Any Tips For A Pre-Printed World Album?

Hi.

My son's got a large box full of loose stamps, various old albums etc. He's said he'd like to get a pre-printed world album, with a space for each stamp, and move his collection over.

I don't know much about these. I've searched names like Harris, Explorer, Ideal etc. Most are from the US, but I live in UK.

Does anyone know of any good types or brands I could look for. They need to be pretty big and cover 19th Century up to 1960s or 1970s. Any tips or suggestions appreciated.

If they are random and from all over the world, I would suggest getting a stock album, but a nice one that allows display of all the stamps. Then he can arrange them as he likes. World albums... it's a big world, over 190 countries (at present, and some that no longer exist, but stamps still exist from them, even inexpensive ones), and 1,000s of issues, there is no one simple album that will hold it, you'd need volumes. (My US collection in printed albums alone is 5 large volumes). And four of those cover from 1940 - 2014.
Light House, or use something like Prinz pages in a binder, make for good youth collections.

A space for each stamp is likely to be pretty dispiriting, as he'll have a shelf of binders with not much in them. Steiner has everything, but its layout - separation of air and charity stamps - isn't something that many people in the UK will be comfortable with. On the other hand, it might be worth springing for the Steiner CD and using the information as a basis for designing and printing pages as needed, especially if he has some budding computer/design skills.

You could look for old Imperial and Ideal albums, which would give coverage up to 1936 - preferably the more modern reprints, which have poorer images, but are on better paper. Or old Schaubek worldwide albums, which run a bit later than Gibbons's. Again, the problem is a lot of spaces for some quite expensive stamps.

I'd follow Geoff's advice,
use Steiner, and print only the pages he will need.

Printing out Steiner in full will fill over 200 albums, and climbing.......
(estimate)

Appreciate the advice. Alas, it's something he's quite keen on, and I want to give him the kind of album he wants, so it will stimulate his interest. He has lots of stamps, just very disorganised.

He's only nine, so although Steiner is a good system, the work involved in printing the pages doesn't appeal.

This is the kind of thing he's looking for - this image is of a Harris Statesman. As I said, I known almost nothing about these, so any brand names for example, would be helpful so I can look around.

I'd suggest a Minkus Global Supreme Album. It's somewhat abridged in the early 1840-1900 era but a 9 year old won't have a lot of stamps from that period. It goes up to 1952 in one volume and has supplements after that. You can look for a clean used one and he can start with a few hundred stamps already in his album.

A good chance one could spend more on albums than the stamps are worth. Searching ebay for used albums might be a starting point, and used albums containing mounted stamps can be an economical way to add to his collection.

Some basic albums out there for a beginning world collection - 21st Century World, Odyssey World, Senior World, World Nations. Found those at Arpin Philately (Canadian), but reasonable in cost, so with shipping to UK, perhaps in line with your budget.

I am sure there are several UK Mail Order Stamp Supplier companies (on-line or even a brick & mortar) that would be able to provide a basic World Album for your son's need. (I started with a Harris Ambassador here in the US). When you find an appropriate one also get a package or two of blank supplement pages (quadrille) for those country issues which would be not illustrated, considered back-of-book, or otherwise not mainstream. I would also try to find either a paper copy or on-line reference for a 'stamp-finder' to identify those countries which are cryptic in trying to identify. Good luck, I started about that age and 60+ years later still at it. Maybe Gibbons web-site could give a clue??

Being in the UK your best bet would be to avoid any albums including Steiner that are organised according to the Scott cataloguing system and its odd categorisation of perfectly good postage stamps, such as airmail stamps, to BOB (back of the book).
If your son does decide to delve further into the hobby he will later be dissapointed to find that he is out of synch with the majority of UK and Commonwealth based collectors who tend to prefer the Stanley Gibbons organisation.

Stanley Gibbons do offer an enormous range of albums, many quite costly, however, the TRANSWORLD STAMP ALBUM which caters to the younger collector is only a few pounds and could be a good introduction for a nine-year-old. Needless to say a smallish album such as this likely has place for only the more common stamps, but if he loses interest in stamps then not much is lost.
Clive

I've been going through the "what album to get" research myself.

My thoughts would be to look for an "album system" (with page inserts available) that is sold in the U.K., or one that uses a paper size readily available at your local stationary shop. When I was researching I learned of several "European systems" that I really liked (especially the multiple ring binder systems) but decided that when I needed more binders or additional pages that would fit them it wouldn't be very convenient or economical to be ordering from overseas and I imagine that would be even more so for a nine year old.

I don't know what is available in the U.K. but I had bookmarked two stamp supply shops there that might give you some ideas, and these are Prinz Publications UK and Dauwalders of Salisbury.

The recommendations for the Steiner pages would be a good option (but they don't have illustration of the stamp) but the OP specifically asked about preprinted albums. Scott and Minkus are well thought of. The Harris Statesman or Ambassador are what I'll go with (hoping to pick a used one up) as my U.S. collection is in Harris Liberty Albums, but I don't know if any of these are distributed in the U.K.

The Harris album has a 9" wide by 12" tall page size (I'm thinking that size might be unique to them but I don't know) but supplements and blank pages are readily available in the U.S., and I've also used what is called here ledger size paper (11" x 17") and cut it down to fit.

Good luck with your quest! It is exciting to see a young person have a strong interest in stamp collecting.

I'm afraid that a few people are ignoring the fact that this is a young child, they live in the UK, and they want a "regular" album with images of the stamps. Some of these suggestions might work for adults, but they are not going to work for a nine-year old child.

A Steiner CD is rover-the-top for a young child. They will end up with binders of empty pages -- without pictures. That will kill their interest quickly. As for buying a large, adult album like a Minkus Global, what will a young child think of enormous volumes with thousands of empty pages? Play has to be somewhat age appropriate for children.

An appropriate album for a 9 year old who might still be collecting at age 12 or 15 would be a loose-leaf album so blank pages can be added for more stamps later if need be. It should have photos of many of the stamps. Photos are essential because it's vastly easier for a young collector to mount stamps that way. No, they are not going to be able to use a stamp catalogue. Blank spaces are useful for extra stamps, but too many blank spaces is really confusing for young collectors.

The album ought to be available in the UK and it shouldn't be too expensive. That rules out most albums. I'm not sure if U.S. albums are commonly sold in the UK, but an album like the Harris Statesman would work for an older child, but might be too large and too daunting for a 9-year old. Here's a description from a U.S. seller:

https://www.ihobb.com/p/STATESMAN_W...ESTASET.html

A more junior album that would probably be more appropriate for a younger child would be an album similar to this one (from the same U.S. seller):

https://www.ihobb.com/p/HARRIS_ENTR...RAVELER.html

There are also UK equivalents of these types of albums. You might look at the two UK dealers Moneil suggests above. They are both very good and have good websites to give you ideas. These are Prinz Publications and Dauwalders Stamp Shop (Salisbury). Dauwalders also has a store you can visit. In London, Stanley Gibbons also has a store. I find it a bit stodgy and formal to visit, but so what? They may have some very good junior albums to get a young collector started.

As for a blank album, most children want order and help in collecting, so blank pages are not going to appeal to most children, I think. But if your child finds that appealing, there's nothing wrong with a nice loose-leaf ring binder filled with album pages. These UK sellers have these, as well. But I think a smaller "real" stamp album will be the best choice. Let the child have fun and don't overwhelm them. Play needs to be age appropriate. I'm a teacher, by the way, which is why this matters to me.

I think Drew is giving good advice: A smaller one volume stamp album with illustrations of some the more common stamps, and additional blank spaces for the stamps the child will no doubt come across.

For an older adolescent or adult, a larger stamp album might be a good choice: Examples- Minkus Global Master or Supreme, Harris Statesman or Citation.

https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.c...p-album.html

The Harris Statesman served me well when I was your son's age, though I had separate albums for U.S., Canada, and eventually also Germany. But a huge number of stamps have been issued since I got mine in 1974, so I don't know how well the current edition of the Statesman deals with that.

Hey, all. Just want to thank you all for your input and taking a good deal of time with the replies. I've got some good leads to go with now. The Harris Traveler is an interesting one - I'll look into that a bit more.

I appreciate the feedback as regards mamoth-sized albums which would probably remain largely empty. I hadn't looked at it like that, but it's an important point.

As an alternative to the Harris worldwide albums there are also a number of albums produced by CWS in Canada. The page size is the same as Harris, allowing for mixing and matching of pages and supplements.

The CWS albums are a more modular format than Harris where you get 1840 to "recent" in one or two volumes. For CWS, there is the base album which covers roughly to 1960. Then a module known at the Compendium which covers 1960-1980. From 1981 to now is covered by a series of annual (except for one containing 1982-1983) supplements that run right up to current.

Depending on which of their albums you purchase, you would get the base album, possibly the compendium, as well as one or more of the recent supplements. I believe currently both the Odyssey and Olympian are the only versions to contain the compendium. I have an older copy of the Odyssey from the mid-1990s that has just the base album plus the supplements up to 1993.

The CWS albums would be nice if one was more focused on recent stamps. As always, blank or quadrilled pages are available, along with additional binders.

Dale