Your enthusiasm is delightful. I think there is a bias that topical collecting is for kids, but that's just not right. You have fun with what you like. I love how you have so many diverse focus areas. I expect that will grow as you find more squirrels to chase.

Pretty soon you’re just going to collect variants of one stamp

I use photo corners for those kinds of things too--the clear ones. I can never seem to get them on just right though. Oh well. I bet your pages look great!

I use photo corners for them too. They work well. Some of the US books seem to be 1 cent more than face. I like the idea of keeping them in a pouch at the back of the album. The older I get the more I appreciate the history in my collection.

Plate blocks were such a big deal for a while, but they seem to have fallen off in popularity. I bet that works out nicely for you. Oh, and what a range you collect--Forever stamps and classic Germany. I love it. I'm quite curious what countries you're still missing!

@@KensStampCollectioncountries I’m missing are Trieste, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Slovenia, Moldova, French Guiana, Suriname, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Burkina-Faso, Guinea, Senegal, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Vanuatu, Micronesia, Marshall Island, New Caledonia, Norfolk Islands, Tonga, Niue, Wallis & Futuna, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Kiribati, Samoa, Cook Islands, and finally Pitcairn Islands. A lot of these would not be hard to track down, which makes it a doable collection goal, others might be tricky. I even have some fantasy countries like Republic of Buryatia, Zaragoza, Staffa, and found a Lundy Puffin in a mixed bag. I group countries by geography, so I can see how they changed with time, especially former colonies, rather than using political identity as most catalogues do under colonial powers. Thanks for the wonderful videos and happy collecting!

Oh, you seem so close to completion. Except for the 'stans' I think this should be straight forward. Pop me an email at kenflowers at comcast dot net. I have a bunch of those I'd love to send your way. By the way, another friend of the channel collects Scott #1 from all countries. Hi Ken. Perhaps a new challenge for you.

Produced by the post office -- That's a really useful measure. Although, I agree, those books just waste paper to me. I can't imagine reading them.

This is such a great point. I had thought of the album as driving conformity, limiting what people collect. I hadn't thought of its value driving community. Wonderful thought.

Silk (another stamp KZfaq person) is working on a collection of nice early US cancels. I agree, great cancels can make a stamp. An uncanceled stamp is in some ways just the promise of being a stamp when it grows up.

Yeah, for the most part, collections are made up of stamps that we all bought for very little money, which means the result sells for very little money. I'd say that most people who spend money for rarities also don't get the ROI they might hope for. For me, it's better to collect for the fun than the value, although I do love stumbling upon something more valuable. Still, nothing in the 1000s in my collection.

My favorite too

I think a lot of what we collect gets driven by the album pages we happen to have. I first got a Minute Man album, which pushed me to US stamps. But, if the minute man showed a block of 4, I collected the block of four, not the singles. There is at least one set that could legitimately be collected as a block of four or a strip of four. Scott showed a picture of the block, but I had a strip. I didn't know what to do.

I think that's a great idea

Thanks Jeff! I like your date limits, and your willingness to make exceptions. I like making your own mounts out of glassines. Good call!

I've seen that too, especially with the Victoria issues.

I've always liked the look of those stamps, but haven't gotten into collecting them. What a nice collection.

Thanks for the information about the precancel. I hadn't recognized it as that. It's says "Montreal Quebec." I'll show it more respect now that I know. US precancels have a strong pull on people, myself included. So far I've resisted collecting them. In fact, you remind me that I have an old booklet full of them that I found in a lot. I put it in a drawer, and of course mostly forgot about it.

Both great ideas.

I feel the same about Iceland and Greenland stamps. I am Michael that send the stamps to Ken. I collect mini or micro states like the Panama Canal Zone, the UN, Andorra, San Marino, The Vatican, Monaco but my majors are Canada, U.S. France, Germany, Japan as well as British and French Empires. I will never have them all. I am going to bee 80 this year and just revived my collecting within the past year Some stamps are too expensive or unavailable so I buy in spurts of interest. I love the very old colonial stamps, overprints of all kinds, airmails, revenue stamps, Special Delivery, law stamps. I recently discovered Aland, a semi-autonomous group of islands between Finland and Sweden which are Swedish-speaking but belong to Finland. I just stumbled over the name while searching for other stamps. They started issuing stamps in 1984. You can fall down a rabbit hole sometimes. I recently watched a KZfaq video from the young South African chap living in the U.S. who runs Exploring Stamps. He is widing down his video making but spoke of an Estonian map stamp where German war maps from the First World War were used by Estonia to print stamps on the back due to a paper shortage. Well I went to online stores and catalogues to see if I could find them and saw all the other Estonian stamps and am quite taken by the designs of most of their stamps going right back to the beginning of the 20th century. I want to collect them now but I will have to buy only a little now and again out of interest in various issues as I only have so much money and I need it for my main 5 (Canada, US, France, Germany, Japan). I reduced my collection and sent it to Ken but I am in danger of climbing back on that horse as I see more deeply into other countries. I guess this is one of the joys of Philately though. Michael

People don't have to specialize--this is a no-rules hobby. If an item delights you, who's to deny that delight. I've never been to Iceland, but want to go. I've been surprised by how rare it is to find Iceland stamps. So far, no topicals for me, but I imagine someday ...

"You have to specialize" - been there, seen that...

Oh, hi! Nice to hear from you so soon. I like the idea of using the box to store something else for the collection--that way it still has a stamping life. I've had so much fun with these stamps.

Those are some solid focus areas. Some of the nicest stamps have birds, butterflies and lighthouses. And I love the colors on Japanese stamps!

Good memory -- I do still have (and use) my Minuteman album. It's interesting to remember that packaging may be damaging to the stamps. In those cases, it's no doubt better to get them out of there. I'm also a big fan of sorting through lots. That's probably obvious. In the few times I've bought singles, I'm amazed at how little fun I get from mounting them and setting them in their spaces. "Is that it? Is it over now?"

@@KensStampCollection I recently saw a Minuteman and the Canadian equivalent barely used at my local stamp shop in a box lot... I just about got that lot to re-create my old collection lol but had spent my monthly allowance. I traded most of my US to my dad but so much US stamps end up in every box lot I have a new collection to organize lol

Tempting, I'm sure.

I love your plan for one mint and one used. As for formats, I think you have to find what calls to you. A cop out, I know. I didn’t collect German stamps until I got a huge head start of a collection in a stock book, and they called to me.

@@KensStampCollection Yes, I think one can follow your gut. It talks to you. Thanks again for that excellent video!!!

We are the same age--probably started collecting about the same time, but you have so much more world experience than I do. That's great! What got you excited about Yugoslavia stamps? I did a video about them a few back, and have really loved starting that collection. Interesting history.

Hello. Ken. Thanks for answering. To answer your question about Yugoslavian stamps, I never had them, until a friend of my mother who was a professional stamp collector died. She gave me his entire collection, and these stamps, I think, are the most beautiful in the entire collection. But I have other stamps in other countries I love..I will not start to write every one of them, but the list is long. Let's keep in touch. David

What a nice way to expand your collection!

@@KensStampCollection I really agree with you. And since 1992 that I lived in Israel to today ( I am back in France since 2 years), I never bought a stamp. Everything was given to me. I bought the albums, tweezers; magnifying glass catalogs, but no stamps. Again, all given to me, to this day. David

That's an amazing thing--the stamp collector who never bought a stamp. I love that.

Such nice designs.

@@KensStampCollection Very nice, indeed!

I’m interested in named forgeries too

Hi Roger; not yet. I had one package take two months to arrive, but I haven't lost one yet. Your two focus areas--New Zealand and Greece--have such a wealth of offshoots to keep you busy. I have a few Cypriot stamps that I really enjoy, they are full of history. And, I agree that NZ stamps are lovely.

I’m leaning that way

How do you manage your accumulation side? Is it just a big pile of loose stamps, or do you have some organization to that? Oh, I can feel my anxiety kicking in--that's a "me" problem. I still have lots of duplicates, and I enjoy when I can give them away.

@@KensStampCollection Well, it's a whole lot more organized than it used to be...I totally get the 'anxiety' part as it can be overwhelming. The accumulation 'happened' over a long time. (Both in stamps and other things} Not like a hoarding thing, but to some it may look that way. LOL. A lot of it was 'circumstantial acquisitions' that I never planned to get, let alone keep, just need to 'rehome'. Was not that long ago that I got the collection vs accumulation thing set in my mind. Have been refining what is really of interest to me in that time. As I do, the separation becomes clearer, and it's easier to part with the rest. I have been focusing on the larger items. Most of the binders and better stuff is now separated. My collection is separate and right at my desk, 'maybe keep' goes on another bookshelf. The 'don't want ' is boxed and work toward getting rid of - not always easy even to give away. I do have lots of loose stamps in big boxes. I am still finding some for my collection in those. So, not quite ready to push them out the door, but I have given away many 1000s.

Okay, I feel better. Keep, maybe keep, and give away. I agree. It's not always easy to give away stamps.

Bonjour--FDC flooded the market for a while, and the fad seems to have faded. I think they are beautiful, but they take up so much space. I think postal history is wonderful, but I haven't gotten the hang of sorting things in boxes like envelope collectors need to do.

@@KensStampCollection They do take up lots of space, but I can't help but being fascinated by them. The cachet designed for the specific stamp tells a story as well. If, by any chance, you do have some 1939-1950 Artcraft FDCs to trade with me in exchange of French stamps, that would be awesome. Wishing you all the very best from sunny Provence.

I'll take a look -- I have some first day covers, but I'm not sure the source.

@@KensStampCollection Thank you and merci beaucoup, Ken !

@@KensStampCollection Also, let me know what you are looking for in French stamps.

Those CTOs from eastern bloc countries can be quite beautiful. I'm interested why you don't collect the large ones? Space? Mount size?

Yes many of they are quite beautiful stamps especially my # 1 favourite country Czechoslovakia today Czech Republic and Slovakia, I like they ( avant-garde?, contemporary? design ) and printing method ( Engraved? ) and CCCP and other Eastern block propaganda of communist ( Red ) but other large side like Disney stamp style, no! 😜Hope you understand and sorry on my English 😁

The Czech and Slovakia, oh, and Romania designs are wonderful

Oh, thanks for the pointer. I hadn't seen that before. Too bad about his passing. I wonder if any of his work has accidentally ended up in a real-life collection.

That's so interesting. All countries?

@@KensStampCollection Don't collect all countries. Collect only proof & rare stamps in a country you like. If you can do that, then, you will have an unique collection unlike other people. Your unique collection will attract international Investors & postal museums !

@@lanuiiohu That sounds exciting and fun

That's sounds interesting. Tell me more -- pop me an email at kenflowers at comcast dot net.