The End of a Stamp Collection

I am selling my life-long collection of stamps from Denmark.

It's an odd-- and totally unexpected-- thing for me to be writing. After all, I had expected I would continue the collection into my 70's and eventually "cash out" to have a measure of comfort-- and perhaps travel-- during my "golden years."

Instead, I find myself starting to sell my collection because of a series of (costly) personal circumstances most recently culminating with my wife's 82-year old mother-- who has severe mobility issues as well as dementia-- moving in with us. As a result of a lifetime of poor decision making and personal self-neglect she is incomeless, penniless and assetless, so the cost of her care and living has come out of our pockets... already empty from a decade of medical bills, kids in college and several other unforeseen disasters that drained our savings to zero.

So the decision was made to sell my Denmark collection, in order for us to not head for complete financial ruin. Oddly enough, it was my idea-- my wife thought I should keep the collection.

I suppose I should feel grateful that stamps, indeed, are a "store of value" of enough significance that they can help us pay our way through the current situation.

The whole situation made me sit and ponder the whole idea of "why we collect things." Whereas "worth" was never of major importance to me as a stamp collector, I did always follow my late father's advice to "always buy the very best quality you can afford." That advice seems to be standing me in good stead, today. I am grateful I paid attention to his words...

My dad's line of reasoning was that a "mediocre" quality stamp had no way to become a "top quality" stamp... but a "top quality" stamp could always have an accident and get damaged, and become a "mediocre" stamp. Thus, top quality stamps-- especially the classic and older ones-- can ONLY become scarcer with age.

Whereas I always knew-- and even planned-- that "someday" my stamp collection would be sold, I never spent much time thinking about how I would feel about 40+ years of effort going away. Specifically, I never considered how I would feel about all those years of work getting "dissolved" in a matter of months. I feel somewhat sad to see these "old friends"-- many of them with stories and memories attached-- leaving my albums.

On reflection, it seems like a very poignant reminder of the impermanence of most things in life.

On the upside, I am grateful that I get to personally handle and oversee the sale-- through eBay, mostly-- thereby being able to make sure that every item is "presented" properly and offered the best possible chance to find its way into the hands of another collector/specialist who will enjoy it in their collection. I'm also glad I have the luxury of a little time, and am not forced to drop the collection for "whatever quick offer I can get."

Someone asked me if I was "giving up stamp collecting."

The answer to that is no, but it is going to be "collecting on a shoestring" from this point forward. It would seem that my days of making any significant investments in new higher value stamps are behind me. For the foreseeable future, 110% of our income will go towards healthcare, living expenses and whatever follows thereof. Yes, I just wrote "110%" because this endeavor is somewhat beyond our means... the indirect "cost" of living in a country/society that has no social safety net for people who have little of their own.

But that's besides the point.

Most likely, I will continue to collect Danish town cancels on inexpensive stamps. And I will continue collecting plate flaws and varieties on the GB Machin issue-- again, something that can be done for a few cents per stamp. But I will no longer be a "serious" stamp collector, in the traditional sense of the word. I haven't lost interest in stamps, however...

It will be interesting to see how things go, with the sales... which I plan to have unfold over the next few months. Hopefully there are still some Denmark collectors and specialists with a taste for top quality material and varieties you rarely see.

Anyway, if you are reading this and happen to be a collector of Danish stamps-- especially nice (and unusual) ones, I hope you'll check my eBay page from time to time. You can find the first set of items here. Maybe there is something you could use?

Memories: Childhood Stamp Collecting

The end of the year has always been the time of the year when I end up "taking inventory" of life, and where I am, and what I hope to do in the year ahead. I don't really do formal "New Year's resolutions" as I have a nasty habit of never making these goals.

One of the common Danish stamps from my childhood. It is even
(faintly) postmarked RUNGSTED KYST where we lived.

Putting away the Christmas decorations brought up some childhood memories, reminding me of my beginnings as a stamps collector. My parents had traveled extensively before they returned to Denmark to start a family, and they had made friends all over the world. And part of "keeping in touch" with this global group of friends involved the annual ritual sending of Christmas cards.

As a result, December was the time of the year when lots of mail would arrive from all over the world, in envelopes carrying stamps from many exotic places. And I got to keep all the stamps from the Christmas cards, which was very exciting.

Meanwhile, my dad would also bring home large numbers of stamps from the office. His company traded extensively with other companies and clients all over the globe, and there was usually an extra load of mail during December. That mail was particularly interesting because some companies and people would send gifts of various kinds, and those gifts would arrive in boxes actually franked with postage stamps from their countries of origin. This was the mid- to late 1960s, so stamps were still widely used on parcels. I didn't have a real concept of "high values" as a 7-year old-- I was just aware that the stamps were significantly "different" from the ones my dad brought home during the rest of the year

The 8 øre stamp from the 1875 "Bicolour" set was one of
the first "really old" stamps in my childhood collection.

Although I don't remember the exact way I "got started," I do remember my first stamp "album," which was a 16-page stock book with "picture cover" that was a collage of stamps from around the world. In fact, I still have it somewhere. I also remember getting old newspapers and "pressing" stamps in our phone books after soaking them off paper. I was impatient, so sometimes a stamp had to be soaked 2-3 times before it finally let go of all the glue and no longer stuck itself back to the newspaper.

Stamp collecting was pretty simple back then. My friends and I simply collected "stamps." That said, it was not long before we discovered that most of our stamps were from Denmark-- since that's where we lived-- so "collecting Denmark" seemed to make more sense than "collecting the whole world."

I remember buying my second stock book with my own lawn mowing money, because I wanted my Danish stamps to be in a book by themselves. I'd heard that that was what "serious" collectors did, and I wanted people to see that I was "serious" about stamps.

Stamp collecting-- back then-- was also a pretty common hobby for kids (and adults), although it seems that in my native Denmark there were far more stamp collectors than anywhere else I have lived, subsequently. At least 7-8 people in my grade school class of some 25 had stamp collections, and to the best of my knowledge, at least half of them went on to be collectors, as adults. There were also several stamp collectors in my extended family, and nobody thought that "collecting stamps" was even the slightest bit "odd," as something to do. It wasn't until I moved to Texas as a 20-year old to go to college that I first ran into people who'd look at me "strangely" and say things like "How weird. I thought that was just something cranky old retired guys do."

The fact that being a stamp collector has sometimes gotten me perceived as a bit of a "strange nerd" has never put me off the hobby... and now that I have been collecting for over 45 years, I still actively promote philately as something interesting to do, in your spare time.

Classic US Stamps on eBay

Occasionally, I will take a sidetrack from what I normally write about, here.

At the beginning of 2012, I first wrote about my stepdad's stamps (which I'd inherited) and about my efforts to slowly sell them off through eBay and other venues. You can see the original post here, if you're interested. You can also skip this story and go directly to looking at the stamps.

US Scott 185 in top condition

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I have a couple of moving boxes with untold thousands of mostly older US stamps, generally in stock books, on random album pages and in glassines and regular envelopes.

I don't collect US, and never have had much interest. That also means I really don't really know anything much about US stamps... aside from what a somewhat advanced collector of areas can glean from looking in a Scott catalogue. Some stamps-- like the "bank notes" and "Washington-Franklins" are somewhat of a mystery to me... and I am really not prepared to spend days and weeks learning the finer nuances of these.

My stepdad did get a lot of enjoyment from his stamps... and even though he never really formed an actual "collection," his accumulating habits kept him busy in latter years.

For me, the "easy way out" would have been to hand all this off to an auctioneer or dealer (and I thought about it) and just take whatever offer I'd get. Based on my life-long experience with collecting and trading stamps, I expect I'd have been offered about $200-300 for it all, since this is very much what you might call a "job lot."

Maybe I'm just sentimental, or maybe I am following in the footsteps of my stepfather's tendency to be very "thrifty," so I decided to take on the "leg work" myself. Of course, it will take me several years to do all this... but that's OK.

Scott 394, 3c Washington coil, perf 8.5 A difficult stamp to find
in ANY condition, and this is quite a nice copy. CV $67.50.

I'm not going to go to a huge amount of trouble here-- just trying to skim off and offer the best to collectors. I expect there are no great rarities here, but there are certainly lots of "mid value" stamps-- from $1.00 to $50.00 in Scott (a few higher-- maybe to $150.00 CV)-- and some are actually in pretty nice (and even superb) condition. There are also thousands of cheapies, and thousands of damaged-- those will just be tossed into the "sorted" box.

In my original post about these stamps I wrote that I would turn everything into "penny auctions." That is, every lot-- regardless of quality or catalogue value-- will open on eBay at ONE CENT, and the market can decide what the stamps are worth. Risky? Maybe... but my experience has been that the stamp market is pretty "intelligent," and good quality material will achieve a fair price. It's the junk nobody bids on. And I'm only going to bother with the better quality material-- the junk I may sell "by the pound," at the end.

I'm not doing this with the purpose of "making money," as such... although I do have some secret ambitions to put all the proceeds into my grandson's college fund (he's three).

Anyway, this week I am offering up my second group from this old hoard (the first went up for sale in March of 2012), consisting of 81 lots with mostly USED older US. As I said earlier, starting price is ONE CENT for all lots, regardless of value.

Also-- if you're a fan of US stamps-- it might interest you to know that all these stamps were collected in Europe, and most have not been seen by any US specialists for maybe 50+ years. I really have NO idea what might lurk...

... and last, but not least, I am not using my usual "Scandinavian Stamp Specialist" seller ID, but my private account I use mostly to buy and sell non-stamp stuff from our attic. Anyway, hope you'll have a look!

The auctions end on Sunday night, July 21st, 2013. Here's the link to an overview of all lots.

The Pursuit of Quality Stamps

When I was a little kid, my dad started me on stamp collecting. His advice to me was simple, and largely based on his own life-long experience as an art and antiques collector:

1. Collect what you like, and what appeals to you; don't chase "popular trends." YOU have to like what you're doing, not other people.
2. Always buy the very best you can afford; market tastes change, but quality never goes out of style.

When I was six, these perhaps didn't seem very important. The excitement of collecting stamps revolved around "collecting one each of the whole world."

However, my dad "stuck to his guns," in a gentle sort of way... teaching me about the inherent beauty of "high quality," and made "finding the very best" part of the fun of stamp collecting, even as early as when I was a teenager. By the time I was 12-13, I no longer had any interest in adding stamps with faults to my collection... unless they were high value classics I couldn't afford in any other condition. Even so, I was always on the lookout for "something better" to fill a space occupied by a ratty looking stamp.

40 years later, I am going about stamp collecting pretty much the same way, always focusing on finding "quality stamps" not just "stamps" for my various collections.

My dad knew what he was talking about. There's a lot of talk these days about the "decline" of the stamp market and our "dying" hobby, and how there are no new generations entering philately, and how many 16-year olds have never actually used a stamp on a letter... and so on. As I look around-- at large auction houses, or individual seller sites like eBay or BidStart or even the APS Sales Division, there's a huge volume of material for sale... suggesting there are many more sellers than buyers in the market.

And yet?

Superior quality stamps-- old and newer alike-- are extremely difficult to find, and often command "stupid" prices, when they do show up for sale.

My dad's underlying philosophy behind "buying quality" was simple: scarcity. No matter what, there will never be more "top quality" copies of any given stamp no longer for sale at the post office. A top quality stamp has only two "paths" to follow. It is either handled well, and remains "a top quality stamp," OR some collector carelessly handles it to cause a tiny hinge thin, or a torn perf, or drops it on the floor and creases it while picking it up. And so, it no longer is part of the "top quality" pool of available copies. A "junky" stamp will always be a junky stamp. It has no way to become a "top quality" stamp. And because top quality stamps can become junky stamps due to mishandling and accidents... the available pool of "junky" stamps is not static... it can actually grow, over time.

Of course, I don't actually collect "quality" stamps for their worth-- that's just a "coincidental incentive bonus." I collect quality stamps because the aesthetic beauty of something perfect or almost perfect appeals to me... and because I enjoy the "treasure hunt" challenge that goes with finding "the best stamp" rather than just "a stamp." This especially holds true for newer issues that are common and can be found by the thousands... yet finding a superb copy can be quite challenging.

Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. My dad originally wanted me to (or at least "hoped that I would") collect mint NH stamps because they were "pristine." It didn't really appeal to me, though. The number of ways we can mess up gum seemed "risky" to me-- all that worry about toning, foxing, wrinkling, fingerprints, moisture? No thanks! I also didn't like the fact that gum was one of the most forged/faked things on stamps... and it bugged me to have to pay so much attention to what was going on on the back side of the stamp FACING the album page, not the side you were looking at. But-- above all-- I liked the idea of having stamps that "told a story."

Mint stamps don't really have much of a "story." The story of a mint stamp (at least to me) goes something like "I was printed in Belgium in 1903. Here I am. The end." Not enough "meat" on those bones, for my liking.

A used stamp with a legible postmark tells a better story, like "I was printed in Denmark in 1880. Somebody bought me, but didn't put me on a letter to be mailed from the town of Hillerød until 1898. Most likely I was on a letter next to another stamp, because the postage rate had changed from 8 øre to 10 øre between the time I was printed and the time I was used." To me, that's just more interesting. Romantic foolishness? Whatever...

Getting back to "beauty being in the eye of the beholder," beautiful postmarks are a major reason why I collect used stamps. Not only do I like the "story" aspect, and the challenge of finding that "perfect strike," but I like the additional fact that it keeps the hobby affordable for me... because I can collect a whole group of different socked-on-the-nose postmarks on the same inexpensive stamp, and still have them be "different," for the purposes of my collections. Postmarks can add almost infinite variety and possibilities to a stamp collection.

Sometimes I get the impression that quite a few collectors "lose interest" when they reach the point where filling "the next blank space" becomes incrementally more costly. Suddenly you find yourself with just 17 empty spaces in the album, facing the fact that the next space will cost you at least $100.00 to fill. It was a point I reached with my Denmark collection when I was about 16-17... and there was no way for me to continue the collection, on a schoolboy's budget... so I branched out.

But we all have different motivations for collecting stamps. It seems to me that the driving motivation of those who simply "collect one of each" is to have a "complete" collection. For me, the driving motivation behind stamp collecting is.... the actual collecting; the finding; the treasure hunt. In a sense, it parallels the popular saying that "life is not about the destination, it's about the journey." Having a "complete" collection just... just sounds too much like a "destination" or "goal," rather than an ongoing pursuit or hobby. I'm not looking for a point where I am "done" with my collection... I have no plans to reach "done."

That said, there is-- of course-- no "right" or "wrong" way to collect stamps.

Albums or Stock Books for your Stamp Collection?

I have been sorting stamps, recently.

I always presumed that pretty much all stamp collectors spent a large part of their hobby time engaged in sorting stamps and figuring out which ones to place where and in what album or book, and so forth. It wasn't until fairly recently that someone pointed out to me that many a philatelist doesn't "sort" stamps because they only acquire new material "one stamp at a time, exactly the one they need."

I have personally never collected "like that," so it served as a reminder that there are probably as many ways to collect stamps as there are stamp collectors-- and none of these ways are more "right" or "wrong" than any others.

But I digress.

A page from my Denmark specialized collection-- while there is still room!

The way I have always collected stamps-- and gotten the greatest enjoyment from the hobby, I might add-- is through the "treasure hunt method." I buy boxes and bags of random stamps, accumulations, box lots, kiloware, old collections, wads of album pages, duplicate books, even entire estates... and sort through everything in search of the items I want to add to my collections.

Later, I'll trade or sell off the stamps I don't want... but that's a whole different story, for a different day.

For about the 20th time in my stamp collecting history (which now spans some 45 years), I have been contemplating the question of "Albums vs. Stock Books."

As a specialist collector-- of postmarks, varieties, printings and so forth-- I am increasingly abandoning albums as the way to keep my collections. Albums worked fine for me when I was just collecting "one of each number" of the stamps issued by the country I was focusing on. After all, collecting "France" generally means collecting one of each stamp-- which is a very "finite" goal. There are only "X number" of spaces to fill in the album... and that doesn't really change, except by adding new pages for new issues, at the back end of the album.

The issue with this very "fixed" nature of traditional stamp albums arises when you start specializing-- and the number of stamps you might need to display in an "organized" fashion, in one area (or time period) of your album, isn't pre-determined. Sometimes you may need space for 73 stamps, sometimes for four. In this case, I am talking about the kind of album where you do your own layout on blank pages.

The problem I have repeatedly run into is creating a nice layout for a given page... and then having to repeatedly "insert" new finds where they logically/chronologically "belong," till I reach the point where the album page is either completely full... or looks like a haphazard pile of junk. Worse yet, I end up starting a new album page-- and for years I'll be looking at a page with ONE stamp on it.

A page from my France collection in a pre-printed album-- with stamps outside the spaces

Of course, I have the option of removing stamps from the overfilled page to the new page. On immediate glance, easy enough-- but since I put stamps in my albums with black Showgard style mounts, it actually becomes a pain in the rear. What's more, I'm left having to deal with all my pencil notations next to each stamp-- which I put there for identification purposes. Not to mention the fact that the whole process is extremely time consuming.

Hence, I have been gradually switching to stock books with black pages and clear strips, simply because the whole "moving stamps around" is SO much easier than dealing with an album. And the stamps still look really nice, in the book-- at least to my eye. And since I am not an exhibitor, I don't feel compelled to stick with an exhibition type format.

Stockbooks are definitely the way to go, for me, especially for the specialized collections.

My first major "moving project" involved getting my specialized collection of the Swedish "ringtyp" issue from album pages to stock books. It took a lot of time and effort, but was well worthwhile doing. As most of the varieties and plate flaws on this early issue are not well documented, I really had relatively little idea of the size and scope the collection might grow to. With stock books, I can easily move things around, as new material might demand it.

A page from my Swedish "ringtyp" collection, now housed in stockbooks

Do I still use albums? Absolutely! Most of my more "general" collections are still in albums, even though I expect some of them will move to stock books, over the years. In the future, a likely candidate seems to be my France collection (housed in a pre-printed album I've had since my teen years), which is suffering from "creeping elegance" as I have been adding SON cancels on the older issues, as well as precancels (quite common on French stamps) and a few blocks of four, as they show up.

More currently, I am considering moving my Denmark specialized from self-made album pages to stockbooks. I feel a little hesitant, because I have literally thousands of hours "invested" in creating those albums-- not to mention the many $$$'s I spent on supplies. However, some of the pages have gotten very "untidy" looking-- while others (recently added) are sadly sparse.

Maybe it's just part of the "journey" for long-time stamp collectors that we're always "tweaking" the way we keep our collections organized. And maybe that's part of what keeps us interested in our collections-- even after all these years-- the fact that there is always "something that needs to be done."

How do YOU keep your stamp collections? Are you happy with the way it's working? Do you often reorganize your collection to fit in new material?

US Stamps from a European Estate

Taking a bit of a sidetrack, today.

Note: Today's entry is about some classic US stamps I am selling on eBay. If you just want to skip the personal story behind them and go look, here's the link: Click here for Classic US Stamps eBay auctions (Opens a new browser tab)

My 93-year old stepfather passed away recently-- outliving my mom by about a year. They were retired and lived on a golf course community in the south of Spain. Most of their "stuff" was recently shipped to me, here in the US.

On occasion, my stepdad would "fiddle around" with a (rather messy) collection/accumulation of US stamps. In later years, his eyesight, steadiness of hand and mental clarity somewhat declined, so the "collection" eventually became more like "wads of pages with stamps on them." There were also some cigar boxes with stamps, envelopes with stamps, and some ancient salvaged stock books.

Not "rare," but nice quality!

I don't expect that I'll find any great RARITIES here, but there are certainly lots of "mid value" stamps-- from $1.00 to $25.00 in Scott (a few higher-- maybe to $150.00 CV)-- and some are actually in pretty nice (and even superb) condition. There are also thousands of cheapies, and thousands of damaged-- those will just be tossed into the "sorted" box.

I don't collect US, and I know nothing about US stamps (beyond what I can learn from opening a Scott catalogue)... and I have no "attachment" to this collection. I also know my stepdad was very "thrifty," and would NOT have wanted me to just hand the whole mess off to "some dealer" and get $50.00 for my effort.

Thus, I have decided that what I'm going to do is take "the best" of what I find, and put it out on eBay. I can make high quality scans, hopefully to somewhat compensate for my lack of knowledge about this material. I'll identify the stamps to the best of my ability, which may not be good. Issues such as the "Washington-Franklins" and some of the classics with all their printings and papers and grills completely baffle me.

What I am also going to do is turn everything into "penny auctions." That is, every lot-- regardless of quality or catalogue value-- will open on eBay at ONE CENT, and the market can decide what the stamps are worth. Risky? Maybe... but my experience has been that the stamp market is pretty "intelligent," and good quality material will achieve a fair price. It's the junk nobody bids on. And I'm only going to bother with the better quality material-- the junk I may sell "by the pound," at the end.

So, there are thousands of worthwhile stamps in the two boxes now in my office. So, I expect this little "project" may take me a few years. My plan is to "chunk" the stamps into groups of 100+ individual listings, so people can benefit from cheaper postage costs-- since some of these probably wll sell for a buck or less.

There are also some superb cancels!

My first set, which I have sent to eBay this afternoon, has 148 lots, mostly older used US. Lots of those "in-between" stamps that are too expensive to be in packets, but too cheap for MOST sellers to bother with.

Click here to go have a look at these listings now (Opens a new browser tab)

What might add some "interest" as well is that my stepdad was British and lived in Europe, and was NOT a "specialist." Much of this material has not been in the hands of US collectors for half a century or more.

Anyway, if you happen to be stopping by this page... and US stamps are "your thing," bookmark/subscribe or make a point to come back, from time to time... I'll announce as new listings of these US stamps go up for grabs. By the way, I am not using my normal stamp selling account on eBay-- I usually sell Scandinavian stamps, and I don't want to confuse my "regulars." I'm using my "private" eBay ID, instead.

It'll be a nice "diversion" from my daily routine... and not to worry, this does NOT mean I'm suddenly abandoning writing about Scandinavian Philately!

Is Your Stamp Collection Documented?

Recently, we moved to a new house. Then, last week, we took a trip to California to visit family.

These are normal acts people engage in on a regular basis. Moving, and being away made me stop and think about how well (or not) my stamp collections are "documented." What would other people, processing my things, know if something were to happen to me?

If you read philatelic publications-- such as the APS' monthly "American Philatelist"-- it's commonly written that it's important that we collectors remember to insure our stamp collections. There are even companies that specialize in insuring stamp collections. If you have even a moderately "serious" stamp collection, I highly recommend this. Most likely, your homeowner's insurance (unless you have a special rider) will NOT cover the full value of your collection.

But that's not my reason for writing, today.

Both my parents died, a couple of years ago. But even though their "papers" were in immaculate order, they left almost no documentation to actually identify the things of value they left behind. Finding myself "wondering" about some of their artwork made me realize that THIS is exactly how people find "a Picasso painting at a garage sale."

Odds are that unless they happen to be stamp collectors, themselves, you children (or spouse) have no real idea of what your collection is about. They may have the most general idea that your collection is "valuable" to some extent, but what will they do when you die? Will they have the information to sell your stamps for fair market value? In the event you have assembled a specialized collection... would a "general" stamp dealer-- assuming your heirs had the knowledge to contact one-- understand what they were looking at? Will the collection-- which could have paid for a grandchild's college education-- end up with some unknowing dealer who'll offer $5,000 for it? Would anyone (for example) realize that this non-descript Swedish stamp pictured at right carries the only known example of the postmark on it... and would sell for a considerable sum, if properly auctioned, in Sweden?

And so, I have started the process of "documenting" my collections, creating a file of descriptions and information that can serve as an "addendum" to my will.

It doesn't have to be complicated.

A couple of paragraphs to describe your collection, or each of your collections (if you have several). A brief listing of any "highlights" a potential auctioneer or other buyer should be aware of, along with the location of any expert certificates for better items, should you have some. A short list of dealers or stamp auctioneers YOU would entrust your collection to... were you to sell it today... along with their contact information.

Doing this will not only offer you some peace of mind, it will also offer peace of mind to those who-- at some point in the future-- will have to "deal with dad's stamp collection."

New Location

It seems like it was 20 years in the making, but I am glad to be able to report that I am now writing this from Port Townsend, in western Washington. I have always loved the Pacific Northwest, and I am glad to be able to call it "home," and I'll also say-- after the ordeal of moving here-- that I do not plan to have any more major moves in my life.

Maybe those are the "famous last words."

So far, I have unpacked relatively little of my stamp collection, although I am looking forward to living in a place with seasons-- including the "winter season" I always associated with stamp collecting, when I was a kid.

One of the things I really like about this part of the country is that there's a strong Scandinavian influence here. This also has an impact on stamp collecting, as more people tend to collect stamps from an area that relates to their original heritage. I expect I'll find far more Scandinavian material at the shows and with dealers here.

Packing things away to move

I have started packing quite a few of my stamps away, in preparation for moving. Even though we are still nowhere near actually putting the house on the market, we continue to go through the seemingly endless process of packing things away, and getting rid of the excess.

I feel a bit hesitant about putting stamp stock books and philatelic literature away, with the idea that I "won't need them" for a while. I suppose it makes me take a long hard look at exactly which stamp catalogues are meaningful in my collecting. I am also about to pack away some of my collections, and that worries me a bit, too. It could be months and months before I can get to them again... what if I felt like organizing some stamps, in the interim?

I suppose that's part of the "price" we pay for doing the move as a "self-move."