Into the Deep Blue: A new focus

1908 Austria Offices in Turkey 1 Piaster

Deep Blue on Blue: the blog's "mascot" stamp

Into the Deep Blue
If you have been following the blog for awhile, you may have noticed  my exasperation with Big Blue's tendency to leave many inexpensive stamps out of its pages. Not the "fault" of Big Blue, really, as Scott has always intended BB to be a "representative" album. :-)

Now, Part IA1 "Aden-Ethiopia" section is complete, along with a 223 page comprehensive checklist.

Done!

But a new focus.

I am migrating to "Deep Blue", my affectionate (and telling) name for Bill Steiner's Stamp Album Web PDF pages.

I DO plan to actively publish as I have done this past year. I will continue to do a country by country analysis of the classical era. I hope to cover (eventually) all the political entities that have ever appeared in Big Blue.
(If that becomes an impossible task, I would at least cover the major stamp issuing entities.  For now, I'll continue with an all world coverage ;-) )

The focus will be three-fold.

From a classical era world wide collector perspective, I will look at a countries affordable stamps and issues. My criteria for affordable is generally less than $20 CV prior to 1900, and less than $5 CV for the rest.

If a country has tricky issues, re-engraving changes, or some unusual quirk or stamp history that might be of interest to the classic WW collector, I plan to examine these - provided I have sufficient material to do so. BTW, I now have the Stanley Gibbons 1840-1970 British Commonwealth catalogue, so hope to be somewhat bilingual. ;-)  ( I am also working on Maury (French) and Michel (German), but that could take awhile.)

Finally, I will  look at the coverage of Deep Blue compared to the Scott Classic catalogue. There might be at times some interesting differences.

Big Blue
I will continue to monitor the stamp issues that are found in Big Blue in a general way.  Big Blue offers an essential kernel for WW classical era collectors, and it would be foolish to ignore its contents.

But I will not continue with a formal checklist*. If you are a reader who would like to take up the mantle and construct a Big Blue checklist for some or all of the remaining countries (with your own blog), consider doing so!

* Addendum 2-1-12: The checklist, albeit in a simpler format, is back. Yes!

Out of the Blue
I hope the change in focus will appeal to anyone with a sincere interest in the classical era that would like to learn more about these incredible stamps.

I've enjoyed the time I spent with "Big Blue" this past year. I would like to acknowledge those who made this checklist fun by your active participation; thank you! I would especially like to recognize Bob Skinner of  "Filling Spaces" blog fame for his inspiration and ongoing encouragement -Thanks Bob!

Now into the Deep Blue and the Falkland Islands.......

Jim Jackson