Loose Leaf Album

I have returned to stamp collecting after many years. I am a rank beginner but am enjoying the hobby very much. I collect only US stamps so I purchased the Harris Liberty Album. Using the Scott/Prinz mounts I have been busily mounting a lot of stamps. I am finding that the post-mounted design of the album makes placing stamps with their mounts somewhat difficult depending on where on the page the stamp is located (i.e. near the inside edge of the page). I have been thinking about moving the pages to a loose leaf binder which would provide a flat surface for the page being worked on. I am concerned about the page holes tearing thru as the pages are constantly being flipped about when the album is in use. The Liberty pages are not particularly heavy weight and the holes have no reinforcing. I would welcome any advice from other collectors who have approached this problem in such a manner (or other methods as well).

I think you'll find the Harris Liberty pages are too large to fit a standard loose leaf album -- even if you re-punch the pages to fit. My Harris Liberty album (about 40 years old) have pages that measure 9 x 12 rather than 8.5 x 11, so it would be difficult to fit it into any standard loose leaf album without trimming and if you attempt to trim the pages, you may not be happy with the appearance that will result.

While every album has its positive and negative points, for those who want a loose leaf (lay flat) US album, many have converted to Mystic's US Stamp Album (in three volumes). At less than $40, it's a price leader item for which there's little competition. Of course, depending on your usage, you can upgrade to heavier duty albums and/or even hingeless albums that they also market -- obviously at proportionately higher prices:

http://www.mysticstamp.com/viewProd...sp?sku=DS111

I have a Scott Minuteman album where I have re-punched the pages to fit a 3-ring binder. I plan (someday) to divide my album into 3 binders. these are the binders I plan to use. they allow a page to lay flat.

http://www.ihobb.com/p/SCOTTBINDERS/ACBR01.html

http://www.ihobb.com/p/SCOTTBINDERS/ACBR03.html

As for the holes tearing, if the pages are thin, get gummed reinforcements for the holes and keep your eyes on the page holes. The pages in the Minuteman album are notoriously thin, with this being a major complaint with this album.


Hope this helps.
-IBFS

Hi,
With my Scott Internationals, I find that its often easier to just save up the stamps and then do a mass loading - with the pages removed from the album.

I have long ago abandoned my Harris albums and converted to the aforementioned Mystic album. I also considered re-punching the Harris pages but there just wasn't any way to make that work. I wish I had changed to the Mystic album long before I did.

I have been using Minkus pages and albums for along time. Although I do have a few loose leaf binders. Every one of them has had issues with the pages tearing out. I use page re-enforcements that re-enforces the entire edge of the page. I've tried the little white circular items that just tear an even larger hole in the paper later. I am probably in the same camp a mobilman44 as I think the stud type albums, which I believe the Harris Liberty Album is, apply less stress on the page edges. I'm not saying I never have problems with pages tearing out but, if you don't over stuff the binders they hold up very well. Although again I use the re-enforcement that protects the entire edge.

I am also with mobilman44 as far as doing the initial or a major mounting "engagement" with the pages removed from the album. I print my own pages so I will usually print, mount then install the pages in the binder.

Below is a picture of one of the re-enforcements I use. For a time I tried the Scott pages, Minkus were hard to find, but I had to re-punch them to fit the Minkus albums. That's why it is on this page. It was also the last straw before setting up to print my own.




Welcome back!

Thanks to all who replied. I've been out of town for a few days and just returned. In retrospect, I should have gone with a hingeless album. I've already invested a small fortune in Scott mounts I hate to think about starting over.

OH! hey, lilmoose...




-IBFS