Dumping Scott Specialized Albums For Steiner Pages

I never though I'd be doing this but I am switching part of my stamp collection from preprinted Scott Specialized pages to Steiner pages. And I've got over 80 different specialized albums.

I've already switched Poland, Netherlands and Colonies, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, and am now doing Ireland. Also I mount everything... no hinges anywhere!

Scott pages are incomplete, errors are rarely corrected, expensive, paper quality changes, paper size is inconvenient for making new pages without special printers... I could go on and on!

Steiner pages just make collecting easier and a lot more fun!

You definitely have more options with Steiner pages.

So are you going to just 3-hole punch and place in a standard office depot binder? Are you ready for several 1000s of pages and ~100 binders?

I really like the layout of Stenier pages, but can't get over the look of the smaller 8-1/2 x 11 inch pages in a "school" 3-ring binder.

Sorry to sound so negative...

@Timm: Congrats on taking the Steiner red pill.

@chris2015: I 3-hole punch and place in Vario G Binders (with slipcases). Currently at 16 binders. I considered getting a wide-format printer, large paper stock, software to modify Steiner pages, etc. but decided that the upside was not worth the effort, especially given the other demands on my free time. Steiner on 8-1/2 x 11 pages works for me time- and budget-wise -- YMWV.

I suppose that, for most of us outside the US, Steiner pages have very limited appeal. I have some Scott National albums for South America. Aside from the loopy ordering of the issues, the main problem for me is the rectangular hole design, which makes it very difficult to add your own blank pages (Scott National printed pages being quite expensive, and without a European distributor).

Timm,

Welcome to the Steiner side!

One of the nicest things I've found about using Steiner pages is that they are easily modified to suit your collecting interests.

There are lots of threads here on how to do it.

Dan

a Palo stuck among the Steiners

For those that can't get past the "schoolboy" look of 11" X 8 1/2" Steiner pages, there is the upscale alternative - Palo albums, which by and large use the same layout format as Steiner.

Here is an outsized Palo album (Egypt) inserted among the Vario F's and G's housing the Steiner pages for my 1840-1940 WW collection. The Palo doesn't even fit the bookcase, and I would need to remodel.

I have a Review of Palo vs Steiner coming out on my blog site in the months ahead.

The immediate problem is the high cost of Palos because of the sheer number needed for a WW collector. For someone with several country collections, it might be much more feasible.

Personally, I really like the look of the Vario F's and G's binders housing Steiner.

I've been using Steiner pages since the 1980's when he printed them on his own page stock to fit Scott Specialty binders. Steiner stopped printing his own pages in the early 1990's. I did manage to purchase over 40 complete countries with pages to about 1991 before he quit printing them.

So, Timm, what are you going to do with all your old Scott Specialized albums? They may be saleable if in good condition. I've sometimes bought older Scott Specialty albums to save money, and a few countries Scott no longer publishes an album for are only available used. The main problem is that most older albums seem to have been pretty trashed by their owners. I might be interested in some of yours. You never know.

As for Steiner pages, think the whole idea is a great one. I mean printing out your own pages on your own paper -- who wouldn't like that idea? One problem at least for me has always been, as others have said, the "school notebook look". And his layouts are often too cramped for the small sized pages that have to be used.

This can be partly resolved by not using an Office Depot or Staples three-ring binder. The Vario F sure looks good, it has padded covers (nice), and comes with a slipcase. But my experiences with Vario F binders has not impressed me a whole lot. They're clearly made to look elegant (the padding of the cover), but they also cut corners to keep the price down. The lack of a ring opening mechanism is what I'm referring to. All good ring binders have a ring opening lever, but not Vario F binders.

And the way most three ring binders work disappoints me. The pages have a constant tendency to hang up on the rings, especially where the rings meet. That can tear the holes, and it's annoying not to be able to turn pages smoothly. This is much less of a problem, I've found, in ring binders with more rings. The 18-ring and 22-ring binders common in European albums really do work well. I never have pages hanging up on the rings or holes tearing like I do with Vario F binders.

If I did decide to use regular-sized 3-ring binders I think I'd be more inclined to use Scott's own smaller 3-ring binder which comes with a slipcase. I don't mean the dark green Specialty sized binder -- though that would work fine, too, if you printed your pages on larger paper, but Scott's vinyl covered smaller 3-ring binders. They're really very nice, as nice as the Vario F. And I find the rings work a lot better. And they cost about half as much as the Vario F from Lighthouse. Covers are slightly padded, too.

But I don't seem to be able to get over dislike of three ring binders, in general, since they really do look like school binders. The European (or at least British) version is the 4-ring binder with slightly larger pages than Americans use. To me, they both look too utilitarian for my taste. I want my albums to look like stamp albums, not school notebooks. I like a little elegance. The old fashioned spring back albums with linen-hinged large-size pages looks fabulously good. That's a bit too expensive for me, but I'd like something that looks at least a little like that.

And 8 1/2 x 11" standard sized page layouts are very cramped. I don't find them elegant at all. An album page needs room to breathe. They can, however, be printed "as is" on larger paper and they will look somewhat better. But that requires buying a wide-format printer since larger paper wont' fit through standard printers. You can print on Minkus-sized or Scott-sized pages and put them into those brands of binders. Printing on Scott-sized pages doesn't require Scott paper since any print shop can make up paper in that size for you. And you could have your pages hole punched for Scott's own three-ring binders. I don't know of anyone who can hole punch Scott's two rectangular holes, though. Or you can hole punch your own pages for three-ring binders -- or for other binders. I have a 22-ring hole punch (hard to find) which I use to punch pages for the fairly commonly used European 22-ring binders. The result is very nice looking.

And even though the pages are yours to print out, you can't easily edit Steiner pages. It would be nice to be able to de-clutter some of his pages by moving stamp mounting boxes to other pages. It can be done but it requires a great deal of knowledge, time and effort.

So, as much as I like Steiner pages, I have mixed feelings about them. The solution that suits my taste in albums would be to print Steiner's layouts on Scott sized pages after editing his pages to make them less cluttered and maybe moving the border out a little farther, then hole punch them for something like a 22-ring binder. That would look very "European" and quite nice compared to smaller notebook pages. But if I go to all the trouble to have paper cut to that size, then print Steiner's layouts on them, and so forth, I might as well just use Scott's own pages. Nothing's easy. That's why most people just print his pages onto 8 1/2 x 11" paper I imagine. It's so much easier.

As another option, Mr. Steiner will, on request, print his pages on Scott Specialized size paper with 5-hole pre-punching to fit either square post or 3-ring Scott binders. The last time I made such an order, it took a couple of weeks, but I was very pleased with the result. In fairness, it was a big stack of paper - Ireland issues from 1975 to 2000. The page layout is unchanged but has larger borders because of the larger Specialized page size. I prefer the heavier weight of Scott Specialized paper and the "kinglike" look of the big albums.

That is good to know about options with Steiner pages.

Sorry, but I'm not a fan of Steiner pages. I've been using Scott International pages (Big Blue) and International binders for almost 35 years. Steiner pages are too small and it's no help at all even if he is able to print Specialty size pages. For some of my countries, I mix in trimmed down Scott Specialty pages, if I have them, because the International pages for 1840-1940 are very inadequate. I also use blank International quadrille pages.

I don't want to scrap and/or trash multiple International binders and pages. It's just not worth spending the time to change over to a new album system when I have so little time as it is to work on stamps.