As for the Scott binder labels, be aware that Scott (aka Amos Advantage(dot)com) sells them for about $3 each on their website, not $10 which some guy on
ebay is trying to get for them -- from the unwary. Quite a markup!
For the Scott Speciality albums, the green ones, Scott has tried to shift its customers over to its two 3-ring binders which they adopted a few years ago while also continuing to sell one (1) 2-post binder in the older format. When they did this, they dropped their other sizes in the 2-post format. They used to sell 1.5", 2", 3", etc. size 2-post binders and slipcases.
I'm not at all a fan of the larger 3-ring binder which seems enormous and clunky to me like something better used for factory work orders. The smaller 3-ring binder is pretty nice, though, even if it is vert wide on the bookshelf.
Even their blue International binders no longer come in various thicknesses, including 2.5" and 3". Now they sell only a "regular" 3 3/4" binder (often called a 4") and a much larger 4.5-5" binder. I'm not sure it's actual size. Why anyone would buy a binder that large, I don't know, since it's almost physically impossible to pick up an album that size filled with pages -- at least with one hand. Since they both sell for the same price, I suppose collectors see the two sizes being sold at the same price and buy the bigger one because it holds more pages. To me, that's not thinking it through very well.
All the Specialty album pages Scott sells are punched to fit both their 3-ring and the 2-post formats, thank goodness. So you make your choice of binder knowing your pages will fit either one -- except for older Specialty pages before the adoption of the 3-ring format which will be punched only for two posts.
As for price, yes they are getting expensive, and
ebay sellers regularly jack prices up. Only occasionally do I see bargains on
ebay for most stamp supplies (binders, pages, dustcases, etc). Buying from Amos Advantage, Subway Stamp Shop, iHobb, Potomac Supplies, or another major seller makes more sense to me.
Amos/Scott is habitually back ordered on most of their own products, including pages. Often you have to wait many weeks to get items. They have a somewhat clunky "print on demand" system they operate for album pages, probably to deal with the problem of storing products. It doesn't work very efficiently and I'm not sure why they do it this way. For binders, their supplier must run out at times, but you'd think Scott/Amos would keep some inventory on hand. Apparently not, though.
What I really wish Scott/Amos would do is sell more sizes of binders. I still prefer the 2-post binder since I don't like 3-ring binders much. But I prefer the 2.5" and 3" sizes Scott no longer sells. Fortunately, I own enough already to get by. I just do not like the large 2-post binder they now sell. It's too big, too heavy, and unwieldy to deal with.
I also wish they'd sell smaller International binders. I own a set of 2.5" thick International binders that were once sold by Subway Stamp Shop (Scott also once sold this size), and believe me they are the best thing that ever happened to the International album! They hold fewer pages, of course, so you do need a few more -- BUT handling them, taking them off the shelf, and so on, is much much easier. I've never dropped one. With the larger size International binder, people do drop them, and they're like a load of bricks hitting the floor. Sometimes smaller is just a whole lot better.
Posted 02/17/2020 12:58 pm
