Anybody Have Experience With The Mystic Hingeless Album

Hello Fellow Collectors,
I have just recently gotten back into stamp collecting after 40 years. I plan to collect United States from 1847-1930's. I've read about the Mystic Hingeless album on this forum but most of the posts are 1-2 years old. I noted that there were some early production problems with the album, such as wrinkled pages, etc. and wondered of anybody has recent experience with this album that they could share. It appears that the new binder and dust jacket, with the stitching along the edge, is real nice. For $100.00, including the binder and dust jacket, it appears to be a good value.

Thank you in advance for any insight you can provide.

Mondo

I have this album and really like it. I moved my U.S. collection from a very old album into this one and the premounts made it quick and easy. The pages are heavier than their regular album, almost a card stock. Out of the first four volumes I had 4-5 pages that were "curled". I called Mystic and they shipped out new pages right away that were perfect. The curled pages were ones with single mounts that covered almost the entire page.

Hi Leo,
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. I've been on the fence for some time regarding buying this album but with your input, I'm going to go ahead and buy it.

Thank you again,
Mondo

leoh, are the mounts top-loading / open on three sides? I'm curious about how securely they hold the stamps.

Welcome Mondo.

There have been a couple lengthy discussions about the Mystic Hingeless albums. Start with this one...
https://goscf.com/t/25590

KirkS

The mounts do open at the top and they are open on three sides. The stamps seem very secure to me. I've put a lot of stamps into this album and haven't found a bad mount yet. (see above, I did find some pages that were curled but got them replaced pronto). I really like the illustrations, descriptions, Scott numbers, everything I wanted in a U.S. album. Even 8 1/2 x 11 pages and what I think are beautiful binders.

I am perhaps not the most unbiased person to comment on this album. I bought one section of it last year and had to return it, the pages were all rippled. They replaced it with another crummy set- same problem. I finally got a refund but they kept my postage. I believe I was unfortunate enough to have been an early buyer and got stuck with a product that was still being perfected. I decided that twice was enough and went onto something else.
In the process I spoke on three occasions with staff at Mystic, I think all of them knew darn well what I was talking about, all three played dumb and acted like I was being picky. It did change my perception of the company.

Just a bump here, but I recently purchased the 2014 supplement to see if I liked the product. My pages came on a very heavy stock, but unfortunately became curved and wavy after about 2-3 weeks after arrival. Has anyone else had any instances of the paper waving. It's pretty bad for my supplement and to the point that I don't want to risk placing stamps in the mounts.

I had noted in a posting a month or so ago that the pages in my Mystic hingeless album started to curl after placing a fair number of stamps on them. I was/am concerned about the fact that the stamps themselves, almost all MNH, have started to curl also. Fortunately the stamps aren't particularly valuable, but it is a cause of concern regarding using these albums for the more valuable part of my collection. I didn't get many responses, so I assume that not too many members here use Mystic.

Haven't encountered any instances of the pages becoming wavy as opposed to curling at the top and bottom edges. Am looking at the Scott Schaubek hingeless, but I'm not too crazy about split back mounts, and the Palo hingeless since I've had good luck with Palo for other countries..

I have been using the Mystic non-hingeless albums, the paper stock is sort of flimsy so I have each page in a sheet protector- this results in a very bulky bunch of albums. I collect in several areas and am giving thought to switching over to a Lighthouse album for my US collection. As I posted earlier I had bought a Mystic hingeless part one and had to send them back three times because I kept getting pages that looked horrible- all wavy and warped. From your post it sounds that this may be a systemic problem with these.

Just to follow-up, I reached out to Mystic about the curling on the hingless pages and, like other posters, they have agreed to send a replacement batch. Their customer service was top drawer as they immediately followed up and are providing a shipping label for return postage of the original curled pages.

Hope you have better luck than I did with the same situation some time ago. The replacement pages they sent were every bit as bad as the originals- and this happened twice. Don't wish to be a wet blanket but IMO there are some serious issues with this product and Mystic has always been in denial about them.

Thanks Stamps1962. That is my worry...that what they send me is the same garbage as what I originally received. In my original e-mail to them I asked if there is a known issue with the hingless pages and the rep made it sound like it was the first she had ever heard of problems with the pages. Ummmm, yeahhhhhhhh.

Gee,
I bought the Mystic Hingeless Album over a year ago and have been adding stamps to it ever since. I never and still haven't noticed any wrinkling or other problems with the pages. I am very happy with the album, especially because of how they arranged the various sets on the pages and I enjoy reading the history posted on the left side of the pages. Also, having the Scott numbers is a bonus and simplifies identifying what I need.

If Mystic had a problem with wrinkling, they certainly fixed it before they produced my album.

I hope this helps,
Mondo

Knuppster- that is exactly how they were with me, especially on the second go round, it was like I had some sort of perception issue or something. Let us know what happens.