So let me tell you a story. Way back when I was about 7, this is more than 50 years ago, I started collecting U.S. stamps. It wasn’t really a conscious choice, more one of availability. I lived where there were tons of U.S. stamps, so I collected what was readily available. Most people start that way.

This last weekend, I finally got tired of looking at a lot of holes so I did something about it. Mostly, I am now complete from about 1916 to 1993 where I stopped. It kind of feels good, to be honest.

Every time I go to a stamp show, I try to go with a plan. What am I going to work on while I’m there? Sometimes, I just meander, but I like to at least have an idea of what I want to focus on.

This last weekend, I decided to make it U.S. I’d looked through my albums and there were some random holes that started to  bug me. I’ve tried this before, but for a lot of them, either the dealers were missing that specific issue or it hadn’t made it onto my list, something like that. There was a handful, less than 15 or so, that had escaped my attempts and I wanted to finally get it done.

I started off collecting used, because that’s what most people do, but somewhere around the time I was 10 or so, I moved to mint and never looked back. It was at the stamp counter at a local department store and I bought a couple of packets of 1930s stamps, including the Virginia Dare (#796) and I decided that I really loved the look of mint stamps.

Of course, people usually stop collecting when life gets in the way and I was no different. I came back to it pretty regularly, filling in holes and replacing used copies with mint. When my wife and I got married, I introduced her to stamp collecting and she’s been with me on the ride ever since. In maybe 1995, we both bought albums from a local shop and since my albums ended in 1993, that’s where I decided I would stop collecting. I hate self-adhesives and that’s where they started to become more prevalent, plus the fact that most modern stamps are really ugly. I love the engraved stamps and these just suck.

I figure that by around 2000, when we both returned to collecting again, I had gotten most of the years from maybe 1930 to the 90s done. It’s when I decided to branch out to other countries because the number of stamps that I still needed, that were affordable, were getting slim. I spent the next 20 years or so, on and off, collecting China and Australia, just because I liked the look of the stamps, and every now and then I’d pull out the U.S. binders and think I should get them finished up, especially the second one which, right now, is just 1977-1993, plus back of book. That’s the stuff that really started to bug me because it should be easily achievable. According to my want list, there were only a couple of stamps that I needed, with some exceptions that I’ll explain in a minute, so I was going to get those, no matter what happened!

My first stop at the show, I asked for U.S. stamps and he had… none of them. Granted, I think I’ve been through his stock before and cleared him out and he apparently hadn’t added anything new. My second stop though, a dealer I visit all the time, he had just about everything. I went through and pulled every stamp that I needed, with a couple of exceptions, and started working backwards from 1993, all the way back to the late 1920s. Some of them were just replacing used copies with MNH, which I was fine with,  but I wanted to fill all of the holes.

The only exceptions were singles from two sets of souvenir sheets, the 1992 Columbus anniversary set, which I already have all of the sheets for, I just need about half of the singles and nobody sells those apart from the sheets. I know that I have to buy sheets again and tear the stamps out, something that I positively hate to do. The other was the 1991-1992 World at War series, where again, I have the souvenir sheets, I’m just missing the individual stamps. I found one dealer, a long time ago, who had all of the individuals from the last released sheet, I have those, but there are others that I need to get and I know what I’ll ultimately have to do.

I even went back and grabbed the #730 1c Fort Dearborn souvenir sheet because I have no clue what happened to mine. The mount was in the book, meaning it was there, but the sheet… it was gone. Now it’s back. There were a couple that I paid a pretty penny for, but a lot of the big dollar purchases, I’d made before so it was reasonable. I really wouldn’t have wanted to buy the 1926 White Plains sheet again (#630), or the high value Prexies, but I didn’t have to.

If my want list is accurate, I am now complete, mint, from 1916 to 1993. I am going to have to make time because I will have to go through, page-by-page, to make sure. There is another one that I know I’m missing, the 1993 Madonna and Child self-adhesive version, because I can’t figure out what the Scott number on that is. I’ve only looked online, I have to pull my actual Scott catalogs and look it up, but until I can, it’s going to be another hole in the book.

I did wind up buying two stamps that I didn’t need, both of them inexpensive, so I know my list wasn’t as accurate as I wanted, but maybe this weekend, I’ll have time to see how bad it was. By then, my next load of stamp mounts should be here and the last couple of stamps can finally get put away. Then I’ll have to decide what to do for the aforementioned singles. The Columbus stamps, if I want to, I can just pull the page and no one will be the wiser. The World at War stamps, those are on pages with other stamps so I’m kind of stuck. I’ll have to see if I can order just those souvenir sheets and not have to buy the ones that I don’t need at all, but that’s a problem for another day.