Minkus Supreme Global Albums (The Big Red Thread)

Thank you floortrader and statesmanstamper; well said. To each their own. After having started out with Harris moving through a couple iterations I landed on Minkus. I like the stamps sorted by their issue date.

That said I have a National for US, Davo for Canada, Scott Spec for Germany, homemade for Hungary, and a Windsor Sovereign for GB.

I'm happy with each of the various brands and can appreciate both their qualities and their deficiencies.

The Binders I bought that I discovered on this forum cause me to repunch the black Vario stock sheets. They tend to bind or maybe the rings need a little Vaseline. (HA!) I have the Minkus pages, the Minkus binders, a lot of stamps but not much time. I prefer the old Minkus binders that are round rather than the new flat ones. I wonder if the flat binders are as tough as the old ones?
Are the pages sold by Nolo original Minkus or reprints on similar paper stock? Just before I discovered the 10 Supremes at a local stamp shop I considered buying a new set of pages but I saved some $ and didn't have to wait for delivery.

k7prz,

The Minkus parts I get from NOLA are the Amos reprints of the MSG. The paper has the feel of a light cardstock. Much nicer than the paper in the Master editions of 1958/1965.

Dale

Hello GT350Anny -

I finally found a NOS set of the Minkus China Update pages a while back. I believe they were dated 1974. The set I found were double sided for updating a Supreme or Master global album. My understanding is that the same pages were also available single-sided for updating a Minkus China single country album. The only unusual thing I noticed about the pages was that there were spaces for souvenir sheets, which aren't typically included in the worldwide albums or updates.

I had a saved search on ebay for years before the China Supplement finally showed up. My recommendation is that you do the same.

Over the course of years, I managed to update my Global Supreme album to the early 2000s by watching ebay and talking to local dealers. I'm still unsure whether there were Part II's published for 2000 and 2001 (the only supplements I'm missing). I've never found them and a local stamp supply dealer never created stock numbers in their system for them and insists that means they never existed. I'm not sure whether to believe them and I continue to keep my eyes open.

Varios are not cheap (was $35 when I started) but cheaper and can be used for aspects compared to proprietary expensive binders. We put our money in different. Scott did sell a cheaper 3 ring.

I repunch Vario pages if I put in a standard 3 ring binder. The ring diameter on a Vario binder is around 2.1mm and my 3 rings are 2.6mm. The holes in Vario pages are around 6mm with a standard punch makes almost 7mm holes This helps turn pages with less dragging.

Here is a sample of each collector decides what is best for them . There is no one method or one album system that works for everybody . Each collector is working toward their own goals .

Here is one set in my collection ,that I decided to spread over three pages . One set that I didn't want to jam on to one page ,so I printed the same page 3 times . . The important thing is other collectors can follow it if I write a explanation on the side .

I may try to buy a collection later this year. I like old books like this since it tells us how early man gathered artifacts for entertainment.

I did a ebay search for a Supreme album and now ebay is bugging me again with emails. There is one collection with 6k stamps in 4 albums for $1200 which seems high.

Printing three identical pages while crossing off the stamps you don't want on them is one way to do it. But why not tidy it up? It's extremely easy to save any Steiner page file as a Word document in order to edit it. PDF Candy is one website where you can do that.

Doing this allows you to change the saved pages as you wish in Word. In this case, on the new Word version of the page, highlight and omit the stamp boxes and other information you don't want on the page using the Backspace or Delete key. Then save that page and print it out. You can also change the font to another font, if you wish, and enlarge or shrink fonts, and you may also be able to type new information on the page. If you print it onto the same paper you use in your album, you're done. Those new pages will no longer have any stamp boxes you need to cross off.

Or you can print the changed page onto other album paper. To do that, consider the page your "original" and take it to Fedex or any photocopy place, Load the side tray with blank album paper of your choice and print your orginal onto that paper. If the paper is bordered, you may need a few trials to get the layout centered properly. The resulting pages you print will match the others in your album and look original.

"It's extremely easy to save any Steiner page file as a Word document in order to edit it. PDF Candy is one website where you can do that."

I have software that will let me delete boxes (really hide the boxes) and add text. But it won't let me move around boxes from Steiner pages, so there end up being large blank areas on the pages where I have deleted boxes.

Does PDF Candy allow you to move boxes? Or add boxes?

Thanks, Eric99!

I have a generic ebay "Minkus" PRC and another more detailed search setup using that product number posted earlier in this thread.

If you or anyone else has a suggestion on using ebay to find the early minkus PRC pages I'm all ears.