Harris Statesman Albums

Congrats on reachign 140k!
I haven't counted the total amount of stamps I've got. I've been collecting on and off since I was 5 (I'm 44 now). I quit for quite a few years when I was about 16 and the hiatus lasted until I was 23 and out of the military and in college. I then decided that I needed a better pastime than college bars and got back into collecting. (If only I'd collected when I was in the military!) Anyhow, I took the last 3 years off due to moving, a divorce, and other things and have come back. Currently, I'm backlogged with envelopes from0 ebay stuff I've bought, kiloware to soak etc that I have to catch up on!
I make my own albums using the basic outline from the steiner free online album and the blank printable quad page. I've got 12 European style 2 ring style binders full of stamps, and Minkus country albums for the Netherlands, DDR, West Germany, and Turkey, Unfortunately, the West Germany and Turkey albums are with inlaws in Turkey and I have yet to recover them.

Thanks oldguy. I also found websites at ihobb.com, collections.com, nolastampshop.com, and ebay. ebay has good illustrations of the insides of the albums for sale. The album pictures provide structure while the detachable binder allows extra pages to be added.

Interesting discussion ,I see a lot of what I done in the past and a lot of what I am doing now on this chat page .
I use Internationals and Steiner pages ,I like LANDOQUAKES use a adjustable hole puncher. This lets me add Steiner pages to my main collection .I work with a smaller set of Internationals that have been repunched to fit the three ring binders ,total 14 binders .This set is my working set.
Agree with DJCMHOH , when he said "eventually every collector finds the system that works best for that individual collector "

Hi

I only use quadrille blank pages and mounts for everything. I had an album when I started but quickly went the blank pages route.

If I collected World Wide I would probably use Steiner pages,and blank quadrille pages.

Jerry B

Thanks oldguy for the link. It looks like the older green Senior Statesman single volume has been replaced by the newer blue Statesman Deluxe 2 volume set. The newer set has more illustrations, fewer blank pages, and does not list stamp year ranges like the older one.

Landoquakes & Ajnabii : thanks for compliments. Luckily the empty spaces by far still outnumber what one have, no need to get bored for the next 100 years

area66 - that's a good summary on storage solutions
Ultimately DJCMHOH - as floortrader points out - hits the nail with his statement.

soccerfan - when you have settled on your approach it would be interesting to hear where you go...enjoy

By way of a reply, I'll fill in more details about my experience as a youth with the Statesman.

In the mid-70's I had a Statesman (one volume) that went, I think to 1970 (or maybe 1965). I expanded it out to 1975 and this added about 50% more pages, so I used an old Harris Canada binder, which together equate to about 1 1/2 volumes.

I seriously doubt that a current 2 volume Statesman has anything like the coverage that my early expanded Statesman did, particularly given the increase in stamp output since 1975. I be curious to know if they removed some content upto 1975 in order to add spaces for more modern stamps.

When I started collecting again as an adult, I thought about using the Statesman with supplements (or purchasing the newer set) - I thought about it for about a day and wasn't going to make that mistake again. Why?

The biggest discouragement I had collecting as a kid was finding that even my expanded Statesman was not sufficient to house at least 25% of the stamps I acquired (maybe more). I got tired of hinging the stamps that didn't fit into the few blanks spaces that appeared at the end of each country.

I know better now of course and having a catalog would have helped immensely, so maybe the situation would be different using this album as an adult. But if I had to use some pre-printed album for worldwide, I think I'd go for Scott Internationals via ebay auctions.

I did receive my new 2 volume Harris Statesman albums from an ebay seller. The pages came unsealed and already inserted the albums. I was missing some supplement pages, so the buyer agreed to send them to me. I had to retrieve and pay extra postage for the pages at the Post Office because the buyer only stuck two regular postage stamps on a first class envelope! ebay got involved and the buyer finally reimbursed me for the extra postage. Online auctions are usually riskier than in-person stamp sales.