Your First Stamp Album

My first album was a Christmas present from 1954 or '55. It was one like this purloined internet image, because the actual album was only used for a year or two before moving on to the Minkus New World Wide album.

Thanks everyone for replying to the topic. As a new member this was my first new topic post so it's gratifying to have all those replies. Thanks to Brother Squint for posting that picture of the orange H E Harris bag. I can't tell you how many times I picked one of those up and considered buying it. When I was in junior high and high school, my walk home took me past a Woolworth's store (remember those?) and quite often I'd walk through the store from front to back because it was a sort of short cut to get home and I'd often walk through the stamp section where they had a few accessories, some 10 and 25 cent packets and these orange bags. I would pick it up, and mull over whether to gamble on what the contents might be, but always put it back down, and bought something else, usually one or two of the packets, where at least I could see what I was getting. After all a whole dollar was some serious outlay, a major bite out of my weekly allowance. Nowadays, like a lot of collectors on this site, I print my own albums, Steiner for my Denmark collection, and for my Art Deco collection, I use Word Perfect to make the borders and the annotations and a CD ROM of Art Deco clip art I bought from Dover Publications for the corner decorations and Southworth 65 lb. linen cover stock for the pages - a nice quality paper. For my Great Britain collection, I'm more or less forced, for the sake of continuity, to continue with Schaubek hingeless pages which are prohibitively expensive because I more or less have to buy them directly from the publisher, so with the cost of the supplements and shipping from Germany I generally order them only every other year to save a little on the shipping costs.

I beleive my first Album was a Harris Ambassador that I purchased at Wolworth Department store in the early 70's. I purchased it with babysiting money and enjoyed it for a dozen or so years by purchased bags of stamps on the back of magazine or at Wolworth's. They cost a dollar back then. In my early 20's after I joined the Canadian Armed Forces I had put it away until I met the son of a co-worker whose son was house bound because of an illness. I gave him the album and my supplies and he apparently got lots of enjoyment out of it.

Fast forward about 30 some years I got the itch again and 60 some Albums and many boxes of unsorted later there is no turning back now.

Dianne

I began collecting stamps as an adult in 1964. Switched from coins to stamps. My first album was a White Ace binder and slip case with U.S commemorative pages. I used White Ace binders and pages exclusively until I gave up collecting U.S. and went to used WW stamps. Now I make my own pages and use a variety of binders. Still have those first albums and they, and the pages, have held up well. I was sorry to see Washington Press/White Ace go out of business. It made a good product in my opinion.

Don

1. About age 9 or so I ended up with a MAJESTIC album I had for years. Probably purchased at a "five and dime" store I used to haunt where I looked at toys and especially at stamp packets and albums.

2. By about age 13 or so I asked my father for an enormous worldwide REGENT stamp album I had seen advertised in some stamp publication. On Christmas morning there it was, a 2-volume album I would never be able to fill. But beautiful to look through and imagine.

3. By age 16, also for Christmas I got a SCOTT NATIONAL album in that beautiful dark green cover. I still have it on the shelf next to me. The Majestic and Regent albums disappeared long ago, probably when my Mom "cleaned out the junk" one day. In the event of fire, flood, or earthquake I've promised myself to first grab my wife and second my Scott National album which I've had now for 54 years. Do I have that in the right order?

I got my first album in 1974 when I was 9. It was a Galaxy world album (I can't remember who made it) and I soon outgrew it. I then got a Harris Liberty US album and a Ambassador world album. I lost track of my old Galaxy album over the years and may have even thrown it away after getting my new albums. I saw one on ebay the other day and almost got it for old time's sake. I decided against it, though, because the money could be better spent on stamps!

I still have a few oldies.

I think this was my first - but I might have stole it from my sister:




...then I got all specialized and got this one around 1963 or so:



...but it all started when my grandfather gave me his:



Cool thread!

~Al

My first album was "lost" during shipment when we moved from Germany back to the US.

I discovered my aunt's Travelers album in the late 1970s. My parents surprised me a green Senior Statesman, which included worldwide illustrations up to 1978.
I have recently purchased a Harris Statesman Deluxe 2 volume set for my growing collection. Yesterday I soaked my first US John Lennon stamp. I would be curious to learn what John Lennon collected for stamps in his lifetime.

soccerfan, Lennon collected stamps as a boy. His album has been on exhibit at the US National Postal Museum and can be accessed online here:

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/lennon/index.html

Like now, I've always created my own album pages and albums. Pretty boring I guess.

Mine was an HE Harris Adventurer album. I used to use glue to adhere the stamps to the pages!