Mystic's Premium American Heirloom Hingeless Album

I am facing the somewhat daunting task of moving and incorporating 4 somewhat extensive mint and used US collections into a single work. Could some of the membership please comment on the Mystic hingeless albums for this process?
As always - thank you for your valued comments!
Paul

I prefer the unhinged Mystic albums. That allows me to use black backed mounts.

Jack Kelley

I have the hingeless Mystic albums and really like them. This is largely because I dislike having to deal with mounts and my inevitable annoyance with my seeming inability to install them neatly and consistently. That being said, if the hingeless mounts had a black backing, I would definitely be interested.

I never understood why they do not offer black-backed mounts. I don't think it would cost them any more and it could potentially open up a door for them.

Jack Kelley

I don't know Mystic's albums, and perhaps all the info is beneath the box, but I suspect it's probably because, once you've got a black mount in place, you've obliterated any info in the box. Really challanging acquiring an empty album that someone's filled with black mounts, as I know to my cost.

From the images I have seen, the hingeless album has the same format as the regular one except the clear mounts are in place. I bet black is not preferred for appearance reasons since a page full of black mounts without stamps is not very attractive and does cover the image and catalogue number. With a clear mount, you see something before adding the stamp.

Confirming some of the responses above - I heard back from Mystic and the reason they do not offer the black is because it will hide the picture and Scott number. Since I will be using the black mounts for my US consolidation I went with the Premium American Heirloom Album set and will hinge as I go. My wife liked the looks so well she wanted a set for her US as well. Scheduled for delivery on the 22nd. I will post options once they arrive.
Thanks for all your input on this subject.

Congratulations. I use the standard Mystic but I supplement it custom pages.

Andy has created some tweaks to their pages to usually keep setenants together or improve a specific page layout. Mystic often splits blocks up. I create custom ones to always have blocks and include minor varieties.

http://stamphacks.com/wp/?p=582