New To Collecting. Should I Use My Old Stamp Books?

My father-in-law left me all his stamps and stamp books that 3 generations of his family have been using to collect stamps. It took me about 2 seconds to become hooked. I wish I would have looked at these with him when he was alive. My question is this, should I continue to work on his books from 1930,1958 and 1964, or should I take the stamps out of those books and put them into new ones?

Welcome to Stamp Collecting Forum!

In answer to your question, one of the beautiful things about stamp collecting is that there are no right ways and no wrong ways to collect stamps.

If there is sentimental value to you in using the old albums your family has acquired through the years, continue to use them if that makes you happy. Just be aware of the following:

1. It would be very expensive to add yearly supplements to old albums to bring them up-to-date. If your intention is to collect newer issues, then a replacement album may be in order.

2. Older albums would not have used the better paper that is on the market today. If the old albums are yellowed, etc., a new album may be in order.

3. How are the stamps mounted in these albums? With hinges or with stamp mounts? If you intend to remove stamps from older albums, be very careful as some of the older stamp hinges and mounts do not remove easily and could damage some of the stamps if you tried to remove and remount them.

4. You didn't specify if the stamps are only from the US or are from specific other countries or encompass an entire worldwide collection of stamps. To use US stamps as an example, the number of new issues that have been presented to collectors in recent years has, of necessity, required that most album makers split their albums into two, three or even four volumes to handle all of the new issues. Therefore, you could decide to keep the old albums just as they are and buy new album(s) for the more modern stamps, assuming that may be your collecting interest.

By all means, ask questions on this forum. We all love to look at and talk about, and discuss stamps, stamp albums and the like!

Most importantly: Enjoy your new hobby. You'll find it very rewarding, I'm sure.

As the others have said, there is no right or wrong way. I would just suggest you don't rush in to breaking up the old albums, at least until you decide how and what you would like to collect yourself. There's also the question of whether you want to continue using paper albums, or organise your collection in stock books or stock pages. Explore the options, and just enjoy the collections you have inherited for a while, you'll find your own direction.
Have fun!

Kim, welcome to SCF. As a suggestion only, if you are indeed new to stamp collecting I wouldn't do much to the albums until you have a better understanding about the collection and the hobby as a whole. You would hate to "mess up" the collection due to a lack of knowledge about what the ramifications are. There is no rush, take your time with it. Years would not be too long. Just be aware of what you have. the best thing you might want to do is to get a current catalog to determine if there are any catalog number changes, the current values and to better understand your new collection.

Its a great hobby and you will enjoy it immensely. As indicated above, everyone here is willing to help with any question you may have and point you in a direction suitable for you. None of us started out with the knowledge we have, its a learning process. If the album(s) don't suit your taste you have every right to change them. Its now your collection, your stamps, do it your way.

Art

Kim I was faced with the same decision a couple years ago. I started to collect when I was 13 years old and I collected until I was 18. and then life got in the way and I stopped collecting. I decided to start back when I was 64. I decided my old albums had too much sentimental value to break them up so I left them intact just as they were. To buy the suppliments to bring them up to date would have taken about 40 packages and was that was just to expensive. So My wife for my 64th Birthday bought me the American Heirloom Album (3 volumes) from Mystic Stamp Company. I started right from scratch. Now I still have my old original album and a new up to date collection. I think you would regret breaking up your Father-in Laws collection in the long run. I still go back and look at my original collection sometimes and I can see that even as a teenager. I was a serious collector. Keeping everything in tact is just my opinion.

Several acquaintances of mine were in similar circumstances as you. They took the time to become more educated and familiar with stamps before making a decision. All are happy, but each had a different solution. So, I'd suggest you wade in and once your feel at ease with the hobby, your solution will be evident. Above all, enjoy yourself and learn. Almost forgot, Welcome to SCF.

Welcome Kim,It seems alot of us have inherited an album and understand that initial momement when we say : NOW WHAT ?:. take your time in your decision,I have an album I inherited years ago and I still cherish it and the memories it holds,I do have other albums but it always nice to pull it out of the slip case and add a few to it.All of those on this site seem more than willing to help and there is a ton of knowledge floating around ,Just relax and take your time.

I cherish my old albums more than my newer ones. Each stamp represents a little care and effort and it is that accumulation that is worth more to me than the stamps. If I paid some real money for a stamp I probably would use a mount and if all the stamps in my old album were hinged I would probably not choose to house it there, but with a common stamp that would be its home. When at stamp shows I look for inexpensive older collections not for the contents but more as a record of the energy and love that someone, maybe long gone, put into it.

I love the old albums and I'm glad everyone didn't say I had to get rid of them because the pages weren't acid-free etc. Most of the stamps I have were collected by my father-in-law and his father so I've decided to continue adding to their albums, and I also bought a set from Mystic for myself. I guess I will use hinges in their albums since they did, and mounts in mine, I don't really like the hinges. I won't fiddle with any of the nice stamps, I even found a C-18 Graf Zeppelin today!
Thanks for all the help. I will have more questions! Now if I can get this to post, it keeps telling me I'm not signed in, hopefully this doesn't post a million times.

Kim I wouldn't add or take any stamps out of the old albums for a couple years anyway. I think you will regret it if you DO make any changes to the old albums. Here is what I do. Use the hinges for any used stamps. The Mystic or Scott mounts for All the Mint stamps. Only add stamps to your new albums. After a couple years if you decide you want to add stamps to the older albums then you will feel comfortable doing it. The new albums will keep you busy for a few years anyway without changing the older albums. NEVER hinge a mint stamp!