Looking For A World Wide Album

After about 25 years of inactivity, I'm looking at getting back into stamp collecting. As of now I have a pretty large "accumulation" of stamps all kept in various boxes and envelopes. (driving the wife crazy!)
So I've decided to break down and purchase a World Wide album. Problem is, I really don't have an idea of what I'm looking for so I was hoping I could get some advice here.
I want to spend about $100, and actually was sort of interested in the Harris Statesman album (both volumes of course) and I kinda wanted to hear what someone else has to say about it.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated too.

Hi,
I was in your shoes about 6 months ago. If you are a serious collector, one album will not be much help. I narrowed my scope from 1840 to 1950 and got two Scotts International albums (Part 1 & 2) off ebay (used). That is a major help, but even still I'm running out of room. I strongly advise you to see what the others say (on this Forum) and consider various options.

Ha, I was out of action for almost 45 years and had a big surprise coming back. Many/most of the stamps are pretty inexpensive ( ebay), and it is the albums that cost the big bucks.

www.stampalbums.com. Print your own.

Phil theres no one album large enough to collect worldwide in 2013 !

Just did a quick search for those Scotts International albums........... Boy, they don't give those away! With $100, I may be able to get a year or two.
I did seriously considered doing the printing thing. It's very appealing and I'm sure I will do it in the future, but for now, I'd like something a little better structured, and besides, I need pictures. But for $30 a year, stampalbums.com is definately worth a shot.
I wish I could afford a couple of single-country albums, but that's way too expensive. And I'd still have tons of stamps in the boxes, so I think I'd like an album to start with.

@mobilman.... I freaked when I checked out ebay! If I could have had stamps that easy and cheap 25 years ago, I'd never stopped! Just the other night I was laying in bed about to go to sleep looking at my ebay app on my Android phone. Saw an auction for 100 foreign stamps ending in like, 40 seconds for all of $1.40. That included shipping. One click of a button and "BOOM", I've got stamps.

@philb... Yes, I fear you are correct.
But I feel like I've got to start somewhere.

how about 102a cards?

Phil: If not having illustrations in the Steiner (print-it-yourself) album pages is a major impediment for considering them, it might be helpful to know that a fair number of libraries carry the Scott catalogs. If they do, usually they keep the most recent volumes in Reference, but allow the prior volumes to be checked out.

As long as you don't need to catalog the most recent stamps, you could also probably buy 5-10 year-old Scotts for pretty cheap.

I am a big fan of the Steiner pages, and it seems to me this is by far the most sensible way to start building a non-specialized multi-country collection. You don't need to take up space for albums and pages until you're ready for them. And some areas where you may have both mint and used, print out 2 copies and mount both!

Other people use them more than I do, so they can discuss it in greater depth. Also, you are free to subscribe for just one year and download everything. Again, unless you're adding really recent material, that might well prove sufficient.

(Steiner also has a special set of pages just for the Classic period, too, that corresponds to the Scott Classic catalog.)

Just some thoughts ...

-- Dave

Oh, and welcome back to stamps! I had taken about a 20-year break before getting back into it. The internet has made it a lot more enjoyable (and I've learned so much this way), and it's nice to have a little bit of spending money (emphasis on "little") to be able to play with!

-- Dave

Hi Phil,

Welcome to the forum. I can only repeat what has already been said. Steiner pages printed out as needed will give you more scope. I would add that to begin with keep the mounted up pages in box files until you have mounted up enough to warrant buying a binder (or binders). This will also give you thinking and research time to settle on albums you will be happy with. Albums are hellish expensive so not to be purchased without a deal of thought as to relative quality, robustness and price. Do not make a hasty early purchase you may later regret. Take some time on this.

Personally I use blank archival quality art paper (240 gsm) on which I only print country headings and faint grey boxes to assist in placing the stamps in mounts. All entries are then made by hand using a Rotring italic Artpen. This suits my collecting as I only collect the stamps I like, (not everyone's choice, I know). If you are going to use USA style 3 ring binders then punching out the pages is an easy task. I use 22 ring binders and get the paper cut from large sheets and punched 22 holes for me. No charge for the hole punching.

Happy collecting.
Terry

Hi Phil

Welcome back to collecting.

If I used an album I would not use Harris. From the little I have seen the paper is thin and spaces for stamps is crowded.

If I was going to use any album I would definitely use the Steiner pages. Lack of pictures should not be a criteria as albums will not have pictures of every single stamp (not sure about Palo albums). The suggestion to buy an old catalog set is a good way to go.

Personally I have always used quadrilled blank pages.

Jerry B

Hi again,
If you limit your time range - to start out anyway - to the first 100 years of stamps, there are always Scott International Part 1 USED albums out there on ebay. Many will fit your price range, depending on condition and number of stamps included. Buying new - as you found out - is very expensive. While the Scott Internationals are not perfect, I find them still to be the best option for me.
Mobilman44

Compact: Scott Internationals ( Big Blue's) or Minkus Global Supremes

Comprehensive: Steiner

Reality check: Collecting all world all countries without time frame restrictions is a challenge indeed. I would go with stock books in that case.

Check out my bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com for classic era collecting using either Big Blue or Steiner, or Keijo's www.stampcollectingblog.com for the all world all time stock book approach.

Also, consider beginning the collection with several countries or a region if one wants to collect up to the present.

Good luck!

i agree with Jkblue, when I began collecting albums with printed images were the way to go...but what they leave out is frustrating to say the least...i have seen beautiful collections on black plastic stock pages where the stamps can be moved easily to add new additions !

Its good to see new "faces" posting

We is here to assist the newcomer