Transferring Stamps From Old Albums To New

Hello all,
I am new to the forum.
I have "collected" stamps since I was a young boy. My 11 year old daughter is now interested and we have a number of old albums of stamps that I feel we should condense into her new albums. We are using the Mystic American Heritage Collection set. I bought them a few years ago for her, and now we get to use them. We are doing US now, although we have a lot of foreign stamps for another day.

So question number one, are we doing the right thing by moving the stamps to the new, and I think better books? The stamps are attached with hinges in the old books and we are using the plastic holders in the new book. Any recommendation on removing the old hinges, especially on unused stamps? Truthfully a lot of them seem to just kind of fall off with little effort but I would like to do it right.

I'm sure we will have more questions as we move along. Any clubs in the Binghamton NY area? Places to trade stamps?

Thanx.
Dj

Dave, welcome to the forum. To start with your last two questions first ( those are the easy ones! ). To check if there is a stamp club in Binghamton NY please go to the following website: http://stamps.org . It is the website of the largest American stamp club, the American Philatelic Society. You do not have to be a member to access information from them. On their homepage go to the first box ( stamp collecting ) and look for local clubs. Just fill in your ZIP code and / or state name and you will get a list of all the clubs in your area! And if you contact the club they can tell you about places to trade, most likely the club meeting will be one of them!
The removal of old hinges is a bit of a tricky thing. If the previous owner used a quality hinge it will not be any trouble; like you said they will more or less just fall off. If they do not fall off or come off easy, don't try to force it. If part of the paper comes with the hinge the stamp is worthless! The best thing to do with these is either steam or just soaking. If the stamp is mint I would recommend steaming, if used usually soaking is the best way!
And good luck to you and your daughter! Years ago when my little girl was still little she collected stamps until she discovered boys. That took care of it!

Peter

Hi Peter,
Thanx for the encouraging outcome with the daughter. haha. You mean they don't stay little forever.
I took your advice on the website. Closest one is an hour+ away. We'll have to see.
Any guidance on the steaming?
Dj

You're doing the right thing as the new albums will have better quality paper with fresh, bright color and a more professional look. I regularly buy albums at auction and integrate them with my main collection, and have done what you're doing many times. If the old hinges don't fall off or won't peel off with nearly no pulling pressure, options include: for used stamps, soak the whole stamp in plain water; for used or mint, apply a small drop of plain water to the hinge attachment point using a paintbrush; or trim off most of the hinge with sharp scissors and leave a remnant in place, then mount.

People have mixed views about using plastic mounts with cheaper stamps, based on the cost of the mounts. I like the look of an album page with all mounts, so I use them for everything.

I agree, I think they look professional. As an old mentor used to say.

I was very excited last night, I had an old album from my grand father and it looked like it only started in 1904. But as we looked through it, it turned out about 30 pages in we found the 1800's. First stamp was an 1851 Number 10.

Daughter was way excited.
Too bad it was canceled.

Dj

I haven't transferred an album, but I did buy some pages and those stamps were hinged. I ended up steaming the hinges off the ones that wouldn't peal and it worked pretty good. I had to press a couple of them afterward but I don't think it hurt anything.

wp62

Dave, welcome to this great community. I have learned SO much thanks to the shared experience from many many members.
I am right behind you with a stack of recently purchased old albums that I will be moving content from. Most of my recently gathered British Commonwealth collections are used and hinged. Some are unused and hinged. So I'll be doing a bit of soaking and steaming as needed.

You received excellent tips already. Key is don't damage the stamps when removing old hinges. Since you are uncovering some older potentially more valuable stamps it would be a shame to damage any.

Enjoy your hingeless albums. I use hingeless albums for my US collection and have ordered a higeless album for Great Britain. Just be aware that the pages used for some Mystic American Heirloom Hingeless albums have a curling issue that causes the pages to bow. I am uncertain if this affects all Mystic albums. But my own Heirloom shows curling now 8 months after inserting my US Classics.

I have not seen any kind of curling issue to date and we have actually had the albums for a couple of years.

Glad to hear that curling doesn't affect all Mystic albums!
Enjoy sharing time with your daughter!