Big Blue 1840-1940 Scott Album Opinions

A Steiner page cost me 5 cents including the plastic protector and the paper. Staples sell a box of 200 protectors for $11, they are thin, but do the job perfectly. Now we have to add the ink or toner and drum for laser

For the relative newcomer, getting a good used Scotts International Part 1 is the way to go. A new collector likely doesn't want to spend the time/effort to make their own pages or put out the money for a new current version (4 section) Scotts 1.

Having said this, there is a downfall.......... I started out as I preached, getting good used Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4 and the collection grew and grew. Finally I broke down and bought the new albums, and went through the tremendous job of moving a good 40k stamps from old to new pages.

So to amend my advice, if the relative newcomer has the bucks, but the newer Scott version of the International.

Thank you very much for all your advices and patience.
I assume that if you use plastic sleeves, dont use hinges, and if you use mounts, dont use plastic sleeves.
I was already convinced when I started this topic, but now....
Thank you very much, anyway, I suppose this is a recurrent question you have to suffer from the newcomers...

Can't be more wrong, actually hinges in plastic protector perform very well well

I don't quite see why you would need the plastic page holders. To my mind, they're bulky and a bit cheap looking (no offense to anyone who uses them) and look a bit like you're collecting baseball cards or something. Just the pages alone look good, and if you print only what you need you're just spending small amounts at a time and hardly notice the expense. It is possible, by the way, to print Steiner pages on larger sized paper though you'll need a "wide bed" printer. And it's possible to buy pages printed with the Steiner page layouts (onto Scott Specialty, Scott Int'l, or Minkus sized pages with holes punched) from an approved seller. See Steiner's webpage for this. Also not terribly expensive, but more expensive than printing the pages yourself, of course, which can be done on a regular printer. You're best off if the paper path runs straight though the machine and doesn't curve much as heavier weight paper can get jammed in the latter printer. Doing it yourself requires acid-free paper in some shade of off-white, cream, or buff presumably. You'll also want to get heavier than normal printer paper. I use about a 67 pound paper, but some use up to 100 pound paper. Less and the resulting page will be too flimsy. Unless you plan to put the page into one of those plastic pages. In that case, regular printer paper would most likely be fine. All such paper is sold at most office-supply stores like Staples for fairly low prices.