Mounting Stamps

As kirks says, the practice of mounting stamps which aren't worth much inside mounts which may be worth more than the stamp it holds is a bit odd. Today, collectors spend a lot of their stamp money on expensive albums and expensive mounts. There's been somewhat of a backlash against expensive albums in the form of using either blank/quadrille pages or printing your own online album pages like those made by Mr. Steiner on his wonderful website. I wonder when we'll see a backlash against expensive mounts?

A hinge costs a penny or less. A mount can cost 5-10 cents. That's "each". Depends on which mounts you buy, of course. Using current modern hinges, you'll pay $3-4 a packet for 1,000 hinges which works out to a fraction of a cent per hinge (about 1/3 of a cent, in fact). Can't get much cheaper than that. Even if you buy expensive "old stock" rare-as-hen's-teeth Dennison hinges for $20 a pack (yikes!), that still works out to 2 cents per hinge. That's still much less than mounts. The cost of stamp mounts is a major issue that each collector will have to decide for themself. An album with 100 pages each with 10 stamps on them will have 1,000 stamps. That number of stamps will cost a collector at least $50 in stamp mounts or less than $10 in hinges.

If you're worried about ruining your stamps by using hinges, you might try being more careful in your hinging practices. A lot of hinge damage is due to the way collectors use hinges, mainly by applying too much liquid which glues the hinge to the stamp and to the page. Applying just the tiniest amount of moisture works better. Experiment and see how it works best.

I avoid hinging mint stamps -- but not if they're one of the thousands of common modern stamps where hinging won't affect the already-low value, anyway. Mounts are a good idea for older mint stamps especially if you care about their MNH value. But each of us collects the way he wants to. I also find it a little strange to look at album pages where some stamps are hinged and some are in mounts. It seems inconsistent. So I try to use only one or the other -- if I can. But I'd hardly call it a big deal, and mixing hinges and mounts is just fine if that seems best to do. Either that or buy expensive albums with mounts already attached. They will cost you a lot more than hinges or mounts, that's for sure.

And then another option of course is that one can always house a collection on stock pages or in bound stockbooks, and avoid the whole mounting stamps issue and cost completely.

I am planning to mount my collection by using clear mounts but honestly I dont know which brand is the best and from where do buy it (in bulk)?

I read somewhere some new mounts , it has self adhesive on the back and no need to wet or whatsoever. any recommendation?