Quick Question For Steiner Page Binders

For those of you using sheet protectors - what type are you using?
Top-loaded, side-loaded - or open both on top and side?

For reasons given above, I need my stamps easily available... so I was hoping protectors open both top and side will work. However then there's a possibility the pages might shift in the protectors when turning the pages. Has anybody any experience in using protectors open on both top and side? Or the ones with the side only half-way open?

Only ever used top-loading ones myself.

Thanks Chris - do you find the top-loaded awkward for stamps you need to access often?

Yes.

That's why I have been thinking about moving away from protectors, in addition to the "plastic feel" that I described earlier. I'm still trying to make up my mind.

Understand how you feel, trying hard myself

Has anybody tried sheet protectors open at both the top and one side?

For more expensive stamps, I use Lighthouse blank ivory A4 pages 170gm/sqm (BL 02/4) placed back to back in Lighthouse polyester page protectors (BSH 4). Stamps are mounted in clear mounts.

The page protectors are exceptionally clear, while not being too reflective. I don't find it too difficult to slide the pages in and out, one just has to be careful not to snag the bottom of the mounts going in.

The major disadvantage is the price, especially of the blank pages, and being in Canada, where US letter size is used, I can't just pop in to my local Staples to pick up some cheaper A4 sized paper to use for my less expensive stamps.

Clive

It will be good idea if we can see pictures of your albums in order to have a detailed idea about it.

I just bought someone's old UN collection housed in six UN blue 3-ring binders. He had all of the pages in clear plastic sheet protectors all of which had a slightly greasy feel. I have no idea how old they were, but from his collecting notes and the years of the stamps, I'd say he had a few decades worth of sheet protectors. I could not get the pages of stamps out of them fast enough. If plastic gets oily or greasy, it's not surviving very well. I cannot verify that these sheet protectors were disintegrating,and maybe they weren't and so I'm over-reacting. The stamps seem fine. So far. But I am always as careful as I can be about protecting my stamps, airing out albums, keeping albums in dust covers, using dehumidifiers in my stamp album storage room, making sure the roof doesn't leak!

Plastic sheet protectors sold in office supply stores just make me nervous. Who do I complain to if they do ruin my stamps? Stamp mounts have been proven over many decades, and their type of plastic has been certified as archival many times. Do museums and other institutions that store valuable documents put them in plastic sheet protectors ever? I'd be interested to know.

I hope those that put all their stamps in plastic sheet protectors will check back here in a decade or two and let us know how their stamps are doing. I'd really like to know. As for me, no sheet protectors, only archival Vario pages for storage and normal stamp albums for mounting stamps with hinges and mounts where the value of the stamp is high. My thoughts, anyway, and I have no proof that plastic sheet protectors will ruin anything. I just don't want to risk it.

I use top loading protectors for some items (souvenir pages, some sheets). The roominess can vary meaning some seem to allow a thicker sheet so these are much easier to insert/remove pages. I do not see a big problem with insertion/removal with my Wilson Jones/Office Depot ones. I choose the heavy weight ones (3mils),

I actually find putting stamps in a 5 pocket vario to have a risk to be damaged during he insertion process. Then there is the split back mount insertion.

I have seen some older ones that were wrinkled, etc. but the contents did look damaged. It is not one of my primary worries.

Like many decisions, you have to choose your own level of risk since if you go to an extreme you would not even collect stamps. They are too fragile and not printed on acid free paper!

@clivel and angore
Thank you for your experience with use of page protectors, much appreciated. I will try first with protectors open on top and on the side to see how it works. I hope the pages do not shift in the protectors.

@DrewM - yes, time-proven testing is the safer option. So, in order to eliminate any archival-safe issues with plastic and/or printing paper, I intend to use mounts only.

I'd use stamp mounts and skip the sheet protectors which seem redundant to me -- plastic inside plastic. Or hinge stamps to the page and put those pages in the sheet protectors. But, really, I just do not like sheet protectors for stamp collections. I like my stamps to breathe fresh air, I guess. The one exception I make is for covers. Mine all go into clear pockets on Vario pages. But that's my limit on plastic. We've gone crazy for plastic, it seems.

I was in the camp of not liking page protectors but they do grow on you.

As seen in this thread and others, a common misconception is that there must be direct contact between the stamp and the material. This is wrong. The atmosphere is as important as any direct contact. The obvious example is the oxidation/sulphurization seen with the orange inks in early US stamps. You can quickly restore the orange color using nothing more than the fumes from hydrogen peroxide; no direct contact needed. We need to control the atmospheric conditions that surrounds our stamps and not myopically consider only direct contact. There are reasons that you do not see sheet protectors in archival libraries, why do we think we know better than professional archivists? Is it because of the marketing fluff printed on a manufacturer's packaging?

Stirring the pot even more…
And even if I can store my stamps in sheet protectors for a few years at my house with no signs of harm, should I then tell everyone else that they can do the same? This assumes that everyone else has the same exact environmental conditions as I do. It could be that I maintain very good environmental conditions including a constant RH of 50%. What happens when a collector who lives in the topics without air conditioning stuffs a page into a sheet protector at 90% RH. The sheet protector is chamber that holds that high level of moisture with the page. How can I recommend that sheet protectors can be used without warning others that their results may vary?

I respect folks who experiment, it is important that we push the knowledge boundaries. I implore anyone who is experimenting with sheet protectors to keep a close eye on the environmental conditions and the page/stamps.
Don

Or if you have lived your whole life, and built you collection using page protectors, in upstate New York, then retired to south Florida...

Changing environmental conditions under sheet protectors is a double edge sword. Stability is what we want, frequent or rapid changes accelerate damage. So on the one hand, a sheet protector might help if there was only a single change or two since it is restricting the airflow around the stamps.

But on the other hand, sheet protectors can also trap poor conditions like a high RH, bad outgassing, or acidic atmosphere coming from low quality pages. Point is...everyone has many, many different variables in this equation and this is exactly why sheet protectors should be view as an experiment.
Don