Album Question

I am on the hunt for an album.

Currently, I use a White Ace album for my U.S. Air Mail collection. It works perfectly for my needs. It's pricey, but looks great.

I need an album for my study of U.S. stamps issued from 1976-1995. Can someone tell me if the Scott Minuteman Album pages are punched for a 3-ringed binder, and are 8.5" x 11"?

Thank-you for your comments!

David Giles
Ottawa, Canada

According to the Amos catalog, the Minuteman pages are punched to fit a STANDARD 3-ring binder. The online info is "vague", saying it is designed to fit a Scott 3-ring binder.

I don't have one, and I won't be visiting a supply store anytime soon, so I cannot independently verify (sorry). But I would say it is a safe bet that it is standard 3 ring spacing. My experience with other Scott products is that the paper may not be 8.5x11, but a tad bigger. However, these will fit without problems in larger (2" or greater) binders.

The newer Minuteman pages are "5-hole" punched, which just means they can fit both 3-ring binders and 2-post binders.

Personally, I put my album pages in those oversized zipper binders. They go on clearance every once in a while at the office supply stores, and just about anything 3-hole punched will fit in them (Scott Internationals, Minkus, HE Harris, Varios...). I must have purchased about 25-30 of these zipper binders over the years for $1-$3. They are nice because I can color-code my collection and it's like having a built-in dustcover.

The White Ace pages are VERY VERY nice. They are expensive, but it's really no contest in terms of quality of page, layout, color, appearance... and as you already know, they ARE standard 3-hole punched and even the smallest binders will fit them comfortably. Although I don't use White Ace, you can't go wrong. I've gone through many White Ace collections and they are beautiful (felt bad about taking them apart).

I hope someone can verify the page size, and that you get what you are looking for!

David

Have you seen here?

http://www.stampalbums.com/

For a $20 membership you can print as many albums as you like on your own 8 1/2 by 11 acid free card stock and 3 hole punch it yourself. Or if you wandI could probably extrack just the pages you want and send you the files for them.

Richard

Yes, the Steiner pages are what I use for some of my used stamps. There are a few errors and it's rarely illustrated, but hey, it's 50K+ album pages for $20. Can't beat that price!

David, you can visit that link and download some samples, including the US supplements for this century for free! That way you will know whether you will like it.

David, also, you said an album for your "study" of US stamps. I didn't know if that meant you were interested in the album pages to put stamps in, or if you were interested in US albums to glean information from. Could you clarify?

Kim

Ziggy, it says its $30 now.

Stefani, you are right! It's gone up since I dropped my membership! Ziggy is correct that it used to be $20, and the CD was $30. Now they are both $30.

Still a very good deal when you compare to published album page prices. The real advantage is that you can print the album pages as your collection grows, instead of having to spend hundreds/thousands of dollars and ending up with a lot of empty album pages for many years.

Thanks for the information, folks.

I use the Stiener pages for my Indonesia/Netherlands Indies collection... but was looking for something different for my U.S. collection.

As for studying the stamps, I collect plate number singles, varieties, errors, etc.

I think I will make my own album pages and see where it leads me.

David

One additional comment, David.

While I like the White Ace pages for their beauty, there is one fundamental reason why I don't use them for stamps in the year range you mentioned (1976-1995). Several of the US setenant issues will NOT fit on a 8.5x11 page. That means the 50 state flags, bird/flowers... issues will have to go in another album.



I don't actively pursue these anymore, but please post any finds or interesting tidbits, as I am always interested in learning more. Or if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to try to do some research.

Kim

Here's another place I've posted in other threads.

The pages are available for FREE -- again, you print and punch for your binder. Totally FREE, but USA only, no worldwide.

http://www.philosateleia.com/

Kirks

[edit to fix link]

KirkS,

That turned out to be a pretty nice site that I had never visited before. Thanks for posting the link!

k

Hi David G.

I have a Scott Minuteman Album 20th Century Album (pages for 1900 to 1999) I added the Scott Minuteman 19th Century Album pages to it so now it goes from 1847 to 1999.
The pages are about 9 1/8" x 11 1/4" so are a little bigger than 8x11.
I can take some pictures of specific pages if you'd like.

The pages are punched with 3 holes and would fit a standard 3-ring binder.

I'm not sure of the thickness of the pages, but I think they are the same thickness as a standard piece of copier paper. I wish the Minuteman pages were thicker so the punched holes wouldn't pull out so easily.

KInd Regards,

Dave N.
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Thanks for the page size info, Dave!



Yes, this is a common problem when the paper isn't thick enough or when the album gets quite full. I usually add self-adhesive reinforcements (on both sides) to the holes that look like they are about to tear. These are very inexpensive if you purchase them from an office supply store (hundreds for $1-$2).

I really like a piece of software from Canada, Softpro, Inc., I believe, called "AlbumGen", to assist in designing my own pages. It has been a major improvement over just a Word Processor. The one drawback is it has such power and is feature-laden which can make for a rather steep learning curve.

I need 8.5" x 11" pages so I can make my extra pages for the collection on my inkjet printer. I use the White Ace pages for my U.S. airs collection... beautiful, but pricey!

I think I'll take a stab at making my own pages.

Thank-you all for the assistance.

David

David

I found some nice paper at staples. Its Smart Paper synergy bond 25% cotton in the natural color. It's only 24lb but because of the cotton content feels much heavier.

Dianne

Dianne:

Sounds interesting. I'll have to see how well it works with the inkjet printer, as the high cotton content paper tends to allow the ink to bleed into the paper.

David