The Case Against The Big Blue Scott Internationals

hi philb


The reason I use only blank quadrille pages. At the beginning of collecting I used an album. A dealer in my hometown said to use the quadrille pages and "nothing will go out of style". Ever since then I used Minkus quadrille pages (format has changed over the years). Last year I had pages printed "my way".

One disadvantage of them is one needs a catalog to keep things in order since there are no "pictures". After the initial spurt, I always specialized, first France and US and now 3 countries, so there hasn't been a problem. I am not sure what I would do if I was a world-wide collector, maybe go to albums or buy catalogs.

Jerry B

Even after having grappled with this for some years, I still blow hot and cold about the Scott Blue International Volume 1. I'm currently running on the chilly side as I just finished penciling in the last of the Scott numbers for the stamps I am missing, and this has only served to remind me of how capricious the editing of the album has been. But based on past experience, I will warm back up, if for no other reason that I doubt there will ever be anything better.

One thing that would help collectors come to terms with the Volume 1 is to embrace a different mindset. Most collectors who move beyond the beginners stage but still like to use printed albums are collecting "to the catalog." I.e., the albums they use, such as the Scott Green Specialty albums, largely mirror the general catalogs in the stamps they include. If the catalog gives it a major number, it gets a space in the album. Should the collector decide to specialize in varieties that are minor numbers or missing entirely from the general catalogs, then he or she has likely moved beyond the utility of printed albums.

The Volume One International Collector who tries to collect by the catalog, though, is in for frustration. Sixty percent of the major numbers in the Scott catalog will not be in the album. This includes literally thousands of stamps that cost under $1.

So consider this approach. What if you collect "to the album" itself, not to the catalog? Then the challenge becomes to fill the spaces that are there. And it is a challenge. Whether intentional or not, the editors have filled Volume One with thousands of stamps that are not easily found. And as your holdings grow, you will be building a "representative" collection of the world. This doesn't mean that you can't add stamps that aren't in the album, perhaps in the margins or on blank pages. But it is about embracing the chase and letting the album provide you a structure for a more or less affordable journey through the first hundred years of philately.

Now if Stanley Gibbons were to reprint their Ideal Album series in looseleaf form, then I would be seriously conflicted.

Bob

I think you put your finger on the least frustrating way to collect with Big Blue - indeed collect to the album itself. As a " representative" album with 35,000 spaces, naturally there will be many stamps not included. But making the album itself the challenge is a fun, and quite difficult goal., actually accomplished By few.

What is nice about Big Blue is most of the expensive stamps ( save the already expensive countries of U.S., Canada, France, Great Britain) are generally kept out of the album. So filling the album should not be an absolutely wallet draining exercise. And, as you point out, there are many thousands of stamps that are difficult to acquire even if they are "cheap".

I purchased the Scott Blue International 1840-1940 album (came in 4 vols. ) several years ago. It served me well and contains the bulk of my world wide collection. I recently started buying world wide collections to fill some more spaces. I picked up an old Minkus Supreme Global album along the way and was amazed at the difference between it and the Scott. Quite frankly, the latter is for space fillers which I admit to being all these years. However, the Minkus album includes spaces for watermark, perforation and paper varieties that Scott simply ignores. The collector has to use some philatelic skills not required by the Scott album. Moreover, the Minkuis Supreme Global now being sold by Amos Publishing goes up to the early 1950s for all countries. This range of years is actually much more interesting from an historical standpoint because you can see the impact of WWII, the Cold War and the breakup of the colonial empires on your stamps. I'm not about to transfer the stamps in my Scott album to the Minkus but the Minkus has become a great place to house my duplicates and varieties for which there is no space in the Scott. If I were to start over again, I'm sure I would use the Minkus Supreme Global instead of the Scott.

Dbuss

Welcome to SCF!.....and a great insightful first post too!

The Scott International Part I , or "Big Blue" was initially intended as a "Junior" album, and hence dispensed with the watermark, perforation and paper differences that Scott acknowledges by giving them separate major numbers.

The Minkus generally provides more spaces for a series, but the presentation is too crowded in my opinion.

The Steiner "solves" all the problems by completeness, and that is the route I am taking for my classic world wide collection.

But it is also the case of "being careful what you wish for", with the Steiners as one better have a lot of shelf space. ;-)

Dbuss, I agree that one of the most appealing aspects of the Minkus Supreme Global is that it gets you into the early 1950s in 2 volumes. My father gave me my first stamp album in the mid-1950s and so I have some fond memories of stamps from the 1940s and early 1950s that I would enjoy collecting almost as much as those from 1840 to 1940. One crazy idea I've had is that if I found a nice Scott International Volume 2 collection on eBay, I would try remounting it into the reprinted Supreme Global. That's the only practical (did I say practical?) way I would ever know if the Supreme Global would work as my primary album.

1840to1940,
Good suggestion. In fact, I did find a nice Scott Volume 2 (1940-1949) collection that I remounted into my Minkus Supreme Global. One can also look for the International Volume 3 but the years for this cover 1949 to 1955. You will end up with 2-3 years of stamps that go beyond the Supreme Global time span that ends around 1952. Nevertheless, I have found good bargains for Volume 2 & 3 collections on eBay. Good Volume 1 collections are quite pricey.

dbuss, thanks for the encouragement vis-a-vis the Minkus. I have started to keep an eye out for Scott Volume 2's and 3's. I never paid much attention to Volume 3, but I do remember some Volume 2's that were over half full but weren't too expensive. You are right--the ship has definitely sailed for buying large Volume 1's for under $1000 on eBay unless they are so badly described that everybody else misses them.

Hi Doug, I wish I had the ambition to unload my 8 Internationals into other homes..but fortunately I have other things to work on..Welcome to SCF this is a friendly helpful bunch !!

This is a really interesting discussion. I returned to collecting at age 60 after a 40-year lapse, so am the odd combination of a beginner's expertise and knowledge with the income to be a moderately advanced collector (so I think of myself as an "intermediate" collector, whatever that is). I have actually tailored by collecting interests around the albums I was able to find in new or close-to-mint condition. I collect 23 countries (7 European, 8 South American, and a few others) using 13 Minkus specialty albums and 4 Scott specialty albums. Also have a topical collection of flags on stamps and some George VI British Empire. I actually love the Minkus specialty albums, and think they are superior to the Scotts) but finding supplements is now close to impossible. I also couldn't agree more with the comment that it doesn't seem like Amos has a long-range business plan of any kind.

I'm a somewhat conflicted general stamp collector, who's especially interested in the classics up to the early 1860s when stamp collecting "began", and both fascinated by world history as reflected in postage stamps and the history of stamp collecting itself. In my own collection, personal favorites include the early British line-engraved such as penny blacks and reds, twopence blues, early Brazil including "bullseye" and other numerals, Cape triangles, early Mauritius, France and Belgium, including blocks and other multiples. My muse for this has been James A. Mackay's book "The World of Classic Stamps", which I highly recommend. However, I've also been working towards a more general and representative worldwide collection into the mid-1950s of mostly inexpensive but interesting stamps that illustrate World Wars, occupations, inflations, and other historical events.

This is where I've struggled with the Big Blue Scott International albums, and like 1840to1940 have "blown hot and cold" about this choice. I'd been using a thick paper version of the Scott International 1840-1940 album (purchased new about 1990) with added pages, supplemented by a used 1941-1949 volume 2 to bring things up through the WW2 era. But I've found Scott volume 2 to be really annoying, with many pages, especially for British Commonwealth countries, having spaces for only a few stamps while leaving out the rest of the George VI's reign. Having seen a friend's massive WW collection well into the 2000s in a bookshelf packed full of Minkus Supreme Global albums, I was intrigued by the better coverage and more compact layout of these albums. This made me think that Minkus might be a good bet for a 1840 to mid-1950s collection. At various times I've also looked into the Scott Brown albums as a possibility, especially for a 19th century only collection, and more recently have looked at Steiner's "print your own pages" approach, but I'm afraid I just like the look of an open album with stamps on both sides of the pages, like when I was a kid.

Faced with this dilemma and recalling Yogi Berra's aphorism that "I came to a fork in the road and I took it", I bought a used 2 volume Minkus Supreme Global, somewhat corrupted with pages bringing in up through the mid-1950's. Now, I feel a bit like the man with two watches, never quite knowing exactly what time it is, but my current concept is this…

I still use my thick page Big Blue for my primary 1840-1940 WW collection, using mounts to supply additional spaces for early stamps where possible and additional facing pages to make room for other "earlies" showing examples of cancellations, pairs and blocks, etc. My goal is to make this as interesting as possible and nice to look at (a bit like mini-stamp exhibit pages). My measure of success is whether or not I enjoy going back and looking at them… after all, what's the point in collecting stamps if you don't want to actually look at them. These "earlies" are the ones I'm willing to spend more money on. My later stamps are mostly inexpensive ones, selected for appearance, with mint or lightly cancelled preferred where possible. Here, BB has worked well for me since the most expensive issues have been "weeded out". Also, since my first "more serious" stamp album when I was a kid was a used 1935 Scott International Junior album, the pages and layout bring back pleasant memories. Finally, the layout and page thickness readily permits the use of mounts for MNH and better stamps.

However, the Minkus album has turned out to be a useful addition for compactly handling later stamps, as well as stamps for which there are no spaces in Scott. I especially like having extra room for the earlier stamps of Queen Elizabeth II and many of the inexpensive but nice looking stamps I remember as a kid (e.g. Monaco, etc.). This would be a nightmare in my opinion using Scott volumes 2, 3, plus? Since the Minkus layout is very compact and the paper relatively thin, it is not really suitable for using mounts, so I've hinged all the stamps. The Minkus also supplies plenty of room for 1840-1940 duplicates as I upgrade to better specimens or acquire lots.

Again, my overall concept is to develop a relatively compact collection that I can enjoy into old age. By design, it's strictly a hobby collection and I never expect to fill all the spaces and complete it. However my method (if there is one!) seems to be somewhat like that of Mr. Toad in "Wind in the Willows", that is, just when a canary yellow Gypsy wagon with red wheels is the only thing for me, … I spot a shiny new motorcar! This has resulted me being diverted into various side collections that I mount in stockbooks. For example, as a general collector I found myself intrigued by Latvian map and banknote stamps, and this led to a side collection of blocks showing maps and banknotes on the back. While I'm certainly not going to specialize in this area, I've learned a lot about the severe paper shortages following World War I that led to the first Latvian stamps being printed on a variety of unusual paper types, including the unfinished backs of German military maps, partially finished banknotes, lined writing paper, and thin pelure or "cigarette" paper. This is why I think WW collecting can be so much more interesting than simply "filling blank spaces in a stamp album", or focusing on a narrowly defined specialty.

Best Regards,

InforaPenny

Great first post on SCF InforaPenny!

You are a very knowledgable Classical collector, I will enjoy having you contribute to the discussions on SCF.

I have given up on "compact", as I am using the Steiner for the WW classic collection. My frustration wtth not having spaces overcame BB 's considerable other advantages ( inexpensive selection, compactness). But then like a dynamic chemical equation, I begin to again long for those qualities, and regret the move. ;-)

The larger problem with the Steiner are the expensive spaces. Plenty of room for the "z" grill U.S. stamps. ;-)

So I am doing a checklist for Big Blue, and using the list as a template for acquiring stamps for the Steiner. In addition, of course, I have spaces for any stamps that are not in BB.

Hello InforaPenny! I also have a book by James A. Mackay "Money in Stamps". He pretty much tells it the way it is ! welcome to the forum...i am not too worried about the big blue books right now...i need an English speaking expert on Argentine stamps to get these watermarks straight !!

Welcome Davidray to SCF- thirteen Minkus and Scott albums sound like a lot of fun!

By sheer numbers, you are a WW classical collector.

InforaPenny-

Do you happen to know the mm width of the stamp space in the Minkus Global Supreme compared to the identical space in BB?

I was under the impression it was less, and therefore quite difficult to use mounts as opposed to hinges in the Minkus, even if the paper is thick enough for the mounts.

If it is possible to use mounts in the Minkus, I might be intrigued. :-)