Fill The Album Or Preserve The Plate Blocks?

I recently received the collection of a friends father who had passed away. The collection has lots of interesting bits but is primarily the Rebpublic of South Africa and the homeland states (SWA, Boputhutatswana, Ciskei, Venda, Transkei etc).

The RSA collection has a beautiful large album from the inception of RSA (1961). The album is mostly empty - he also had all of the stamps to fill the album but over half of them are in plate blocks while the album requires singles.

Here is my dilema - fill the album - split all the plate blocks and trade/ sell them away at minimal value _ or _ keep the plate blocks and leave the album empty. I'll enjoy the stamps more in the album and believe that the complete album would be more valuable than a self assembled group of plate blocks ...
thoughts?

Have you considered making your own album pages to accommodate the plate blocks? Personally, I'd never ruin a perfectly good plate block for the sake of single stamps, but that's only my opinion.

I have no idea what RSA stamps go for in plate block form. If they are like the US material from the mid 20th century that goes for little more than face value, then you may want to re-consider. However, it seems to me that somewhere along the line you would have more satisfaction in owning a collection of plate blocks than merely the single stamps.

I do love plate blocks and the Canadian collection that I've been working on since I started into stamp collecting (about a year ago) focusses on them. It's just completing this really attractive album that holds some allure - and is making me think about breaking them up. I'll try and upload a couple of photos of the album.

What plate blocks do you have? What is the condition of each? You may want to post in for trade. You may be able to get various singles for each one.

Like WT1 mentioned, I would just insert a blank page in the album at the corresponding spot and mount the blocks there. That way you will still have them in block form but they would be in the right spot in the album for your to enjoy.

At the end of the day you have to do what you think you will enjoy the most. Because, regardless of the value, if you don't like the blocks in the album then you won't enjoy them.

I'd like to add that South Africa stamps are valued as pairs (at a minimum) and must include both English and Afrikaan language stamps side-by-side. Stamps lose almost all value as singles.

Here is the first page of the album. I've decided to go to work on mounting the singles that I have and I'll deal with the plate blocks later in life. (I'm so slow at cutting and putting together the mounts that this might not become a problem for a long time to come).

Here are the stams I have for the first page.

Rileysan - I get the point on the pairs and it applies in droves to Union of Soutch Africa - which was superceded by Republic South Africa (RSA) in 1961. The collection I in herited has lots of union stuff also but its going to take me a while to get through it.

I picked this project first because I have never worked with mounts before - any reference souces on tips for working effectively with mounts would be much appreciated. (I know that the size I selected turned out to be too high for the stamps on this page but I decided to start out anyway).

So below is the first page of my RSA album and the first four mounted stamps I've ever done!

Buy some glue sticks and use those across just the very top of the mount to secure it to the page. Much safer than using the glue on the mount. Glue sticks are water free, stick immediately and dry quickly.

If you are going to lick the mount, only lick half of it and leave half loose (i.e. not stuck to the page). That way you can still get the stamp out and exchange it if you later unearth a better copy.

I lick either the top half (if it splits horizontally in back) or the left, if it splits vertically. The top half helps the mount "hang" better than licking the bottom; not sure whether it matters much for L or R.

Half a mount holds a stamp plenty firm -- in fact, don't lick all the way to the join, or sometimes the unlicked side gets a bit damp and sticks too. Lick only enough to get it to stick -- on small mounts like the ones in your album so far, a good mount has plenty of glue, so you don't need to lick more than 1/2 of the half (if you see what I mean!).

Also, don't wet it too much or it soaks/wrinkles your page AND gets onto the side you want to have stay dry.

I am curious if anyone else has tried the glue stick method, though?

As to the plate blocks: I am no fan of them myself, but I still can't bring myself to tear one up. I have trouble even getting myself to extract a single from a simple pair or group of four.

Two different stamp stores have recommended the glue stick method. Glue stick are water free, so if you get any glue inside the mount, you can wipe it off the stamp without damaging it. If you get saliva or water inside the mount through capilary action, yo risk damaging the stamp.

I use black Showgard split back strips that I cut to size on an Excal Guillotine.

Before cutting, I position the stamp in the mount to ensure that it will fit, then I remove the stamp and set it aside.

I position the empty mount on the album page, lift the upper edge with tweezers, lightly moisten a small portion of the glued backing, and afix the mount to the page.

Once the mount is securely fastened and dry, I carefully re-insert the stamp.

Steve

Black showgard mounts really make the stamp pop. Especially ones with lots of color. Depending on the size of the stamp you may be able to buy precut mounts that will work for most of your stamps and eliminate having to cut strips for each one.

You can print off a mount size guide on the showgard website then determine the size of precut or strips you will need. That will eliminate the problem you currently have on page one of your album.

Yes JanS The glue stick that comes in a tube like chap stick works great and like everybody already said just put it on the top part of one half of the back of the mount. Remember a little dab will do you. It doesn't take much. Just a quick swipe. You can buy the sticks at the dollar store. I got six sticks for a buck. That will probably last me a life time if they don't dry out first.

For the most part RSA Stamps can be purchased easily and with a minimal amount out of pocket. Why not do a page of singles and follow it with a page of the same items in Plate blocks ?

That's a great idea Stallzer. That would be a pretty nice album.