• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Stamp Albums.

G G Jean

G G Jean

Brummy Wench.
I suppose most of you had a stamp album as a child but did you keep yours?. I was sorting through another bag of tricks and found one of mine. The other someone borrowed to mull over the stamps and guess what? I never had it back. Jean.
 
I had a half-hearted attempt at stamp collecting as a youngster, but it didn't "do" anything for me: all too fiddly sticking them in albums with 'hinges', and at the time neither the geography of where they came from or the history of their development interested me.
I ended up either giving them away or swapping them for something else, I don't remember now exactly.
 
Yes I collected them as a youngster and so when I came to Australia in 1968 I started collecting Australian stamps and first day covers.
Now that I have retired and can't afford the yearly outlay I want to sell 30 years of collecting and keeping them safe.
No one wants to buy them. I cant even get the face value for them.
So you could say they have got me licked and i'm stuck with them.
 
i have two stamp albums that my brother and i collected when we were young. if my memory serves me correctly we have about 6 or 8 stamps in a block with the edging on that were when england won the world cup. it says world cup winners on them. i think that there werent that many printed with that on.
 
Hi Jean.

Yes I've still got my stamp album I started collecting around 1948 from time to time add to them expect i'd have in region of a couple of thousand some going back before the WW1.

Ray
 
My albums are mainly USA, CANADA, UK & ITS EMPIRE.Will post when I get round to scanning the pages. Have not been very active after having a Computer Video & Photo downloading takes up so much time.
 
G G Jean said:
This is the stamp album and most of the stamps have become detached. Jean.
Click to expand...


Amazing! I had the very same stamp album! I'd forgotten it was called ''Gay Venture''
icon10.gif
Unfortunately I gave mine away...I think I swapped it for a tin-hat, or possibly a gas-mask.....I was a strange child... (shut it!)
 
Yes, I had a Gay Venture too (no sniggers please, I remember the days when gay meant happy!)

The normal thing was to stick them in with hinges but I think this would be frowned upon now as it creates a blemish on the stamp. I always used to write the scores and team changes on my football programme but modern collectors would recoil in horror. I did know however know that it was not right to polish old coins even if they did look shinier!

Bob
 
John well and truly shut. I remember that one of the Canadian stamps was worth about thirteen pounds some time ago so will look that one up. Like I said my best book was borrowed and never returned. I thought the name may cause a few giggles but my friend was named Gay many years ago. Jean.
 
G G Jean said:
I suppose most of you had a stamp album as a child but did you keep yours?. I was sorting through another bag of tricks and found one of mine. The other someone borrowed to mull over the stamps and guess what? I never had it back. Jean.
Click to expand...

Dear G G Jean, Stamps were a very large part of my childhood.
Needless Alley was the Mecca.
Weekend after weekend [Chris D] my constant companion, we would lust after Penny Blacks and Reds.
Far too expensive, for a twelve year old, but maybe one day?
On Monument Road, a shop opposite the Post Office sold franked or cancelled stamps.
3 pence for 200.
Saturday night was my time to organise my stamp collection.
First a bath, Pyjamas, the 8 o'clock play, a cup of ovaltine, and a pouring over my collection of stamps.
A Saucer full of water, Stamp hinges and blotting paper.
Today I have a 1 year old grand child.
In Four years time, I think might buy him a stamp album.


ladywood
 
Ladywood I would buy my stamps out of my paper round wages. If I were you I would buy your grand child an album then you could buy his/her stamps. I am going to try to find the Canadian stamp later as they have mostly come adrift from their pages. Jean.
 
hi

Yes millions of the things virtually worthless now.
Ruined by speculators in the 90's who spent a fortune on them
but the prices's collapsed. Stanley Gibbons has a virtual monaply
on them. First day covers cost a fortune.
Collected every Elizabethen stamp ever issued.
Gave up a couple of years ago and never looked back.
All the Stamp shops in Town went. Im not a fan of Stamp Fairs
nearly as bad as Stanley Gibbons.

Mike Jenks
 
I will buy my grandson stamps, hinges, blotting paper and a magnifying glass.
But I suspect it's more for me than him.
 
Ladywood I am just sorting through mine to find that stamp that is supposed to be worth a bit and if I do will put it on this thread. Bet you can't wait till your grandson is old enough mind you you could start one off for him now?. Jean.
 
I think I will have to wait.
But Morse code, Astronomy, and Philosophy follow on. You can't waste a minute.

ladywood
 
I started my original stamp collection when GREAT BRITAIN still had some thing called EMPIRE.
So many country name changes over the years its hard to no who is who, I found it as a child a great way to help with my way a round the world while at school.
AS I HAVE SAID IN A PREVIOUS POST HAD TO SPECIALISE ON A COUNTRY DUE TO IT COSTING SO MUCH TO COLLECT THE WORLD STAMPS.
 
Keith I had two Aunties living in Holte road and a brother ten years my senior who were always buying my stamps for me before my paper round began Oh and of course mom and dad bought me loads too. Bye. Jean.
 
My Nan started me off at stamp collecting. She used to be a secretary at Charles Avery, the scales maker in Balsall Heath. The building is still there, doing something with Piaonos I think.
She used to get me all the stamps off the post, from all over the world, only one day hse nearly got the sack. She took a stamp off an order written on a post card. The order had not been sent off and the adress was on the back of the stamps. Luckily she found which stamp it was so could read the address.
Lucky for me her friend Florrie started saving the stamps and handed them to Nan after work each week, so I was still supplied. Still collecting stamps 50 years later. My album was a Stanley Gibbons, much thicker than a "GAY Venture". Good job really, it is so full now the covers are bent, and I have shelves full of other Albums.
Do start your grandson stamp collecting, it may be a hobby for life!!
 
Igles my best album was a Stanley Gibbons, the one that was borrowed and never returned so I only have the Gay Venture now. Your poor nan almost getting the sack but that is and was what nans are for. Jean.
 
Hi Jean,

I trust the references in Ilges 71 's post to the Gay Venture Album, and the covers
being bent was pure coincidence! I remember the West End Stamp Co in Needless
Alley, and also Margoschis (I think it was spelt like this) in Burlington Arcade. I always
went to Needles Alley as it seemed more friendly.
I still have my old collection, and perhaps one day will have a look at some of the
values. The cost of a new catalogue will probably be prohibitive though, and of course
the values shwn are their selling prices, and you wouldn't get a fraction of the prices
shown even if you could sell them, so I probably will never get to it!

Kind regards

Dave
 
hi; everyone, i started collecting stamps when in hospital in 1947, used to exchange same with other boys there, I now have almost 100. 000 of them and still collecting, some are worth a small fortune, but are not for sale. A very fasinating hobby, and you learn a lot about the countries. red73
 
Welcome red73. I collected stamps when I was a boy (didnt all boys ?), and saved them for ages, and then one day, my Grand-father, told me that when he died, I would get his collection. He had collected for years and years, and like you, had some that were worth a small fortune. Well eventually the inevertable happened, and he passed away. But instead of me recieving his collection, it was taken by my Uncle (although it was promised to me). I still recall this event although it was nearly 50 years ago. After such a let down Im afraid I lost all interest in philately. Glad you still collect, as it is a interesting hobby. And when you open an album and see the history on the pages, makes it all worth while. Enjoy your collection, and may it grow and grow. Best wishes, Barry. (By the way, love your part of the world.)
 
ladywood said:
Dear G G Jean, Stamps were a very large part of my childhood.
Needless Alley was the Mecca.
Weekend after weekend [Chris D] my constant companion, we would lust after Penny Blacks and Reds.
Far too expensive, for a twelve year old, but maybe one day?
On Monument Road, a shop opposite the Post Office sold franked or cancelled stamps.
3 pence for 200.
Saturday night was my time to organise my stamp collection.
First a bath, Pyjamas, the 8 o'clock play, a cup of ovaltine, and a pouring over my collection of stamps.
A Saucer full of water, Stamp hinges and blotting paper.
Today I have a 1 year old grand child.
In Four years time, I think might buy him a stamp album.


ladywood
Click to expand...
Needless Alley - Simon's stamp shop - with the Haberdashery shop next door. I used to take the children into Simon's to buy their stamps, never did much myself but bought an album and packet of stamps plus hinges for Christmas for the eldest. Remember watching Mikado on tv and sorting the stamps out while the then dh slept and the child played with her dolls!!!! Needless to say I was hooked and only stopped collecting when the self adhesive stamps came out. I hadtwo collections going used and unused and as they are still legal tender I am using up all the back issues, mint ones that I must've paid 25p etc for!!! Like I say - they are still legal tender and I don't think the collection would be worth much nowadays.
BTW - the last I heard Simon was still selling, at various venues - I think the Irish Centre, Digbeth used to be one of the shows on a Wednesday.
 
ladywood said:
Dear G G Jean, Stamps were a very large part of my childhood.
Needless Alley was the Mecca.
Weekend after weekend [Chris D] my constant companion, we would lust after Penny Blacks and Reds.
Far too expensive, for a twelve year old, but maybe one day?
On Monument Road, a shop opposite the Post Office sold franked or cancelled stamps.
3 pence for 200.
Saturday night was my time to organise my stamp collection.
First a bath, Pyjamas, the 8 o'clock play, a cup of ovaltine, and a pouring over my collection of stamps.
A Saucer full of water, Stamp hinges and blotting paper.
Today I have a 1 year old grand child.
In Four years time, I think might buy him a stamp album.


ladywood
Click to expand...
My late father owned the stamp shop on Needless Alley - The West End Stamp Company. I worked there on Saturdays during the 1960's. I believe he sold the business in the early 1980's. Attached is a photo of Needless Alley and one can see STAMPS written on the wall by the door.
 

Attachments

  • Needless Alley.jpg
    Needless Alley.jpg
    57.5 KB · Views: 14
When my late father owned the stamp shop on Needless Alley, I was, naturally, a stamp collector. In the early 1970's I was in the Merchant Navy and my interest in stamp collecting waned. After emigrating to Newfoundland Canada in 1973 I had no interest in the hobby. However, I did begin coin and stamp collections for Newfoundland, as there was an end date in 1949 when they became a province of Canada, and collected Canadian coins. My brother still collects and specializes in the Channel Islands. I wish to thank everybody who remembers, and have made nice comments about, my late father on this forum and on the Needless Alley forum.
 

Attachments

  • Needless Alley 2.jpeg
    Needless Alley 2.jpeg
    339.1 KB · Views: 13
Stamp collecting! This brings back memories. Started collecting at an early age. I remember buying a few stamps from a small book of approvals someone had at school. Too expensive to buy many. Also remember when I was about 10 going into the library and asking the assistant if I could borrow the "big book that told you how much your stamps were worth" [ie the Stanley Gibbons World Stamp Catalogue]. It weighed a ton. I then spent hours and hours looking my stamps up - not that they were worth very much - but at the time got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Of course, as a previous post has mentioned, the value was what it would cost to buy a pristine one from Stanley Gibbons not what I could get for them.

A enjoyable low cost hobby in the 1950s.
 
An amusing quote:
How to become a Stamp Dealer.

First buy a bag of marbles.
Then, when you buy a collection, leave a marble.
When you've lost all your marbles, you are a stamp dealer.
 
I collected stamps for years and wish I still had them, the shop in Needless Alley my favorite they had a Half Penny black that I could not afford and did a lot of business there.
 
Last edited:
Bob Hughes said:
An amusing quote:
How to become a Stamp Dealer.

First buy a bag of marbles.
Then, when you buy a collection, leave a marble.
When you've lost all your marbles, you are a stamp dealer.
Click to expand...
Hey Bob, are you still in Newfoundland?
Dave A
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top