No More Commercial Albums For Me ...

area66 - I understand your reservation against flipping through vario pages, that is the largest drawback for varios as I see it. However - if a easy-flip-through-system is high on your wishlist - then I do not understand your desire for very large album pages in landscape orientation? Probably not any more convenient flipping through those pages than varios

Ok here 2 pages of Hungary, the border is to be determinate, I just put a grey line for now

Steiner spread the second page on 7 pages, removing the watermark and perforations make all the difference

Ok here what will contain my pages compare to other







Keep in mind, it's the part inside the red rectangle in the stamp under I care about, so if outside it's different from 1 stamp to the other I DON'T CARE , the back ; well we don,t see it so ....... Original gum have more value, I DON'T CARE. Some peoples work hard to design a stamp, that's what I care, mistake made by printers have 0 value for me.

After many test, I have to take a new direction;
I was supposed to print on 9 x 12 pages to insert in Unitrade binders, well, in less than 3 months, one cover completely separate and the other is half way, the joint between the back and the cover, is made of cheap plastic and tears in no time. AVOID.
Scott binders I not better, I will have to replace them every 3 to 6 months. No joke this is the time they survive in my hands.
So I have no choice than like the pages in plastic protectors in regular 3 rings binders. That's not necessary a bad news at it's very cheap. Without the cost of toner it cost me 5 cents per pages including the protector.
I can't deal with my Scott International anymore. Too much set broken, missing place for nice stamps.
So I will mod the Steiner's pages to center them, remove the different watermarks, perforations and grills. I will also fallow Stanley Gibson, Tellier, Minkus and Michel way to place the semi and air with the regular, in fact only Scott don't do so. I already done Hungary ad Czechoslovakia since last week ( up to 1940 )
So mostly all the Pages will be back to back, but sometime I will insert a quadrille pages on the left to place diffident complementary stamps.

Southpaw,

How much did those binders cost?

Al

So this is the main problem with 'do it yourself' albums. You can spend months/years changing paper type, binders, fonts, paper size, etc, etc. It is not just you, area66, I have gone through the same things. But, I also have the same issues with Scott Int too and need to find a way to move away from it, at least in part.

No album system is going to be perfect. Is the way you feel about how the Palo pages turn in their binder worse than how you feel about using page protectors? Is the way you feel about Scott binders worse than how you feel about using ring binders? At some point, we will need to make some compromises and get on with collecting.

Another potential option would be to use Scott Int for a "general WW collection" and pick several to a dozen favorite countries to focus on using either Palo or Speciality albums.

Interestingly, I just saw that the International Society of Guatemala Collectors Society offers its members an electronic album as PDF or Microsoft Publisher file. They tell their members to buy a large-format inkjet printer and to print on blank Scott Speciality pages and put in a Speciality binder.

Before Xmass I purchase a set of Palo pages for Mozambique Co and Philippines Spanish area without mounts and a binders, I choose without mounts because I know at 50% I will not like the binders. Cost me over $ 200 Canadian with the shipping . Well I cut the pages 8½x11 and they are in plastic protectors now, so is that answer the question ? So $ 200 in the trash. I do have CZ, Russia and Philippines in Minkus , and US and Canada in Lighthouse Album.


At least I recover the mounts .....