Harris Supplement Question

GeoffHa:

It looks to me to be an ordinary Harris Speedrille page (or similar).

John

Wow, there's a lot to think about here. I started with asking about the Harris supplements from about 2011 onward, which in retrospect is probably pointless for me right now as stamps that recent are hard to find in kiloware lots and I'm enjoying picking through those. I've no intention of buying a large number of ultramodern worldwide mint stamps either. Rather than supplements, the issue is more deciding how to handle a combination of pre-1970 worldwide stamps, for which a pretty solid older worldwide album has been suggested (Citation), along with the '70s, '80s, '90s, and maybe the 2000s depending on how much of those I find.

So the Statesman Deluxe coverage is very sparse for older stamps, maybe no better than my old Ambassador album. I'm still unclear on how bad it is for the '70s-'90s. Can anyone add information there? If it's not bad, I still might still consider it. If it's crap even for that time period, then it probably doesn't help me much. They've got to be doing something with all those pages and illustrations, but half of it being the 2000s would be bad. Best case, I'd have decent coverage for recent decades and have to do a lot of my own pages for older stuff.

Finding a used Citation flips that around. Coverage for pre-1970 would far exceed what I have now, greatly reducing how many pages I'd have to add myself, but everything newer would be up to me. From there I could get quadrille pages that fit Harris binders, or go a Steiner or Album Easy direction. The Citation+ route has the arguable advantage of a clean break between pre-printed album coverage and DIY because it'll just stop at 1970 or even earlier (there are older Citations, right?). On the other hand, I have a number of '70s and early '80s stamps from my old collection, and at least in the small amount of kiloware I've gone through lately, I'm seeing a lot of stamps from the '70s-'90s. We'll see if that holds true for the larger lot I have on the way. Worldwide kiloware is just where I'm at right now for mostly used stamps. I'll probably get pickier eventually and focus more rather than just "give me a big pile of stamps from EVERYWHERE! WOOO!".

Anyway, I've not seen Statesman Collector drop into this thread, but I saw their comments in an older thread about the joys of collecting to the album. I guess not everyone has gone to The Dark Side. :)

If I go the Citation route, while I wait for the "right" one to come up for sale on e-bay or wherever, I can work on pages for my post-1970 stamps.

And then there are lots like this from the upcoming Rasdale sale:






https://stampauctionnetwork.com/RA/RA454.cfm

GeoffHa, yes, that's a Harris Speedrille quadrille page. At full retail/MSRP, US$13 for a package of 64 leaves vs Minkus-style G&K $8 for 20 medium weight leaves vs US$16 for 20 leaves(!) with a knockoff of the last at somewhat less. And that's about it for American brands, with no bigger packages with a quantity discount. American-style, they're usually discounted 10%, sometimes 20% at stock clearance time, offset by ever-increasing postage costs. It all makes AlbumEasy and Steiner look that much better.

International A4 or US ANSI A/letter size are convenient paper sizes but small for my taste. Of course, not using that makes one subject to proprietary page sizes and albums or making custom pages and albums. Exploring the latter is my project for this year as noted earlier.



I think the plan there was like that of many Big Blue collectors, to collect what's specifically presented in the album and ignore everything else. Blank spaces in both are free choice spots, but I find even that too limiting.

If not-perfect date ordering is okay with you, then working in blank pages into an album is probably the way to go (unless you're ready to step into a full set of Scott Internationals). Also, it is not illegal to swap out subsituted pages for original printed pages. I can't quite manage to throw out the modern Bulgaria, Russia, Togo, etc,supplement pages that I will never fill out with postally used stamps, but if you need album room, that's an option.

Most of the blank pages available in GB have followed the same standard size for many years - basically, they'll all fit Gibbons springbacks or ring-binders (though the sizes of 22-ring pages have shifted somewhat over the years). So there's always been a fair bit of choice. I just buy the generic ones in white or black from Dauwalders.

Collecting to Big Blue always seems a bit odd to me. It's going to be difficult to fill it (especially where Scott boobed with stamps like the Syrian error), and, at the same time, irritating when you get stamps for which there aren't spaces. But each to his or her own. I wonder how many children received a Big Blue for considerate parents and put a few hundred stamps init before abandoning the task? I've certainly seen old Gibbons Ideal albums, purchased at quite significant cost for some lucky child, with the surface barely scratched.

Just looked them up - I've got to start getting rid of some of this stuff!

Here is the AlbumEasy source code for a simple Harris Quadrille Page:

ALBUM_PAGES_SIZE     (228.6 304.8) #Set the page to Harris (9x12")
ALBUM_PAGES_MARGINS  (20.0 10.0 10.0 10.0) #Adjustable (of course)
ALBUM_PAGES_BORDER   (0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0) #One Line Thin Border
ALBUM_PAGES_SPACING  (4.0 4.0)
ALBUM_PAGES_MARGIN_TXT (HI 8 "Quadrille by AlbumEasy" L)
ROW_ALIGN_BOTTOM
PAGE_START
PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HN 14 "")
TEXT_CHAR_SPACING(0.15)
PAGE_VSPACE(1)
COLOUR_PAGE_QUADRILLE(lightgray)
PAGE_QUADRILLE(0.0 6.0 6.0)

Total of 12 lines of code...

It produces a quadrille page that looks like this:



This is a bare-bones example - of course one could tweak it to taste. I used light-gray for the quadrilles, but you could also use gray or many other colors for them.

Just an example of how easy it is to do these things in AlbumEasy

Decide on paper, take it to get copied (or print it yourself if you have a wide format printer), and there you go.

John

Are they the Emperor's New Stamps, John?

The difference between hoarding and collecting, is organization.

Yes!

The quadrille page looks good, John. What paper do you recommend? I'd go to a shop to have 9x12 pages printed so I'd have to know what to ask for. Harris quadrille pages aren't terribly expensive to just buy, but I suppose this would still save some money.

I was considering one of the Citations for sale on e-bay recently and was too slow. I sent the seller a question, they never responded, and someone else bought it. Oh well. It might have worked but I needed more info on the pages included. These albums could have anything in them. Case in point: another one for sale states that the stamps included are from B-Z and years 1969-1978. That seems odd, so I asked the seller if that was just the stamps and the album had all the original pages. Nope. That's the pages too. It's a stuffed Citation binder that only covers 1969-1978 and skips the A countries. At least that seller responded though. Some sellers don't even respond to messages.

Going the Citation route may take a while.

Good question. There would be several considerations - you want it acid-free, white or near white, and not too thick. You want it to approximate the look and feel of the Harris printed pages.

Something like this:

Sax Sulphite Drawing Paper, 50 lb, 9 x 12 Inches, Extra-White, Pack of 500 - 053925 (Now $11.77 per pack on Amazon)

https://www.amazon.com/Sax-Sulphite..._sto_dp&th=1

Actually, 32# or 40# weight might better. I would not pick cardstock - too thick! The Harris pages are pretty thin...

Regarding the Citation, be patient. These are nearly always available on the secondary market. You want to be very careful to get one which is both lightly used (hardly used would be even better) and complete, A-Z. Stay away from ones with what looks like toned or damaged pages. If you look closely, you can usually see what kind of hinges were used in the album originally. From this time period, it should have been vintage hinges, unless it was added to recently. Vintage hinges will make it much easier to work with the album (stripping it if necessary) before you use it. Stay away from any albums where the stamps inside have staining marks on the fronts of the stamps, use unsightly mounts, etc.

John

Here is an improved version of the Harris quadrille page mentioned above. I noticed that the light gray didn't show up very well. This one has gray quadrilles and is better centered on the page.

The AlbumEasy source code:

ALBUM_PAGES_SIZE     (228.6 304.8) #Set the page to Harris (9x12")
ALBUM_PAGES_MARGINS  (20.0 10.0 10.0 10.0) #Adjustable (of course)
ALBUM_PAGES_BORDER   (0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0) #One Line Thin Border
ALBUM_PAGES_SPACING  (4.0 4.0)
ALBUM_PAGES_MARGIN_TXT (HI 10 "Quadrille by AlbumEasy" L)
ROW_ALIGN_BOTTOM
PAGE_START
PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (HN 16 "")
TEXT_CHAR_SPACING(0.15)
PAGE_VSPACE(1)
COLOUR_PAGE_QUADRILLE(gray)
PAGE_QUADRILLE(0.0 6.0 6.0 CENTRE)

(Still 12 lines of code).

Which results in a 9x12" page that looks like this (you can click on it to enlarge it):



Finally, we will take this to the logical conclusion. One off production and printing on 9x12" paper using a wide-format printer. We are using Hy-Brasil's example of a quadrille page.

The AlbumEasy Source Code:

ALBUM_PAGES_SIZE     (228.6 304.8) #Set the page to Harris (9x12")
ALBUM_PAGES_MARGINS  (20.0 10.0 10.0 10.0) #Adjustable (of course)
ALBUM_PAGES_BORDER   (0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0) #One Line Thin Border
ALBUM_PAGES_SPACING  (4.0 4.0)
ALBUM_PAGES_MARGIN_TXT (HI 10 "Quadrille by AlbumEasy" L)
ROW_ALIGN_BOTTOM
PAGE_START
PAGE_TEXT_RIGHT (HN 14 "AUSTRALIA 1964-09") #left (PAGE_TEXT) / centered (PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE) 
TEXT_CHAR_SPACING(0.15)
PAGE_VSPACE(1)
COLOUR_PAGE_QUADRILLE(gray)
PAGE_QUADRILLE(0.0 6.0 6.0 CENTRE)

Produces the following quadrille page:



John

Fun to see some Harris banter and I too suggest intermingling quadrille pages in. I am a Harris user from 1989 forward, while using quadrilles where I can. The Harris page size is one hurdle. I've kept my eyes open for Harris Speedrille pages Here's an example. https://www.gvstamps.com/cgi/displa...num=HEBLWSP. Don't get too hung up on whether it is a Citation or not. The secret is in the supplements. I've seen a Harris set put together with supplements from the 70s and it is a pretty large stack of paper, despite the limitations. My Harris set from 1989 to 2012 is seven volumes. Best bet is to find a used collection where the person went into the modern era and has already done the painstakingly long process of sorting them into countries. The challenge like others have said is the early years. You are probably better off getting a used Scott International I-III or maybe a Minkus Supreme Global to 1959 if you really want it kinda sorta complete. I've never seen a Harris come close for the early stuff. (Big exceptions are the county albums, US Liberty, Canada etc.)

Alright, you talked me out of the Statesman Deluxe. I have a 1968 Harris Citation album in great condition on the way to me. I was kind of hoping for one published a little later. I think they printed one in 1972? But the price and condition were excellent, IMO, so I went with it. Oddly enough I found it on Etsy from a seller who I don't think has sold anything else related to stamps. She said she and her husband bought it new way back when and enjoyed adding stamps to remember their international travels. I think the included stamps are sparse, which is fine. I bought it for the album and anything else is a bonus.

I tried to get that previously mentioned Citation binder with pages from 1969-1978 for countries B-Z that was on e-bay, though it wasn't clear if all the Harris supplement packs through '78 were in there or not. The bidding went a bit higher than I wanted though. I may regret letting that go given how hard the pages from the '70s apparently are to find, especially when not part of a much pricier collection being sold. Oh well. I'll have plenty to keep me occupied for a while. A shipment of supplies is on the way, too. I'll need it.

Guess I'll keep an eye out for '70s pages from a sparse collection. Sparse keeps the price down when I mainly want the pages. :)