Mystic 200 US Stamp 3 Volume American Heirloom Review

i'm new to philately and am interested in the history of us stamps, would this album be a good place to start? does anyone have this album? does it have every american stamp released? any help would be great, thanks
ps heres a link
http://www.mysticstamp.com/viewProd...sp?sku=M8104

Very good album and price point for the beginner collector. Just be aware that shipping charges are extra, so it will wind up costing about $50 or so for the delivered order.

I have a set of these albums and so do many others on this Forum. The most critical issues seem to be the way that Mystic breaks up stamps, especially in the more modern material (i.e. strips of stamps versus individual stamps, etc.) which some collectors don't always agree with. Although the quality of paper stock is a bit thin, and you can upgrade to more durable album binders at extra cost, that's more of a personal taste and depends a lot on how much use the albums would get. Once again, for a beginning collector, they're just fine.

As for the 200 "free" stamps that come with the album, they are again acceptable for most beginner collectors, however, my set had about 30% damaged stamps amongst them. Not a big deal, considering the price point of the album and the fact that most modern used stamps don't have much of a value anyway, but it just seems to me a company such as Mystic should have had better quality control on that.

You may also want to be aware that Mystic is in the process of introducing a whole series of "hingeless" albums (stamp mounts already in place to accept your stamps) but that is at a much higher price point of about $70 per album and there are about 4 or 5 volumes to it, so the upfront price is much higher, but then again, if you were to purchase all of the stamp mounts and apply them to your basic album, I'm not sure the price difference is really all that great. A lot depends on the quality of the stamps you have and whether you feel that a hingeless album is worth it to you.

For more discussion on the subject, see this previous thread and the related links:

https://goscf.com/t/19222&SearchTerms=Mystic

what does the album have inside of it? it will be my first album, does it have every us stamp from a certain number of years, then as you collect them you place them over the pictures in the book? or...

The album is pretty complete. The descriptions are a plus. If you want descriptions at a decent price, your only real choices are the Mystic Heirloom, the Scott Minuteman and the Harris Liberty. Of the 3, the Mystic is the cheapest.

I wrote a review of the album here:

http://plazman30.blogspot.com/2011/...m-stamp.html

I also have Mystic's American Heirloom set, and totally agree with the previous comments. As you expand your collection, you may find that you'll need additional volumes, which are available through Mystic. The original three just get so thick that they appear overly full. I've gone to five volumes - 1847-1975, 1976-1994, 1995-2003, 2004-Present, and the final one for Back of the Book. I'm certain there are other collectors on SCF that have divided the volumes differently - whatever works best for them.

Many people enjoy the short narrative descriptions Mystic provides on the left hand page for each issue. Provides a bit of historical or philatelic info that you'll probably find interesting.

As several comments have indicated, the paper stock could be stronger. I've had to add those plastic "holes' to those more heavily used pages.

Although this is a wonderful album, collectors may find the Back of the Book area somewhat limited depending on what they collect. It does include the most obvious - airmail, parcel post, special delivery, certified, registered, postage due, modern officials, and CSA. However, it does not include internal revenue, the classic official stamps, only recent duck stamps, no embossed and stamped envelopes and postal card. As I don't collect those, it's of no importance to me.

For the price, it is superb - a far better buy for you money than most, if not all, others available. Were I to start from stratch again, I'd still choose American Heirllom album.

Though the paper could be thicker, it's still better than the paper in the Scott Minuteman album.

the mystic hingeless version of these albums are great, and at a very good price.

The paper stock is very thin. If you use mounts, don't plan on being able to remove them without damage to the page. I found that it helps to use sheet protectors with this album. You'll need more binders but the expense is worth it, IMO.

I use mounts, and don't have an issue. The paper is thicker than Scott Minuteman paper, but not nearly as thick as Scott National or White Ace. For the price, the paper is good. The Scott Minuteman album is significantly more expensive ($99.00) and it has much thinner paper.

I just ordered it today as it seems like a good value. What I have now are lighthouse pages and an array of generic binders.

It is a great album but at some point I'm going to buy volume 1 of their hingeless album and switch everything up to 1934 to that.

Here's pretty much the entire album: (just the stamp side of the pages) Each scan is cropped inside the page borders so the borders aren't visible.

http://www.mystupidhobbies.com/Stamps/index.html