Big Blue 1840-1940
Scott International Album: Part I
Well, something needs to be said after successfully publishing the Big Blue blog for ten years!It began on February 12th, 2011, the first blog entry... Overview.......
After 30 years of being away, I have delightfully resumed my 1840-1940 worldwide collection. After some deliberation, I settled on Scott International Volume 1 (Scott calls it Part 1) to house the accumulation. But what is this? No information on what is in this album? Rumor has it that Scott does not even have the information.
Perhaps I can help.
So I propose with this blog, using Scott catalogues, to systematically comb through all the stamp illustrations/descriptions for a country and make a "checklist". And to put the results here.
Perhaps I can help.
So I propose with this blog, using Scott catalogues, to systematically comb through all the stamp illustrations/descriptions for a country and make a "checklist". And to put the results here.
The Big Blue checklist took six years - 2017- to complete.
In the meantime, my colleague Bud began commenting and showing his completed Big Blue, commencing on September 10, 2016.
That work is on-going, and Aden through Mozambique is now posted.
Deep Blue (Steiner) Pages housed in Vario F and Vario G Binders
Shown here is part of the Collection
Am I happy with that choice after ten years experience with Deep Blue? Absolutely! At the present, I have some 51,000 spaces filled out of a 83,000 space capacity.
Still, Bud's approach of using supplementary pages for those stamps without a space in Big Blue is also a viable choice.
Big Blue's "Mascot" stamp: Austria Offices in Turkey
1908 1 Piaster Deep Blue on Blue
On reflection, I'm also pleased with my early decision to feature 1200dpi scan images of individual stamps, little pieces of visual art, in all their glory.
Out of the Blue
If the reader would scroll along the left column, there is much information and stamp images that have been published - in fact, ten years worth!
Enjoy all the thoughts and comments on classical era WW collecting that is here!
Jim Jackson
Congratulations!! I collect Austria-so I think it is a great idea, but can you elaborate as to your selection of Scott Offices in Turkey #49 as a 'Mascot'?
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog, I check and read all the posts.
Roy.
"Mascot stamp: Austria Offices in the Turkish Empire
Delete1908 Scott 49 1 Piaster deep blue/blue "Franz Josef I""
Well, I chose it when I had a modest collection, and I had a copy. ;-) Since my blog theme was "Big Blue", "Into the deep Blue", and "Out of the Blue" - a stamp that was "Deep Blue on Blue" fit the picture. And reality, is, although I have a bit more hair, I look like Franz Josef I. ;-)
Ten years is quite an accomplishment and your efforts and Bud's sharing of his collection and your sharing of your collection items and progress is much appreciated. This blog has been a great incentive for the community of stamp collectors for 1840-1940 stamps and its content has added greatly to my enjoyment of the hobby over the past several years.
ReplyDeletealbumfilling - appreciated! And thanks for your other comments too - it helps to keep going. :-)
DeleteMany philatelic bloggers have come and gone; to still be active after ten years and still be turning out consistently high-quality content are an achievement few can hope to reach. Bravo on the milestone.
ReplyDeleteamiracle - thanks for the kind words. By the way, I see you are into running. My past history includes 40+ marathons. ;-) And I live in Eugene, Oregon AKA "Track Town USA". ;-)
DeleteMany Happy Returns! Lots of people must be like me, eagerly looking for a new post, anxious to absorb the information that you have laid out so clearly to make sense of what was proving a bit baffling when we searched through our catalogues.
ReplyDeleteAnd so often, you post something that chimes with what is happening in my much more modest collection. So in the last few posts you've covered Colombian States just as I was adding some of these to my pages.
And it's not just my thirst for knowledge that is met! I love the posts describing your progress, listing additions and charting progress.
Keep up the good work and here's to many more blog anniversaries
Crispin
Wow, thanks a lot Crispinhj! And it is true, the blog posts are aimed at those that enjoy classical era WW collecting, but do not have upper 1% budgets. ;-)
DeleteCongratulations, Jim! Keeping this going for 10 years is a huge accomplishment and an immense contribution to the hobby. You have been an inspiration to me for years and I appreciate what you are doing so much. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteMadbaker - and you have also been an inspiration to me with your posts on The Stamp Forum. !!
DeleteCongratulations on the blog, at least 10 more years are the minimun no? Great quality and always available for helping out when having a question; great work and THANK YOU!!!
ReplyDeleteand thanks Lexman for your Comment contributions over the years. !!
DeleteCongratulations! You have done much to promote world-wide stamp collecting.
ReplyDeleteThanks John - appreciated!
DeleteJim: your work has been indispensable for all of us Big Blue collectors! As I work on my collection I have the Scott Classic to the left of me and your site on the screen in front of me. Congrats on ten years and thanks for all your work!
ReplyDeleteJoe
And Joe, I appreciate the occasional correction for the checklist!
DeleteJim, congrats on achieving this awesome milestone. I speak for many others when I say that your blog was instrumental in getting so many into the collecting WW game. Hope to contribute to this great effort what I can by way of comments here and there, and look forward to another decade (or a few) of posts!
ReplyDeleteTom- thanks for the kind words, and comment away! :-)
DeleteHi Jim, congratulations and kudos for the brilliant blog. I discovered it only some months ago and you have single-handedly converted me to a 1840-1940/1960 collector, which is rare species on this side of the Atlantic in Switzerland :-)
ReplyDeleteAfter a break of 30 years I firstly starterd to complete my Swiss country collection 5 years ago. However I soon realized that the fun in collecting current stamps has gone because the Swiss Post publishes 50+ new stamps a year, but no one receives them because companies use postage meters and private letters are as rare as unicorns.
Your blog gave my hobby new meaning and I bought on ebay a Minkus comprehensive Album 1840-1960 with 31'000 spaces, which I prefer to Scott because of the addtional country and stamp information. Since a couple of months I now transfer my global collection that is stored in a dozen assorted stock books into Minkus, which is great fun.
I write occasional blogs (in English and German) on my website, which otherwise is about cooking, vinyl rock records and motorbike travels: https://www.sundaykitchen.ch/befreit-die-briefmarken-aus-den-alben-geschichten-von-verlorenen-und-vergessenen-landern-und-herrschern-erzahlt-in-briefmarken/ and https://www.sundaykitchen.ch/of-postal-dukes-brazen-counterfeiters-and-bavarian-double-kings-von-postfursten-dreisten-falschern-und-bayrischen-doppelkonigen-english-deutsch/ In latter about the old German states your blog now officially appears as source :-)
Thanks again and keep up your great work. Best regards, Adrian
Hi Adrian - glad you got the 1840-1940 WW collecting bug from me. ;-) Have fun!
DeleteI certainly have enjoyed working with you on this blog. You get special kudos for putting up with my silliness.
ReplyDeleteBud - It has been a special pleasure working / collaborating with you these past five years. And you get special kudos for the quality of your work - I can put up with that anytime. !!!
DeleteCongratulations, Jim, for ten years of work on the second-best collecting resource on the net. The first being Deep Blue itself.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Jim, for ten years of work on the second-best collecting resource on the net. The first being Deep Blue itself.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave, that means a lot coming from you. And, I agree, it is second best compared to the real thing. ;-)
DeleteI've actually just taken on a project from Bill Steiner himself. Not of interest to classics collectors, but there's one big set of non-Scott pages missing from his site, so I've pulled out my old copy of Pagemaker.
DeleteWell, that sounds like a bit of a project. !!
DeleteCongrats Jim (better late than never, LOL)... It is funny how quickly the years pass, and how slow the process is. But with persistence each small drop adds to beautiful deep blue. Here's to another decade!
ReplyDeleteThanks Keijo, and good to hear from you. As you know, you were one of my inspirations when the blog was started in 2011. Glad to know you are still keeping tabs!
Delete