US Stamp Album 1847 - 1947
by Design Type

Welcome New Stamp Collectors

Classic U.S. stamps are the most interesting, challenging, and costly stamps to collect. If you're interested in classic United States stamps, think about this: Simply buying a big album that you can never afford to fill leads to a long, frustrating, expensive experience — and lots of empty spaces. This website introduces a satisfying, and affordable way to collect classic U.S. stamps.

The premise is simple: The Scott catalog lists 1,037 major number stamps from 1847–1947. The catalog value of the 535 unique designs of those stamps is about $37,000 (in very fine used condition). You should be able to purchase those 535 stamps at 25% of catalog, which is less than $10,000 (my cost when I did it was around $6,500). Even better — get started first with 96% of those 535 stamps, which can be had for roughly $2,600.

Then, after you have built up your experience and stamp collecting skills, go after the 20 remaining stamps that account for most of the cost. Just so you know, the catalog value of the other 502 stamp variations is about $11,000,000 and some of them are unobtainable at any cost. I don't like blank album spaces, so I opted for this beginning to my stamp collecting journey.

Build a Design-Type Collection First

Collect every one of the 535 unique stamp designs used by the public to mail letters and packages during the First 100 Years of U.S. postal history (July 1, 1847 – June 30, 1947).

A "design-type" is a face design, denomination, or intentional color change—not the variations (special printings, die types, perforation differences, booklets, coils, paper types, shades, errors, watermarks). Scott Catalog's 1,037 major catalog numbers consist of 535 unique designs plus 502 variations. Most variations occur in select definitive issues, and some exist only in museums or cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire.

"Your design-type collection has clear boundaries presented in a complete, elegant, and achievable collection with meaningful milestones along the way."

Create a Professional-Quality Custom Album

House your 535 stamps in a custom album you design and print yourself, using the same binders and paper used for million-dollar collections. This is not a junior album.

Your foundation collection will include every design and denomination of definitive, commemorative, special delivery, parcel post, registration, special handling, airmail, and souvenir sheet issued from July 1, 1847 to June 30, 1947. It also serves as a flexible platform for future expansion—without being constrained by traditional album categories.

Where This Can Lead

By building your foundation design-type collection, you'll develop strong buying skills and gain experience designing custom albums—all at low financial risk. From there, you may choose to expand into areas such as proofs, unused stamps, classic variation studies, or themed subsets like The 100 Greatest American Stamps. Because your albums are custom, you are free to present your collection in a more artistic and engaging way.

A Word to Traditionalists

This approach differs from convention. It does not prioritize graded mint stamps, strict Scott catalog order, or filling every traditional blank space. As a result, the "value" of the collection may not be instantly obvious to long-time collectors.

The rebuttal is simple: this method delivers frequent completion successes, lower cost, greater visual appeal, and just as much long-term potential. You can still reach the same destinations as traditional collectors—your collection will simply look better along the way.

The Bottom Line

Stamp collecting should be fun, absorbing, and purposeful—not financially overwhelming. This website is about achieving early, visible success while preserving room for lifelong challenge and growth. If that sounds appealing, you're in the right place.