Hole-Punch Or Page Protectors?

I use page protectors. When three hole punched, the page takes wear on the edges of those three holes every time you turn the page. YMMV

I use both methods. For me, one size does not fit all.

If it's strictly stamps for a country or general collection, I hole-punch. I use both homemade and Steiner pages. These are sometimes intergraded into pre-printed albums.

If it's something that will include more than stamps (covers, cards, collateral material, etc.), I use page protectors. Of course, anything that is for an exhibit, or potential exhibit, is housed in page protectors.

I do, like Rugface. Punch two or four holes (I'm in W. Europe) on the Steiner, Machin or other pages that I use for my used stamps collections. But I use page protectors for my exhibit collections: Barcelona postmarks and Estonia postal history.

Time was, you could go to places like Office Depot and buy protectors that were punched through the material. Now it is nothing but tabbed. Thing is, it's difficult to find 3 ring binders wide enough to accommodate pages in tabbed protectors without them sticking out. I can buy punched ones at Subway but that is about the only source I know of.

That's not true, all my 3 rings binders have enough space for the plastic protectors, here one from Staples




You can also put them in Scott 2 post binders, you just have to make 2 holes, I did it everyday, look at the photo ( up with the Staples binders ) you can see the plastic protector are the same wide as the Scott pages, you can see few betwen the Scott pages


first you put your pages in 3 rings binders




when you have enough you make the 2 holes and you place them in Scott Binders




If you don't want make holes in hundreds of plastic protectors, you can get Unitrade Binders and make 2 hole in the plastic angles to fit the protectors




Vario will also fit in plastic protectors

And the Vario G binders work fine with page protectors...

Plastic Protectors have advantages
- You can print your pages
- You can cut and put Printed Albums pages
- You can insert a Vario
- It's make more easy to handle a pages like example when you want to scan
- Can be use in 3 rings binders and with slight modification, in 2 posts albums
- They can be inserted in a Scott Int. Album between regular pages to serve as separators and add personals pages
- and more....

But they don't look as good as paper albums. They are at best with masive stamps producers like Hungary, Romania, Russia and others...

What I was thinking when posting above was that many of the binders for printed 3 ring albums are not wide enough for the tabbed protectors. I am thinking of Mystic, White Ace and others. You are left with the holes showing and the page sticking out past the cover. You can of course just use a different binder that is wide enough. In my case I have a full set of the Mystic pages, all in protectors. It is getting more of a hassle lately to find the punched ones I can use with the binders I already have.

Plastic Protectors have disadvantages

They are generally not of archival quality.
They off-gas vapors that can make pen cancellations run and bleed.
They off-gas vapors that can degrade the paper.

They can trap water vapor next to the pages and give mold and mildew a great environment to grow

Alub I agree with your points. But as you alluded some are archival quality.

I personally don't use them for my stamp pages for the other reasons you mention. I'm not convinced that archival items are, from some sources but I do use archival page protectors for some other items. Most older ones are not safe.

The look also suffers in my opinion but if your album is frequently flipped through by others it may be worth the added protection. For custom pages it has an advantage of a little more space on the page if you don't have to reserve a gutter for holes.

Jeff

Sheet protectors may be a dangerous combination with some paper. By enclosing the page and stamps, you get much less air circulation. This may mean a greater chance of an acidic environment; causing the stamps and paper to tone faster. So while I do not doubt that some sheet protectors themselves are 'archival safe' they do not address what is probably the bigger risk; they restrict air circulation and by doing so they may contribute to paper degradation.

Has anyone ever seen sheet protectors being used by any preservation library like the Library Of Congress? Sheet protectors would seem to represent a good solution for them since they protect the pages from handling but I have never seen them used in any archival library.

I have flapped my lips many times in this forum about 'acid free' paper but perhaps this is an inconvenient truth. There is no industry standard for 'acid free'; paper manufacturers use the term 'acid free' simply because they do not add any acids during the production process and/or add some Calcium Carbonate for buffering. How much they add, how 'acid free' the paper really is can be anyone's guess. Throw a bit in there, and you can sell it as 'acid free' paper. If people are going to the local office supply store and buying the cheapest 'acid free' paper they can find they are kidding themselves.

Paper, like water, has the ability to hold buffer in reserve. As time and environmental conditions evolve, the buffer that is held in reserve can be drawn upon to neutralize the paper. It might be able to neutralize the paper for 10 years, it might be able to neutralize the paper for 1 year. And the ability to neutralize is impacted by the environmental conditions. If there are poor environmental conditions (like restricted air flow) the need to consume the remaining neutralizing buffer reserves is much greater.

Good quality archival paper is defined as for paper buffered with at least 2-3% calcium carbonate, has a cotton content of 25% or greater, and contains high alpha cellulose pulp from purified wood fiber (contains no Lignin). If you have not paid for premium archival paper and instead relied upon the marketing fluff term like 'acid free', then your pages have the ability to generate acid. Go price out true archival paper, printing out a large album with it would break most people's wallet.

Cheap 'acid free' paper in combination with protector sheets may end up being a dangerous experiment. Does it matter for a collection with common material? Probably not. But if anyone has rare or uncommon material I hope that they aren't experimenting with it.
Don

I've seen a mold grow on the "acid free" paper in Avery page protectors, two photos (from 1911, part of construction company progress report, so unsure of their archival qualities as well) mounted in Avery photo corners, have grown a haze on the plastic.
Is there any way to vent the page protectors? Punch a couple holes on sides and bottom, should move air possibly thru the protector each time the page is moved. I'm trying that now, no results as yet. Don't really notice the holes.

Of course I will be very concern to use protectors in high humidity room, which is not the case in my place especially in winter. The plastifer or plasticizer use to make the plastic more soft should be a concern too. PH I don't think it's a problem if the humidity is kept low, at least not for what left of my life . I will worry more when using old Scott album of the years 60 like many purchase on ebay, those album pages have buildup acidity since 40 to 50 years not counting the mold, sometime only microscopic. Now that bring the question; are Vario safe to use ? What about mounts, humidity will accumulate on any plastic container. On a positive note plastic protectors protect against environmental pollution that mix with humidity form acids, that is responsible to turn paper brown and brittle, this is why book paper edges turn brown Nitrogen oxide contain in air are oxidizer. The paper turn yellow because of the oxidation activated by the light, less exposure to air will reduce this oxidation.

I hole punch...............but, then, again, I use 110 lb card stock paper when printing out pages.

Yes, area66 makes a good point. If the main issue is lack of air circulation, won't you have the same problems with mounts and Vario pages?