New Years' Resolution To Get Matching Binders For My Albums

Yes, I know I'm a bit early, but...

Next year, I resolve to get matching binders for my albums.

What I have right now is a hodge-podge of Harris binders, the result of buying collections. I'm not really good a picking up the yearly supplements, so when I buy a collection where they did this, I add their pages to mine if they're in good condition. Over time, I have added the binders as well, when needed. This has resulted in getting my collection housed in various binders. I would much prefer to just have one kind.

I'd love to get them all in either Senior Statesman or Standard binders, as I have found that the Citations are so big, they usually tear on the seams as a result of the sheer weight of the pages they hold, while the two I've mentioned do not.

Anyone else got any New Years' resolutions for their collections?

I am hoping to sort & catalog my foreign stamps for sale or trade on this forum. I also am wanting to place my US stamps in my albums supplement pages that are still in their shrink wrap for the last couple of years. I will be organizing my topical collections to be housed in their own binders. I am sure there are more I can't think of right now.

Wpg:

Five years ago, I did what you are proposing. I got all my albums organised (I use the three-ringed binder method) By colour and size. I use the CWS binders for my U.S. Air Mail (blue) and U.S. modern (Grey), Indonesia (green), Death on Stamps Topical (Black, what else?), Cardiologiy on stamps (Unitrade 1" binders-Maroon). I also use Unitrade 1" binders - blue for smaller U.S. air mail collections, and Unitrade 1" Red binders for my KGVI varieties. The main collection of the KGVI collectin is in a Stanley Gibbons King George VI fastbound stamp album.

The up-to-date and organised albums have really improved my collecting pleasure.

Good luck with your efforts!

David

WpgLwr, I won't argue with you about Harris binders, just pass along my experience with them for whatever it might be worth. Have had maybe a half-dozen Harris Citations, and despite their size, these have held up about the best. There are at least two different types, older and newer, I would guess. Have had a few Standards, and while the size is better and they hold up pretty well, I had one collection come in with a couple of these albums placed edge-down in the carton (rather than on their sides). The seller didn't describe any problems, but when they arrived, one of the brackets that holds the pages to the cover on one was shattered, possibly from the shock of the packaged being dropped onto its bottom. The green Senior Statesmans have been the weakest of all, and I haven't seen one yet in this style (have never had the older maroon and white variety) in which the covers were not falling off, and in one set that had only relatively little use. There was an off-brand Harris-type Standard binder made that is very sturdy and a few years ago an ebay seller had a ton of them, new, that he was pushing out of his store for a song. Finally, there are the Harris Heirloom binders. Have never seen one up close, but they look very nice and are available from Amos Advantage at the link below. These are just opinions from my experience, and I realize your experiences might be different. For my own collection, I prefer the Scott Internationals. The Harris, Minkus and Gorssman were just transients, since when I first got back into the hobby I found it hard to resist bidding on collections on ebay and won quite a few and still have many to go through. Maybe getting through them should be my resolution, but I never make them.

http://www.amosadvantage.com/scotto...d_part_desc=

WpgLwr, have just noticed you're in Canada. Did you know the CWS two post binders such as the Olympian will take Harris pages? The CWS pages are the same size and very similar to Harris in their layout. I don't know how much the Olympian binders might cost, but they appear to be sturdy and to have the same width at their spine as the Harris Standard albums.

Yep, I've had experience with the CWS albums -- up here, we call them "Harris Knockoffs", because their page layouts are almost exactly like Harris'. Their binder graphics even mimic Harris', both in color and in name (for example, the Olympian is grey like the Standard, the Senior is green like the Senior Statesman, etc.)

Their binders are nice and padded, but they are not without their own problems, the biggest one being that they are *just* a little bit longer than the pages they house, but not enough to stop the pages from bending. The weight of the pages tends to make them touch the shelf you have the book on, and as a result the pages have a tendency to "curve" slightly. With a thicker album, such as the Olympian, the problem only gets worse. If they were even a half inch longer, there wouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, I have to agree with you on the green Senior Statesmen binders. They seem to be prone to damage, especially the later version with the Maltese Churchill stamp illustration on the spine. The earlier green version, which is not as thick, seems to be okay, though. My experience with the older burgundy and white version has been good, but they're not thick enough for what I want, and they're very hard to find, in any event, because they're almost 50 years old now.

I would have thought the Citations to be as damage prone to the later Senior Statesman, but I have had no experience at all with them. Your testiment to their being okay is a good sign, though, and maybe I should investigate further.

I have also had experience with Standard binders, one burgundy, one gray, both wire and post types. First of all, I love the wire and post format much better than the screwpost type. They're not as thick as the Citations, but they seem to be more stable than the green Senior Statesmen. I think I would tend to go with them (I guess I still don't really trust the Citation, lol); now it's just a matter of finding six of them. Besides, anything that has a picture of a Mountie on the cover has to be okay (lol).

I have a couple of the Harris Heirloom binders; unfortunately, they have the same problem as the CWS binders -- just a little too short.

Yes, the Scott Internationals are nice, but I find them a little on the pricy side, and I really have no yearning to remount my whole collection on Scott pages. I'd *never* get done!

As to the Minkus and Grossmans, I never really did like their albums, but then again, I was never really exposed to them. Minkus was usually something you could only find at a big dealers' store, in my experience, and supplements were somewhat hit and miss or Special Order only items. Harris' were always the easiest to find (Woolworths), and once I got into them, they weren't bad; I went from a Traveler to a Senior Statesman (burgundy type) to where I am now from buying up collections (incidentally, isn't it interesting how "bad" some people are at configuring their collections?).

On a related note, it is sad to see what Harris has become since Whitman bought them up. I got one of my daughters a Statesman album recently, and they have been streamlined horribly, without any room at all for the more common countries (eg, only one page for Germany? What the...?). I got my other daughter a CWS Phoenix album and it's the same situation, but then again, the Phoenix is a knockoff of the Statesman, anyway. On top of that, Whitman decided that they no longer wanted to produce the Harris Canada anymore, and sold the rights to CWS. That sounds horrid, but Whitman wasn't doing such a good job at configuring the page layout anyway the last few years. Maybe it will get better now. The price is so low for the album new (~$40), it's cheaper to not bother with the supplements, wait four years and buy a whole new album to get the new pages. I got one last year (needed supplements going back to 2001) and found that they were a combination of the original Harris pages (CWS must have the printing plates for them) and the newer CWS pages that seem to follow the same format.

I have mostly cheap binders. My Harris binders are now 30 years old and they show there age. My oldest is a Victory hard bound (non plastic) it dates from the early 1960's though I bought it new in 1971. I had to add the updates. This binder has held up very well.

I now have the Mystic binders and I like those very much. However again they are cheap so they will probably do as well as the Harris binders.

I'm a ring person over a post person. I did note that even though my album's have had heavy use the pages are in great condition. I expect that is more due to the way I handle the pages.

I have added to my Mystic collection and I now use 7 binders for US stamps. This works well when using mounts and doesn't stress the pages.

I use to try and jam everything into one album, that was a bad choice.

My New Years Resolution is to simply keep doing what I'm doing. Grow the collection, add new stamps and keep organized. An yes buy more Mystic albums, I just love them.

PS I'm too cheap to consider the more expensive ones.

Not cheap -- frugal!

my collection is such a hodge podge of Scott Internationals,Scott specialized and 3 ring binders that I appropriate from the school..my tax dollars at work...matching binders are a beautiful thing and can be very important to a collectors emotional well being..something someone told me once sticks in my mind and I can not shake it...he said when buying a collection pay for the stamps the albums should be free..David Giles and I know a fellow that has hundreds of padded color coded albums...a beautiful thing to see in bookcases surrounding the entire room...roughly like red for British Commonwealth, Blue for Western Europe etc etc..its nice to see, but I am cheap !!