Organizing My Collection

Until now I've been using mostly stockbooks for my stamp collection, as well as a Leuchtturum-album for my Norwegian collection, but I'm really not that pleased with these solutions. The Lechtturum-album works fine for my collection of Norway used, but I use a stockbook to house all those stamps there aren't any places for in the album. And even though the stockbooks gives me flexibility with regard to what I can add it means constantly rehousing. For example, when I rehoused my collection of Australia I made room for the stamps I was missing, but now I want to add things there aren't a space for, which would mean more rehousing. And that means extra work, which I am trying to avoid.

I have considered making my own album pages, but that would be too time-consuming. I have also considered Vario-pages in the past, but decided to go with stockbooks because it would be cheaper.

What I am thinking about is a bit of a mish-mash approach. Using Vario-pages I would get the flexibility of the stockbook without the need for rehousing and moving around stamps when I get new stamps, so I will use them. However, there are objects I might wanna make album pages for, and I plan to use this together with Vario-pages. I might even throw in whole pages from collections I buy if I like the look of it. Now, I know this will look anything but tidy, but luckily I don't worry about that too much. And if it is tidy enough for me that is all that really matters. I also realize that selling a collection in such a state will probably lower the value, but that I don't care about. I don't plan to sell it, and if I do I can make the necessary changes.

The idea behind this is that it will give me more flexibility in how I organize my collection, I can throw in a huge sheet without having to move stamps around. I don't have to worry about later stamps being added, so I can present the stamps how I would like right away. And I can add as much information I want about interesting covers, favorite stamp series etc. In short it is meant to be saving me time, and adding to the enjoyment of my hobby.

I'm thinking about doing this with my Australian or Canadian, or both, collections first to see how it works out.

I realize this is a very basic outline, but this is something I started pondering earlier today, and this thread will hopefully work as a way to help me find the solution for me. So what I'm looking for is feedback basically. Have you tried something similar? Things to be aware off? Do you organize your collection in a way that could give me ideas that could be incorporated into this? Or whatever you think could be relevant really.

Hi yobo
You are doing almost what I do. I use the Vario pages to store and organize the stamps and then mount complete sets/years/etc using Lighthouse mounts on quadrilled CMS album pages. All of my albums contain a mixture of various Vario pages and mounted pages. I am not a neatness freak but I still think the end result looks pretty good. Creating my own album pages would involve too much work and I'd rather work with the stamps (although greatly admire those collectors who go to this much effort).

I am avoiding stock books because of the difficulty of adding and removing stamps (with the risk of damaging perfs, etc.) although I still have a few from my earlier collecting days.

Interesting, Nbstamper. It's good to see that a system similar to what I might end up with works for me. What are quadrilled CMS album pages? That might be a stupid question, but at the moment it has me stumped.

They may only be available in Canada; don't know; but they are just high quality blank pages with a very faintly printed grid on them so you can align the mounts properly. The ones I buy are punched for a three-ring binder and I use Lighthouse three-ring binders. I'm sure other suppliers have similar products.

Of course, now I know what you meant. Something like that could be a possibility, depending on price and availability. Thanks for clearing it up for me though.

I am a big fan of Vario pages, but still like the look and feel of Lighthouse hingeless albums - so I use both for my collection.

If I had more time (and patience), I would make my own pages. PostmasterGS has made some fantastic pages for Germany using MS Publisher that I intend to eventually print out and use but for the time being, I am content with my current system.

If you figure out a way to print out custom pages with mounts already attached, I will gladly pay a premium for them :)

Brian

If I figure out how to print out custom made album pages with mounts already attached I will let you know, Rileysan.