Just Received My Mystic Hingeless Album....1847-1934...wow!

Hello,
I've been reading all over this and other forums about stamp albums and after hours and hours of "analysis", decided to buy the Mystic Hingeless Album, 1847-1934. My fears were like most people's....will the binder look nice? Will the pages be of high quality paper? Will the hinges be mounted neatly and look good. And, what about the stamp descriptions and illustrations?

Well, I am a very, very, picky guy and I have to say that I am extremely happy with this album! All the hoopla that's been thrown around regarding the quality of the paper was just that, hoopla. The pages are DEFINITELY more than I would have expected. They are very heavy card stock, probably three times the thickness of 3x5 cards, with a really nice cream color, rather than bright white. The mounts are beautifully installed. The graphics, illustrations and overall descriptions are better than I have ever seen. They include all kinds of interesting information, right down to various "grill" types. The binder and dust cover are beautiful and I love the stitching along the edge of the binder and the gold lettering on the front of the album and along the edge, visible when sitting on my shelf.

Regarding the "wrinkling" in the paper that some have mentioned....if you look closely at the left page when the album is open, which is the back side of the page where stamps are mounted, there is the slightest wrinkling noticeable due to the fact that the mounts were probably applied with water. However, the front side, where the stamps are mounted, is perfect....with no wrinkling. Quite frankly, I am going to be looking at the front side, where my stamps are mounted and really won't notice the wrinkles. By the way, I looked at my old stamp album, where I used split-back mounts and the backside of the pages are very, very wrinkled....something I never thought about or cared about before.

When Mystic said in their video that they wanted to create a hingeless album for under $100.00, I expected it to be average, considering what other hingeless albums are selling for. I cannot think of any way they could have made this album better! They have done it all and I just wanted to share my excitement with my fellow collectors. I have just started inserting stamps...it's great to be able to just peel back the top of the mount and drop the stamp in. My old fingers just can't handle split mounts any more, without potentially damaging stamps.

And, I love the fact that the Scott Number is posted beneath each stamp's photo and below the stamp, when mounted, making it real easy to identify each stamp and where stamps go in this great album.

I hope this information helps others who may be "on the fence" to make a decision regarding which album to buy.

Mondo

mondo
That's a great testimony you wrote about the Mystic album. Show pictures if you can. Under a 100$ it's a bargain. Enjoy the hobby and stay with us. Daniel

Congratulations! It's wonderful to be so happy!

I am happy for the OP. I posted on another thread about my experience in receiving a set of part one pages that were God awful ugly- they were badly wrinkled and looked rippled. This was not some subtle thing as seen from the back- it was severe enough to compel me to return for replacement- and they sent another set just as bad. I got my money back but lost $10 or so in postage.
This was early last year and perhaps they were perfecting their technique on these but after two attempts I just felt it was a lost cause. Mystic does a lot of good things but the way they handled this product at the outset was not one of them. Sorry to rain on the parade- but that's how I feel..

There were some early-on production problems with the Mystic Hingeless Albums -- so much so they were actually pulled off the market for a short time while they corrected the problem. It would seem the experience of Stamps1962 happened during that time. While the loss of $10 in postage is unfortunate, most seem to be pleased with the "new generation" of these albums.

Although I haven't bought the Mystic Hingeless (yet) the price point certainly beats out the purchase of individual stamp mounts not to mention the time and effort it takes to mount them properly in a conventional album.

Nice to read a positive report, hope that it enhances your collection and enjoyment.!

Would you post a scan of a single page with, perhaps a few stamps mounted and a few blank. Also, if you have one, could you mount a PNS. I'm interested in the Hingless mounts.

Hi Everyone,
Today I was going to add a stamp to my new album and one of the mounts was stuck closed and when I forced it open, it wouldn't lay flat again with the stamp enclosed. So, I went through the whole album and checked all the mounts....only one other was stuck also. I called a nice lady by the name of Holly at Mystic Stamps and she said "no problem....she checked my account and said she would send out 2 replacement pages, so that I would have a perfect album. Now, that's what I call great customer service.

Tomorrow, I will take some photos and post them on this posting so you can see how nice the album looks with some stamps mounted.

Enjoy our hobby,
Mondo

This is one of the bright points with Mystic. Great service and albums.

Hi Everyone,
Here are a few photos of my new album, with a few stamps already in their mounts. I'm not sure the photos do justice to the great, cream-colored cardstock that make up the album.

It amazes me how accurately all the mounts were placed in the printed squares....there is no way I could have gotten them all that straight and neat if I had done them myself.

Mystic does a great job with their albums, and offers them at a disgustingly cheap price.

The only gripe I have had with them in how they lay se-tenants out.

Okay, it's been over a month now since I received my Mystic Hingeless Album and I've inserted dozens of stamps into the mounts and have to say that they are staying put and look great. And, it's much easier for me to insert stamps with these mounts than to fiddle with the "split back" mounts.

I'm still very happy with my album....just thought it was time for an update.

Mondo

Hmm... I hadn't realized that Mystic had writeups on the facing pages. Nicely done, especially for the price.

Question: Are the albums "specialized" as in Scott complete (major numbers) or are there omissions like on the entry-level Scott albums?

I would also like to know how they treat coils. Do they have a space for singles and pairs or just singles. My coil collection is lacking only a few of the more costly items and I have mint line pairs and singles, for the most part.

What about blocks of 4 or setentant pairs etc. I'm ready to swap out my Harris Classics Album, with all the Scott split backs for the Mystic album. But not if I don't have spaces for all the stamps. I don't collect all the varieties but most would be nice.

What about extra blank sheets? Do they provide those as well. In as I collect curles on the 1851-57 One Cent Franklin, I would like to display those as well.

The bad thing about Scott's cut to size black strips is that I never seem to cut them to the same length for the same size stamp. I know they have size specific mounts that cover all sizes. The problem with those is that one size gets used up and they others are rarely used leaving me with several partial packages.

Art

Looks like it's really nice to my eyes! I really need to get me one of those for one of my US collections. I only need the first volume though.

I had a few email exchanges with Mystic about their album a while back and I may be able to answer some questions here.

The Heirloom and Heirloom Hingeless are almost identical albums. They do not do coil pairs. Heirloom Hingeless is more complete than the standard Heirloom according to what they told me. Whether it's Scott National level complete, I don't know.