Your Suggestions For A New Scott International Album

If Scott were to re-issue the international album (the Browns, say) - what would people want to see?

Something that's much more faithful to the present-day catalog and in chronological order - two areas where the Brown reprints are obviously inadequate.

I guess the Steiner pages do a pretty good job of covering that, though. Catalog numbers? Images?

What are your thoughts?

Put the air mails and all BOB in chronological order with regular issues ala Minkus...

They need to stop at certain dates like the Blues do. I'm not interested in 20 volumes of modern stamps.

Okay, I'll bite.

1. I strongly agree with landoquakes about all stamps together in their actual chronological order. However, Scott has painted itself into a corner on this by the way it organizes its catalogue, so they will never do this. But they should.

We naturally want to see stamps in the time period in which they were issued. This keeps stamps with the same subject matter and same design style together. We don't separate commems from regulars, so why separate airs and semis which were issued and used at the same time as the other stamps? Only Minkus was bright enough to organize their albums the "proper" way. In all my own Scott albums, and I have a ton of them, I move the air and semi pages where they belong chronologically. It just makes much better sense to see stamps in their proper order instead of separated into types of stamps.

2. Yes, include catalogue numbers.

3. One things sadly lacking in nearly all Scott albums (due to laziness on their part?) is stamp identifying information above each stamp or set of stamps. "What was this stamp issued for?" is often a mystery. Was the old argument for not identifying stamps on album pages to avoid clutter? I don't find a simple name or short description clutters the page at all. Another argument might be that the stamp itself tells you what it was issued for. But far too many stamps do not do that -- and foreign stamps are all in foreign languages you may not even know. To find out what a stamp is honoring, you have to look in the catalogue.

Bill Steiner's popular "print yourself" pages do include brief identifiers above each stamp. I find this such a good idea that in some of my Scott albums, I've actually replaced all the Scott pages with Steiner pages printed on Scott blanks. I remove the Steiner borders and change the fonts so they match Scott's pages better. Do this by saving Steiner's pages in 'Word'. Going to all this trouble clearly indicates my preference for including stamp identifications.

4. Printing pages on one side of the page makes an album much better by not tangling stamps up with stamps on facing pages. Subway's "Vintage Reproductions" pages does this. These are the pages which exactly reproduce Scott's Brown pages. But doing this would literally double the length of the album, so I have reservations about it. If you collected "only" to 1940 or 1950 or some other early year, you'd probably prefer this. Collecting to a much later date might mean you'll need an additional room to hold just your albums! The way I handle my Scott International's two-sided pages is by using clear acetate interleaving. Glassine interleaving works, too, but I hate the "crinkle" sound it makes, and it's not clear so you can't see through it. The fact that no one makes this wonderful clear acetate interleaving any longer may be a commentary on the state of the hobby.

5. Binder size for the International album is currently too large. Filled with pages, these 3.5" binders are almost too heavy to pick up, and even worse they hold so many pages, it make the pages curve too much for comfort. Instead of issuing them in 3.5" widths, publish them in 2" binders which are much easier to deal with. I have a set of 30 Subway Stamp Shop International binders (no longer made but a copy of the Scott binders) that are 2" thick. It is such an improvement, you cannot believe it. I probably wouldn't have a worldwide collection at all if I had to use larger binders.

6. In the original International albums, Scott began each country with a short description of its history with some statistics and a space for its flag. I've always liked that. It "fancies" up the album a little. I'd go back to doing that.

7. And finally the most obvious one of all: Include spaces for all (or nearly all) stamps and not just those collectors are "likely" to own as Scott mistakenly does now. I could see omitting major rarities, but even those are few and far between and don't harm an album. We might like to see their blank spaces. Scott's National album contains a page for the C3a inverted airplane stamp none of us will ever own. I like having that page for the fun of it. So I'd include spaces for all stamps ever issued.

I do not think there's a need to end the new International album at any particular date as collectors can perfectly well buy just the volumes they want. I collect the world "only" up to 1975 (still way too much) simply by owning only those volumes. If others want to collect later years, it might seem overwhelming, but let them try. But if you do, you better save up for an extra room on your house!

The work to make these changes would take a great deal of time and effort, and there's a limited market for this. So I don't think Scott/Amos would do this in a million years. They seem long past innovating and may be simply trying to stay afloat. It's nice to think about, though.

And one other point: Subway's nice Vintage Reproduction pages already do many of the more important things I've suggested. So why not just buy those?

I had another thought to attract more cost conscious worldwide collectors where the stamps may not be worth more than the album.

My proposal is to re-issue the Minkus pages on letter size paper with Scott numbers and add left side information like Mystic. The ideal case is a PDF or other image option but I doubt they would do that because people would share and copy. They would end on ebay just like Steiner. This approach preserves International brand.

I like and use Steiner but end up with a lot of wasted space on pages. The key getting cost down is getting more stamps per page.

As many want, airmails and semi postals are not separate.

I have a Minkus Philippines album. It has a country title page, introduction page, and page index for eras (Spanish, US admin, etc).

Mystic would likely do this more than Scott or Amos Media. I get the feeling they are not into expanding but just harvesting what they have at a minimum ongoing cost (much on demand or back order). Mystic used the razor analogy by selling the razor cheap and make money from high priced stamps and supplies (all with excellent customer service).

The space insider fits on letter size page (see mockup below showing actual Minkus with adequate printable margins. Of course, anyone with AlbumEasy could do it from scratch.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I find some odd charm in their pages - practical and retro. And for GeoffHa, the old font is used rather than Helvetica font.

Hee-hee. You should really have handwritten the titles in italics, Al.

As I understand it, the "Browns" were a comprehensive set of world pages covering the period to 1940. I wonder (assuming a market) how much updating would be nevessary or desirable. I use a two-volume, fastbound Gibbons Imperial for my pre-1936 BE stamps. Gibbons has recently updated this and other printed albums via an expensive range of ring-bound albums. But how much more would I want than what was available in 1936? The Imperial has watermark and perf varieties and some shades. It doesn't lack much apart from multiple spaces for eg compound perfs. Given that any printed album is going to be accompanied by a side collection of additional material, is there actually much wrong with what Scott was producing up to 1940?

The existing International album up to 1940 leaves out the higher-value stamps, while the Brown 'Vintage reproduction' pages are chronologically disjointed and have quite a few errors in them.

So it does seem like Scott could do with two new albums: maybe a higher-end one that fixes all of the mistakes, puts things in order, merges back of the book, etc. And then a lower-priced one that revives the Minkus format, but with Scott catalog numbers, perhaps?

The question is how many people would buy an updated, comprehensive, all-world album to 1940. Gibbons does that for BE issues, for those with deep pockets, but has not revamped its three-volume Ideal album for pre-1936 foreign issues. A 1980s/1990s reprint is now out of print.

How much could they sell a better classic album for, $1500? Can't be too many takers at that price point, I'd imagine.

At least, I'd say. Take a look at the prices for the new Gibbons BE/BC albums

https://www.dauwalders.co.uk/classic-albums-4479-c

Palo does that by Steiner designs with a font change and Steiner pages are available. I have no idea how successful they are. It can work for companies that sells stamps so not a standalone business. Amos Media would have different requirements on outlay and ROI especially anyone who thinks the stamp business is not attractive.

I have my doubts a major revamping of the Scott International would make much money quickly for its publisher, but I'd love to see someone try to publish a really elegant and comprehensive worldwide album. And maybe over time it would make money . . . ? Long-term investment?

Or they could use the Minkus page layouts as the base of a new worldwide album, as angore suggests above. That's a beautiful page he posted. It looks like it has a Scott Speciality font for the country name and a simple border which is perfectly fine. But it lacks any identifying information for each group of stamps. What were they issued to honor or for what purpose?

The Gibbons albums are beautifully done. If I lived in the UK I'd certainly use them, getting them by hook or by crook even at their very high prices. I like the idea of a "perfect" bound (sewn-binding) stamp album. If I recall correctly, SG allows for the additional thickness of the actual stamps (and perhaps mounts, as well) by stitching in a small strip of card as a page spacer after every page or two. Doing this must not be cheap.

I don't use SG albums because they're so strongly geared to the UK market with the royal reigns system of organization which Americans don't understand. "Edward who? George the what?" And their "so many volumes you cannot even believe it" approach to album publishing is just overwhelming. Is it six volumes or eight volumes for just the Victorian Era?

I just checked my Scott National album (U.S. only) and my Volume 1 covers from the first U.S. Stamps in 1847 to 1960 in that one volume alone with no crowding at all. How do they manage to do that? I'm pretty sure there's some kind of mania in British stamp collecting that requires that many pages for all the varieties of shades, watermarks, and all those initials. And what's with pages of stamps with flourescent dyes in them? Sorry, "phospher bands". I'm exhausted just looking at all those pages in all those binders. I think I need to go lie down.

I should also mention that I do collect Great Britain with my own collection in two volumes of the Scott GB album. Those two volumes covers GB from 1840-1990s just fine with no album bulging at all. It's amazing what you can do without spaces for upside-down watermarks!

So, kids, that's today's tangent . . . .

As for the price of a fancy new worldwide album, I'm sure Scott could make back its money in a few years at $1500 a pop if it were truly a wonderful album -- and then keep making money by reprinting it for years. How do I know this? Well, I don't, but look at the prices Lighthouse and Schaubek and Davo (and SG) charge for their very nice albums. A complete single-country album by one of these album publishers can easily cost $2k. One U.S. seller has the Lighthouse Hungary album with mounts for sale for $4,000! Does anyone who collects Hungary ever buy this album? I guess they do. I suppose these publishers get away with this because it's a once-in-a-lifetime purchase which any newly revamped Scott International album would most likely be.

But any new worldwide needs 2" wide binders or it's a no-go for me. I can't deal with enormous binders. One-sided or two-sided is negotiable.