Are Cheap Album Manufacturers Days Numbered?

This question is born from another thread. The following point got me thinking!





I certainly agree that quality has taken a downturn. I won't touch new Scott albums with a 10 foot pole! Even the high-end, luxury albums are cutting corners to save money these days. Anyone who has spent $1700 on Schaubek's Specialized US albums knows that their binders are simply horrible! I also caught a glimpse of the newly re-vamped Lighthouse hingless album binders and was less-than-impressed.


Setting aside my prejudice against corporate greed, and approaching the topic with objectivity, I have to ask why are album manufacturers having so much trouble selling albums these days?

One theory I propose is that collectors are able to find really great album page designs for free on the internet, then print them on whatever quality paper they desire.

I'd like to hear more thoughts!

Brian

I for one print my own pages because of how I collect. I use the Steiner pages (cost is a $30 yearly subscription, because It allows me to print the pages that I need for whatever country that I am working on at a time. When I was looking at item choices I found that pre printed albums (with the exeption of the 3 volume Mystic US) were way above my budget.
I now have about 50 albums at a cost of $350.00 give or take a few bucks.

Dianne

Although the above statement is accurate, one has to realize that the cost in time (collector's time has value, too) and paper (quality paper costs $$) and ink/toner (which can get expensive very quickly) are all reasons why many of us would prefer pre-printed album pages. Sure you can print customized album pages at will, but the hundreds of printed pages that would be needed to "complete" most albums with print-on-demand pages would quickly be offset by the cost to just buy a decent pre-printed album to begin with.

As for the cost of pre-printed albums, a lot has to do with supply and demand. In years gone by, there was a higher demand (i.e. more collectors to buy the products) and with the demand decreasing, the cost per album has to go up because there is overhead costs in marketing the albums to a smaller collector base. Also, many collectors have albums that are perfectly useable from years gone by or from purchasing collections from those who have given up the hobby, or have converted to "hingeless" albums that are coming down in price, resulting in more "supply" of albums out there.

Just my two cents. There are probably many other factors, too.

I have three pre-printed hinge-less albums that house my Switzerland collection. Each year I pay $14.00 plus shipping to buy a new supplement. For that same amount I can buy 250 sheets of nice quality paper for my Transportation Coils collection plus a supply of mounts. ( I can not buy an album for the Transportation Coils - what I collect no album is available so I stick with Album Easy! ).

Peter

I believe you guys (and gal) pretty much nailed it. I use vario pages but I'm tiring of replacing them all the time. I have a standard 3 volume scotts Heirloom album that I use for my doubles and to keep organization of my Washington/Franklin issues but I'm looking into a hingeless album to put it all together in one spot. I haven't seen much I 100% like yet. I want an old album from say the 1930's to house it all in but we'll see.

I feel exactly the same way! I have owned every major manufacturer's specialized album for US stamps, and I can find something I don't like about all of them! Perhaps I'm too picky?

I also can't find ANYTHING that I like 100%..lol. Cars, houses, beers (very close though), scotch, etc,etc. Thats life in general. That is why we keep looking. It can be fun and frustrating at the same time.

About the cost of albums. Correct me if I am wrong. Most are designed and made in Europe, mostly Holland and Germany. Some in the US( I think). These countries pay their workers even in lower end jobs high wages. Anyone see how much its is to live over there?
This will translate to high cost for the product. They are known for quality, but, when costs go up and sales go down something has to give. They are probably cutting corners to save dollars. Where have we seen this before...lol
Just my two cents.

Amen to that statement. I pay $17.00 for a 250 sheet package of 125lb paper and $49.00 to replace the ink cartridges in my Canon printer. While I also use this material to make CD inserts I found it cost way too much to do stamp material. I've got a Mystic Heirloom, treat it carefully, and bite the bullet for the mounts. This seems to work for me. I add Vario pages when necessary.
Tom

I also use Steiner pages for cost reasons. I buy 60lb acid-free cover stock from Sam's Club online for about 3 cents a sheet. I pay $5 for 3rd party ink cartridges on ebay, which can print *at least* 2000 Steiner pages, so the cost of ink isn't a consideration. If I just want to use a standard "office" binder, I can have a whole country album (or a signifant portion thereof) for $10 or so. If I want to house it in a nice Lighthouse Vario binder, maybe it goes up to $35 or $40, which is still less than the cost of a binder alone from Scott. No one can tell me that by the time you account for paper and ink costs that these pages compete with the cost of Scott pages. It's simply not even close, at least if you're using regular and not hingeless pages. I collect used stamps and use hinges, but if I collected MNH and used mounts, I'd think a lot harder about buying printed pages.

Now, if you want to start factoring in the amount of *time* it takes to use Steiner pages vs. pre-printed, illustrated pages, that's definitely a factor. Due to the lack of illustrations and catalog numbers, sometimes it can take me awhile to find the right spot for the stamp. But that's fine, I have more time than money, and I'd rather put as much of my limited budget as possible toward stamps rather than supplies. Sometimes I go through and pencil the Scott numbers in, which actually helps me learn more about the stamps of that particular country, so it can be a positive thing, too.

In a perfect world, would I rather have pre-printed, illustrated albums? Of course. But I have albums for about 30 countries now. Buying that many pre-printed albums (hingeless or not) would have entailed me taking out a 2nd mortgage, and then they'd be sitting empty because I'd have no money left to buy stamps!

What I'd *really* love to see is for someone to take the Steiner pages to the next level, and add illustrations or Scott numbers or both. I know Scott would get a royalty for using their numbers, and adding illustrations would be time consuming, so it would take resources. It would be nice if Scott themselves (or another major manufacturer) sold downloadable, printable files, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe Mystic or some other large company could do it, but given the time and money it would likely take them to develop pages, I'm not holding my breath on that, either. They'd certainly cost a lot more than Steiner's pages, but I'd be willing to spend a little more for such an album.

In deference to wt1's comment about the value of a collector's time, I would like to suggest that the time spent by a collector on their collection should not be considered on the negative side of the ledger! The time I spend on my collection (and that especially includes the time designing & printing my own pages) is a very positive thing.

And, perhaps in dollars it would be less "expensive" to buy pre-printed album pages. But then it would not be MY collection, would it? It would be a collection according to Scott, or a collection according to Minkus, or Lighthouse, or... Well, you get the idea.

My experience from examining lots that come up for sale is that the more expensive albums, say lighthouse, schaubek, etc., are usually in better condition and look more attractive. Generally, the homemade albums look horrible. That's not to say your homemade albums lack aesthetic appeal. But that aesthetic quality is worth something, especially when you go to sell your collection.

If I were to make a homemade album, and I'm working on it slowly, I would use top quality materials, and that would make the cost closer to those of the album manufacturers. The problem I have with Steiner pages is they are designed for 8 1/2 x 11 pages and that layout IMO is just not as appealing as the wider pages. Don't get me wrong, I also have purchased the Steiner pages (mainly for my children), so they are a significant savings in time. But, for some albums I want a wider design, which means I either purchase an album or design one myself, and both are significant costs.

I'd bet the album companies aren't making outlandish profits, but its hard to grasp the true costs of a business when you don't factor in time and all the overhead costs, such as equipment, rent, salaries, insurance, customer support, etc.

The Steiner pages themselves are aesthetically pleasing to me, although I agree that a larger page format would be nice. But since that would entail me buying a special printer and paper, the cost would certainly rival or exceed the pre-printed pages.

I did have to make a bow to aesthetics on the binders, however, and purchased a shelf full of Lighthouse Vario binders and slipcases. I initially had my collection just in standard white 3-ring binders ($5 Walmart special), but a shelf full of them looked very tacky, in my opinion. They're also hard to make stand completely upright and thus not bend or warp over time. The full shelf of Lighthouse binders looks so attractive to me that I often catch myself stopping and admiring them as I'm walking by. It has certainly occurred to me as well that a prospective buyer would have a much better first impression than if my collection were just housed in an office binder. At any rate, in my humble opinion, Steiner pages in Lighthouse binders would be reasonably aesthetically pleasing to most collectors. If I could afford a top of the line pre-printed album, I doubt I'd be using Steiner's pages, but I'm very pleased with the way mine looks, given what they've costed me.

Someone has added illustrations. http://www.paloalbums.com/

You're lucky that your printer will accept 3rd party cartridges because my Canon won't: I tried and paid the price of cleaning my printer for two hours to get rid of the leaking ink. The low ink indicators came on and wouldn't come off so I had to reinstall the program for the printer. I prefer the heavyweight feel of the 125lb stock.

Tom

BTW. speaking of albums.

Has anyone seen the supplements for 2013? any maker?

I am looking for Davo Canada. Their website says early January.

Yeah, it's one of the advantages of having an HP printer. 3rd party cartridges are easy to find for just about any of them. As a side note, I have to wonder how the ebay seller I get them from can make any money. I get an HP920XL cartridge (about $35 or more for new, HP-branded) for $5 with free shipping. Now, how in the heck can they pay shipping, ebay and PayPal fees and still make money? But the cartridges work great and and they've never caused an issue with my printer. I realize there's a bit of a risk that one won't work, but I've gone through about 4 of those cartridges printing Steiner pages, saving well over $100 in the process. If I got a bad one next time, I'd chalk it up to luck and just order another one.

It took me awhile to settle on a paper. I have tried the heavier pages (up to 110lb) but I actually dislike the stiffness. I primarily collect used stamps and mount them to the pages with hinges, so I can get away with using a little lighter weight paper. I can fit more pages into a binder and they're easier to turn. If I used mounts, it might be different.