My Collection So Far, Using The Steiner Page System

Looking great ! Are you using mounts or hinges to set the stamps on the pages ?

Very enjoyable thread. Also interested in your mounting technique and what you do when Steiner does not fit your exact needs (i.e., some varient not covered or multiples, PNS, etc.)?

Beautiful!

Thanks so much everyone for all the continuing positive feedback. This really makes my day :)




The Steiner pages are available here:

http://www.stampalbums.com/

For $30/year you get access to the full library, and you can download them all directly from the site so they remain permanently available to you, even if you choose not to renew. Considering the incredible amount of work it would have taken to compile these, it's safe to say this is one of the best deals you'll ever find.




Honestly, I have yet to find a stamp or common variation that they have missed. Perhaps some of the finer distinctions are absent, but for my purposes as a casual collector, everything has been there. I noticed one or two errors where the frame size on the page is incorrect, but aside from the occasional spelling mistake, that's been about it.




Hinges. Because I'm cheap :) Also, the value of my pieces really doesn't justify the expense of mounts. If I sink a little more money into individuals to fill some empty spaces then I'll most certainly keep them away from the hinges.

I started the same thing about 10 years ago when I discovered the Steiner pages. Unlike you, I printed out ALL the pages for any country I had 300+ stamps (I didn't think it would be that big of a deal......at the time). Once I started, I couldn't stop. 10 years later, I have two 6' bookcases filled with 60+ binders. It gives me the incentive to get as many stamps as possible to fill all the spaces in.

Sadly, a couple of the older members at my former stamp club felt that the Steiner pages were bad for the hobby "just because". Personally, I love them and I used them to win a stamp display competition a few years ago.

To one of the previous posters, as a collector of Canadian stamps, there are many cases where common varieties found in the Unitrade and Scott Specialty catalogues don't appear in the Scott General catalogue and don't appear on the Steiner sheets, in these cases, I have a section at the end of my binders where appropriate where I place mint material and variations in stock sheets.

Cyrenaica- did you print out all the pages to the present, or the "classical" pages to 1940 (1952 British Empire)?

All of them, so for example, Australia has 480 pages from 1913 to 2011 currently housed in two 2" binders. The second of the two binders has the 100 or so pages for the Australian States and AAT. And so and so forth for.

I did make the mistake originally of printing the pages 2-sided for the first 10 or so countries I started with, but after working with a few pages of 1980s era Canadian stamps and having them lock together on facing pages, I quickly learned the errors of my ways and reprinted everything one sided.

I currently have roughly 16,000 pages printed for 51 stamp issuing countries/territories. Some printings were a mistake (1104 pages for Russia/Soviet Union spanning three 3" binders for what turns out to be 400+ stamps - lots of blanks I'll never fill because I detest CTOs).

Wow! Feel free to post a pic if you like. That is one huge set of pages :)

Kinibo, It would look similar to yours, except the binders are different sizes (Trinidad & Tobago is in a 1" binder, Hungary is in two 2" binders) and different colours. And I just use the tag that comes to print on the country. I keep telling myself that one day I'll purchase a set of matching binders and do more professional looking labels.

I also need to invest in deeper and better quality bookshelves, I got the ones I have on sale a few years ago at Canadian Tire so while they do the job of keeping the binders organized, a handful of the D-Ring binders hang over the edge because the shelves are only 10" deep.

Still, Steiner Pages and binders is what works best for me at this point in time.

Great thread, I too have recently got back into world wide collecting. I have been umming and aaahing the last few months on what is the best route to go with storing a world wide collection. After many headaches and trials I have also decided on steiner pages for the general collection and then self made pages for any additions or notes. Once this was decided it opened up a whole new can of worms - Which binders, hinges or mounts, what paper. I am please now that I have printed up my first 500 pages and started adding stamps. I have also decided to use hinges as the price of mounting such a collection would be enormous.

Most of the collection will be used and I do intend to use clear hawid mounts for any mint items that make their way into the collection. I have also found a supplier of acid free paper and chosen my binders.

I will post some pictures soon and I am glad there are more world wide collectors out there. I will keep my mint South African collection separate and add to it when I can - I was getting to the point where I either I was not finding anything I needed or finding something and not being able to afford it. With this collection I will always be able to add to it.

Drew

Kinibo,


If you find any errors, think about notifying Steiner. I have done so dozens times in the past, and every time I've got a very positive thank you from him in return. He is very interested in perfecting his pages. Another positive side effect is that you help other people improve their albums :-)

Good to hear others doing the same ,I guess thats what makes the Steiner pages the best . Always improveing .Im thinking of asking them to expand the section were you make up your own pages and maybe customize in more details for those who want to write something on the page itself.
I believe Scott Publishing shot themself in the foot when they didn't attempt to correct all those mistakes over the years and printed all those single page for one stamp in the International Series .

I too have been using Mr. Steiner's pages for a number of years. After using Minkus for many years they became harder and harder to find and the inevitable overlap of the images always bothered me. So when I came across these pages I felt the fee was very reasonable, even if I didn't like them. Now, I would not do it any other way. I print what I need, when I need them.

I just came across this topic and am not sure why it hasn't continued over the past 3 years. I would like to add that I use the Steiner pages mainly for the souvenir sheets and mini sheets that do not come with the Scott International supplements. I pay about $240 per year for the supplement pages of about 200 - 300 pages each year and still have to add these Steiner pages. Many European countries are now printing most of their new commemoratives in minisheets of 20 -50 different stamps which for some reason Scott does not include in their supplements

Hi bill
i also just stumbled across this thread. I was wondering the same thing, why did it die off 3 years ago.

I am a returning collector basically starting from scratch since my drug dealer got my 17,000 stamp collection 20 years ago. I've cleaned up and rediscovered stamps.

I discovered the Steiner pages and love them. I occasionally run across a variant not covered but in general they meet my needs. I to started to print every page. Yeah right. So I've switched to printing the countries I'm actually collecting. I started off with 24lb paper which is fine until you get a lot of stamps in them. My Austria collection is a case in point. I have every stamp mounted so you have the thickness of the mount also.

Anyway I decided to switch to 65lb paper for the three countries I primarily collect: Austria, Belgium, and Germany I have over 3000 stamps in those 3 countries alone on 24lb paper so I have started the daunting task of printing the Steiner pages on 65lb paper and moving my stamps to the new paper. Whew it is going to be a task and I got to buy a bunch more of the Prinz mounts for them.

A side note: I've heard of collectors using the same mounts over again. how do I do this? that way at least I can re-use the mounts I've already cut to size. LOL