Need A Goos Detailed Album

Hello all,

I have been working on my old stamp collecting after 30 plus year break. I inherited my uncles collection, He used the Citation albums and I have Standard Harris albums.

What I would like to do is combine his collection (which has way more stamps)but his USA album is not complete, there are missing pages here and there, but yet they may be in the hugh pile of non bindered sheets he was working on before his death) with mine.

What I am looking for a very detailed USA album, as well as some selected country's.

Any thoughts on which album to check out?

For new albums, Mystic has a good range of stamp albums available. The prices can go from a low of $40 to as high as $2000 apiece, depending on your budget and specialties and whether you want to use mounts or are looking for hingeless albums. In any event, they seem to have pretty decent prices:

http://www.mysticstamp.com/product_...roup=&type=M

Unfortunately, Mystic's US Hingeless album has been taken off of their website for the time being due to production problems, so if that's of interest to you, you may want to wait and see about that one when it returns to their stock. Here's the link to a previous discussion about it:

https://goscf.com/t/13116&whichpage=1

Marko:

Assuming you mean GOOD, not GOOS?

Give us a little more clarification --

Q: Are you planning to purchase a pre-printed album as opposed to printing your own pages?

Q: Do you want a hingeless album?

I'm not sure what you mean by "detailed" but check Rileysan's comments on page 2 of this thread ..
https://goscf.com/t/15300&whichpage=2

Kirk

yup sure did mean good... damn typist....

pre-printed albums is what I would need. less errors on my part.

As for hingless or non hingless,,, you have got me,,, the ones I have now have a metal bar 2 (pins) holding them into place. So I am not sure on the hingeless

And for detail, I wouold liek some thing that would represent as many stamps as possible, watermrked, unwatermrked, perforated, imperforated flat press, rotary press etc etc etc issues.

Does Mystic only do US albums or do they also produce worldwide? A friend of mine has their hingeless album
and it seesms like value for the money. It's a pity they're having problems. I get Mystic and Kenmore stamps confused. Are Harris and Minkus the only ones who produce affordable WW albums?

Scott is arguably the best and most comprehensive, but that is also reflected in its pricing. Keep in mind that in the link below you are buying only the pages, as the binders are sold separately:

https://www.amosadvantage.com/scott...o=&Tab=stamp

Do your own, word and publisher are great for this.

I would suggest thinking outside the box. I use my childhood Liberty album (a Harris USA album) which has the same holes as the Harris Citation album.

I would suggest starting with what your goal is as far as the years you want to collect. I stopped at 1999 because the newer stuff is getting more and more bogus. I have no interest in Bart Simpson stamps.

There are many used albums out there with only a few hundred stamps in them that can be purchased much cheaper than anything new. I would suggest buying used / partially filled and just walking through and combining the pages you need and tossing out the duplicates.

A 20 year old Harris Liberty album can be found for <$20 partially filled with cheap stuff. Might be a nice place to start. I have replaced my binder several times but kept many of the same pages that have stamps from before I was 10.

David

One word of caution about the newer Liberty albums. They have, in recent years, used two-sided printing. The older Liberty albums had printing on one side of the page only. Also, the newer albums have some rather ridiculous pages suggesting you mount a strip of stamps diagonally to fit on a page. Nothing that can't be overcome, I suppose, just a few tweaks that I have found objectionable. If you're interested in new HE Harris Liberty Albums, here's another link:

http://www.whitmanbooks.com/default...SubCatOID=22

No expert here, but I'm trying to do something similar, and while Mystic seemed a good deal I've blank card stock pages and so just bought the Scott binders and jackets from ihobb.com But why can't I find black? Would seem a simple thing.

I'm going to print my own pages for the internatl I keep and buy just the extra comm set of pages for the pre 1893. Was lucky in that my stuff came with surplus of mystic or showguard mounts.

Printing your own album pages is certainly an option, but as this post started out, there was interest in both US and select other countries. When you start printing out your own album pages, the costs can quickly add up and there is some point when it will actually exceed the cost to buy the pre-printed album pages from a well-known publisher.

Costs vary, but consider 60-65 lb. cover stock paper, and toner/ink/developer costs for a laser printer or copier and then the cost for punching the pages and the binders to keep them in, I figure that for anything more than perhaps 200 or so pages, you'd be better off financially by buying the pre-printed ones than to try to do them yourself. Of course, the numbers can vary widely depending on what software and hardware may be at your disposal and how much desire you have to do customized pages as compared to standard-issue ones.

I went with the AMOS website "beginner album" (which was like 700 and something pages - single sided) on some heavier paper.
For the areas I decide to specialize in (when I get to that point), I intend to make my own pages. I think there's some decent
computer software out there specifically for that purpose.

Hi Again Marko:

Hingeless album pages have mounts already attached to the pages so all you have to do is put in your stamps.

"Regular" pages require you to provide your own hinges or mounts to attach the stamps to the pages. Some people don't like hinges because they can detract from the value of a mint stamp. Mounts on the other hand are expensive. Both methods take more time than using hingeless pages.

Look at this website to compare regular and hingeless prices:
http://www.paloalbums.com/index.php...mium_country

Look here to see how a stamps goes into a hingeless page:
http://www.lighthouse.us/epages/lig...s/US/US_1702

One last caveat -- some sellers advertise "hingeless" albums, but they're really taking about stock books or Vario pages. You'll know they're NOT talking about a real album if the price is too good to be true. Expect to pay a lot for a real hingeless ablum.

It's also likely you'll have to pay extra for binders and slipcases -- a lot of album pages (regular and hingeless) are the pages only.

Kirk

I see no one has mentioned auction sites. Once you have decided on a album search auctions for that type. Many times you will get the set at a fraction of price. I bought a White Ace album set for each of my children. Each set would have cost over a thousand dollars but on I only paid for the stamp value and the rest was free because I bought someone else's collection. You not only get free albums but have nice starter collections.

I inhertied a large collection of stamps and albums. I want to combine the USA section together... basically replace the old albums sheet with new ones. My uncle collected from all over the world, and all stamps were worth collecting. I am going to center around Ireland/Austrain-Hungry/Croation stamps. Since this is were my grand parents are from. So I want to place these special interest in a binder/and get a good set of sheet's.

Ok ok, I was long winded... but damn the fire is a burning... damn wife will divorce me... lol

I'm late to this topic but that's because I'm new to CSF

IMHO, buy the best you can afford and if you can't afford the best, wait and save-up. Philately is a lifelong hobby. You will never regret purchasing a high quality album with mounts included (hingeless). I have both Scott and Lighthouse, both excellent albums, but kick myself for not spending the extra money on hingeless. I only use mounts, even for used material, because it protects the stamp from damage and makes for a nicer display. But mounts are expensive (especially if you buy pre-cut), and are a pain to size and cut. Sizing is especially a pain with U.S. Revenues and other odd-ball shapes. Over the years I have spent so much on mounts that it makes no sense to buy a new album but if I could do it over, I surely would spend the extra and go hingeless. BTW, I would likely stick with Scott. While I think my Lighthouse is overall better quality in terms of binder and paper, not having Scott numbers is a royal pain in the butt!

In conclusion: Buy the best and don't skimp! Your stamps are worth it and you won't regret it.