What's Best British Commonwealth Album & Catalog Approach?

Chris, very handsome page improvements

Steve, I agree with your comment about US dealers. The bottom line is that dealers always seek to maximize profit. So I too have avoided buying BC material from US sellers who price by Gibbons. The worst part is that many dealers see the higher cat values for various shades, and automatically convince themselves they have the scarcest and most pricey shade. I've even seen this happen with perf 13 Bermuda keyplates priced as the most expensive perf 14 variety! The flip side to this is when really good, knowledgeable dealers sell by SG values but afford you the opportunity to acquire something scarce at a price that is somewhat less than pricing in the UK. One great dealer that comes to mind is Toga Associates in Connecticut.

This brings up a broader issue that makes me want to vent. I really hate it when sellers list material in places like ebay using Scott numbers, but then quote pricing in US dollars converted from Michel, Yvert, or other foreign catalogs without stating the source of the pricing. There should be a law that if you decide to state a catalog value for stamps, it must be from the same catalog used to identify the stamps. Maybe I'll just self-publish my own world catalog with dubious market prices that suit my "need for greed."

Just sayin'...

So, Climber Steve comes down firmly in the " I can't see any reason for the US collector just coming into collecting British Commonwealth to use Gibbons albums" camp.

However, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that very few album publishers offer a comprehensive page set for the British Commonwealth. When I've checked Lighthouse or other publishers they offer separate specialized albums for the many different nations that comprise the Commonwealth. I'm not sure what other company markets a unified page set that encompasses the Commonwealth from A to Z.

Does any other company, or Amos provide such a solution via their Schaubek albums? I tried to get on the Amos website last night but it was "down for maintenance".

The Amos site has been "down for maintenance" for several days now. Not sure what's going on?

In Canada we use the Unitrade catalog ( it's base on Scott) , in the pass we also have the Darnell. I used Davo before and switch to Lighthouse, but light house is some kind on pain in the a... with their fuzzy idea , like to reserve a place for the 4 stamps of the center of a Xmass sheet stamps and at same time have a strip of them vertical and horizontal of the same stamps, the result you pay $ 200 for duplicated stamps in the album. The Davo is less complete.

I don't especially collect UK ( beside of in my Scott Int. ) , but they have plate # varieties of thefirst stamps . From what I can see, these alone can be the subject of a collection. I do have the "Commonwealth & British Empire Deluxe Limited Edition SG Catalog " it'S $ 200 book ( they have the regular for few $ less ) it cover 1840 to 1970 , The speciality for UK only cost near $ 300 for 3 volumes You can spent more than in album just in catalog if you want to go with SG system.

this is the tagged stamps page, you also have the regular stamps one, same page and another $ 60 for the center bloc

Dan

As far as I can tell, setting aside individual country albums, which is what Lighthouse and Schaubek have, the choices are Gibbons, Palo, Seahorse and Steiner. Scott Browns may also be a possibility, but I'm not au fait with them. The Big Blue would work, but only if you don't want a comprehensive album.

Geoff

Go on, Dan, bid on lot 1 and be the envy of the Forum!

http://www.somersetstampauctions.co...rent-auction

GeoffHa HaHaHa!!

You're a very funny guy!
Estimate £ 38000 for that lovely suggested BC collection -- so that's roughly US$57,000.
No problem. First, I'll sell our house while my wife is still visiting her mom in Florida (have to rush the sale since she's back this Friday! That gives me 2.5 days).

Then I'll make my killer bid -- say $62,000 to close the deal.

And after my divorce I'll come live with you, GeoffHa, and we can enjoy my new splendid BC collection until we get tired of sharing your space :-)

Area66,
As I review the British Commonwealth album choices it is obvious that some like Lighthouse simply leave out tons of issues. Just look at the much lower number of pages available from Lindner, Lighthouse,SAFE. Also, I've decided that DAVO isn't for me. The cover looks handsome. But the album pages are sterile looking and don't lay flat.

If I wanted to break the bank, in my estimation Palo has the most well-designed albums from cover to cover. But the BC set would cost $2800+! OUCH!

I'm waiting for arrival of my Stanley Gibbons product catalog -- since the SG website provides little to no info about what their albums hold. Like most publishers of stamp pages and albums, the SG website is crap! Palo is by far the best website providing large page images, detailed page counts, dimensions and full disclosure on which years and countries and stamp types are accommodated. Plus for BC, Palo follows the Gibbons catalogue in their album page layouts; and come in either color or B/W pages. But $2800 for albums? With no stamps? OUCH!

Gibbons offers numerous albums at various price points. Too bad their marketing people can't write detailed informative product descriptions on what the hell customers are buying!

chris2015,
Amos went dark a couple weeks ago! None of their websites are functioning. In another Community string another member received word from Amos customer service that they are uploading a new website and it will take a couple weeks!

Can you imagine a major company being so poorly managed on the technical marketing side?

And when I used a link to visit I get a browser warning that the webpage security is faulty. What a mess! I wanted to get some info on the available Scott Specialty albums for British Commonwealth. I feel bad for the collectors who subscribed to Amos e-catalogs; they are affected as well as their online marketplace.

GeoffHa: thanks for sharing the link with Somerset. That is ONE impressive collection description.

Palo albums are indeed nice! The benefit with them also is that you can buy any series of pages you want, thus you don't need to purchase an entire BC album at one time.

chris2015, your point is a great one!

Unfortunately, I'm not too bright.
I have already begun purchasing BC lots and albums to form the foundation for my BC collection. So my approach isn't as smart as the collector who decides to focus on Canada; then Great Britain; and later Australia. Instead, I have recently purchased lots being delivered that will include colonies and BC nations from A to Zanzibar.

For this reason, I hope to purchase an album set that can accommodate a broad range. And on a practical note, the BC albums become way too expensive when too many are required by publishers that split them up Even the standard Scott Specialized albums total over $3000 for 13 different titles.

It really adds up! I think it is this cost for printed albums that causes so many collectors to either print their own, rely on blank quadrille pages, or purchase used albums.

In another thread, folks who have been affected by the Amos Media stamp website going dark have been discussing the high costs for albums and catalogs and how this might be causing financial woes for publishers like Amos. The Amos site has been down for about two weeks now and the company says that they are launching an updated site in another two weeks. So right now you can't go to the Amos site to review Scott albums.

dcaraz1949, so what system have you decided to us for your BC?

chris2015, I'm still undecided.

1) I admire the Palo hingeless sets as close to my ideal, but I'm not sure I'm up to paying their premium prices. Even Palo's standard non hinged albums are pricey.

2) I am waiting to receive Stanley Gibbons' product catalog (in snail mail from UK) so I can understand that company's many different albums. Gibbons offers so many different albums they may be my best bet. Some album lines are very reasonably priced online, but it's impossible to know what countries, monarchs are included in them.

3) I've also priced Scott Specialized albums which appear to be very encompassing, but British Commonwealth requires so many different albums that the Scott prices get bloated as well.

4) I think there are only two alternatives that provide a global BC album solution in the mid-price range: Gibbons and Scott International Album 1840 to 1940 which is 1200+ pages but double-sided pages which I don't like.

Stay tuned! I'll report what I learn from Gibbons catalog.