No-No's For Newbies

I just picked up an older WW collection in boxes and some sparse albums, and although it ended up good in the end due to some good loose and hinged issues I did not have...the majority of the collection mounted in the alums are not really worth the paper printed on them...the reason??

Please to new stamp collectors, if you don't use mounts, please use hinges....DON'T use scotch tape. talk about discoloration, deformation, stuck hard to the pages, etc.... WOW!

That being said, these older stamps are a "treasure" for the newcomer with a fistfull of pennies, as I have said before, any stamp is a find to one just getting into the hobby. But these shoud be replaced with good copies when found. Not worth beans, but they are an old stamp.

I haven't seen scotch tape used in my 36 collecting years, but good advice nonetheless.

yeah...90% of the collection in the books was scotch taped in or some really horrible tape-like hinges. about 50% of these flaked off the stamp and page as they were in there so long ut left a almost packingtape type stain on the stamps...stringy and shimmering but not gooey anymore. She said she stopped collecting around 1960. Those that were still attached were extremely discolored/stained as well as the book. I'll try and get some pictures to show so you can all cringe. there may or may have not been anything really valuable here, but if there were, well.....

Looking forward to cringing . . .

Interestingly, I have seen it used as hinges in a couple of sales circuit books within the last year.

I'm not advocating its use, but the scotch tape hinges came off easier and with less damage to the stamp than the regular hinges now on the market. The tape hinges peeled right off leaving only a slight stickiness on the stamp. These were used stamps and the stickiness came off after a soft rubbing.

Don't know what would happen if the hinges were left on stamps for a number of years. There are several different scotch-type tapes on the market these days, some are undoubtedly more benign than the older ones.

Don

Chewie You might consider washing them in room temp water with a tad of dish soap. It might take some of the tape residue and discolor off of them. Try one or two that aren't valuable first. Oh don't use a scrub brush on them.

Could be worse...

About 20 years ago an Aunt left her collection to my cousin and then he sent them to me to see if they had any value. She didn't use tape. She used glue. The kind they use on anything needing to be permanently bonded and impossible to get off. I sent the collection back to my cousin and told him to treasure what his mother had collected.

Art

Note the spelling on these hinges Dennis"on" not Dennis"en" are good and Printz all come off easy and clean. There's one more. I can't think of thee name of it. Do a search of hinges or stamp hinges and the name will come as good. Hobby Lobby sells the Printz and they are probably the best.They are German made.

I've had album pages mounted both with scotch tape as well as the adhesive "dots" that you maybe can still buy in stationary stores. I have worked most of my way through a collection; of Scott International albums; bought back in the early 1990s. The prior owner used hinges and occasionally Showguard mounts (Yay!). Downside is that he covered up pages with blank sheets, using Scotch tape to attach. Talk about discoloration and some damage to stamps.

Another "mounting" technique I've encountered with old collections is the use of mucilage. It's a glue used to bond papers etc.
It usually can be removed but it's messy.

Dan

I remember from childhood the use of LePage's Mucilage as shown here:



(Fortunately, I never used it for stamps!)

Anyway, to fast forward to 2014, what's interesting is that LePage's is now a contractor to the US Postal Service, and as such, they maintain the USPS Mail & Go Kiosks, the USPS branded package sealing tape and boxes, and (so I understand) are the producers of the USPS boxes, sealing tape and Priority Mail labels we all can get at the post office!

http://www.lepages.com/uspsproducts/usps-boxes/

While I haven't seen any tape used (in the 20 plus albums I've won the last 3 years), I have had some with the hinges that left an "oil stain" where it was attached to the stamp and page. Also have had several using the white "cloth like" hinges that can only be removed by warm water soaking. Fortunately, perhaps 50 percent of the stamps I've removed were with Dennison or something else (is there something else?) that peeled fairly easy.

OK, I do have a new gripe to add...... the album I'm working on now has a lot of new stamps (likely bought from dealers in the 40s/50s) and the collector got over zealous with his tongue, and the stamps are held not only with hinges, but wherever he/she "over wet".

Yuck.

You also have to remember that some of these stamp albums that get re-sold on the secondary market originally came from non-collectors, those exploring the idea of collecting, some may have even belonged to children who didn't have the financial means to buy appropriate supplies or maybe they tried it for a few months and dropped out of the hobby. Anything is possible.

In fact, if you go back to the history of when stamp collecting was in its heydey (i.e. early 20th century) it was considered a valuable deterrent to get one's mind off of the current world situation, particularly during the time of war or during the Great Depression, so money was more importantly used to feed the family than it was to buy stamp supplies.

Tin man, thanks for the advice...and none are most likly valuable anyhow...but are the old engraved type which in my eyes are better designed...in any case, I'll try and remember to take some pics...forgot to do so today.

Yea the ebay listings are selling dennisen's for unheard of prices...I think I saw a package for $15. not the same as the original; dennison's and G&K is very good for newer hinges.

chewie if you have a hobby shop near you. Check and see if they don't sell hinges there.

*LOL* I am starting a hobby shop which incorporates stamps..*L*