Posting new album supplements

well, as winter approaches I guess it'll be time to hunker down in the basement where the fireplace will keep me toasty warm . . . as I proceed to tear apart and 'post' over 1000 pages of supplements (for the last four years) into my world-wide album set.

I found I was a couple of years behind ordering the supplements, and already had 2 year's worth of supplements to post. Will these be my last supplements? Could be. The cost of those supplements today (on a yearly basis) are about 5 times what I paid for the pair of Minkus Global albums back in the mid-1960's. That album set will now be 34 volumes, and at 36 I will have run out of bookshelf space to store them. That's alright. I've been told by at least one stamp dealer if I were to sell my WW collection, it would be broken into country sets because no one wants to pay the big bucks for that kind of collection in total. That reason, and the fact that collecting anything 'recent' after year 2000 or so just isn't fruitful anymore, i.e. to costly and sourcing difficulties for that used postage anymore when people don't write letters / use stamps.

 

I could just buy the blank pages for the album, then draw squares or rectangles or triangles or whatever. I've certainly had to do that for certain countries, even for the 'stuff' issued in the 1940's & 50's. Poland is one of those, where even the 'completeness' of the Minkus albums was lacking.

I guess I've deluded myself into believing I've created an 'international album' the likes of which cannot be duplicated, especially since the Scott International album can no longer be purchased. But I doubt there's maybe more than one or two dealers, and certainly no collectors, that would appreciate that effort.

I think that to collect worldwide stamps anymore has gotten so overwhelming that most collectors are now focused on single countries or time eras or topical or maybe specialized rarities.

 

To me, maintaining album consistency and formatting are relatively important. To do that would require the purchase of a printer capable of handling the larger pages; I'd use blank Minkus pages for starters. I've already got a 'disjointed' collection of albums for US (two different sets - one for mint and one for used), a Canadian collection (Scott thru 1960), Russian collection (2 Scott thru mid-1970's), US plate blocks, and US mint sheets.

While 'home spun' pages may be a cheaper way to go, it's also more time consuming, something of which as a retiree you'd think I'd have a lot of; you'd be wrong. Starting in March of 2018, I'll be spending 3-4 days a week volunteering @ a not-for-profit gun school and range, and probably the rest of the week either recuperating or getting ready for the next weekend.