Minkus Supreme Global Album Back In Print

My order of part 1A is out for delivery today. The clear interleaves were ordered separately from Subway and won't be here for a week or so. Keeping fingers crossed and hoping this will prove to be a good project.

Question for users of this and other worldwide albums.

How do you choose to handle the issue of what to do with pages in those albums for areas you already collect and do not wish to remount? I have a 12 volume collection of Russia in specialized albums and won't be transferring those. My thinking is to remove them from the album to free up space and carefully file them away against the day when I may decide to dispose of the general collection. I also have a Great Britain collection in Windsor albums but will utilize those spaces for duplicates. Any other input?

Removing the Russian pages will allow more expansion room the counties remaining in the album(s). They would also be easy to store. Sounds like a plus plus.

Maybe this ought to be a separate posting but I am wondering; some of you on here have been collecting older worldwide for quite awhile. Does anyone know of any approval dealers who handle this trade? I used to get mounted collections on approval from Bellmore until they went under last year. I've noted a few ads in the AP and Linn's from dealers who appear to fit this bill. Any experiences you'd care to share?

I have put my use of my new album on hold until I can decide what to do to reduce its weight, perhaps remove some pages and get an extra binder. Part 1A fits nicely into the jumbo binder but it has to weigh 10-15 pounds. A few days of pulling it off the shelf and putting it back and I developed back strain. No kidding, am seeing a Chiropractor to get it straightened out. This was the first time I knew Philately could be dangerous. :)

I put my Minkus Supreme pages into 1 1/2" heavy duty Avery 3 D ring binders. Easy to take out and work on a portion of the collection.

And it is light.

Probably going to need to do that. I like the looks of the flat back SG binder Amos sells but using it just creates an album that is nearly impractical to use or enjoy. I may try keeping the albums on a higher shelf so I'm not bending down and lifting at the same time. Getting a slipcase could make it easier to handle, as well.

Or you could try try splitting your pages up and put them in the "MINKUS: 2.5" 2-POST MAROON BINDER"

Both MInkus binders, the one designed for the Supreme Global and the maroon binder above designed for Minkus country pages, are awkward to use, at best. Back in the day, Minkus used to make a very nice 2-post country album with a curved spine (or "back," if you prefer) that was very comfortable to use. Comfortable because the curved spine made it easy to hold, and because it was narrow enough, and not overly heavy, so you could actually pick it up with one hand.

If an album holds too many pages, and both of these Minkus albums certainly do, it gets very heavy. And if the spine is flat, it's very hard to hold in your hand. This is why both of these binders just don't work well. With the resurrection of Minkus by Amos Advantage in recent years, they really needed to create a useable binder. But they haven't. Finding a happy alternative binder which holds only a few hundred pages, so it's not too heavy, and which has a comfortable (preferably curved) spine would be the best way to solve the problem. But the two-hole punch Minkus pages have will not fit any other binders. That means you're going to have to hole punch all the pages to fit some other binders.

Minkus pages can easily be hole-punched to fit into a three-ring binder. You can either do that yourself or have a print shop do it all for you -- assuming you don't mind handing them all your album pages which might have stamps mounted on them! I'd get a heavy duty three-hole punch and do it myself. You'll end up with five holes in each page, but you'll hardly notice that. Put the pages into a suitable larger three-ring binder. I'd use binders that look good and hold up over time. Check page size so you know which size the binders need to be -- obviously bigger than the pages you're using. I'd buy one potential binder and hole punch a couple of Minkus pages to fit it, just to be sure it works well. Some of the Lighthouse Vario type binders might work. They cost $30-40 or so. Ordinary American three-ring binders from the office supply stores are inexpensive (maybe $10 each), but they look that way, too. Personally, I'd aim for something a bit more elegant looking.

Britain and Europe also commonly use four-ring binders, and it's easy on EbayUK to buy an inexpensive four-hole punch to make the pages compatible. Some of these four-ring binders are very nice, sometimes padded, often with slipcases. And they aren't too expensive, maybe $25-50 each depending on the brand and features.. Worth considering. Good suppliers of these are Dauwalders Stamp Shop, Prinz, Stanley Gibbons, and others, all with good websites. Or use ebay.

Another alternative that looks very nice is to use 22-ring binders, a common choice in Britain and Europe. The binders are easy to buy, but you'll need to locate a 22-hole punch to do the hole punching, and that won't be so easy.

If you use smaller binders, I'd guess you'll need three or more for every volume of the Minkus Global you have. But you'll end up with smaller, more comfortable albums you can actually pick up. And it will be much easier to take pages out when you need to..

Reopening this thread to add some updated comment. I have been using the part 1A I bought this past Summer and am now planning to proceed to complete volume one by buying part 1B from Amos.

In general I am happy with the album so far. It provides for more spaces than the International. Surprisingly the least attractive aspect of it is the paper stock used, t least to me. Perhaps I have become used to Scott pages with the ivory tone but these just seem too bright. Once I get more pages filled this may not be an issue. The weight issue of the binder with pages continues for me. Shortly after my last post, I sprained my left arm and leg in a fall. For a couple of months I had to get assistance in pulling the volume off the shelf to work on. One advantage- the weight of the pages eliminates any problems with stamps not lying flat in the album. as posted previously I plan to take out the Russia pages from part two so that may help me to spread out the pages and cut down the weight, I like the binders made specifically for these as sold by Amos and want to try to use them.

Given my age, starting a massive project like this my be a mad venture but it does sort of reinvigorate me. That's what matters.

I'm using the Supreme reprints (part 1) to house all the countries for which I'm not building a specialized collection. I think the Minkus Supreme has a certain "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" quality to it. The Good: the Supreme offers vastly more spaces for pre-1940 issues than the International part 1 and has the added bonus of coverage to 1954 (despite being advertised as an 1840 - 1952 volume). The Supreme doesn't shy away from complete sets (the U.S. 1893 Columbian set is complete to the $5 issue) or including higher value stamps (there are spaces for the U.S. Graf Zeppelins - you won't find those in your International), a trend that holds true across all countries. However, where the layout doesn't allow space - and every centimeter of the page is utilized - the higher value stamps get cut out. The Bad: the reprints are printed double sided on very light card stock, which has a tendency to warp when covered with mounts on both sides. Thicker paper would definitely have been better for the volume. The Ugly: the stamps are crowded on every page, which is made worse with the use of mounts. I wish there were a volume available for world wide collecting that combined the comprehensiveness of Minkus with the sensible layout of Scott.

Its been a few more months and I still don't have part B of volume one yet. Still dithering. I have been remounting stamps from inactive collections of countries provided for in volume 1a. I just cannot shake the feeling something just isn't right for me about this album. It's not the crowded pages so much as the fact that even when filled,it doesn't look like a serious collection. I miss the Scott type paper and the more spacious pages. The crowded pages for me make using mounts problematic.

Someone may be able to advise on a niggling problem. I try to use vintage older mounts on my better items. Some of those I have are not the folded type so I need to crease them before application. Almost half of those mounted this way stick out from the page at up to a 45 degree angle, even when left in the album under weight for days. I don't get that with Supersafe hinges but with those almost half go to waste, they ball up when stored.

I will probably stay with this album but any input is welcome, thanks.

How are you making the new crease? May need to rub the crease on somethin hard with the back end of your tongs.
Way back in my early Crystal Mount days, some where too large. I found I could easily open them up, trim, refold to better fit, and close them. But the new crease wanted to stay rounded, until I "ironed" them as described. They would then lie flat. Luckily, it was all 50's to 70's USA that was subjected to that.

Finally I ordered part 1B. I wanted to last month but Amos had the binders on back order so I waited. Then they got the binders and the 1B pages were to be back ordered. Out of frustration I started looking around and wound up ordering both from NOLA stamp shop, pretty much same price as from Amos. I hope to use several of my collections as feeders for this set and free up a lot of shelf space. We'll see...

The binder I got with my new order was one of the new Amos-reprinted one just labeled 'Global Album'. It looks nice and the difference in labeling won't be an issue for me. But, boy is it a cheapo product. The binding mechanism looks like they made it from tin cans, I doubt it will remain affixed to the binder with more than a year of use. The back cover was creased to allow content to lie flt in use. The front cover was not, I had to very carefully fold it back myself. I got it creased but I am not impressed.

I guess we should be thankful Amos still makes an effort to produce binders that recreate the looks of this classic album. That's the best way to look at these things.