Album Review: United States Albums

Yes, you are correct. I don't particularly like ring binders either; but other than Scott Int or Specialty albums, there seems to be few options for a "non-ring binder" type of album.

Trying to find the right large size paper (without actually being able to see them in person) and finding the right local printer who can print them, etc. for the right price and then trying to find the right kind of binder for those pages...its all just too much work.

Chris

Most of the major manufacturers - Lighthouse, Schaubek, Gibbons etc - make both peg/post and springback albums, and the page sizes are on their sites. Whether it's worth the effort to have pages custom-cut for them, I'm not sure.

Geoff

Geoff,

I wished Palo had that option too. I like their page layouts the best, but don't like ring binders so much.

I posted before that I make my own stamp pages, but this year, I decided to get a jump start. I usually make that years pages in January of the following year. However, I had some extra time and thought I would try to produce the pages early. So this year is looking like one filled with some very nice and interesting stamps. Creating the pages gets me excited for them to be released. This is a work in progress and some of the information is blank or has "x" or zeros to hold the space. Some of the issues may or may not be released and I am missing one stamp that I will have to fit in to the mix later. Also, the sizes of the stamps, especially the full panes are not exact until I actually have them with the mount in hand. I got all my info from the USPS website and I have not rewritten my descriptions yet. I just wanted to share what 2016 is shaping up to be for U.S. Stamps and possibly get someone else excited! Thanks and enjoy!

Very very nice work!

What do you use to design your pages?

I use MS Publisher. It works for me and is pretty easy to use. It allows me to have different master pages. I have one for Commemeratives, one for definitives, one for holiday issues and one that has no design for bigger sheets.

mikepack...VERY nice designs! Bravo!

My black Scott 1940 album is similar to the Scott National album. I like the steel rod for holding the pages together and you never have to worry about the covers tearing or falling off.

I must have gotten lucky with my platinum, a little different design, 1976 copyright, album is in great shape, all six parts, no logo on the front...

That is a gorgeous looking binder!

Your Scott album is very nice. I wasn't collecting when Scott published the Platinum US hingeless albums, but I own a set of three blue ring mechanism Platinum US Hingeless binders and they are gorgeous quality. I wonder why Scott discontinued their production?

They are out there. I've been watching for one for years - finally found one at auction from a small auction house through Stamp Auction Network. Mine is a 1973 edition in beautiful shape and has been upgraded to 1983. It even has a few stamps... not bad for $100!

I love the look of 2 post albums. But I hate mounting stamps in them. If there was a way to 2 or even 3 post albums and still get the pages to lie completely flat, I would love that.

The first question is: what do you want from your album? For me, it is really important that I be able to easily customize my album.

I like the Scott National three ring binder with metal hinges.



I've found that while the cloth hinges last much better than the plastic hinges that H. E. Harris uses, they still loosen up with active use.

I've appreciate that the three ring system allows both for the album to lay flat, even at the beginning and end of the album:



And, it also allows me to add or move pages with great ease. So, when I got interested in private perforations, it was very easy to add pages in the middle of the album:



I don't like the hinge-less albums, as they assume that I only acquire singles of a specified size. Whereas, sometimes I prefer a pair, or strip of several stamps:



or a larger single:



Those are not cut envelopes, those are the margins on Scott #754 and Scott # 755!

I also prefer the black background of the show-guard mounts. They display the perfs nicely.

And finally, the national album has been in production long enough that I can easily find odd pages that I can re-purpose. Here I took a coil pair page, and use it for imperforate pairs:



It also allowed me to display my proof stamps next to my regular issues:

As a follow up I found Old Glory album as the best used US album. Published by a Canadian company, they include both blocks and individual stamps. However, they don't usually appear on the same page. The paper is very light. So, I am copying the pages onto harder stock and ignoring the block pages.