Opinions On Mounting Modern Ww Stamps

I have thousands of MNH post 1975 WW stamps. As a general rule my collection is pre 1975. My question is - are the MNH stamps ever going to have enough value to justify the cost of hinge free mounting. I typically do not mount hinge free unless catalog values are over $100 or pre 1975 MNH. I question the basis of even that policy. I do not collect solely for value. Is it the opinion that the hinge free mounts add that much to the overall esthetics of a collection?
As always your opinions are greatly appreciated!

I suppose one factor is that, whereas the unmounted mint stamps will probably never have much value, they'll be a lot easier to dispose of than mounted ones, given the obsession with unmounted mint. If that's no sort of consideration, why not hinge? My rough approach is to use mounts if I'm interested in the country (eg France), but to put the stamps in a stock-book if it's not somewhere that interests me (eg Germany). What I should probably do is get rid of the latter. Aesthetically, like you, I prefer the look of hinged stamps, but that's a very personal choice for each of us.

I mount every stamp. Every time you slap a hinge on a stamp you simply damage it more and more.
I collect stamps for pleasure not profit.

Not really, no. Most modern unused stamps, whether hinged or never hinged, sell on a percentage of face value basis. There are two exceptions: (1) stamps that are no longer valid for postage (PNG commemoratives, pre-Euro currency issues, etc.) which sell at an even deeper discount, (2) the odd scarce issue, where hinged will trade maybe 20-50% lower than never hinged.

If you like the aesthetics of mounts, and don't mind spending money on them, by all means use mounts. Otherwise, hinge and be happy. Keep in mind that, as the number of collectors continues to dwindle, mounts and hinges will both become harder to find and even more expensive. Stock books, glassines, or cards are other popular solutions.

I'm a WW collector and I use a varied approach to this question. The use of stockbooks or Vario pages makes the use of either a mount or a hinge unncessary, and that's what I've begun using for countries that I didn't already have album pages for. For the 3-dozen or so countries where I have (Steiner) pages, I of course need to use either a hinge or a mount.

Here's kind of my general flowchart for deciding on whether to use a mount or a hinge. Common used stamps: hinges, without so much as a second thought. Common mint stamps (CV of less than a few dollars) - hinges if it's a country I don't so much care about, mounts if it's a country I'm more serious about. Medium value (several dollars CV and up) almost always go in a mount, whether used, MH or MNH. It's simply too easy to cause a thin when removing modern hinges, so saving a few cents on a mount is not worth it, in my opinion. The mount also provides some extra protection against an errant hand or swipe of the tongs. I use clear mounts so I can mix mounts and hinges in the same album or on the same page, if need be, and still have it look presentable.

It's debatable if the use of mounts for the commonest of stamps is a worthwhile "investment", monetarily. I've hinged a lot of cheap NH stamps in my time. However I've been using mounts more and more often not so much to protect my "investment" in the stamps, but to keep the stamp preserved in the best condition for as long as possible. I look at myself as a temporary caretaker of the stamps in my collection - all of them will hopefully end up in someone else's collection someday - so I consider it my duty to preserve the stamps in the state I find them to the best extent I can manage. It's also likely that the fixation on NH stamps will only continue. By the time my collection is disposed of (hopefully in 30-40 or more years, God willing), it may be to the point where common hinged stamps are simply unsellable at any price.

Condition on the more common stamps will remain paramount into the future. Anything less than stellar will become increasingly difficult to sell.

I agree with TheArt and redwoodrandy ! Thanks

I have purchased many hundreds of thousands of new issues thru auction houses in big bulk lots. I have hinged and mounted them on album pages .
They have not loss any value ,because nobody buys them for investment anymore. The biggest use of them today is to fill blank album pages. We live in a different world today ,gone is the MNH buying crowd who would pay a premium for them.

Floortrader's observation, if accurate (and I have no reason to doubt it), cuts through much of the hype about MNH vis-a-vis ultimate value. Everyone to his or her own preferences, of course. My own is for postally-used stamps because that means they have fulfilled the function they were created for, which is why a "worn-in" sport jacket or pair of shoes is preferable to brand-new ones, esthetically and practically.

Well I guess I will stick to the original plan for the pre 1975 which is my primary collection focus. Sometime before I am gone as time allows the post 1975 will with few exceptions be hinged. Great to see the various collecting strategies.

I would like to add, that there are so many large lots of MNH material with many still in the original Post Office official envelopes that has been coming on the market and have been for the past 20 years . There is no reason to keep it MNH ,mount it and have fun doing it ,the resale value is the same .........Let me be so bold as to predict the next auctions at Rasdale ,Regency and Kellener will have so much new issues all MNH in boxes that you will run out of money before they run out of lots which are for sale ------HINGE THE WORLD !

I buy small "lots" and collections to sift through, for stamps that I want to add to my collection. I am constantly replacing stamps with better copies, when I find them. The easiest way to do that for me is to use mounts, instead of hinges, even on the most common used stamps. I usually buy "new old stock" mounts, "seconds" or bulk packages, and I maximize their usage by buying strips, as opposed to the ones already cut to size, then I slice them down the middle. This effectively doubles the number of stamps I can mount. I also don't waste mounts from pages I may need to re-do. I will re-use them as well. I don't like the hinges they make nowadays and if it ever becomes hard to find mounts, or too expensive...........well, I'm hoping the album pages I am making now, will be as complete as possible by the time that happens and I won't have to worry about it.