Questions About My New Albums

However, if you come across them again, you should have one heck of an easier time doing it! :]

I started taking apart various parts of my old albums quite a while ago and still haven't decided on where to finally "mount" the stamps. Like you, for my non-US collection, I decided to focus on specific countries rather than the entire world. I chose to start with Europe and so far have a good collection of Hungarian stamps and significant footholds in France, Italy, Austria, Germany and Scandinavia. (From my experience Germany and England are pretty hard. Italy, France, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Norwegian countries not so hard.)

After all this time I still haven't mounted anything. I started to organize Hungary with stock books and even made little labels from card stock to insert next to a set of stamps to display the Scott number and other info. I eventually soured on the idea of permanent collection in stock books. First, its just too much trouble and effort if you want to keep stamps in order. You have to plan to leave a lot of open space, unless you enjoy moving stamps around. I found I was spending a lot of time moving/shifting stamps around to accomodate new sets or new varieties of stamps (e.g., color variations, mint vs canceled etc). I toyed also with Vario pages to avoid the massive stamp-by-stamp shifting (maybe only page shifting is necessary).

The second drawback was the aesthetic presentation of the stamps. Since I compromised to focus on a limited number of countries, I decided the stamps should be presented in the best way possible. While I could design stock book pages to look like an album page (for aesthetic presentation), they just don't look as good to me as an album page. Further, I don't like the rather narrow width of the typical stock book or Vario page (nor do I like 8.5" x 11" inch presentation).

Finally, stock books/Vario pages are not cheap. They also take up a lot more space than an album.

I (think) I've decided to eventually mount the stamps in albums dedicated to each country, maybe doing one per year (better bang for the buck I think). But I still haven't decided whether to create my own or purchase an album. I'll post about my album creating dilemma/travails some other time. But I wasted quite a bit of money getting to this conclusion, with 5 stock books and Vario pages, which now see limited use.

Now I waste my time distributing my collection to thousands of glassine envelopes stored in a bunch of red boxes (not cheap either), which means basically no aesthetic presentation at all.

HungryForStamps......thank you for your comment! At least I know I'm not the only one that is trying to figure out what's best! I have started putting my world stamps in a large stock book, but like you there is going to be a lot of shifting and moving stamps around. If you put your stamps in individual albums will you be using mounts or hinges? I hate hinges, but to use mounts for all of those stamps would be very expensive, hence my reason for deciding to use a stock book. If I did change my mind I would need to figure out how and where to print out pages for specific countries or find a source for individual country albums. And, please post your album creations! I would love to see what you decide to do and follow your progress!

Karen

Karen,

I plan, or at least would like to, use mounts for the individual albums. Although I have nothing against hinging common used items, I would never hinge a mint or uncommon stamp. The expense is part of the reason I am focusing and proceeding so slowly. A little background might help you understand my motivation.

I started a world-wide collection as a child/teenager and then lost interest and when in college, passed my Harris album (an expanded Statesman) to my father, who also collected (in a Minkus album). After my father died, I received his collection(s) (which included my own). At that point they were nothing special, but a good start. Only in the last few years, did I really dig out the collection(s) and start working again. I began with organizing the unmounted/unhinged small hoard of stamps.

While I now have stamps from many different countries I decided I wanted a more focused collection, so I set myself the long-term goal of collecting US and European stamps. I decided to start with Hungary and US (for various reasons) notwithstanding that I always loved Hungarian stamps as a kid (and had a decent collection already). So I have been deconstructing the old albums and organizing the stamps, mostly in glassines but some in stock books. I have also been purchasing stamps from US and Europe through ebay auctions when I see bargains (primarily lots/collections to start). One reason for focusing was I remember as a kid being real disappointed that certain stamps just had no predefined place in my Harris album (I had to mount them out of order on the empty pages or create my own ruled pages, which looked messy); that sort of thing is inevitable in a non-focused WW collection - there is just not enough room to store every stamp in a WW album (unless you spend a fortune).

My WW stamps from non-European countries will either stay in glassines or in the old albums for an extended time, until I figure out what to do with them. I am trying to enlist my children to each take at least one country or region. I plan (loosely) to work on US plus one foreign country per year. So, while it may be expensive (and time and space consuming) to mount all of Europe in individual albums, I am going to take a slow focused approach and spread the expense over many years. I'll probably never get all of Europe in albums, but its at least a goal. I haven't even been able to decide on an album for Hungary, though I do have albums for US.

I have been using stock books off and on to organize stamps from new auctions. I will probably also use them to stage the stamps for mounting (I've sort of done this with Hungary). I worry about the stamps sitting for extended periods in the stock books because I don't have different pages to fit the size of the stamps (the plastic doesn't completely cover all the stamps). I purchased the Lighthouse stock books that have pages with nine rows and only the definitives are completely covered by the protective plastic. So many stamps are only partially protected under the plastic flaps. I have seen older collections (through auctions) where stamps left for many years in older stock books show fading in the exposed part of the stamp (or even a line). I don't know if this is a real danger with stock books or just my paranoia.

I don't care much for more recent stamps, drawing the line roughly at 1980, so that saves some expense (given that the number of new issues seem to have ballooned).

For US, I've been able to get some decent used albums from auctions. The auctions were primarily to obtain the stamps. I plan to mount my best items (mint and valuable stamps) in Scott National albums. I obtained the binders and slipcovers through auctions and purchased new pages. I have a Scott Minuteman in which I have started hinging less expensive used stamps. I also acquired two volumes of the Harris Liberty plate block albums for pretty cheap with pages in decent condition.

For Hungary, I can't decide what to do. I am leaning towards creating my own albums, but need to decide on paper and binders, quality and size being the main issue in both cases, but also expense.

quote:
"Also when I attached the mounts to the page, no matter how careful I tried to be, I still had a few mishaps while moistening the mounts and then getting some moisture seeping into the side of the mount."

The cure for this -- attach the mounts on Tuesday and put the stamps into them on Wednesday. I have seen many collections ruined by that tiny drop of moisture.

Also, store your albums UPRIGHT, not laying flat. Not everyone knows this.

I'm going to continue to hinge everything into my Harris Citation first.

My duplicates and post 1976 stamps will go into the Mystic Heirloom.

That way, I'll always have U.S. album pages to fill.

I'm going to buy at least one package of White Ace pages every Spring and Winter. That way, I'll eventually have a complete White Ace album. Their pages are gorgeous! On those pages, I'll switch to mounts.

I have been working on my US and Costa Rica stamps. I ended up printing out the album pages for Costa Rica using 65lb paper. So, this is my concentration right now. I have moved all of my US stamps over to the Mystic Heirloom albums. I am using mounts for everything. Very happy with this decision.

Thanks for everyone's advice on this topic of making/combining new albums, mounts, and hinges. I'm looking forward to combining a 1970s Senior Statesman album with a new 2010s Harris Deluxe album.