Why Do Some People Deface Album Pages?

I'm not sure it does reduce the resale value much, I think often people have another agenda if they're buying a "preloved" album - like not paying the full price! I think of myself as a novice too, but I buy albums for the stamps and also to reuse to house specific bits of my collection. I don't have the money to buy expensive albums but I get a lot of pleasure out of collecting to an album and seeing the pages fill. Terminally sad I know but I can think of lots of worse ways to pass my time!

My pet peeve is not pencil notations - if you don't like them you can remove them with a decent eraser. But I do hate having badly cut black mounts stuck in so that they can't be removed, and if that is compounded by stamps randomly added to the page also in very visible black mounts higgledy piggledy everywhere, off any grid and just put in without any thought of spacing or appearance - I find that very offputting.

I've generally been very happy with albums I've bought like this. But I recently bought an album to bring some sort of order to part of my Belgium accumulation and apart from the fact that the courier used had managed to severely damage the album, the seller hadn't mentioned that the pages were covered with random black mounts which I discovered were stuck with some very effective adhesive

I do not write on them as a rule except to add a catalog number under the stamp since do not like the appearance but my Dad does to add purchase information. I do not stack or usually add a stamp without a space either. It is not a factor for buying pages since I remount eventually. I use Steiner pages and create my own as needed.

The only modification I make is to occasionally add a stamp not called for on the page. That's it.

Jack Kelley

'
If we amortize the cost of the album over, say, twenty years, what is the monthly cost to any scribbler to note what they want noted?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I often browse ebay for pre owned albums and have noted many sellers fail to properly illustrate what they're selling. I've seen listings with a dozen pictures of the slipcase and binder and NO images of the pages. Come on, how obvious can it be they are selling something sketchy? I'v messaged a few of these sellers, the majority of the time I get no reply or they will feign wonderment t why I want to see the pages. It's a jungle out there..

I was surprised to find "as much" aversion to album page notes as seen, granted that this thread isn't a representative sample and people get to collect how they want or find useful, as has been said.

I don't mind catalog # or other identifying notations at all provided that 1) they are in pencil, small neat characters, 2) hopefully using the Scott # (the only catalog I have access to through my local library), and 3) are accurate … I actually appreciate these notations and all else being equal these would represent "more value" to me as it saved me a whole bunch of time.

On the other hand this thread has got me thinking that perhaps I'll start putting the catalog # and issue date notations underneath the stamp rather than below. So, maybe the OP's "rant" maybe worthwhile after all .

For my collections being retained, as I go through downsizing, I will occasionally write Scott numbers and year(s) of issue, in pencil, in the side margins. I use Scott pre-printed & quadrille international pages; and some others, particularly trimmed down Scott specialized pages. I'm really unconcerned about what happens to my collections after I've passed as I won't be around to protest about anything. However, I make my markings as unobtrusive as possible.

A bigger, more recent, issue for me is buying a collection of Portugal & colonies where the auction house wrote all over the pages, with catalog numbers and values, with a total $$ figure at the bottom of each page. Fortunately, the markings were/are in pencil and I have good erasers. Still, a bit of a nuisance. I'll avoid this in the future as I don't expect to buy more collections due to getting too many duplicates. Going forward, it will be individual stamps or sets.

Stamps1962 wrote: "I've seen listings with a dozen pictures of the slipcase and binder and NO image of the pages." It's not just on ebay, but occurs with some of the big auction houses. For online catalogs, there should be ample space to post images of some pages. Just seems like a bad business practice to assume that all their buyers live locally and can drop in to see those lots.

I don't mind collectors marking up their album pages as they see fit. After all, it's their collection.

However, what really frosts my whatsits, is when a dealer/seller goes through and writes catalogue values (or bogus "paid $500!" marks) in ink or heavy-handed pencil, thus ruining the pages. Light pencil is sufficient.

Why some idiotic dealers do this is beyond me, other than they just don't give a damn.

Que sera sera

Especially because I may want to reuse these pages. EG: I have a set of officials and another set of pages with proofs of those same stamps.

or

I have a page of Scott #112-122 and am building a second page with those stamps with pre-printing folds.

I reuse the Scott National pages from old collections; but an less likely to buy the collections defaced by dealers.

In my case, I never buy collections for their albums.
If I want the content, I'm going to move it to my own albums anyway.
(Or I'm decimating and plundering them for sale, in which case, I really don't care about the album at all... but I get not everyone is a dealer).
I (generally speaking) don't make my own pages unless suitable ones just don't exist. So I'm not interested in the album, this issue for me is a "not even on the radar".
This one isn't a hingeless album, but I abohar those even more, having had some type (Scott Platinum) fail, and damaged (destroyed) a $3,000 stamp... that was lesson enough for me in that area.

How did it fail?

I wonder if the mount came apart at the seam causing the stamp to dislodge and become damaged.

I have few stamps in that price range but I have taken to placing pages with more valuable stamps in sheet protectors.

Rogdcam,
Those platinum "hingeless" have a tendency to break off at their base. It was a real shame because I bought the collection, and was in the process of taking it out of the albums to examine and then put into stock pages. That 243 was THE gem of the lot. I had no idea the mount was compromised, so when I just turned through the pages, it was already between the rings, and I couldn't even see it until I came to that point.
But the fact that those albums can fail like that... I wanted nothing to do with it.
I sold the lot of 3 Platinum albums to a guy in Australia, who I warned about the problem, but he really wanted the albums, but I couldn't help but feel it wasn't right.
After that I never was interested in any of the "hingeless" pages, nor binders with 40+ rings in them (that is just silly as well anyway), and had there not been so many rings either, the stamp would have gone undamaged. Had it not been damaged, I'd have swapped it for my 243 in the private collection, that's how nice that particular one was. But after the giant L shaped tear in the bottom, it was just ruined. I only got the $300+ amount from it because even damaged it was still such a beautiful stamp, full OG, MNH. Really I was sick for half a day after that.

I often add Scott #s for the stamps, like in my old Master Global WW album or on Steiner pages but I always do it lightly in pencil and I place it UNDER where the stamp is mounted/hinged, not beside, below or above the stamp. Sure, I have to lift the stamp to see the # but that's no biggie for me anyway. I do this so I know where to put new ones in any group/series.