Lighthouse Great Britain Album

I almost forgot this thread and remembered I promised an update.

I got the pages a couple weeks ago and have been transferring stamps from my Gibbons Windsor album into them. Thus far I am happy. I wasn't sure what I'd be getting. My last experience with Lighthouse GB pages was back n the 70's. At that time the 1840-1901 pages were very basic, only the Penny Reds had space for plate #s. Few shade varieties, no provision for plate numbers. also the titles and notations were all in German. Sort of disconcerting to see page after page with a 'Grossbrittian' heading.

The detail provided for now compares favorably with the Gibbons album. They seem big on shades, ll major shade varieties seem provided for. Plate numbers are provided for when a certain plate number comes with a specific shade. Otherwise plate # spaces are not there. You'll need to supplement your own pages for those. No provision for inverted watermarks.

So far, so good..

Just an update to air a grievance I am now having with Nordfrim, the supplier I have been ordering these pages and binders from.

The latest order I sent and the one before that took much longer to receive and items were sent piecemeal. I order a page set and a binder, also maybe some stock pages. They are usually sent separately. Today I got a set of 1990-99 SF pages I'd ordered early last month. No sign of the binder I'd ordered, the packing slip appeared to indicate it was enclosed, it wasn't. Also I pre paid using Paypal, they enclosed an invoice billing me again for the entire order. I have sent them an email just now, God knows what is going on or when I will get an explanation.

I strongly suspect they have begun contracting with a German supplier to drop ship albums from Germany. Fine for them but it adds a layer to the process and can lead to confusion. I was just pricing the sectors of this album I am missing, looking on the Lighthouse USA site. They are not that much more than I am paying now, for an additional $20 or so I think Nordfrim is no longer worth the effort.

Anyone else notice this on Nordfrim orders lately?

Most lighthouse album sets they have for sale on the site they do not have in stock and have them mailed from lighthouse. They do not tell you anything as far as back orders, and time to receive.

I had one lot arrive in a reasonable amount of time and after that a disaster.

They even have stuff on the site that is discontinued and no longer available and no longer printed.

I was fortunate to get what I needed from Lighthouse in the USA, because they actually had them in stock, when they had their 20% discount at Christmas.

Lighthouse has discontinue manufacturing a lot of their albums due to lack of demand and high costs of production.

dutchman, thanks for the heads up. I rather think my flirtation with Nordfrim is at an end. It's one thing when you have issues with a supplier here in North America. It's another when they are thousands of miles away and have your funds and refuse to tell you what they are doing. By my calculation the orders I am sending them would cost me about $20-25 more to order from Lighthouse in NJ. But I should get them in a week or so with none of this hassle.

I'm still short a binder for which I paid $60 US. I plan to send them one more inquiry then will file a claim through Paypal for a refund for the price of it.

Update, reply today from Nordfrim. The binder was sent 2-13 with NO tracking. They 'hope' it arrives soon. This begs the question as to why they just didn't wait a week and mail it along with the pages. But as I surmise, they are not doing the mailing, these are being drop shipped from Germany - possibly by Lighthouse themselves. The did ask to be informed if the binder still is not here by next week. The same thing happened last month with a package of blank pages. It never arrived and they had to mail me a replacement. As I said, my adventure with them may be ending soon..

OK this has become one of those threads where you feel as if you are talking to yourself, but just for chuckles, here's what happened after my last post. I notified Nordfrm last week that the binder still isn't here. I expected a refund or replacement. They sent me a notice of credit for $52.60. I replied that given the prior events I do not plan to place any further orders soon and that I wanted a refund to my PP account. Now they tell me they will be shipping another one, this time using tracking.

Some companies try to do stuff on the cheap and then get hosed. Their policy of back ordering nearly everything on orders then sending each item out piecemeal leads to them using cheap shipping methods. We will see if this one gets here. I am not holding my breath.

Stamps,

As you know, anything purchased or sent overseas runs a risk of never making it to its destination. Here in the USA, we have considerable scrutiny from the Customs Dept which results in delay.

Jack Kelley

I needed another Lighthouse binder and a set of pages to expand my GB collection from issues of 2000 through 2004. Rather than messing with Nordfrim, I just ordered direct from Lighthouse USA. At full retail I at least can feel reasonably certain my order will make it here and within a week. I paid perhaps $30-35 more than I would have from overseas. The difference just isn't worth fooling with. Much the same happened in January, I bought a packet of blank pages that supposedly was mailed via DHL but still wasn't here after six week so they sent another one, that one made it. I did not tell them that the original pages I ordered did indeed arrive soon after the replacement, those were unusable, sticky liquid all over them, smelled like chemicals. DHL must offer a cheapo rate for shipping in oil tankers.

My Lighthouse USA order was for the 2000-4 pages as plain without mounts. I plan to try to use Davo Easy mounts - clear' on those pages.

Nordfrim offers the Lighthouse Classic imprintd binders that I like and cannot get from the Lighthouse USA source. I may still order them as needed from them, otherwise they appear to be a waste of time. Just a cautionary tale..

The Davo Easy Mounts are terrific for use on Lighthouse plain pages, I think they look better than the factory installed Hawid mounts. The material used to make them is just slightly heavier than that in other mounts so you don't get mounts sticking out from the page, etc.