Do You Use Vario Pages - And How Do You Organize Your Stamps On Them?

For those that would like the advantages of Vario pages (listed above on the various posts), along with a traditional album page, I refer you to my blog post, guest written by Ron Olin.

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.co...-period.html

Nice pages, Blaamand! If I spent that much time designing the pages for each country I collect (i.e. ALL of them), I probably wouldn't have time for anything else. Come to think of it, there could be a market for such things. If one could buy (or print) these little life-sized placeholders along with a suggested page layout, I'd probably be interested. I simply don't have the patience for it myself. I'd rather be working with the actual stamps.

I'm pretty new to Vario pages myself, but I basically try to organize the stamps in rough Scott order, mostly filling the pages but leaving a few spaces for the odd stamp here or there I might acquire. I'm not about to keep just one or two stamps on a page when it could potentially be years (or never) before I fill in those blank spaces. If I buy a large number of stamps that need to be inserted, I'll basically start "splitting" the pages, keeping them in catalog order as I go along. I'll leave empty spaces for specific stamps if I think it's likely I'll get them relatively soon or if the rest of the set is nearly complete. I usually label sets with Scott#s but not individual stamps. I keep definitives separate from commemoratives and other stamps (regardless of catalog order), and I always display the definitives first in my album.

@Jim - Thank you for your contribution. I have seen your blogpost on this subject before - and it fits perfectly on this thread as well
What Ron is doing seems to me to be a genius solution - it's simple - requires little effort - and combines the 'best of both worlds'. Excellent.

For those of us that do not have any pre-printed albums to sacrifice - I guess we could alternatively use the Steiner pages for more or less the same purpose. Ok, the Steiner doesn't have the images or that same classic look, but it will still serve the same purpose as a key for the set-up of the facing Vario page.

Another alternative usage of the concept is to use the Steiner page as your key, however without actually printing out the Steiner page and include it in the album. One could simply use the Steiner page on your computer screen as the key, and only add tags for series-names, Year of issue etc on the Vario page if one would not like the albums totally without info. That would reduce the required number of albums and page protectors significantly.

Downside is obviously that the full capacity of the Vario pages are not utilized very well - so the total number of albums and pages needed would be enormous, at least for lunatics (like me) collecting WW. So I guess it's a more realistic approach for more narrow collections - or e.g. only for the pre-1940 period etc. Upside is that one would not need to follow the 'key' strictly, as the Vario page would allow space for more varieties etc than was included by the albumpage editor.

Absolutely a concept to consider. It would save a lot of time compared to creating a custom made set-up from scratch, and one would avoid or reduce the effort of making series-tags and ID tags - or effort invested in other set-up solutions, like e.g. DJCMHOH's key.

@TheArtfulhinger - thank you for chiming in
Your approach is probably much more sensible than mine...as you would have much less empty spaces and thus need less albums. And your setup would also need much less effort to put in place. I can easily see your reasoning.

Interesting that you are dividing definitives and pictorials - I have never seen that before - care to share some images?

As I stated in my OP, my set-up method is still in an 'experimental phase'. I have enjoyed it so far, but as theArtfulhinger is indicating, I must admit it takes some time to establish the initial set up and tags etc, a. The good thing is obviously that once the set-up is done, I would think that set-up would last a lifetime, with only maybe a few minor adjustments. I still need to test it out a little more before I can make any conclusion.

For sure I have no plans to make ID tags or an Inventory database for all countries - I will only do that for those areas and time eras that I find interesting. So, example given for most Latin America countries I would not make ID tags at all, besides maybe Brazil, Mexico and Argentina until 1940.

Thank you for suggesting to sell the set-up and tags, but I cannot imagine myself pulling anything commercial off in a positive way. I simply do not have any ambitions for any marketing etc. The best I could potentially get out of my effort would be 'swopping' with anyone interested - I could send the tags and album set-up etc electronically - and the receiver could choose to appreciate the work by returning a few stamps etc.

While I have no plans to do anything commercial with my keys, anyone can download them from my blog. So far all I have up is Algeria up to 1991 and this likely will be a multi-year project but eventually I hope to have a complete worldwide set available.

Blaamand one concern I have with your setup is that your ID tags have a lot of black printer ink. My fear is that over time there may be a risk that the ink could migrate and stain some of your stamps. Are you placing the stamps in mounts before placing them in front of the ID tags you make? To me, if you are using mounts it kind of defeats the best thing about Varios...no need for mounts. This is why I went with printing my page keys separate and placing them in archival quality sheet protectors. Just my opinion/observation.

Thank you for your concern DJCMHOH.
Despite the excellent protection of the Vario, I still put any of my valuables in mounts. Then they are also safe I should want to handle them for looking at the reverse, double checking wmks or perfs etc. So at least the valuables should be very safe. For the others...well, I have not yet after 20 years observed any problems with stamps that has been stored on top of tags with ink on them, so I think I should be pretty safe to. Still absolutely a valid point to consider...

Have anyone experienced this happening - ink from printers migrating onto stamps?

DJCMHOH- this was my concern when I was writing earlier in the thread about the paper and ink being in contact with the backs of the stamps. Adding mounts isn't an option for me- I hate them and to your point, using them defeats the purpose of using Vario pages. I don't mind having stamps lay over copy paper, but have reservations about all that toner (I use a laser printer at home). The white paper won't look tidy over the black pages though.

Will have to give this some thought. The ideal solution would be black archival film or even black, acid-free copy paper that has a white, printable area at the top. No idea how to get there yet but it's all very intriguing. Walmart sells inexpensive 32 lb black copy paper, something I didn't even know existed before Blaamand brought out this topic today. Perhaps there is a simple and philatelically safe way to adhere a strip of something white that can be overlayed on the black paper.

Perhaps its a climate concern, Norway being cooler and not having the issues so much with warm humidity in the air that warmer climates (such as here in Ohio, where we just had our first >25C/80F day yesterday) produce. Thankfully I have a dehumidifier in my den to keep the air "dry" and Central AC to keep the temperature inside from being too warm.

Still for me, putting stamps not in mounts on top that much printer ink as you use in your tags would give me pause for concern, hence my printing the key pages and keeping them in separate pages separated with the sheet protectors. Then again, for me space to house my collection is not an issue so I have the relative freedom to use a more "expansive" solution.

@Blaamand Is it safe to place a MNH stamp infront on these tags?

I believe a mounting is necessary before putting these tags behind it.

Thank you all for your viewpoinst
I suppose if I had a laser printer I would try to find a white toner (CMYW toner) to fit, eg https://www.ghost-white-toner.com/s...dle/?lang=en - I could then print with white toner on black paper.

But I don't have one and I think my wife would almost kill me if I pulled a monster like that into our home

Hi trabz, nice to meet you
Answer to you question - honostly I do not know. As a response to the concerns raised, I just examined some of my MNH stamps that have been exposed for printers ink for at least 15 years in my album. I could not see anything unusual at all. The stamps I inspected had been exposed for ink in 'frames' around a white center, so these black stripes should have made some kind of striped migration onto the stamps also - I saw nothing. However I have absolutely no guarantee, and as indicated it might also depend on your climate. My den is always dry with temperatures never exceeding 21-22 deg C.

Epson is the only manufacturer that I know of who sells a archival ink; using it will break the bank.

The biggest archival factor(s) at work here are the potential 'combinations'. The ink/paper relationship is important; how does the ink react with the paper over long periods of time? There are many documented cases of laser toner migrating to contacting paper if it has been exposed to high heat. So obviously the environmental variables are important. Additionally, toner is also known to do funny things when exposed to certain PVC and other plasticizers.

Obviously no one wants to be the first one to discovery that they have ruined some stamps. Even worse, no one wants to tell others something that damages their stamps. We should be cautious when making recommendations; folks can experiment with their own stamps but probably shouldn't be suggesting archival solutions without extensive testing.
Don

Don, thank you for your valid inputs.


I cannot say what others would do or not - but personally I would absolutely say so if I had experienced an problems whatsoeever - isn't that what this forum is about, learning from each other, both from good and negative experiences? From my wiewpoint, I cannot understand why people would deliberately withhold any negative experiences? And I am truly hoping that anybody would chime in if they had experienced any problems related to this subject, that would be most beneficial for anyone considering ideas related to mine.


Sure, I have not recommended anyone using black ink or not on their tags - or using tags in the first place - I have just presented what I am doing, that I think tags with tab above the stamps is working good for me - and that I think it looks better than white tags - and that I have not had problems with ink transfer. I am presenting my ideas, but not intending to give recommendations for what others should do or not - that would be for anyone to figure out by themselves. To avoid anyone doing something they would regret later, I even added the comment 'I have absolutely no guarantee'. I trust people on this forum is grown up to make their own conclusion.

More thoughs concerning ink migration:
I have been thinking - stamps have been hinged on pre-printed album pages with ink for many many decades - even more than 100 years I suppose. Millions of stamps have already been hinged on spaces where there are printed stamp images below - in ink. The ink for the various pre-printed albums have been off various chemistry / quality. I have not seen any discussions/concerns about ink migration from such pre-printed album pages, but I might easily have missed such discussions as I am not using these pre-printed pages anyway. I would think any experience for those millions of stamps would be very relevant also for the discussion above - I would not think it would be much different

I have come across mint stamps 'stuck down' on pre-printed album pages - and I have seen traces of ink on the gum on some of those - but that process was initiated by the pages stored in unfavorable humid conditions - which is another issue altogether.

Have anybody seen ink transfer/migration from preprinted album pages when the pages have been stored in good conditions?
That would serve as an excellent reference, as this 'extensive testing' has been ongoing for decades, by all sorts of different ink - and on all sorts of different stamp-paper quality, gum types etc.

Anyone

This is all about the time scale.
It is highly unlikely that anyone here has collected stamps for longer than 50-60 years. Due to this, trying to discuss older albums and their print fastness requires a LOT of assumptions about the environmental conditions. And while we, as active collectors, might be careful about our current environmental conditions none of us can say for certain that our family or the next owners will also keep our albums in the proper environment. In fact it might be best if we work on the 'worse case' scenario; assume that at some point our albums will indeed see poor environmental conditions.

But if we are discussing only what might happen in the next few years and under the assumption that we will maintain good environmental conditions; than none of this probably matters. If we discussing a longer time scale, then it is a different discussion.

Keep in mind that years ago no had second thoughts about Crystal Mounts and we all know how that turned out. Heck just a few years ago no one thought that split back modern mounts would be a problem but we now know they can damage the gum on mint stamps.

We can say for certain that chemical changes start as soon as the ink hits the paper. For example consider the world's rarest stamp, British Guiana 1c Magenta. Just over the last 30 years or so the printing has just about all but disappeared; and obviously this stamp was not stored in bad environmental conditions.

So my opinion is that if we are to err, then err on the side of being good stewards of the material we currently own.
Don