Stamp Storage

hi whats the best way to store stamps? Please let me know if there have been any new technological breakthroughs. I just use stock books with the new kind of plastic that doesnt tear the stamps while inserting them. is there anything better? thanks.

Stock books are one good, safe way to store them. You can also use glassine envelopes or stock cards for bulk storage. I use both myself. Then there's the traditional approach - a stamp album. There are very few hard and fast rules in stamp collecting. The main one is to do nothing that will harm the stamp.

thanks. I live in a highly humid and polluted environment and my collection was destroyed a few years ago. I have managed to rebuild the collection to a large extent but I wont survive another attack

Ugh! I can commiserate. I took a very small part of my stamp collection to a tropical country once. In less than 2 weeks, it was converted to uncollectible junk! Examining how the local collectors/dealers kept their collections with minimal damage, I can only make the following suggestions --

-- NEVER lay your stamps/albums down flat
-- if you cannot keep your stamps in an air-conditioned/filtered room, I probably would NOT collect mint/gummed stamps (without at least good continuous air flow, or a dehumidifier, the gum will get soft and sticky)
-- keep your stamps as high as possible (if your residence is multi-story, keep it in the highest level)
-- look through your collection OFTEN, that helps to "air out" your collection
-- they use heavy cardstock dust-covers a lot, but I think that may be self-defeating as it also blocks all light, thereby promoting some mold/mildew growth
-- to keep dust/pollution out maybe instead consider covering your collection with a thin (non-moisture absorbent) cloth/fabric; of course, air conditioning is still the best
-- because of your humidity problem, you might want to consider plastic (make sure its archival) stockpages instead of stockbooks; an example is Vario stockpages by Lighthouse; it will not stop mildew/mold problems, but does reduce it

I hope these suggestions are helpful and will give you some ideas.

My loss at that time was rather small, as it was just a promotional lot that I had brought along to "test the waters". But I learned my lesson the hard way!

Hope you have better success with your current collection!!

thanks for the reply how do I quote your message in my reply?

Please explain stamps/albums flat piece

i advise against an ac room becoz ac doesnt run here 24 hours. it not central air conditioning so I used a dehumidifier instead.

please talk a bit more aabout the level.

how often should I look through my collection? once every 6 months

i keep the collectiona way from sunlight and locked up in a safe to prevent dust

yes I got the state of the art stck books from netherlands used a dehumidifier but I am hoping to learn more and you post is very helpful. Thanks.

Hey Spock,

If your safe has a decent fire rating then is is also pretty much air tight. What you need is the large silica gel dessicant packs that they sell to keep your coins from developing ugly black toning. Just follow the directions on the packaging about refreshing the packets and you should be fine.

richard

Also
you do not lie the stock books/albums on their side because if the stamp glue gets the least bit sticky then the weight of the pages on one another cause the stamps to stick to the pages. When the books are stood up one end the pages hang loosly and allow a little bit of space in between that air may circulate through

Richard

Copy the section of the post you want. Click on reply to topic. Above the editing box, you should several small icons. The second one from the right has a red arrow. Click on that. Insert cursor in the proper spot between ][ and paste the phrase you want to quote.



Richard (aka Ziggy9) already explained.

I didn't realize you already had a large enough air-tight safe to put your collection in. Then most of what I wrote is not necessary. Don't worry about covering, storing at a higher level, thumbing through, airing out...

But you MUST store the album pages and stamps upright -- do not lie them down. Some really valuable collections have been destroyed because they were stored lying down (even in a safe).

As Richard mentioned, make sure you keep fresh dessicant in your safe. That will be the key.

Enjoy your collection!
k

well its a metal cupboard that acts like a safe but its not airtight - very hard to explain what it is but the safe is the closest thing to it

i dont put my books flat down I just wanted to understand the logic and thanks for that

yes I do thumb the collection becoz its not airtight. I dont get desiccant here thats why I have a big fat dehumidifier :)


and my dear ziggy I am worried about stamps. coins are in IS boxes and if they get spoilt in there then I will have to stop collecting :)

i do the airing, thumbing thing how often should I do it. I live on the ocean and is there a best way to do it. thanks :)

If the safe is not air tight then a tupperware type product big enough to hold your albums along with dessicant will have the same effect.

Richard

ok thanks. ill see if I can find something like that those things are big and heavy ( the albums)

BTW ziggy I quit CT didnt send you a PM coz I knew we would interact here and there were no goodbyes :)

Anything I should know about?

yea I got stabbed in the back and so I moved to coinzip. some members have said they will browse coinzip to read the funny jokes :D

Sorry to hear that. Make sure you check the link at the top of this page to see our sister site, Coin Community Forum, for your coin discussion needs.

Richard

i like the way you put it - coin discussion needs :)