The large green 3-ring Scott binders just seem way too large to me, but I've found the smaller one is a very nice binder, as rogdcam has mentioned. At least I can actually pick it up. And it has an available slipcase which I always use with my albums. The drawback is you'll need a lot more of the small-size binders than the larger ones. I'd say it's worth it, though, but if you're on a tight collecting budget, maybe not. You could always order one of each, I suppose, and see which looks best for what you want. I imagine the smaller one will work best.
One thing to be aware of about these Scott ring binders, and it's especially noticeable with the larger one, is the depth of the binders. By that I mean how deep (wide) the cover is on the bookshelf or your work surface. It's enormous. The binders do not fit on normal bookshelves comfortably. They will stick out an inch or two which I find unappealing. The slipcase helps with that problem. On your desk, a large Scott 3-ring binder is going to leave no room for anything else it's so big. Scott had to do that, I guess, to accommodate the size of the rings . . . ? Not sure. As I said, I find this more noticeable with the large binder, although oddly they're both described as having the same cover depth.
The one odd thing is that Scott's pricing (AmosAdvantage is the website) has both the large and the small binder at the same price. Consequently, I imagine a lot of people figure they're getting more for their money by buying the larger binder. But then I'd be stuck with an enormous binder I could barely pick up -- so I'd get the smaller one. It will fit Vintage Reproduction pages, I imagine.
Other likely candidates can be found by browsing
Amazon, probably under "Office Products". A three-ring binder I see people mention as a good one a lot is made by "We R Memory Keepers". I think it's supposed to hold three-ring photo pages, hence the odd name. I have one or two and they are very well made. They may come in different widths. I've seen some "leather"-like binders listed on
Amazon that would work well and class up any collection.
Lighthouse also makes 3-ring binders, a few of which are nice. Their popular padded cover Vario F binder, however, is probably too small. And most of the others I've seen are too thick to be comfortable to pick up. A lot of the thick binders appear to be designed for passive storage more than actual handling. I'd avoid thick binders just for that reason. "Around" 2 inches thick (give or take) seems best to me as the human hand can actually pick one of those up when it's filled with pages. Then there's the massively large Scott International binder whose thickness approaches 5". When filled with pages, you cannot pick it up with one hand, and if you drop it, good luck. After you get back from the hospital for your foot injury, you're likely to find your binder is badly damaged. I have no idea who buys these.
Most three-ring binders are going to be sized (height and width) for standard 8.5 x 11" paper which I imagine won't fit VR pages, so obviously look for larger binders (like the above mentioned). Most office supply store binders are cheaply made, too small in height and width, and won't last long.
Also, Scott's ring binders have metal hinges for the sake of longevity. It's a great way to make sure your binder doesn't get sloppy and worn out too soon. Normal binders develop wear and (literal) tear along the hinges and so have to either be taped up or replaced. The metal hinge is reasonably well covered by the covers, so it's not as ugly as you might expect.
Good luck. And, yes, there are other threads here about "binders" you might want to browse.
Posted 04/12/2022 1:42 pm
