Cool Album Pages From Your Collection

I just finished this page 1931-33 -- I love the colors. I would like to see how others house their collection and would enjoy viewing complete US album pages/sets from other posters! Please post pics!! Commentary is great to understand how the most difficult stamps are obtained.

I broke up a plate block of scott 716 to finish it. I couldn't stand not having the space filled and all my other copies were off-centered-- probably get criticized for that by someone on this board

Nothing valuable here, but I enjoyed finishing it.

I added two interesting, but common vignette shifts of the cross on scott 702 just for some variation.

Some room for improvement. Yorktown issue scott 703 is not centered up to my standard and the 707 2c washington needs centering improvement as well. These should be easy to find and very inexpensive.

That is very nice. Are those stock pages you used/ Question. I see three stamps with a '95' above it, and one with '95j'. What does that stand for?

Peter

These are SAFE dual pages/album from MDC Stamps (hinge-less)-- each page is actually 2 pages, bottom one is printed by SAFE dualcompany with picture of the stamp, and there is a translucent sheet that matches over it that actually houses the stamp. I presume for copyright reasons, they do not list Scott numbers. That is annoying, so on earlier issues such as Wash/Franklins, I have written the Scott numbers above the picture so I can find them easily. For these later issues, I really see no reason to write in the Scott numbers.

The numbers above are PSE grades. Don't get me started on that as I cannot tell differences between 90-95-98 most of time, especially as you get toward the modern issues. Its annoying but $$ market likes subtle difference and pays premium for it as you are surely aware-- there is too much observer bias, subtle differences in 95-100 grading and if you ask me, this is where grading really ruins the hobby. I've seen 98 that look like 90 to me. and I've seen 90s that look better than 98. I think grading in increments of 10 points is great idea, but increments of 95-98-100 with jumbo modifiers to boot is ridiculous.

rg

Don't worry - no-one outside the US would "grade" a stamp in this way, anymore than they'd grade a bottle of wine a la Mr Parker's numerical method! The SAFE pages are a bit surgical, but they have their practical benefits.

Geoff

I like the SAFE pages/album. They are especially useful for back of stamp exhibiting and analysis. If you want to see a grill or check for gum, just turn over and observe! They seem high quality. No mounts or hinges... Just slip the stamp in. Easy.

Downsides: cost, no Scott numbers (thus better for those with experience), sometimes overlay doesn't line perfect with stamp over picture. This slight movement sometimes results in stamp not sitting perfect in its spot. Would be better if pictures of stamps were slightly larger.

Overall, I think it's great. For those who love to collect grills or really care about gum on back, this system is great. By the way, I generally don't care much for back of stamps so this is not my primary reason for going with SAFE. I collect mostly used classics 19th century and early 20th. Unless there is grill, showing off back of stamp is meaningless to me. Most of my mint stamps are post wash/Franklin issue such as page above.

Here's one out of my good ol'e Scott National:




Took a while to fill this one!

Al

Al,

That's a great page. Beautiful stamps (esp like that 7c nebr centering).
Looks great especially with page complete. I'm not sure why we keep this stuff in albums. Pages like that should be matted and framed and hanging on our walls.

Hope others will post some personal album pages of US pre-1940 stuff. I find many of my pages are missing one or two (usually high value) stamps --- so much better when the page is DONE!

And here is how we do it in lazyville, 4th bureau, no tags, no Scott numbers just grab and stick in pocket. I happen to have this one out tonight as I'm filling in a few of the rotary press missing spaces.

Stallzer,

That 2$ is spot on. 5$ really nice too.... You should move them into an album!

RG

Thanks, personally I really am drawn to this series and I've acquired each one individually trying to find them all in XF shape. Still looking to upgrade a couple, here are the closeups I posted a couple years back. I like the vario pages because they give me room to collect more than 1 of any stamp I like.

https://goscf.com/t/29359&SearchTerms=4th,bureau

Your 6c Garfield is great as well...For some reason 6c and 8c carry higher value relatively speaking ( excluding 1$, 2$and 5$). Perhaps they were produced in fewer numbers.
Are there any particular stamps you found tough to find well centered?
I always felt the 2$ and 5$ are two of the nicest stamps ever produced.
I'm partial to the 1$ trans Mississippi and 90c Lincoln pictorial 122- neither of which I own.