Just Got My First Scott National Album :)

Been collecting for about 40 years now (off and on several times) and until today, I've never owned a Scott National album.

Was browsing ebay over the weekend and found a seller letting go a "brand new", up to 1985 version and a bag of stamps for $80 OBO. I made an offer, he countered and we settled at $70 delivered.

Showed up today and it's as fresh as the day it was purchased in 1985. Not a single stamp ever placed in it. Couldn't be happier.

You sure did score on that deal. Especially since it never was used.Its nice to find stuff like that on ebay. At least it found a good home. Gary

Funny, now I can't decide what to do with it. I've spent so much time and money (mounts) on my Mystic album that I cringe at switching everything over. I don't really want to buy a ton of new mounts for the mint stamps.

Maybe I'll just use it as a doubles album with my nicer extras and build up a second US collection.

Always wanted one of these and now don't know what to do with it LOL

You could always use it for a USED USA stamp collection. Say, all with Circular Date Stamp cancellations!

Is that album intended for hinges?

That's one of the issues I'm struggling with - whether to use mounts or not. The more I look at the pages in it, the more I like it and the more I am leaning to switching my best stuff to it and my best stamps deserve mounts.

I wouldn't want to destroy the Mystic album by removing the mounts from it but at $40 to replace the Mystic album, it would probably save money by at least attempting to salvage some of them. I also wouldn't want a bunch of bent mounts in the National and I know that's what happens a lot after removing them. I'd also prefer to keep the sizes uniform for the type of stamp going in it. Being impatient when I didn't have a particular size got the best of me sometimes while building the Mystic album. Also, my Columbians are all crooked in the Mystic so those 2 issues are pushing me towards the switch. Must be my OCD flaring up :)

This is my Mystic album that I've spent so much time on - http://www.mystupidhobbies.com/Stamps/index.html

I'd also like to rescan at a larger size and switching albums would motivate me to do so.

At this point, I think I'm pretty close to doing the switch, especially after typing this post LOL

Decisions, decisions....

Just got my first shipment of new mounts in so the switch has begun. I had enough to take care of the banknotes but was completely out of 25s. I ordered all pre-cut so everything will be uniform.

Only think I'm not loving about the National is the 2 post binder and getting the pages to stay open at the front of the book.

May eventually 3 punch them and put them in another binder but that's somewhere down the road.

This gonna be fun :)

The new Scott stuff is all three ring.

Well, I made it up to the 1922 regular issue stamps before I ran out mounts. More arriving Tuesday so not much of a delay.

Couple things I've noticed along the way:

No spaces for Columbian Broken Hat or either of the Cap over 2 Washingtons :(

The dotted line boxes around the stamp spaces are not uniform for the same size stamps. Even within the same series on the same page, they vary by several dots. Kind of strange that by 1985 that was never fixed..

Other than that I love this album.

I really like seeing an entire set on one page rather than spead over 2 or 3 pages in the Mystic. Didn't realize how much of a difference that makes - especially with the pages staying ncie and flat. I've heard people mention that before about the Mystic but it never bothered me until I actually saw it in place.

Probably update my website over the rest of the weekend for the up to 1921 stamps. Sure will be a lot less pages to scan