This past year, I started making some adjustments to my inventory. First, I’ve been adding mint stamps from the 1990-2005 period. Second, I’ve been trying to eliminate the damaged, inexpensive stamps from my inventory. Third, I’ve been trying to add more moderate to higher priced items to my inventory. All of that takes time, especially adding the modern issues. Along the way, I’ve neglected some things and those holes are showing through in my inventory.

In particular, some of the more common early used US issues in the $5 and under range are lacking. Yes, I have a stock of them to work on. No, I haven’t found time to do it yet. Yes, this is my next area to tackle.

That’s one disadvantage to being a single person operation. I fill orders, handle the advertising, pay bills, and maintain my stock. It’s a huge job. I’m not as big as some stamp dealers, but my business isn’t trivial either. On top of a regular full time job (I’m now an engineering manager of a software development group) and raising a young family, there are only so many hours in the day.

The modern material has come a long way. I have many issues listed now. I have some more work to do. I see this phase getting easier because most of the modern material I had sitting in stock is now in the pricelist. Yes, I have some holes to fill with the modern stuff, mainly around the definitive issues. That will come in time.

I no longer try to carry inexpensive, damaged stamps. I don’t spend time with them. They get thrown in a box which I’ll sell as a large lot someday for a couple of bucks.