Album Review: United States Albums

The SAFE pages are like Lindner. They aren't stock-pages of the Hagner or Lighthouse type. There's a thick sheet of paper, with the plastic on top. In the printed albums, an image of the stamp is on the paper. You can put a used copy in this, then a mint copy above in the plastic holder.

I believe SAFE and Lindner are similar. On custom pages the pockets are open but on other pages the pocket is closed for each stamp- you can see tiny rectangle that welds pocket down between stamps on page 1 above. Safe makes many varieties of customizable pages. This

I wish black background behind each stamp was slightly larger so stamp "pops" more. I use black mounts for some of the more valuable stamps as well as plate blocks to make them pop out at you more. I also don't trust myself entirely moving perforated stamps in and out if these clear pockets. Always afraid I will ding a perf during placement. Extra security with the mount? Mount protects it even more.??? Probably suffocating the stamp but these 19th century are mainly used without gum so probably not issue

"I also don't trust myself entirely moving perforated stamps in and out if these clear pockets. Always afraid I will ding a perf during placement."

I was wondering about that. I was hoping that the plastic pockets were "open" like Hagner stock sheets.

If they were, the stamps could move around, which is partly what the design is intended to avoid.

Paul,

this may help. I hate the backside of stamps that other collectors seem to pay a premium for. Although SAFE gives you the opportunity to show off the backs easily, I never look since backs of most used stamps are ugly (hinge remnants, writing, etc.). Plus all the faults show up more on the backside. Since I focus on used stamps, I'm not into showing off gum. Regardless, I do collect grills, but hate looking at the back of them. Nothing attractive on the backside if you ask me.. Some collectors collect split grills, double grills, etc. Perhaps these collectors would find a huge advantage to using this type of system.

As one can see, I do not have a spot for a Scott 5 or 6, or a Scott 16. To be more precise, SAFE decided to only give 3 spots for the 1851-1857 1 cent Franklin. Why they chose this I do not know? But I'm Ok with this since most collectors only dream of a 5 or 6 and don't actually own a copy.

If I ever get a Scott 6, perhaps I will have to move things around. Since the stamps are not mounted, it would be easy to do. My father has a recut Scott 16 with removed cancel. Hope he hands it down to me at some point.

There is some glory in finishing a page. Perhaps I may upgrade here and there, but finishing a series of stamps or page, even if a random company such as SAFE is determining what is on a page, gives me satisfaction of completing a challenge.

My SAFE album has an area for the whole series of Wash- Frank bluish paper #357-366. Its on the top half of the page, while bottom of page has spots for 348-356 coils. I have some of these coils but there is no chance I could ever finish the page because I will never get bluish paper stamps (cost a fortune and not interested, to be honest) I don't like this aspect and I believe poor thought was put into by SAFE when they developed the page. These bluish stamps should have their own page or no page at all. This is where customization plays a big role.

GeoffHa: You make a good point about the Hagner-style.

rgstamp: Thank you for the great pic! It shows the design clearly.

I'm now at wits end with White Ace. They cannot seem to grasp the fact that the Literary Arts series is a commemorative series. They keep alternating between putting them in their commemorative and their regular issue supplements. They could try to trot out an excuse about it being a non regular mail rate, but that wouldn't explain why the 3oz stamp (O'Connor) in 2015 was rightly put in Commemoratives, but the 3oz stamp (James) in 2016 is now in the regular issue. I think they've handed these decisions over to summer interns who are not collectors and have zero idea what they're doing. Shame on their editors for not keeping tabs on this. I'm now done with their regular issue supplements. I may continue to use their commemorative supplements, but I will print my own add on pages that will include any missing commems as well as regular issues and keep them in one album where they belonged in the first place. I hope somebody buys them out and fixes this mess.

White Ace did reply to my complaint and as I expected they passed the buck to Scotts and the USPS. Heaven forbid they just make a call that a series that has existed for 30 years is a commemorative series, regardless of USPS press releases. That they even distinguish between commemoratives and regular issues is bothersome to me and always was but I bought into their word view so I only have myself to kick. If only one other album publisher would have the sense to make spaces available for both setenant releases and their individual components, I would leave WA in a heartbeat.

Bwana Bob, when you have a setentant do you want a space for the block AND the individual singles?

BTW, I recall eating at restaurant called Bwana Bob's and had my first taste of curry...yum. The name always brings back memories of that and all those Tarzan like movies

I used White Ace albums for a number of years, because the pages are gorgeous. But some of the design decisions they make annoy me:

• Stamps in alphabetical order and not Scott and/or USPS release order
• Breaking up se-tenants, forcing you to collects two of each stamp in a se-tenant
• Separate supplements for commemorsatives, definitives, coils and booklet stamps
• Simplified supplements that do not break up se-tenants are not Scott catalog number complete.

Seriously, all I want is a major Scott catalog number complete supplement, with connected se-tenants only, stamp descriptions and decent heavyweight paper.

This seems to be impossible to find.

@rgstamp:

Do you remember when the SAFE people used to call those overlays "FOILS"? It confused the heck out of me when I was a beginner. In my house, foil means aluminum foil

Now they call them TRANSPARENT pages, which is better, but still a potential mystery for a beginner.

I do like the system, though. As I recall, one recommended method was to hinge your used stamps directly to the page and put your mint stamps in the transparent overlay. That certainly would make an interesting album.

KirkS

Foils also used to mean the plastic sheets used by now mostly ancient overhead projectors.

Kirk - I use that "doubling" system with Safe and similar albums. Works quite well, although you're not really displaying the used stamps.

angore - yes, despite my quibbles with White Ace, I like their duplication of setenants and their component stamps. I dislike their use of pairs of coiled stamps in regular issue supplements.

I guess what I want is one of each design (this includes a change in date only - which is another annoyance in White Ace policy) with the exception of setenants in which case I want both connected and separate.

apastuszak - Sounds like you want scott supplements on good paper. Shocked that they don't make that available - even if it were an "on-demand" offering.