Questions About Album / Supplements

Hi everyone! I'm brand new to the forum :)

I collected a lot as a kid and recently (about a year ago) pulled out my old album and started getting back into collecting.

I have a few questions that have come up and I've tried to search for answers online - but just can't find the answers I'm looking for.

If you happen to know the answers, that would be amazing!


I have a Harris U.S. Liberty I Stamp Album. I know this is the album I have because in the back of my album there is a nice yellow page with photos and names of some of their types of albums. My album goes from 18-something to 1994.

I have been trying to save a lot of the newer stamps but have been running into a number of issues. I, of course, don't have spaces in my album for these new stamps. And, supplement pages seem to be pretty costly for that many years. I've seen about $8-10 for each year. I did find on Harris' webpage that they sell a brand new binder book for years 1995-2006 ($50 - ~$4 per year) and 2007-2012 ($50 - $8 per year). Here are the questions I have - hopefully someone knows :)

1) Is there a book out there that has all these missing years (1995-2012 [or 2014]) so I don't need to have 3 separate books?

2) Can I just take the pages from the third book (2007-2012) and put them into the book for 1995-2006? Or, do you think the book would not be wide enough to fit that many pages?

3) I know my album is a Liberty I, but when I look on the Harris page, the covers for each of the new books as well as the original (the one that I have with all those dates 18xx-1994) have a different cover than mine!

My Album Cover:

Harris' webpage cover:


4) Are those two the same book, but they've changed the look of their cover?

5) If I get the new books with the different cover will the style of the pages be the same?

(I tried to email the company but no response)


And, lastly - Can anyone show me a page or two from a liberty album for 2012 or 2013 or 2014? I've been saving every darn combination of stamp (full sheet, block, individual) and I have no idea what there is actually a space for and what there isn't a space for on the pages. The old book I have usually had spaces for "special souvenier" stamp sheets with side and top panels, but now it seems that just about every stamp issued from USPS has an art sheet to go with it. Quite honestly, if I could know what there is a space for I can stop saving unneeded stamps.

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I know these are heaps of questions from someone brand new - I REALLY appreciate any response and the time put in.

I really hope to become a more involved member now that I'm starting to get back into things :)

Thank you again!

JDcompy welcome to the stamp community ,you come to the right place for questions .
The world of stamp collecting has changed since you last purchased your album .I collect the world and need all kinds of albums and updated pages .What I did and many others here did is start printing your own pages . I paid $40.00 and every year print what I need and end up printing hundreds of pages at home . I use the CD from Steiner and update it every few years ,I believe you can use it for U.S. material and still have the ability to print custom pages for any extra stuff you wish to include . again ,welcome aboard .

Hi JD and welcome. I will do my best to hopefully answer some of your
questions.
I too use the Harris Liberty Album for my collection. Even though they have changed the cover slightly over the years , the binders and pages are basically the same. They do make different thickness's of binders. I have 1847 thru 1980 plus airmail , postage due , and special delivery in a 2 inch binder. 1981 thru 2000 in a 3 inch binder. 2001 thru 2009 in a 2 1/2 inch binder. And 2010 to present
in a 2 inch binder. So you need more than one binder for your collection. Keep in mind that I collect singles , se-tenant , and some booklet panes. I keep most of my sheets (panes)in separate binders. When the first se-tenant came out in 1964 Harris put singles and the corresponding se-tenant on the same page. Over the years they change and separated singles , blocks , and strips. They also have pages for coil pairs. So you see it depends on what you collect as to how many binders you will need.

I suggest that you try ebay to obtain your missing pages. There are many new and used albums for sale plus individual year supplements at reasonable prices.(I recently purchased an album that had all the pages from 1847 thru 1987.It was like new.)

I hope this was of some help. Good luck and good hunting.

JDcompy,

Welcome to the Family. This is a great site. I was in a similar situation as you six months ago (see "Tales of an Old Collector"). But I had about seven additional empty Liberty binders. All I needed were the supplements (1985-2014). I did the math and found it would be cheaper to buy a new album (albums) with the pages included. So I started off in that direction.
Then I discovered this website. If you search, you will find that there are many on this site who are not enamored with the Harris Liberty album which has two holed pages. I chose the Premium MYSTIC platform after much research and ended up selling all of my Liberty's.
I am very, very happy with my MYSTIC's. It comes as a three binder set but it is full before you put any stamps in it. The MYSTIC will hold about the same as the Liberty. I updated my collection from 1985 to 2014 and backdated to 1920 using Showgard mounts. That took a total of ten albums. It would be at least that many for the Libertys. I recommend that you research stamp platforms before continuing. There is a lot of info here on this website. Hope this helps.

Jack Kelley

This really belongs in the Albums, Philatelic Literature and supplies forum. But since it's here, I'll mention that the Steiner pages are at www.stampalbums.com The initial cost is minimal compared to printed albums but if you want to keep updating you'd have an annual subscription cost. The thing to know about Steiner is that he follows the Scott catalogue, for the most part. So for US, where you may have most of the stamps I the Scott catalogue, at least after the 1930s and a decent representation from before 1930, you'd have pages decently filled with stamps. For your worldwide, where you may not have the same degree of completeness, you'd probably have vast swathes of unfilled pages. And, of course, pages to all the stamps in the Scott catalogue even up to 1950 or 1960 will fill 50 or more binders. Steiner pages have fewer stamps per page than most printed commercial albums.

So Steiner MIGHT be a solution for US, probably not for world wide. But that's the point. With Steiner you can print what you want and use other albums for the rest. But the pages have no illustrations, only identifying information (denomination, color if needed to distinguish two identical denominations in the same series; overprints where needed). You have to work closely with the catalogue to know which stamp goes where, but the pages follow the cataologue sequence, for the most part and every stamp has a space. With selective albums you often have to work with the catalogue to figure out which stamps have spaces and which do not, though the illustrations help.

For worldwide, there's an excellent thread on here that leads to a world of free album pages, especially for Europe, but also Colonies, South America etc. I've used the Frnch and Italian sites quite a lot, and, as Hieronymus says, you can tailor what you print to what you have, so you don't need to use upmendless paper and toner.

Thank you all so much for warm welcomes and such thorough responses. It's so great to join a community with friendly people :)

I don't know if I'm ready to "print my own pages". While I love the idea of being able to customize, I think I'd rather just have the album/pages premade for me. I did look through ebay for supplements/albums but wasn't really overjoyed with anything I saw.

Jack: I read over one thread that had reviews of albums but it was a bit overwhelming for me. What do you specifically like about the MYSTIC album over the Liberty? I kind of feel like I already started with Harris Liberty and it seems just "wrong" to switch. But, I really have no idea! What do the MYSTIC pages look like?



Geoff: What is that thread?


If I'm not going to print my own pages, and I decide that I'm not quite ready for the switch to a different album company, would the opinion be (in terms of saving money and getting as close to what I need as possible) to buy the 1995-2006 album for $50?

Is there a way or a place to see some pages from the newer Liberty and/or MYSTIC to compare them? For me, because I'm a creature of habit and pretty particular, I like to see what things look like before committing to them (pretty much forever).


Again, thank you everyone for responding and future responses. I really appreciate how nice everyone has been :)


As a note, I apologize if I posted in the wrong category. I looked through what I thought was all of the categories and tried to choose an appropriate one- I probably missed that one! Will definitely try to do better in the future!

Here is a link to a great thread covering US albums: https://goscf.com/t/17127#17127

That was actually the first thread I ever read on this forum!

Sorry - shouldn't have been lazy. This is the thread with links to free pages:

https://goscf.com/t/11268

Geoff

JDCompy,

Where to begin? Well, I see you know about the US Album Review thread (https://www.stampcommunity.org/topi...7127#17127). This is what I relied upon before making the migration from Harris to MYSTIC. Two things stand out about the MYSTIC.

First, the paper is thicker than the Harris pages, giving a more qualitative feature. The pages themselves are "buff" colored rather than just white. The presentation of the stamps is far superior those of the Harris pages in that the stamps are not "squished in". Instead, the stamps are more "spaced out " on the MYSTIC pages. This is possible because the stamp write ups are on the back side of the pages. Finally, the pages are punched with three holes. The old Harris pages are only two and the new Harris pages are five (two and three).

Second, I believe the MYSTIC binder is superior because it has a "D ring" feature which allows the album to lie flat when opened. You can't do that with Harris. Further, you can buy an optional slipcover to hold each binder. This gives a very professional appearance. Although I have the MYSTIC Premium binders, I believe they could have used a more robust or heavier cover. The binders "feel" too lightweight for my taste. However, this is mitigates when the pages are loaded up with stamps.

Another advantage of the MYSTIC is that it does not require one to purchase a block AND singles for each stamp. This is a BIG advantage.

I could go on and on with this, but I wish to finish up by telling you that I tried several other venues before settling on MYSTIC. I first tried WHITE ACE but was unable to successfully cut down the Harris pages to fit. Even with a page cutter. There is a thread on this, too. I also tried using VARIO binders. They are the best binder I've seen and come with a slipcover. Real nice but, again, I had a problem cutting down the HARRIS pages. Also, no "D Ring".

Hope this helps you, JDCompy. I really like my MYSTIC Premium's a lot and am very happy with my decision.


Jack Kelley

JDCompy, I owe you an apology. This Main forum is the right forum--there are plenty of album threads in it. The other forum is more for philatelic literature and supplies, though it also has some album threads. But my commment was out of line.

I really can't tell you all how much I appreciate how helpful and kind you've all been. It really encourages my jumping back into this hobby :)

Jack, thank you for all of your notes about your album. To be honest, the cost of buying both blocks AND singles is immense. But, I think I may just give in on the new binder from Harris and go with the premade new Liberties. I don't know if I'm ready to spend the extra on premium YET :)

Do you all think I can take out some pages from my original Liberty binder and put them in the New Liberty Binder? Say, 4-5 years worth? Will they fit?


And, Geoff - I'll check that link out thank you! I am always intrigued by World Stamps but figure there are just so many 100s of countries and 1000s of stamps for each it would be silly to try to get so many albums to cover them all - I'd never come close to a full collection!

JDCompy,

I seem to recall the new Liberty pages have five holes (3 AND 2) so new pages should fit in the old Liberty 2 ring binders.

Jack Kelley

Yeah, there aren't many people anymore who honestly and actively try to collect the entire world to date as the task is indeed daunting in more ways than one. There are collectors who do so - some of them post here - but most collectors narrow their collectng to certain countries or areas or historical eras, etc. It's pretty easy to have a sideline collection or two of a country here or there to work on as time and budget permits. The bulk of most countries' stamps can be had for a relative pittance and album pages can be printed as needed for next to nothing. It can be a pretty rewarding experience and doesn't necessarily require a large financial commitment. I'm not trying to talk you into it, just saying that there are a lot of different ways that one can collect.

If you're a US only collector, they you'd only pay for Steiner one time. That one time, you download all the US Pages. Since Bill posts the last 5-6 years of US Supplements for free, you should be able to keep "up to date" with US for free from then on.