Where Do You Put Your Stamps W/O Album Spaces?

Big Blue and Steiner are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Which one works for you depends on priorities.

Big Blue
* Large one volume ("Big Blue"), but compact. Did I say compact?
Huge advantage compared to the Steiner for WW classical collectors.
* 35,000 spaces, but still a "representational" album. An album with all the possible spaces needed for 1840-1940 would have 80-90,000 spaces.
* As Big Blue began life as a "Junior" album, the spaces are quite simplified: Watermarking and perforation variations are "ignored".
Either a feature or a flaw depending on one's point of view.
* Despite the shortcomings, filling the album (35,000 spaces!) is a huge challenge for most collectors. But, since many of the expensive classic stamps have been left out, it is do-able.
* Did I mention, considering it covers the world 1840-1940, it is compact?

Steiner ( WW classic pages)
* Spaces for all the Scott major numbers- some 80-90,000, plus coverage of the British Commonwealth until 1952. Watermarking and perforation major number variations all have spaces. But, for me, it will require some 50 1 1/2" Avery binders to house all the pages.
* I'm probably not going to be filling the 1847 "Post office" Mauritius stamp spaces any time soon. In other words, the Steiner will always have many empty spaces. When one looks at a page, does one see the stamps there, or the empty spaces? How does that make one feel? All good questions.

To reiterate, Big Blue and Steiner are at opposite ends of the spectrum for WW classical collectors. Which one works for you depends on priorities.

I use both --------but then I go way past Steiner pages and add items listed in foreign catalogs

JKJBlue, you are right on. Selecting between the two is just not easy.
Floortrader, YIKES, would I love to browse through your library! How long have you been at it???

What probably would work out well - assuming one had the means - is to print out the Steiner pages ONLY for those countries one has stamps. And, only for the time period one collects. Still, assuming the 90k spaces needed (for my wants) holds true, you are talking a massive amount of binders, etc.

For now, I'll enjoy my expanded Big Blues for WW and Nationals for the USA. Perhaps down the road I'll jump in that deeper water, we will see.

Floortrader- I always love that pic!

Mobilman44- Good plan. The Steiner's work well as a several country to even a regional or colony collection. They work "well" for WW classic also- if one has the time, obsessiveness, energy, $,...and space.

Well, being a newbie here, I can only state that...as an example...there is a spot for the 2 cent Columbian "broken hat" in the Mystic American Heirloom album, but no space for the same stamp in the "Heritage" album! I have the mint, but not the used, so my "Heirloom" collection is incomplete (used), but the Heritage album, where there is no space for the stamp has the stamp off to the side in the appropriate black-background stamp mounts! Sometimes, ya just have to deal with it! I can only say that I have just 5 albums, which pale in comparison to the big bookcase of albums presented...BUT...One Of These Days!! ;)

MOBILMAN-----My stamp library of reference books and stamp auction catalogs are kept in another room.Very few are on those bookselfs with my collection in the above picture .
JKBLUE ------We are in the process of selling our home ,so the wife and salesagent wanted the room unclundered ,so most of my collection has been removed from the house.Especially with new buyers walking thru the house,so this is what it looks like now .

I am guilty of placing stamps on the page wherever there is available space. I may also print another page to handle the overload. I am not sure how others would feel about it, not that it matters, it has just become a way of life with a ever expanding collection. As far as duplicates and pieces that haven't been mounted yet I use plastic boxes and glassine envelopes for the duplicates and file cabinets, plastic boxes and glassine envelopes for the unmounted.

This collection has been compiled on Minkus pages for so long that I have no intention of switching to a different size page. I do make my own pages now but I have the capability of preparing them relatively quickly and with any captions and Scott numbers printed on the page. They may not have the fancy perforation border the Minkus pages have but I am able to lay them out in any fashion I please with a single line or double line border. I could develop a fancy border but the single line works and looks fine to me. In the past I've used Minkus blank pages and a typewriter or made pages using a pencil and ruler. As long as they work and are acid free, everything will be fine. By the way those empty spaces keep me humble and the pages that are packed make me feel...packed.


Floortrader,
I'm not sure I could "entrust" my collection to someone else to look after. One of my greatest fears is an intruder or a careless person starting a fire or some other collection catastrophe. Good Luck! I hope your house issues come to a close fast!

One more thing. I wish I had a space that size, in my bunker there is only enough room for stamp related things and me. If I have a guest I have to pull out a folding chair!

Hi!
Floortrader, gotta ask, what is that white stuff all over everything outside? I guess that's a northern thing for I haven't seen it down here in south Texas...........

Flyinlo, your practice of putting stamps wherever worked out really nice for you - neat & presentable. A few of the albums I bought also had stamps posted all over, and frankly they looked pretty sloppy and unorganized.

The one practice I've seen that I can't come to grips with is the hinging of duplicates on top of each other. But, that's just my thought on the subject and if other folks do it, that is just fine.

I keep a special collection of varieties in a box that accommodates glassine envelopes.