Mascot stamp: Austria Offices in the Turkish Empire
1908 Scott 49 1 Piaster deep blue/blue "Franz Josef I"
The Big Blue Picture
On February 12, 2011, "Aden", the first country blog post and checklist, was published. Now, four years and 300 country posts and checklists later, another Big Blue milestone has been reached: the checklist is three- quarters completed.
Next week, the Part IB2 Reunion to Zululand Checklist, the final one, will become a work in progress with the publication of the Reunion blog post.
This might be a good time to download a copy of the checklist(s) for your personal use.
Comments....
* The general checklist is stripped of all comments and valuations. Comments and observations regarding the checklist are found in the "Big Blue" section of each country post. And all valuations $10 or greater are noted.
* Recall the checklist almost always follows the actual '69 edition BB exactly. So some Scott numbers do not appear sequential, if in fact that is how the spaces are presented on the page. The advantage is the album page and the checklist should have a 1:1 correlation- very easy to check what you have or don't have.
* The later BB editions also follow the checklist without problems, except the edition may start a new page for a category. The '41/'43/'47 editions follow about 90% of the time - But the first page and the end of category sections may be different.
* This is not a spreadsheet, but a checklist with spatial clues. ;-)
* For further information on the checklists see:
More observations....
* I'm more convinced than ever that continuing with the BB checklist, even after I decided to use the Steiner (Deep Blue) for my collection, was a good idea. It gives me a tangible and reachable goal for a country, and I feel better about leaving expensive spaces empty in Steiner.
* How long will it take to complete the checklist? I estimate 100 blog posts, and about two years. Truth be told, although we as stamp collectors think most about the end result, the real fun is in the journey.
* This blog receives a lot of "hit" traffic ~ 23,000/month; 700-1000+/day. I'm gratified that this can't help but promote classical era collecting.
* And it very much feels like a community with the comments engendered. Thanks to the blog and website authors listed along the left column, - I learn a lot from them. And thanks specifically to Bob of "Filling Spaces" blog fame, who gave me the Big Blue checklist idea,.... and I ran with it. ;-)
Jim
Jim, tremendous accomplishment. I think I've commented before that I thought about doing a checklist, but at best it would have been a list of numbers (Lower Slobovia: Scott 3, 6, blank, 12) with none of the incredible background information you include. Which makes it essential for worldwide collectors, regardless of whether they use the Scott Volume One or not.
ReplyDeleteBob- well, I owe it to you. :-)
ReplyDeleteOnce the momentum is there, it is easier to continue with the momentum.
I know now the checklist will be finished. (In fact, it is already done in a raw form, not just yet all published. ;-)