What Can Be Done: The six Australian States present stamp collectors with an entirely separate philatelic world in its own right. There is no British area in the hobby that is as specialized. Many collectors find New South Wales daunting and frankly, of all the Australian States, New South Wales presents the most challenges, many of them artificial. Traditionally, philatelists have defined stamp varieties as consisting of differences in design, perforation (or none), and watermark. Subtle design differences resulting from plate retouches and later printings generally do not make for major catalog number varieties. Such is not the case with the stamps of New South Wales. Many of the first issues represent simple retouched to the original plates, and there are numerous minor varieties that are only additional retouches.
New South Wales can be collected as simply trying to get one of each major number. Or collectors can enjoy the country that probably has as many minor varieties as any other. Take a look at your Scott catalog. Nearly every catalog number also has several varieties listed. These varieties make for fun collecting. Many of these varieties catalog for the same amount as the major number and yet are very hard to find. Such collecting can soon make for more search than acquisition. After the major stamps have been obtained, it’s the varieties that make for the enjoyment of philately.
One tip for Australian States collectors: the catalog price and selling price for many New South Wales are nearly the same for mint and used. Even if the mint price is far higher, you might want to consider collecting New South Wales in mint condition. Mint stamps have always been scarce and the newer generation coming into the hobby are increasingly mint collectors.
Specialized Catalogs: the Scott catalog is very good for New South Wales. Many specialists, especially those in Great Britain and Europe, use the Stanley Gibbons catalog. But Scott is very comprehensive and has all the listings and information that any collector would ever need.
Stamp Albums: Scott makes excellent albums for all of the British Commonwealth. Their New South Wales pages are included as part of the Australia and Dependencies Specialty album which makes you buy a bunch of stuff that you don’t really need if you are only collecting New South Wales. But such overbuying is unfortunately the case with all the Australian States albums. Stamp albums are personal preferences and reasonable people can disagree, but I don’t like the entire Stanley Gibbons series of albums, especially for US collectors. Gibbons paper and production values are not as high as Scott (certainly well below Lighthouse). The album contains few illustrations, just spaces with Gibbons numbers for the stamps, and has spaces for many varieties that few collectors want or have. Such spaces (which tend to remain empty) make even the best collection look spotty and juvenile when they are in Gibbons albums.
Availability of Material: It is availability of material that makes New South Wales so interesting to collect. The straight stamps by Scott are relatively easy, if a bit pricey, to obtain, and they are actively marketed by many dealers worldwide. The hundreds of varieties are quite a different story. Many are commonly offered. Many other, even lower priced ones, may take years of searching. For many philatelists the true joy of the hobby is finding something that they have desired for years and which is modest in price. Collecting New South Wales will give collectors this particular joy over and over.
Expense: New South Wales has an interesting price structure and can be collected at a very expensive or fairly modest level. The better stamps of New South Wales catalog for hundreds of dollars each, and some even go into the thousands. In perfect condition they can sell for as much as a full catalog. But like most classics, price is very quality dependent. Take a perfect stamp, add a small unnoticeable thin, and the price then become 10% of the perfect price. Many collectors assemble excellent New South Wales collections at very appealing price levels.
Overall grade: A