Thoughts On Using Quality 3-Ring Office Binders With Vario Pages?

Hi,

New to the forum. I'm l currently trying to decide between using quality 3-ring office binders or something like the Lighthouse Vario Classic binders to store my collection. The LH binders sure look nice and the idea of a slip case appeals to me. I prefer the deeper colors of the Vario Classic over the Vario F and the Vario G are too thick for my tastes.

However, spending 5x the cost of an office supply binder has me thinking twice. I will need 4 to 5 binders to start with. Other than aesthetics, are there any reasons NOT to use a quality 3-ring binder from an office supply store? Would I regret using standard binders?

Thanks,
Tim

I've used all kinds of three ring binders. The best time to buy them is during "back to school days" which begins in about 4 months. I like white binders between 1/2 and 2 inches wide and ones you can put a label on the spine. That said, there is something to be had for aesthetics too! You have to look at whatever you use! Slip cases are a good idea, but does one need them with Vario sheets?

Hi, thanks for those thoughts. Based on your comments, I'm not seeing any outright objections or problems with using office supply binders. I've had my Vario pages in a few 1-1/2" office binders for the past decade or so, but I'm outgrowing those, and I might be ready to take my collection (aesthetically) to the next level. My only real "hangup" (pun intended) with the office binders is the plastic Vario pages tend to catch where the rings join together. I have also noticed some dust has worked it's way into the pockets of the pages. Perhaps a slipcase would help alleviate that? Maybe there's another way to deal with dust.

In the past months, I have been replacing my 40+ Lindner binders with Lighthouse Gigant binders. The reason was that some of the older Lindner PVC pages have deteriorated to the point of infecting some booklets and panes in the pages, rendering some uncollectible.

That is the only question, are the office binders safe in the long term...
So as for "cheap" office binders, are they acid-free? archive quality cardboard? Glued together with archive quality glue? Maybe yes, maybe no, and you probably won't easily get an answer to the key question.

As for the slipcases, they are an absolute must to avoid dust settling in your albums. (In that regard, the Lindner slipcases are very good, while the Lighthouse Gigante slipcases are a little too short so they don't fully protect against dust.
Also three rings only is too few in my opinion. The Lindner albums have 23255 rings, the Lighthouse Gigante have four. With three or four rings only, gravity may heavily stress the top hole of the plastic pages, making it a rated break point. (Depending on heavily the pages are loaded. A full page of booklets is quite some weight pulling downwards). That problem can be solved with reinforcement rings (or whatever these thingies are called). But again, these rings are glued over the hole so again the question is: Is that glue acid-free, archival quality?

Lighthouse stock-pages are magnets for dust - slipcases to protect them are highly desirable.

I went with Vario G with slip cases since I did not want to deal with bookends or albums failing over since most binders will not stand up without help. The We R Memory Keepers binder is an example that does stand up due to thick cover.

I forgot about the weight and the sag issue and agree with the dust issue. Does anyone know the best pages to use? Some of the plastic ones I have used toned brown over time

Regarding page sag due to weight, would that still be a factor with plastic Vario pages? Also, with the 3-ring office supply binders I currently have, a good portion of the bottom edge of the Vario pages end up being supported by the bookshelf. The binder is not much taller then the Vario pages themselves. This may not be the case with a LH binder? I've never seen one in person, but from the photos, it looks like there is more distance between the bottom of the Vario pages and the bottom of the binder itself. What about laying the binders flat? I don't think I would do that with a slipcase, however.

I use both.

For the Lighthouse binders, I appreciate the slipcases to hold them up and to protect them. I keep my better collections in them.

They have one major flaw which is that after heavy use, the rings tend to become detached from the binders.

Office binders are more flexible and are not anywhere near as expensive to replace. I would like to find or make covers to keep dust and foxing from settling in from above. I lay strips of cloth over some of them, but that just looks scrappy.

You don't want to do that as it puts undue pressure on your stamps, especially stamps with gum. Always keep binders upright.

I like Vario G binders with the slipcase. I put Vario 2 pages for covers in mine, and intermingle them with Hagner pages for off-cover stamps. Overall, I like that arrangement.

I measured the distance between Vario pages and the edge of a Vario F binder. From the bottom of the page to the edge of the binder is 13 mm +/-. From the top of the page to the edge of the binder is 19 mm +/-.

I have not found sagging to be a problem, maybe because the plastic is quite stiff compared to paper.

I use 1- and 2-pocket pages for covers. I don't particularly like them but cannot find anything better. I have found some pages yellow over time, and not necessarily the oldest pages either. So maybe the quality has decreased. And as noted by GeoffHa the plastic attracts dust, a lot of dust.

Thank you all for the input. It's helpful. I'll probably go with the Lighthouse Vario Classic binders for my sizable US Mint collection. They are 4-ring, D-ring, attached to the back cover, not the spine. A local dealer has them at a discount. I don't think I'm allowed to post url links yet, but maybe a photo from the product page:

Dust cover also prevents your urge to over fill the pages into the binder. This in addition to all the other good reasons.

A fairly large part of my collection is set up this way, both stamps and postal history/documents.

I'd looked high and low for good quality office-supply-store binders with no luck. Even Amazon had not much, and even the good-looking possibilities all turned out to be disappointing for use as a stamp album. What I've found is poorly made, flimsy, the rings tear the pages, they have no slipcase -- or they are unappealing for other reasons.

I've tried fancier-looking LIghthouse 3-ring binders but find them too big, too awkward, and not as sturdy as they might seem to be. I've seen some of their interior spines begin to tear. They binders don't lie flat which is odd. And the size of the larger LH binders is too big for printer pages. And do not even think of using the ones with those tall rectangular rings as turning pages will be very difficult. Those seem designed for storage, not stamp albums where you actually want to turn pages.

LH also sells a smaller padded 3-ring binder which looks nice, but after using a few of them for one of my collections, they proved just as disappointing as the larger ones. They were very expensive (about $40?) and they came without an available slipcase which I wanted. How much should a 3-ring binder cost? Not THAT much. So I've given up on both office supply and LH binders.

This decision was made much easier by Scott/Amos selling a much better padded 3-ring binder -- with a slipcase included -- which they call their "Universal 3-ring binder with slipcase":

https://www.amosadvantage.com/Store...-ring?page=2

It's the best 3-ring binder I've seen. It's small enough to be easily picked up unlike the larger LH binders. It has a padded cover which is pretty luxurious. It comes with a slipcase -- which is pretty amazing at this price. And it's much less expensive compared to all the other binders I've tried. It doesn't hold a huge number of pages but so what? You just get another binder, and at this price (about $22), it's actually very affordable. When is the last time getting another stamp album binder was anywhere near affordable? Most better stamp album binders sell for between $60 and $100 a pop -- empty and without pages, of course. Those green Scott Specialty binders are the bargain of this group at $52 each.

For a stamp collection that you want to look really good, a cheap binder won't work well and looks bad, but a fancy binder will be too big and too expensive. This binder works really well for me.

Those generic Scott binders look nice, for sure, and the price is right. But I see two problems: 1) too small, I would need two for every LH binder, making the price not so great, and 2) they seem to be out of stock everywhere.