To look at, and choose, a good stamp album you used to go to your local stamp store. Good luck with that today as most have long since disappeared. Some stamp shows may have a dealer or two selling new albums. Most album publishers who send you an album will take them back for a refund if you don't like them (and are very careful with them). But mostly, you read about albums and look at pictures of them (
ebay can be helpful with this), and listen to people's opinions.
I'm not aware of any worldwide albums that come with stamp mounts already attached to the pages. That would make for an enormous publishing job, and the resulting album would not only be in many volumes but extremely expensive. A full set of Scott International albums covering stamps issued from 1840-2000, for example, runs to something like forty separate loose-leaf volumes. Can you imagine? Of course, most collectors won't try to collect all those years worth of stamps. They might collect stamps only from 1840-1970 (like I do) which is only (maybe) ten volumes of Scott International albums -- mercifully.
"For US, either use Harris, Liberty, or Minkus."
These three albums are among the less expensive U.S. albums (meaning if you collect U.S. stamps), but you should also include the Mystic Stamp Co. U.S. albums which are decent. See their website. One problem with less expensive albums, however, is they're often printed on less expensive (thin) paper. You want acid-free, fairly heavy paper if your album is going to hold up to years of use. Minkus no longer publishes albums, but some of their album pages are still sold and reprinted by Amos Advantage. I'd avoid any publisher that is no longer in business, though, if you want to update your albums with supplements. Harris is basically no longer in business, also, but the pages are still published, though I don't know by whom.
I think a better option all around -- quality pages, still being published, supplements easily available -- is Scott albums. For the U.S. it would be the Scott National albums. Pages are heavy weight, cream colored (not the glaring white so often used), and acid-free. If they're too expensive, buy one group of pages at a time as they're sold in separate sets covering periods of years. You could start with one set of years (perhaps modern), then gradually add pages for other groups of years until you have the entire album. Scott albums are often sold used for much lower prices since they're very widely used, and you can find some fairly good ones on
ebay if you're careful, sometimes with stamps on the pages, too.
It's better to build up a very good album slowly than buy a cheap album all at once. Buying "up" is generally a good idea in most things -- clothing, homes, etc. You want something that will last for years, which can be updated, which will please you years from now. I don't use my childhood albums because they looked cheap and did not work very well even though they seemed nice at the time. Buying a cheap affordable album isn't a bad thing, but you'll very likely regret it if it doesn't hold up over time -- and then you'll have to get the better album and go through the hassle of transferring your stamps. I wish I'd started off with better albums rather than going step by step through cheap, moderate, then good albums over many decades. Too much hassle that way.
Other U.S. album options are published by foreign publishers Davo, Schaubeck, Lighthouse, but these are much more expensive than the Scott National album, many hundreds of dollars for a complete album.
For worldwide albums, there's the Minkus Global still kept in print (sort of) by Amos Advantage (which is really Scott Publishing Co.) and the Scott International which I prefer.
The Minkus has room for more stamps, but it's pages are a bit too thin for my taste and they are very crowded so aesthetically not very pleasing to me. It does have the advantage of costing less than the Scott International, but both albums are sold in enormous groups of pages covering different year periods -- so if you want an album covering from the beginning of stamps to the modern era it will cost hundreds of dollars minimum.
The Scott International is a long-time mainstay of worldwide collecting, very popular, in print for well over a century, and still supplemented. But you can buy volumes of the album for only the years you choose to collect with the first covering 1840-1940, then by decade, and finally supplements issued by year as stamp production dramatically increased. Not cheap ($500 for the first set of 1840-1940 pages) but you'll have them for life -- and again, you can buy partial groups of pages for the first hundred years of stamps, then add only the years you want to collect slowly over time, rather than buying all the pages at once. Most do that.
Both the Minkus and Scott International are available used, but be careful as most used albums are in pretty bad shape in my experience with pages dog-eared, yellowed, holes ripping, dusty, and not very appealing. You can find some bargains in good shape perhaps if you look for awhile.
For worldwide inexpensive albums, there's a Harris worldwide album which I think is still in print, a Stanley Gibbons British Empire album (sort of worldwide and actually not that inexpensive), and one or two others designed mainly for young people just starting to collect. But I'd avoid any of the smaller albums designed for beginners as they'll be inadequate almost immediately. Mainly your choice for worldwide stamp collecting ought to be either Minkus Global or Scott International for years of use even if they aren't the cheapest to buy.
Hope that helps a little.
Posted 04/10/2013 3:48 pm
