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Lately I've been trying to catch up on some long overdue organization, and I've been using Douglas Myall's profiles as my instant writeup.I should say first that my preference for storing a specialized collection such as my Machins has always been stock pages. I collect according to my interests and happenstance. For example, there are some Machins for which I have cylinder and/or date blocks, but there are others for which I have no interest in blocks. And sometimes I may get blocks that I didn't particularly want - from a friend, or a bargain on eBay or at a dealer - and then I put them in my collection.
So with stock pages, I can have whatever I want and in the way I want the items organized. And, after I've acquired all the stamps I want, there are no blank spaces!
For writeups, I do one of two things. In some cases, I do my writeup on plain paper and arrange it so the writeup faces the stock page. The writeup page is on the left and the stock page on the right.
The other way I do my writeup is to use Myall's profiles. Profiles are stamp-sized labels with a full description of the stamp using Deegam notations. The label reflects the actual perforations (or simulated perfs for self-adhesives) and whatever phosphor is applied to the stamp.
I put the profile on the left and the copy or copies of the stamp to its right.
Myall provides the profiles on the CD-ROM with the Deegam Handbook, and profiles for new issues are supplied in the Deegam Reports. He provides profiles for all the recognized varieties, and obviously that gives me the flexibility to use whichever ones I want.
He even provides some blank profiles for noting other varieties or characteristics, but I confess that sometimes I just use a blank piece of paper that is the same size.
There's a sample profile at the top of this post. It's from Myall's web site. I was going to explain all the notations, but I'll leave that as an exercise for you. The explanation is on Myall's profiles page.
If you're not familiar with Douglas Myall's Complete Deegam Machin Handbook and other publications, you can visit his web site here, and Roy has some comments on his web site here.
So, kudos to Douglas Myall for a very innovative and useful addition to Machin collecting. Now, I wish someone would do something similar for booklets.
--Larry
4 comments:
Larry,
I use Deegam Profiles too, but I found using a stock book or stock pages cumbersome. If I wanted to insert a stamp and profile between others to maintain some sort of order I ended moving a lot of stuff around to make space. I settled on using dealer sales cards, one stamp and profile per card. Cards can be easily filed by Deegam number, and I find they are easier to work with than pages. I use a large size card to accomodate smaller blocks and booklet panes. However, I use stock pages for larger blocks and booklet panes. A drawback is the cards are filed in boring archival storage boxes, not in a nice album/book sitting on a shelf. This method works for me, until such time something better comes along.
"I wish someone would do something similar for booklets"
I ALSO USE STOCK BOOKS TO HOUSE MY COLLECTION.
I type the description of the booklet - cylinder block or stamps in question and insert them either above or below the item.
I have used this method for many years and find it is a simple task to move items around or from one page to another.
Robert, when I first fill a stock page, I leave a couple of rows empty. That lets me do a lot of filling in without rearranging several pages, at least most of the time.
Roy, the operative words of your comment are "I type." I want someone to do it for me!
--Larry
LOL Larry, I see a business venture coming on here!
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