Gibbons New Ideal Stamp Albums

I am unsure about the inclusion of the word 'New' in the above title, but nonetheless, I am wondering if this set of albums is still being sold. It was a classic reprint of an old album line by Stanley Gibbons for non British stamps of the world up to about 1936 or so. It complemented the New Imperial album which is for Commonwealth to 1936.

I think it was in three bound volumes and was offered by Gibbons as recently as two years ago or so. They currently do not list it in their inventory. Does anyone know if these are still available anyplace?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Ideal-...p/B00HFSVO1Y

Thanks.

No, they've vanished. They turn up now and again in auctions - be careful that you're getting the reprint, rather than the original volumes, various editions of which turn up in most GB auctions. A sort of simpler equivalent of the Imperial, with all foreign stamps, including some watermark varieties, but no officials or dues. Within those limits, more comprehensive than a Big Blue.

I did a post on my blog several years ago with what I could dig up about the history of the New Ideal. If the album were to be reprinted loose leaf on archival paper, I think it would be a viable choice for classic era collectors (although the coverage quits four years short of 1940).

http://globalstamps.blogspot.com/20...verview.html

These two albums stop at the end of the reign of George V (1936). I wonder why Stanley Gibbons didn't update them at least to the reign of Queen Elizabeth in 1952 or even beyond that? That would seem to be the Classic Era for Britain. Or was this just a one-off publication never to be updated (and apparently never to be kept in print)?

If SG still owns the rights, maybe they can be encouraged to reprint the album in loose leaf format -- maybe updated beyond 1936? Or is that not a money maker?

In the U.S., Subway Stamp Shop apparently got (bought, I assume) the right to reprint the Scott International album, 1840-1940, in a slightly different format (one-sided pages, etc), so if Stantly Gibbons is not interested in reprinting the album themselves, maybe there's a company that would be interested in doing this for the SG world album? With modern technology, reprinting something already in print wouldn't seem that hard to do.

Just thinking out loud here.

As fast-bound albums, the Imperial and the Ideal constantly became out-of-date. With the Ideal, Gibbons eventually made the 1840-1914 "permanent". In due course, the same happened with 1915-30. In 1936, it took the decision that, among other things, the huge river of new issues could not really be accommodated in fast-bound albums and made the whole series "permanent". I'm not sure when it started the three-volume, consolidated reprints of the foreign material in the Ideal (pre-1936 editions included Empire, either in the same volume or separate volumes), but early thoughts on producing annual supplements seem to have been abandoned.

Would it work in loose-leaf format? My guess is that most modern collectors would expect the leaves to be re-formatted, which would be a big job.

How do the Scott Vintage Reproductions compare to the SG New Imperial and New Age albums for the same eras?

Subway sells the "Vintage Reproduction" pages which are, basically, the old Scott International pages covering 1840-1940 before Scott shifted those pages over into the Scott Specialty albums for individual countries and began publishing the much more abbreviated International album we have today. Like the original Scott International pages, the VR pages are supposed to be completely comprehensive of all stamps issued during that period. That's a lot of stamps and pages, but it's possible because even though that period covers 100 years, it's before the absolute flood of stamps which grew afterwards. It's my understanding that the SG worldwide album was also an attempt (at least) to house all stamps issued, so I'd imagine it's very similar, and I'm not sure why SG doesn't keep it in print in some format. Maybe the British market doesn't have a lot of worldwide collectors so it wouldn't be a money maker?

For anyone interested, an unused, three-volume New Ideal reprint here

https://www.warwickandwarwick.com/a...logue/251525

I'd expect this to go for rather more than the estimate.