Storing Large Used World Wide Collections

@ sherma - please let us know when you have done a trial off your idea - interesting!

@keijo - I applaud you being faithful to your original concept!



I have to kindly disagree... my experience when replacing stock books with Vario pages was that it did indeed bring a lot of advantages. I want to keep those advantages by continuing using Vario for the bulk of the WW stamps (issued after 1940 or so). The most important advantage I am hoping for with using own-printed album pages (combination of DIY and Steiner) for the classical stamps, is that it will hopefully save time for organising the varieties in a decent manner.

@geoff



Absolutely!! I even think the same way of the separation of postage due and officials etc. My albums have always been and will always remain with stamps organised along the timeline they were issued.



I absolutely agree, hence I will not use the Steiner pages for those areas I find interesting for more thorough studies. Otherwise it seems to me a bit like simply filling spaces like in a boys album . That's why I am rather considering to make more detailed pages, like the samples from Bahamas above, which will call for more in depth studies. At the end of the day tough, WW collectors have to set some limitations due to the one 'critical' resource in short supply: time! So I am thinking Steiner pages would suffice for areas outside my main scope, thus saving lots of time needed for making a set-up for those areas, and rather spend that time on the before mentioned studies

@chris -
Thanks, the experience you tell me about I just what I suspect I would feel to. Your Turkey pages look awesome - are they printed on A4 format - or wider format paper?
How do the punched holes in the paper hold up when shifting the pages back and forth on the ringbinders?

Sorry for asking all these questions, I've never before used paper pages and am curious for your experience.

Jon,

Frankly, I haven't been using the paper along enough to answer that question. However, the paper is heavy. It is 'cover stock' and it what PostmasterGS is using for his pages:

Exact Vellum Bristol, 8.5" x 11", 67 lb/147 gsm, Cream, 250 Sheets

I like it as it is not as ridged as some other cover stock I have used, but heavier than previous 80lb text paper I used before.

Is anyone printing pages on A4 and keep in Vario grande album together with Vario grande pages?

The challenge is the size difference between A4 and the much larger Grande pages, example:

Anyone has a good solution to this without needing to insert the A4 in a page protector (or grande 1S page)??

Thinking to fix the A4 sheets on Vario interleaves by using removable double sided tape. The 3M peelable tape is already favoured by many in this forum. Do you think it would work to keep an A4 looking smart and well secured on the rigid Vario interleaves?

There is another significant benefit to "interleaving" pages. It provides a space for blocks, items on piece, vertical gutter pairs, etc.

I don't like putting a mount with a block of four into a Vario pocket, just to keep the block where it needs to be. And I really don't like inserting one 3S page that is otherwise 90% empty.

It would be a shame to have to put this one on its side in a page with its brothers:

Cjd - !
I actively used the interleaves in my old stockbooks for just the same purpose as you say!

Another strategy (an idea I "borrowed" from Rod222 ) is to simply use Steiner pages as your base, then add supplemental pages as necessary. This gives you the best of both worlds and is a lot less work than modifying pages for every country. Here's some examples I did for Samoa.

@chris - thanks for your help. So your pages is printed on US letter format, which is slightly wider and less height than the A4 we have in Europe. I think the letter format looks better than A4 for album pages as there are more width for holepunching.

Yes, regular US letter format, 8.5x11 inches. That is about all you can get here in the US and most of the printers are set up for this size, unless you buy a special large-format printer.

As Chris does, I use Steiner for 1840-1940 (-1952 British Commonwealth) housed in, at this time, 1 Palo, 20 Vario G, and 36 Vario F binders.

The advantage is, whenever I obtain more classic era stamps, the spaces are waiting for me. And I'm more interested in the stamps then designing pages, which takes effort and time.

For those stamp issues where a more through presentation is desired, quadrilled pages can be inserted. And the Steiner pages are available for adding the extra stamp or two with minor numbers.



For 1941-1969, and the extras for 1840-1940, I use the Minkus Global Supreme pages. Works well for me.

I guess we all tend to be satisfied by our own choices.

We do?????

You hit the nail on the head.

Actually, time, a precious resource, is indeed, at least for me, the limiting factor.

This past year I expanded my interests up to 1970 WW, but find myself, at times choking on the additional time requirements.

About once a day I think about going back to 1840-1940. Then I come upon some of the great stamp issues (and the history that goes with it) of the 1941-1969 era,and change my mind again.

I absolutely agree, which is one of the primary reasons that I developed AlbumEasy. Also, as I mainly collect Southern African Commonwealth countries, I found that far too many of the major varieties were not represented in the Steiner pages.
So rather than take the cookie cutter approach of letting the pages dictate my collecting I prefer to let the collecting dictate the pages and went the fully custom route instead.

Of course creating custom pages can be a time consuming process, fortunately, a number of AlbumEasy users are starting to share albums for others to download and print or to easily customise. Hopefully we will be seeing many more in the near future.

And of course, as always, all albums, as well as the AlbumEasy program itself, are completely free.
Clive