How About A Big Blue 1840-1940 Thread?

I thought I would start a new thread for those of us on SCF who collect world classics in Scott International #1, 1840-1940. I know that there are a number of us on SCF, and I'm sure that most of us are loyal followers of several prolific and wonderful contributors on their blogs: Jim J.'s "Big Blue" blog, his guest "STAR" Bud sharing us photos and articles about his 100% completed BB, and Bob's "Filling Spaces" blog.

I, like many on SCF have commented, and have learned a great deal from these wonderful resources. I personally will never be able to thank the authors enough for their man-hours and efforts.

At the same time, I thought it might be a good idea to have another outlet for other collectors to share their BB journeys and successes, and maybe pick up a tidbit or three from other BB collectors. This could be as elaborate as showing BB's, pages, tips on how to find some of the 25 cent-er's we all struggle finding or letting everyone know when you've completed a country and can delete it from your list.

So, to begin, I am collecting from the 1947 Big Blue. It is now in 3 different binders, and probably needs to be in 4 binders! I have been a U.S. specialist for years now, so I removed the U.S. pages from my BB. I began in late 2016 after reading Jim's blog, and I started with buying 3- BBs from eBay and combined them to start with just over 11,000 stamps.

Now, I am at 26,857, and have 8235 left to go. As I posted last week, I don't need Syria 106c, because I found one!

Where I've done pretty well:
Colombian States-- almost done.
Nicaragua Zelaya and Cabo-- almost done.
Eastern Silesia-- I need one more, #28 (if anyone has one, please let me know!).
Italian Colonies- Cyrenacia, Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, Libya, Tripolitania

I've really tried to work on some of the smaller dead countries-- and I've completed a bunch of them. I finished Benin and Ponta Delgada today!
For larger countries, I've completed Australia, Finland, Indochina,

But I need to work harder with the Far East-- China, Japan, Korea, Manchukuo.

And doesn't everyone need more Spanish Colonies?

So, I'm hoping there will be some responses from other BB collectors. What have you added lately?

Thanks, Ray

Congratulations on your project of trying to fill a #1 of the Scott International .

First you need to change your title heading to Big Blue vol.1 or pre-1940 Big Blue , I collect in Big Blues too. Yours is three volumes and mine are 72 volumes ,so you need to better clearify what you want posters to talk about .

When you count stamps do you count the stamps outside the boxes or you count just the stamps that fill boxes on the page as printed . What do you do with shade types like the first issue of Malta ,or what do you do with Netherlands syncopated perforation ,or maybe Turkey's Bull Heads which I got six pages of .
My questioning goes on what do you do on those pages which are out of order in Scott's ,do you buy a second set and " canabulize " it to put your main set in order .
Those Blue binders are crap and fall apart in 15 or 20 years, I seen many sets of Big Blue held together with plastic packing tape or that fabric tape you buy at Ace Hardware .

Yea there is a lot of questions outside of which stamps I got or you got . That I like to hear about .

And may I add the almost 177 plates of the imperforate Penny Reds.

I also use Big Blue albums, but back in the 1970s I reorganized them by country so 'Volume 1' is no longer 1840-1940 but rather "A-B" countries.
Don

Ray.mac do you have a wish list for Japan. I have quite a few spares. You can send me an email and I can see what I can come up with for you.

Dianne

The Big Blue binders are nice and feel solid . They are great but then you add a few more pages,then you add stamps ,then you add mounts to a few hundred pages . Now you got a monster volume to fight with just to put it on and take it off the bookcase 200 or 300 times over a few years . Guess what , that binder falls apart .

My answer to that battle, with monster size binders was to buy a 12 volume set of International at public auction in very good condition with few stamps but the set was like new for $250.00 . I used the 12 binders to expand my main set . The pages I cut down and repuched the holes to a three ring binders that I purchased {a nice dark blue color 3 ring binder } at STAPLES . That is my working copy for the past two years and once that gets max-out ,I will transfer stamps and then sell that set after it is picked over .

We've had conversations like this on Jim's blog a lot, but I'm handling things differently than most. I'm not trying to be a "WW collector". I started with a goal, which is to complete the BB #1, so I'm collecting to the album. I haven't found a good outlet to get rid of all of the BB #1's I've purchased, but for singles and sets, I've sold now on HipStamp for a few years. I'm trying to subsidize my purchasing with sales, and I usually won't buy an auction box lot without having the funds in my PayPal account from my Hip sales. It was a struggle at first, but since I retired at the end of June, I have time to scan and list, or at least a lot more time than I had. So, the answer to your question above, in my case, would be that I'd put them up for sale.

I have Volumes #2 and #3, and I have also picked up a set of the original Minkus Supreme's in really great condition, so I've toyed with going farther, but I can't see that it would ever be going past KGVI, or about '53 or so. I've also toyed around with the Browns, and I have a couple of sets-- has anyone ever removed the bindings and punched the pages from the Browns?

I need to replace my 3rd binder now, which is Paraguay - Zululand. Really bad. I have a few extra empty binders, and just haven't taken the time to do that yet.

But I also really like the idea of using something different with the existing pages, with less pages per binder. Is anyone doing that with their BB #1?

My Big Blue collection has always been my 'fun' collection; I gather common WW stamps over a period of time and when I have had enough of 'serious' philately I get back to the roots of my intrinsic attraction to the hobby by working in my Big Blues. If a stamp qualifies for a mount, then it goes into one of my specialized albums, but if it is 'hinge-worthy' and relatively common it goes into the Big Blues. My Big Blues are organized by country, go up through 1976, and currently have around 75,000+ stamps. I am not a 'completionist' with this collection; I enjoy the process of adding and learning about the stamps and have no drive to fill every single space. (I am a 'completionist' with other collections that I have). My Big Blues are my welcome distraction from medical issues, life issues, and hobby issues.

I have 15 two post binders, replace them often as they suffer from plenty of 'wear and tear'. I do not worry about binder condition, but I do use vintage hinges. I mount stamps which have no 'spaces' on added blank pages, I use no interleaving and let stamps on opposite pages battle it out with each. There are some decent value stamps in this collection but that is not the intention or purpose of this collection.
Don

I picked up a BB Vol 1 recently that's in great shape, and the previous owner thoughtfully took the Indian States pages out of the Supreme and punched the pages to fit in BB. An area where BB is woefully short!




It's really a shame that they don't sell new, smaller binders (not the jumbo ones available through Amos, but something that won't break your foot if it lands on it). Perhaps we could pool our resources to open a new product line?

Just a side note ----- For years I used those three ring binders with the round rings . About two years ago I got a three ring binder with album pages in it that had the D-RING in the binder . Those D-RING 2 inch binders are a lot easier and more friendly to work with . They don't rub stamps as Don mention above where stamps on two sides of a page fight it out .So much easier to work on a page when flat in a D-ring binder .

gvol-- I didn't remove the Indian States out of my Supreme, but that's where I keep those stamps, and keep a separate check list. But I think that the previous owner had the right idea!

What I did do, was after purchasing a country collection of Italian Offices and Ageans that were on the Classic Reproduction pages, I removed all of the BB pages for that section and I'm using the classic pages. Another area where BB is woefully short!

Ray - Kudos to you for starting this thread.

I will keep an eye on the topics, and if there are questions specifically about the contents in http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/ , I will try to reply. I say "try", because there is much information on the blog after eleven years. But some of it is buried a bit, and my "recent memory" isn't so recent anymore.

There's always more room for a Big Blue thread. :) Big Blues omit a lot of the highest denomination stamps, even through Part V. If I run across one of those I include it in my count, so that skews it a little. I have 19,671 in my part 1... I have a ways to go!
You mentioned Supreme Global too, is anyone thinking of completing a Supreme Global? The 1954 version has 76,000 stamps, the 1959 version has 93,000 stamps, the 1965 version (came in three volumes) has about 125,000. I haven't heard of any really devoted Supreme completists, but I'm sure they are out there.

"is anyone thinking of completing a Supreme Global " the answer is very few people ,maybe 1 out of a thousand Worldwide collectors .

There are two reasons for this ,I am going to use myself as a example .

First most worldwide collectors started with a 50 cent album purchased at a five and dime store ,I started in 1956 with one from Woolworths . This printed by H.E.Harris ,then moved up the chain of albums like the Discovery Album then a Citation Album then a Standard Album which was a three volume set . Most collectors came up thru this chain of albums before they had the money to buy a advance worldwide album set . The Internationals by Scott was near the top and that is what we all dreamed for .

The MINKUS brand of albums were sold at the expensive downtown department stores and it had a strange layout for the stamps both semi-postals and airmail stamps were mixed with the regular stamps in a pattern that I was unfamiliar with and didn't follow the stamp catalog at the Library ,which was the guide to stamp mounting order . So growing up I had my order already established before I stepped out to buy a "adult " album .

Second the MINKUS Supreme Global was expensive and even today the prices are way to high .Today they want $50.00 just for the binder ,just one year of annual supplements is $150.00 or $300.00 even blank pages for 20 pages is $18.00 {at that price I buy 1,000 blank paper sheets ,so I can print Steiner pages }.

Well I don't collect Big Blue per se, but I do use the binders. I buy blank paper sized and punched to match the BB pages then do my own page design. I would have gone with the Specialty binders except those nasty rectangular holes would have been expensive to duplicate. Drilling to match the two rounds posts in a BB is cheap and easy. The last batch of blank pages I bought came in at about $0.03 each, I also had a big stack of spacers created using card stock, so I can handle the extra thickness caused by mounts and stamps without getting the dreaded bulge.