Best Stamp Hinges

So there is nothing in-between torn/scuffed and MNH?
They have their uses still today just maybe not for everyone.
As mounts continue to drop in price though I guess the days of the hinge are numbered so stock up

Deal of the century. I can vouch for this seller, I made many purchases from Mike.

http://wensy.com/detail.asp?id=8214252

Ouch!
I just paid over $40 for six pkts from Oz
Otherwise I would have bought his stock.

Hmmmm, Is it better etiquette to reopen an old topic on the same subject or start a new thread??

I use lots of hinges on used stamps and mounts on mint stamps. I can't see mounts ever being cheaper than the hundredths of a cent a hinge costs. I saw a while back that someone was recommending Tombow Removable Adhesive on ebay. The adhesive is removable like a Post-It note and can be easily rubbed off. I bought one at the craft store nearly six months ago. It seems like a feasible solution, and claims to be "archival" and all that jazz but I have been afraid to use it. Has anyone here tried this? What are the pluses & minuses?

Also, if you use this type of adhesive, how much do you find you need to use per stamp (1-2cm?).

NOTE: ADDED 8/25/2013
When I originally posted this, there did not seem to be much information on the suitability of this product. I experimentally used the removable Tombow adhesive on a limited number of low value stamps.

I recently went to replace one of these stamps and found the following: The stamp was removable and the adhesive could be relatively easily removed from the stamp by gentle rubbing; however, there were semi-translucent stains on the stamp where the adhesive had been. The stains looked similar to an oil/grease stain on paper. This product may be better suited to photographic paper which is non-porous.

I will continue to use "peelable" (not) hinges for my used stamps and mounts for mint stamps. At least they can be soaked off. Most I have found are acidic so may eventually damage the stamps as well, but that seems to be a much slower process than what I noticed with the removable adhesive.

Vario stock sheets all the way!

It was always Dennison for me, but those days are gone. I'm a mount man now (and that's not just bragging!)

The best hinges are the Dennison {with the "O" },the Dennisen are not good for stamps ,the second level would be the H.E.HARRIS 1750 easy-mount stamp hinges and the FOLD-O-HINGE by harold cohn &co. I just purchase a 50 packet lot off of ebay for just over $200.00 . Some day the Dennison hinges will disappear off ebay and then the second level of hinges will climb in price .There will always be collectors willing to pay for easy removal hinges ,so we can see prices going higher over the next few years .

Anyone care to comment on two basic questions that fit this thread?

First: Why is it so difficult to find a decent stamp hinge? After all, it's just folded, gummed paper. You would think in this day and age of computer generated manufacturing, it should be a very simple process to make stamp hinges that would be easily removable from stamps.

...and...

Second: Why are stamp mounts so expensive? Once again, current technology should mean that this sort of product is easily produced and the fact that you can buy fancy page protectors for much lower cost than basic stamp mounts, proves that the manufacturing capability is certainly there.

Is it greed, that manufacturers of these items are milking stamp collectors for as much as they can when buying supplies? Or is it just due to the very limited market of active stamp collectors that keeps the cost high because producers can't turn a profit on manufacturing such a low volume product?

the answer to the first question is nobody is sure of the content of the glue or was it two layers of glue or/and
was the paper pre-waxed before the glue was applied.

The second question ,is it that the market is not big enought to lower the price.We seen what happens to firms like Scott which had their album prices too high and they just cut back produceing some countries because collectors found ways around the high cost.

Hmmmm, maybe nobody here has actually tried the "Tombow" removable adhesive. I don't blame folks for not wanting to experiment with something that isn't tried and true. I may have to take a risk and try it on some of my cheap used stamps (most of my stamps). I'll let folks know if all my stamps turn brown in a year.

I do agree with the use mounts of mounts, for anything with gum but I like to save as much $$ as possible to buy more stamps, along with all my supplies. I also think the idea of using stock pages is sensible but I am too attached to filling in the little squares on my printed sheets. I am planning to use stock pages for some of the stamps that I cannot easily look up in my catalogs and may need to rearrange as soon as I start to resarch them (revenues, perfins, poster stamps).

As much as I agree that mounts are the way to go, I recommend Prinz mounts over Showguard.

Is there really a difference? If this link is to be believed, it suggests that:




http://www.brookmanstamps.com/Brook...NTS11-12.pdf

so no one use LePage glue anymore....lol

Coming from a guy who's used about 50,000 hinges, a rough guide is that any hinge 25 years old or older is probably not too bad. As floortrader stated Dennison (not the the ones with an en) are #1 and Fold O Hinge #2. Dennison made lots of adhesive products, they knew what they were doing with gummed adhesives. It seems that the secret hinge knowledge has been lost. Subway Stamps gave it a shot with Dennis' Hinges which I think were better than any lousy hinge that is sold today. I don't know the whole story but Subway does not sell the hinges anymore. There are not perfect, but they seem to not have the permenant vice grip effect of other modern hinges.

Another probem with modern hinges, they are too thick, They cause ridges if you use them with mint stamps.

If you get some older hinges, you can make them last by cutting them in half.

I have talked with people who have used adhesives (similar to post it notes) and they do work, but I worry about long term impact.