Pushing 330,000 All Different Worldwide Stamps In One Collection .

If you just want to fill a few holes in a page, hipstamp or perhaps delcampe can work well for that. You might end up paying a dollar or two, total (plus postage), which does increase your average price per stamp, but the holes are filled with no duplicates, and you picked examples that looked good for you.

I haven't sent out wantlists, because I'm picky, but I know people who do that, too.

If you have a bourse near you, you may find a dealer or three with rows and rows of red boxes, and that might get you lower prices and no postage. Maybe.

If you can deal with a bit of duplication, you may find that buying small lots or a set may actually be cheaper than getting three or four singletons out of the set. You might also find that you can upgrade centering or cancels on spaces you had already filled. That would be a piece of cake for you, since you're using mounts.

KyleB - Go to a large stamp show. I think I collected the same country/sets at the show, small world.

To fill holes in my collection I usually use stamps2go.
https://www.stamps2go.com/default.aspx

I don't think there is a simple or easy answer to the question KyleB asked above ,which is "How do you fill holes or spaces of cheap stamps in your collection ".

We have stories of people who filled a pre-1940 Scott International in the past . Years ago we all could just stop at a few stamp stores or local bourses or even a stamp show and find both stamp dealers who had huge inventories of stock books or even dealers who deal in certain countries or printed country price list . Well these methods are a thing of the past .

Remember this whole discussion is about stamps under $1.00 ,so buying various cheap stamps thru the mail is a NO GO. Not if you don't want to pay full catalog or twice catalog then add another dollar for postage . So any answer of buying ON-LINE ,doesn't work .

Sure I like to give you a free stamp but now again it cost a buck to mail it to you and then you will like to mail me something back but again it is now $2.00 in postage for a "free" 25 cent stamp . That is a NO GO too!

The answer is from a local friend or a local stamp club meeting .swap .

Getting a dealer involued doesn't work for a cheap stamp .They want a $10.00 and up transactions to make a profit .

Before we moved in 2017 we lived on the outskirts of London and once a month there was a stamp fair a twenty minute bus ride away. I used to get breakfast from a shop beside the bus stop, go to the fair, chat to dealers and other collectors, buy a few stamps and then head off to a nearby pub for lunch and to congratulate myself on what I'd bought. Sadly the nearest fair to where we live now is an hour and a half away on the outskirts of Leeds

At my London fair there were a couple of dealers who had loads of albums more or less filled with stamps that you could search through and pick out as many stamps as you wanted for 20p each. And if you bought over whatever limit they'd set and they were in a good mood, they'd give you a bit of a discount on the total as well.

Ideal for filling odd spaces or interesting postmarks. I never found any actual treasures, but lots and lots of stamps missing from sets that would have cost a fortune to buy from somebody and get posted to me

Excellent advice! I second it!

John

Wish I could invite all the members of stamp club to my house ,I joined 60 years ago . I join or to be correct they voted to let their first teenager to join their club . Today I am the only living member of the club . The OGDEN HILLS STAMP CLUB was the club that brought all the other Chicago area stamp clubs together to establish COMPEX . .

COMPEX for many years was the biggest stamp show in the Midwest .

I was told by many members in 1965/1966 ,that it was difficult to collect/ save the world and to big of a challenge .Yea right!

I can't understand the time and effort to buy a single cheap stamp , it is not only paying extra then add in the shipping cost . Maybe fine for a specialist who is seeing a key item or something never seen or have to do in a highly specialised collection but not for a worldwide collector who is filling blank spaces .

Beautiful Swaziland and French overprints. "Filling in holes with cheap stamps" Good question. We have a stamp bourse here once a month and what do you think the most competitive table is? The dealer who has a stack of albums where people can pull out stamps for a dime each. Of course all those add up but a great way to fill hose spaces. I agree online is trickier to get one stamp at a time that way and keep costs down.

Club auctions are good places to get scads of cheap material. I just sold a old 1930s Scott International for $10 at one with 2,000 stamps in it so they got it for half a cent a stamp. I pulled 2,000 stamps out of the album before it sold, so I was OK. I recommend buying used albums (with stamps in them) when you can find them!

landoquakes, are the Second Sunday bourses humming along at a respectable clip? I haven't been to one in ages. How many dealers show up?

@all, you can buy online without hitting Buy It Now on a twenty-cent stamp and ending up paying a few dollars, with shipping, for one cheap stamp.

I like hipstamp because you can look at 100 images at a crack, and you can hit the "heart" button to add something to your wish list. You can sort your list by seller and add them to the cart when you get to a suitable number. I only buy cheaper items from sellers who combine shipping.

As just one example, I recently bought 37 items, singles and pairs, with interesting (to me) cancels. All from one seller. With shipping, it was a little over $15. Easily worth the effort, and cost (to me).

LANDOQUAKES ----Sounds like your dealer has the right idea . Table to sit at and pick stamps at 10 cents each sounds like the way I like to spend a Sunday afternoon .

I purchased a lot of stamps many many years ago at weekend stamp bourses . The price was right at those "pick your own at 2 cents each tables" . I have no problem with both, being the buyer and being a seller at a show at 10 cents each today .

Cjd... It's about 4-5 dealers, so not very big, but considering the closest retail stamp shop is hundreds of miles away it's fun to go there and look through things and I always find something I need. I buy on Hipstamp too. Mostly complete sets and I get to upgrade once and a while and swap out mint stamps with used ones. To me, mint stamps are just asking for trouble ;)

I make it to the Cities a few times a year. I usually leave Sunday morning. If I'm there on a second Sunday, I think I'll hang around a bit and check it out.

A difficult set to find in a worldwide collection . {not complete }. The two missing stamps catalog over $3,000 .00 But happy to have reached this level for the set .