Album Storage

Question : How do you store your albums. I currently have a closet in a room that I have everything. Now my daughter wants the room as a bed room. So I have to move everything. I am reluctant to just have everything on a shelf were anyone can see them, etc. So I am thinking about some sort of locked cabinet. I don't have anything that needs a safe. (I wish I did!). So if anyone has any tips, thanks.

I have my collection in a regular book case but with doors in front of the albums so they are out of sight.

Just on high shelving, out of reach of kids. I lay cardboard on the tops of the albums while they are on the shelf, since many don't have slip cases - it's my belief that will stop them accumulating dust over time.

Hi, and welcome to the Forum. Lots of info here, lots of helpful folks!

I currently have 3 Scotts National and 8 Scotts International albums - which are all pretty big and heavy. My kids are longgggg gone, and I have a hobby/office in which the albums are in a closed cabinet and an accessible bookcase.

I'm kind of torn about having them in open view. Yes, they are nice to look at and easily accessible. But on the other hand an intruder would spot them in a second and may choose to run off with some. And then there is the possibility of fire, hurricanes, etc., etc.

In the end, for your situation I would mainly be concerned about them being "child proofed".

I'm toying with the idea of labeling my album slip cases "HOLY BIBLE" in the certainty that they will be the last item any intruder would wish to take.

I just started another thread on a similar topic: https://goscf.com/t/44w025#44025 After seeing some of the member's setups I went out and purchased 2 shelves for my home office and organized my collection while upgrading binders (still a work in progress). There is a great thread on world wide collections that will also give you ideas - which contained a photo of Floortrader's collection that inspired me to spend the money and effort to make mine more "presentable." Here is that thread: https://goscf.com/t/40901#40901

Ahh, the old Holy Bible trick! Knowledgeable thieves are on to that one. The first thing a real burglar looks for upon entering a house are rows of gilded-spined Holy Bibles. The Burglary trade publications assure low-lifes that it's not hard to find a fence or pawnbroker who'll give you top dollar pound for gilded-spined Holy Bibles.

Seriously, I think the best insurance is 50-Lighthouse-Vario gilded-spined binders in a row. Thieves these days are looking for portable loot, like electronics. Carting off 50 heavy slipcased binders is too much work. I doubt that it would ever occur to your average burglar that a row of these books might house valuable stamps. And any thief who knew that would also know that it's difficult to fence them (unlike gilded Holy Bibles). The knowledgeable ones aren't going to spend precious burglary time trying to find which volumes have the valuable stamps in them and, as noted above, aren't going to haul all of them off.

So I think our big stamp collections are pretty safe from burglars.

Floods, tornados, hurricanes, forest fires . . . . are a different story.

Agreed, they're looking to get in and out of a home quickly, and with something they know they can turn into cash quickly, through people they already know. Thieves (or their fences) know that they'd have to take stamps to a dealer or try to sell them themselves on ebay, both of which would run a very high risk of ultimately being discovered by the authorities. They know they wouldn't be able to turn them into cash (or drugs, etc) via their normal circles.