Is The Title A Factor In A Collectors Choice In Purchasing Their Album's?

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Or maybe it's something else completely different ….inheritance, copyright date, or any and all that are worth more than your current album? Is there a preferred album that a serious collector's will always be the go to choice? Can I get the community's opinion on what they might've had for the ultimate album not what's inside but the album itself?

To me it seems that creating one from scratch would be the preference of a professional collectors. I would like you to know I am a beginner if even that title. One who's inherited the stamps and knows absolutely nothing about Phila. Collecting.hopefully this isn't a stupid question please tell me if it is so I can delete this post. My newly acquired album. Let me know if I should start a new one from scratch or would it be better to use one that has already been started.

I'm really bad at where to post. I will be more cautious from here on out.

Yeah, strange looking postcard! Oh well, stuff occurs. But there is an easy fix. See that shot note down there in the lower right corner? Where it says Send Note to Staff ?
Click that and ask the mods to move the post.

Using old albums is fine as long as the paper isn't brittle, discoloured, foxed etc. In most cases, it will be. But you may find that, if stamps are already included, they may not be arranged as you would wish, Generally easier to start afresh, perhaps with a stock-book if you aren't sure what you'd like to collect.

Every collector will have a different view on what is a "favourite", and this will be determined by what s/he collects.

Part of the fun of collecting is you get to call the shots and create your own world. That being said there are some things to contemplate when it comes to albums.

Is the paper good for the stamps. Is the PH going to hurt your collection. Is the binder going to fail sooner than later. Do you want modern catalog numbers to align with the album(s). If you use mounts how will the paper handle it. Does the layout still make sense. Can you insert extra pages (not for older bound albums). Will you likely have to start from scratch in a new album anyway. There are others.

On the other side, some of these older albums can't be beat for aesthetics. The bindings are sometimes amazing with tooling and gilding.

Personally, I have had at least a hundred of these 19th and early 20th century albums pass through my hands and while I was tempted to use one or three to house a collection logic dictated the answer to be no for the reasons I outlined above. I ended up with less elegant storage but did get that new car smell that I could amend to fit my collection as it expanded.

Everybody makes their own choice . There are people like me who start with one album ,then they out grow it ,and in my case I've have out grown 4 different albums or album sets .

I bought old (like 1940s old) versions of Scott International (Big Blue) for my international collection. This was mostly based on that I like full pages, so I don't want a complete listing of stamps I'll never be able to afford, and I like that they aren't as crowded as Minkus. Minkus really doesn't support mounts, either. More to choose from to buy, as well. I wish I had had $600 to buy a new set, but such is life, I think I'll enjoy $600 worth of stamps in my old album much more.

I do the Mystic American Heirloom for US, with their upgraded deluxe binders. The hingeless version is in my reach now, but I'm too invested in what is probably a 80+% collection through 2000, so I'm not re-mounting, though having Scott numbers would be nice. I chose White Ace for my Ireland collection, in Leuchtturn binders. It's a bit eclectic on how it lists stamps, but the quality is fantastic, I'm sure most of us have received stamps from dealer with the fine White Ace pages as stiffeners for the mail. I don't really need a green & orange header on every page, it's a bit wasteful, but it does look nice.