How Important Are Pre-Printed Album Pages?

For context, my U.S. collection is in three Harris Liberty albums but I'm about 10 years behind in mounting (I do have stamps to mount in this time range) and I don't have the supplement pages. My non U.S. collection is on Vario pages, plain card stock (with hinges or mounts), or in glassine envelopes, all in generic 3-ring binders, sorted by country but otherwise not organized nor identified. I'll be organizing and transferring these to a used Harris Citation album I recently acquired with already 4,800 stamps in it. This album was part of someone's larger multi-volume collection so it doesn't have the complete A-Z country page set.

I'll not buy supplements as they are more money than I want to spend on supplies (I'd rather buy more stamps), I'd get a lot of pages I don't need, and the WW supplements would likely be missing some spaces I do need.
I have the Steiner CD up through 2000 and I'll likely buy a new subscription. Steiner U.S. supplements are downloadable for free. I have AlbumEasy. I have designed pages in MS Publisher. I actually enjoy designing album page layouts but I have a time as well as a fiscal budget to stay within and I'd rather work with the stamps (plus buy more )

The dilemma:
1. My 17 year old laser printer works great but can't take the 9" x 12" Harris page size. The fact that I recently replaced the toner for the first time since 2006 indicates how much I actually print. I'm not inclined to invest $200 - $300 in a printer that handles ledger size sheets that won't be used often. I'd rather buy stamps.

2. I can go to Office Depot or Kinkos and have Steiner/AlbumEasy/Publisher pages printed from a file onto Harris blank album pages for 15 cents per page, single or double sided, which puts an annual U.S. album page set at about $3.00, not bad. However, unless I get the same person who had recently done this for me they usually waste about six sheets trying to get the 8-1/2" x 11" Steiner page perfectly centered on the 9" x 12" Harris page, and they often forget that they were only supposed to print pages 1-10 of the file, not pages 1-15. They don't charge me for their mistake but they have also wasted several Harris Blank page sheets which cost 0.156 cents each, not including shipping. It all becomes rather a nuisance.

My inclination is to use Steiner as a visual template (looking at it on the computer screen), a Scott Catalog as a reference, use a ruler and light pencil marks to make some base markings, and mount (with hinges or mounts, depending on the stamp) directly on blank pages. I would note underneath each stamp (small neat lettering in pencil) the Scott # and issue date, and leave space for stamps I would hope to add in a series. I am aware that Harris blank album pages are available in Speedrille format but aesthetically I don't care for the look and would rather make pencil baselines that are covered up by the stamp.

I'm thinking this doesn't diminish the value of my collection, which is modest to begin with, and the highest probability is that someday my album pages will be picked from rather than incorporated intact into another's collection. While I've been in awe of some of the beautiful album page designs I've seen posted here, for me personally the visual excitement is from the stamps themselves, as long as they are in some meaningful order (chronological), squarely mounted, and proportionally spaced.

I'm curious as to what other's think. And, yes I know I brought some of this on myself by deciding to stay with Harris 2-post albums and their odd page size, but I had my reasons.

Carry on. I have printed album pages, but they're more expensive and constricting than those you put together yourself. As for Steiner, the lay-out and print is pretty dull. Quadrille is much easier to work with. I use pen and ink for boxes, but you don't have to have a surround for the stamp. Home-made pages also lets you lay out the pages as you want them, and to include the stamps you want to include. Good luck!

Your plan should work fine. I use Steiner blank pages extensively, holding stamps in mounts, but works just as well with hinges. To make mounting easier, look at a Linns clear perf gauge, which on one side has a '0 center' ruler, which you can center on the page and then mount the stamps using the ruler measures as a guide for distance, etc. Works for me anyhow. Enjoy!

You may want to consider these US pages; I'll egotistically say they are the best free US pages available

http://stampsmarter.com/learning/Fo...gesHome.html

Don

Whatever you like is the best really. Unless they are truly outstanding pages, they will be picked apart by someone else eventually to fit into their collection. Personally prefer high quality (and expensive I know) pre-printed pages, but that's because the overall appearance and consistency of the album as a whole is important to me. A little OCD in that regard.

I wonder how many people buy partial printed album partial country collections and move the pages intact to their system. I have purchased multiple lots on album pages but never use them because many are two-sided or thin paper. I do not consider some printed worldwide albums that great.

There will always be stigma by some against self-printed albums but doubt the same quality collection will much less due to being on self-printed beyond a small bump if the pre-printed albums are in good shape and complete for country.

A collector does many things to satisfy themselves and should not let others shame them into doing else as long as there is prudent safe collecting methods. For some there is the pleasure of creating something rather limiting to a propriety system.

There isn't a pre-printed album out there that can hold a truly good collection for most areas IMO. The best pre-printed albums you can get are hingeless specialty albums for individual countries (or specialty areas within countries), but most advanced collections in such albums will still need additional pages for material with no provided spaces.

Having well laid out collector-made pages is usually a good sign when inspecting an album collection.

My preference is for preprinted pages for the simple reason they give me a target to aim for. The thought of trying to collect using only blank or quadrilles pages to mount my collection brings a sense of dread. I fear I'd always be questioning my choices and would spend too much time thinking about changing the layout.

For me it's a mix of Steiner pages where I'll be printing the first page for countries I'm working on plus any single page where I have at least one stamp to mount, plus a recent copy of the Harris Statesman that I've expanded to three volumes. I am using glassine interleaving and feel the added bulk is a bit much for just two binders.

Dale