Canada Stamp Album Decisions

Trying to decide between Scott Master Canada, various Unitrade offerings (Parliament, Northstar and etc.) and White Ace Albums as I begin a Canada collection. Not intending to become a specialist, but would like to have a good album to start out. All ideas and opinions welcome including some comments about how White Ace organizes their supplements- I can't quite figure it out. Thanks!

This topic might get more responces in the Canada forum. You might ask one of the moderators to move it. This is reference book, Supply, and Software.

Lighthouse, best quality of pages and binders are ok. Davo binders are better but the layout of stamps contain mistake Unitrade binders are very cheap. Scott will be better than Unitrade but not even close to Ligghthouse

Steiner in Vario binder(s) -- YMMV.

Or not!

Haven't used them myself, but Gibbons makes a "one country" album for Canada in four-ring binders with SG numbers. Four volumes covering 1851-2015 are available here for around £170.

I started with a Harris 2 post album. It goes up to 2004, but I'm stopping it at 2000. I've created a "volume 2" using pages from here:

http://www.hamiltonstampclub.com/downloads.html

The only problem is that the pages only go to 2011. I need pages from 2012 to the current year.

The Unitrade offerings such as the Parliament album do not provide for blocks, strips, etc on the se-tenant issues, they require you to break them into singles. Fine for used collectors, no so much for mint. I think White Ace ad a few others provide for both. I haven't seen Lighthouse pages for Canada for awhile but I think they just provide for the blocks, etc, no singles.

Eons ago I found that many, if not most, preprinted albums always had some item, stamp or variety missing that I wanted to save. So I decided to make my own pages. Naturally, I went through numerous iterations before I decided on a format. But today, there are so many options available, it is not so daunting and you might find this the best option for you. All you need is the time, the patience and the perseverance. Try several options for creating your own, select one that best meets your needs and then "damn the torpedoes".... Best of all, you can amend and modify as you wish.

Lighthouse is targeting mint collectors

I think most album makers seem to cater to mint collections judging by the se-tenant spaces in albums in the modern era.

My vote is for Lighthouse. After buying collections and breaking them down, I find the Lighthouse albums are more "complete" and have more of the correct spaces for older stamps. Example: Large Queens have spaces for the standard set as well as the watermarked set and a few other varieties/shades/papers. As for the newer stamps, Lighthouse has holders for se-tenant strips, blocks, etc as they are issued.

Lighthouse hingeless albums are expensive but if you can find a collection at auction that is already in a Lighthouse album, you may get the albums and starter set for less than the cost of the albums. Many times good collections are stripped down for sale and the remaining stamps sold as a "collection" housed in the selling collector's albums. Should be careful though as some collections come in albums that are many decades old. Much older ones are not that nice.

I found Lindner and Davo are also high quality.