Album Review: United States Albums

Is the layout of the Platinum and National pages the same? I know people like them, but I personally hate 2 post binders. Small hole, multi ring binders are nice. I can see why you like the Platinum so much.

Holy cow!

The Scott Platinum 2013 supplement is in iHobb for $55! That's an expensive supplement!

http://www.ihobb.com/p/PLATINUM/199S013.html

apastuszak,

For the most part, yes, the layout of the Scott Platinum is the same as the Scott National album. Much to my irritation, the 1869 pictorial pages (including reprints) were rearranged in the Platinum album such that the entire set is scrunched up towards the top of the page ...

Brian

I use spaces like that to mount a block or cover example. Adds interest and makes for a more interesting page.

Terry

I own hingeless albums manufactured by Lindner (Channel Islands and Isle of Man), Palo (French Antarctica) and Lighthouse (Germany-Berlin). I am currently trying to decide which album manufacturer to use for my next purchase. I was thinking about Davo, but I'm not crazy about the 2-peg binder system they utilize. I much prefer the ring binder system where the pages lie flat and it's easy to remove pages from any part of the album.

In my opinion, the pros and cons of each album are as follows:

Lindner:

1. Construction of album is top-notch. I use the "Standard" ring binder, which has a padded vinyl-type material. It's easy to open and close and the pages turn smoothly. Price is $89 for the album/slipcase combo. If you want to upgrade to "leatherette" or genuine leather, the price moves to $135 and $210, respectively. Cons: Each album can hold only about 50 pages, so they take up a lot of shelf space. Also, it's a little difficult to flip the pages from the back because of the hingeless mounting technology. You have to grab both the paper page and the plastic mount to make sure everything moves as one.

2. Stamp layout is done according to the Michel catalog. This is optimal if you collect Germany, Austria and other western European countries, but obviously less so for USA and Great Britain. As an example, for Channel Islands and Isle of Man, there are no spaces for (i) the regional stamps issued by GB prior to postal independence and (ii) miniature sheets that were re-issued with overprints from stamp shows and the like. These items are included in the Stanley Gibbons catalog, but not in Michel.

3. Pictures of stamps are in black/white with a surrounding black border. This makes the stamp and perfs "pop" when placed in the mount. Supplements come out in June, which in my opinion is untimely. Con: There is absolutely no description for any of the stamps. Only the year date is listed at the bottom of the page. This makes it a little difficult to distinguish gummed stamps and self-adhesive stamps that look identical.

4. Stamps are laid out strictly according to their year of issue. If there is a definitive set that has been issued over a period of years, the stamps will not be kept together on one page. This is the opposite of how Lighthouse does it. I prefer the Lighthouse method because I think it looks really cool when all stamps of a set are exhibited on one page.

5. Album Pages: The paper Lindner uses for its album pages is the best quality and the thickest of the three manufacturers I've listed above. They have a great feel when you turn them. The mounting technology is easy to use and the stamps stay in place. You can also lift the plastic mounting sheet to examine the back side of the stamps without having to remove the stamps from the mount.

I will continue my review in a subsequent post.

Palo:

1. Construction of album is very good. I bought the "Premium" hingeless album pages with the related binder/slipcase. The set is covered in a "leatherette" material and has a nice, sturdy feel to it. The binder only has 5 rings so it's not as smooth turning as Lindner. Sometimes the punched page holes get caught on the binder rings (a very minor issue, but hopefully worth mentioning). Price is $53 for the album/slipcase combo (only available color is black). If you want to upgrade to genuine leather, the price moves to $145. Palo's website says that each album can hold between 100-110 pages, but I found that to be unwieldy. I have about 75 pages in the first volume of my FSAT collection (1955-2006) and have started a second volume for 2007 to date.

2. Stamp layout is done according to the Scott catalog. Therefore, the pages are arranged with regular/commemorative issues in the front part of the album, semi-postals in the middle and air mails at the back. My personal preference is to have the stamps laid out according to their year of issuance regardless of their type. This is especially notable with FSAT since all of its beautifully engraved air mails are located in the rear part of the album. Catalog numbers are not included.

3. Pictures of stamps are in color with a surrounding black box outline. I personally like this format very much as the border around the stamp provides a very appealing look (as an aside, I don't mind whether the pictured stamps are black/white vs. colored). Supplements come out around April. Palo uses clear, open-top mounts. In a few instances, the mounts were cut a tiny bit too big or were not placed properly within the stamp border. There were also a few examples where the space allotted for a particular stamp was either too big or too small. Palo also has a small description of each issue and the year of issuance located above the stamp. Pro: Palo has very responsive customer service. After I had completed mounting all of my stamps, I photocopied the pages where there were errors (sizing, spelling mistakes, etc.), marked up the changes and scanned and emailed them to Palo. Within a few hours, I received a return email telling me that the changes would be made and I received replacement pages within a few days at no charge.

4. For those who are looking for album pages for obscure countries or countries that no longer exist, Palo is the place to go. On their website, they claim that they have pages for every country in the world that is listed in the Scott catalog. You can also order pages only for the years in which you collect.

Thank you for the reviews, Neeskens13. I am curious - have you seen the US version of either of these two albums?

As for Davo, your comment is on par with a lot of criticism of their albums - they do not lay flat and they are not easy to add/move pages. My biggest gripe was the missing spaces for regular US issues.

Brian

Lighthouse:

1. Construction of album is excellent. I purchased the "Excellent" ring binder, which has a padded vinyl-type material (much like Lindner). It's easy to open and close and the pages turn smoothly (binder has 13 rings). Price is $95 for the album/slipcase combo.

2. Stamp layout is done according to the Michel catalog. For Berlin, this includes some booklet stamps, printing varieties and machine-vended "labels".

3. Pictures of stamps are in black/white with a surrounding black box outline. Lighthouse uses clear, open-top mounts. Unlike Palo, the mounts were perfectly cut and, without exception, were placed exactly within the stamp border with stereotypical German precision! The page layouts were uncluttered and pleasing to the eye. There is no description for most of the stamps (exceptions were for overprints, booklet perforations and printing varieties, which are written in German). The year of issuance is printed at the top of each album page. The only negative for me was Lighthouse's page numbering system. Instead of numbering the pages consecutively starting at 1, they number the pages consecutively within each year (for example, 87-1, 87-2, 88-1, 88-2, etc.).

4. Stamps are laid out in chronological order according to their year of issuance. For definitive sets, all of the stamps are kept together on one page, even if the set was issued over a period of years. As stated above, I find it very appealing when all stamps of a set are exhibited on one page.

Conclusion: I would rate the Lindner and Lighthouse set-ups equally, with Palo just a notch below. I think I may be leaning a little towards Lighthouse, but only because I have been using Lindner for years (I bought my Berlin album earlier this year). I really like the precision of the Lighthouse mounting system. The Palo albums are very nice, but the German manufacturers have added that extra bit of class to their respective presentations.

Brian:

I have not seen the US albums produced by Lindner or Lighthouse. I use White Ace for my US singles and plate blocks. If you go to Palo's website, you can see a preview of their US pages. They offer separate pages for singles, plate blocks, revenues, proprietaries, duck stamps, etc. They look pretty cool.

Cheers and thanks for the reply.

Southpaw:

I know you posted your album pages months ago, but I just wanted to compliment you on them (I'm a newbie to these parts!). They are truly beautiful works of art. I share your sentiment regarding old-time stamp albums. I have seen quite a few thumbing through auction catalogs. 19th century Yvert albums are particularly stunning.

Keep up the good work.

As a side note, Palo albums use Bill Steiner's stampalbums.com pages that are spruced up to a certain year.

See this thread:

https://goscf.com/t/18032&SearchTerms=Palo

I have an email from Bill Steiner confirming that Palo licensed the pages from him. They obviously went their own way for newer pages, since their supplements come out faster, and changed the fonts and borders.

Not much has been said about the Minkus All American Album. This album was apparently popular when the Minkus company was a going concern. I just learned that Amos Advantage (which now has the rights to the Minkus line of products) sells the All American Album pages for $199.99. The album covers the years from 1847 to 2001. You get the pages only by special order. I would be interested in what former or current users of the All American think of this album: what are its strengths and weaknesses?

dbuss, the All American is the album I had as a kid. When I restarted my stamp collection in my early 30s, I upgraded to the Scott National. I loved the All American, but it's for a beginning to intermediate collector (IMO). And I'm don't think I could recommend it at a $200 price point.

Thanks for the reply on the Minkus All-American. You make an interesting point about the Minkus being a beginners album. How does it compare to the Scott Minuteman, Harris Liberty and the Mystic Heirloom American albums regarding coverage? In other words, are the Minkus, Minuteman, Liberty and Mystic albums "simplified" in comparison to the Scott National? Am I correct in assuming that the National is more comprehensive in that it has spaces for more varieties in comparison to the others?

The Scott National is on nice thick paper, but it has no stamp descriptions of any kind, making it worthless to me, personally. Others love their Scott National. The Minuteman on National paper would be my ideal album.