The Case Against The Big Blue Scott Internationals

Aaargh, I buy a partial Minkus Supreme album loaded with stamps, hoping to transfer them to my Scott Internationals...dream on...Scott does not come close to providing a space for the higher denomination stamps !

But on the other hand, Minkus uses their own catalog #'s. Thats a real pain in the arse when you are looking to fill the holes.

To this retired computer person, not having to fill all those expensive stamps sounds more like a feature than a bug!

Seriously, when I started my worldwide collection a few years ago, I had great hopes that the Supreme Global would be a good compromise between the Blue International's minimalist coverage versus the "overly" comprehensive Brown Internationals and Steiner pages. But after investigating, I found that while the Scott Blue 1840-1940 volume had spaces for some 35,000 stamps or about 40% coverage of the era, the Supreme Global only was intended to provide spaces for about 2/3's of the stamps issued. Now if the 2/3's was a result of careful editing, i.e., leaving out the most expensive stamps and obscure varieties, that would be fine. But unfortunately, the Minkus albums exhibit some of the same eccentric editing that infects the Scott.

Fortunately, blank pages for the Scott albums are cheap. Better yet, you could send me all of those pesky stamps that you can't find spaces for.

1840 I sell them for 1/3 catalog !!

1/3 Scott? That sounds very reasonable. Now where is my 1940 Scott Catalog? I know it is here somewhere.

I feel your pain. I bought a 2 vol Harris album as a kid. I have the Steiner pages on CD now. I'm totally marooned.

As things get full on the Harris side, I print Steiner pages for that country and things get really really empty.

I have the same issue with the blue internationals, but find speciality albums, browns and Stiener pages frustrating also, especially if you like to see completed pages. A lot of albums seem to be geared to a face different collection, which is a valid idea. It sure would make US Washington-Franklins, Mexican airmails, Brazil Industry-Aviation-Navigation, etc, series a whole lot simpler. With all the idionsyncratic collecting tastes, no album maker could come up with something to please all. Custom pages are an option, but a time consuming one except for a narrow collecting concept. Stockbooks are another option, but also have problems. Personally, I have converted to Steiner pages and will have to live with the sometimes lack of use of the whole page and blank areas, and with the knowledge that I will have a lot of empty spaces. I wonder if we are not all victims of our own tastes.

Its my own doing..way back when...Europeans were using stockpages for their collections but I thought the Scott Internationals were the cats meow...i use them for my worldwide stamps up to 1969..but its still frustrating when I see pages and pages of stamps that I would like to mount and I don't want to take 8 albums apart to put blank pages in....

Philb I feel your pain.

If you follow my blog, you know I began with Big Blue as my main album, but then grew frustrated with the omissions, and switched over to Steiner.

Steiner has a LOT more real estate, however, so I still use the Big Blue Checklist for a country as a guide of what (initially) to collect.

Big Blue, in it's defense, generally does a remarkable job of keeping the expensive stuff out.

I've given up on most pre-printed albums. I have Minkus specialty albums for Turkey (until 1996), East Germany/Colonies, and West Germany/United Germany. They're good for what I need them for but as far as finding supplements.. very tedious. So, I've given up. I collect worldwide. I've got Harris Statesman album at home in the US which has now grown so much it's in 2 old Citation binders. Here in Oman, I have used the free Scott printable album and the Steiner Quadrilled pages.

I've started buying up lots of stamps from the Netherlands and Bulgaria. Part of me wants to use the blank quad pages and make my own, yet another part of me is intrigued with the Steiner pages or one of the CDs I've seen on ebay. Any suggestions?

Also, is it me or does it seem like Minkus albums are dying off? It's like Amos has a monopoly on most things Philatelic in the USA. Are they deliberately trying to kill off the Minkus brand?

The Steiner will give you a space for every (Scott) major number for a country.

This especially works well if you are collecting "one of each".

I'm a fan of Steiner's pages as well. The alternatives are either very expensive (Lighthouse) of very time consuming (designing your own). You should buy a subscription to his website, it's 30$ for a year.

Gents, Thanks for the replies...i wonder about the future of the preprinted albums which are usually the gateway to stamp collecting for many beginners..i have searched for a perfect solution ..possibly creating a page for the stamps I have ?

Ajnabii, I have been collecting Netherlands stamps and covers since the 1970's..have many duplicates lying around if you need a particular one! Cheers, phil

You have to wonder sometimes whether Scott/Amos has any long range business plans. Having said that, they did reprint the 1952? edition of the Supreme Global awhile back which was totally unexpected. On the other hand, I have yet to see them promote the reprint. They show up in Amos's advertisements, but there is no mention that the Supreme Globals were out of print for however many decades or how they compare to the other products in their album lines.