrant card envelope etc...
It's a bulky way of doing it, but it works so far.