This Is Why I Use Clear Mounts

I only use black. With a little effort and a minor case of OCD, they make for a nice, clean page.

I also only use black mounts and am more than a little OCD about mounting stamps. Here's a page of officials from my collection.

On my USA collection, I use black backed Showgards for my mint stamps and clear ones for the used stamps.

Jack Kelley

Postmaster,

Your OCD pays dividends.

Great looking pages!

Walkman,

You have also done a very good job of keeping them aligned!

I prefer less height for my album spaces, but have the same issue you do. State Revenues vary widely in sizes due to quality control even within the same series. Trying to come up with one common sized "box" is difficult when there are "short" and "tall" stamps side by side.

I used to go 5mm wider and 4mm higher for the box size, but I am now going 5 and 5 for normal thickness paper, and up to 7mm higher for decals and thick card used for beer and case stamps, etc.

I found the thicker paper tends to ride up in the mount and it bugs me...

This morning's project is Arkansas Export Liquor stamps.

I like the clear, open at the top Hawid mounts for things like my Machin Album since I hope I may acquire better examples over time and want to be able to easily swap them out. I use black Showguard, Prinz or Scott mounts for other albums since I like the black background and the way the feature the stamps. However, I use a clear, thick ruler, like those used for quilting to make sure the stamps are lined up square and spaced uniformly. I like the process and the way it looks, there are times when I wonder why I just don't opt for Lighthouse Vario pages instead...

StateRevs,

Thanks for your kind words.

I agree that with some issues, it is a challenge to find the right size for mounts especially the officials in my experience. Some of the large postage dues can also vary wildly in size. I don't collect (many) revenues, but I suspect they are also challenging.

Scott

As a kid I used hinges and had a mouth sticky with adhesive gum. Tried mounts and found them exasperating: awkward to use, fussing with sizes, hard to get good results, tedious. Resuming as an adult, I use only stockbooks: Lighthouse or Stanley Gibbons, black pages, clear trays. Easy to use, no problems with spacing or sizing, stamps look good against black, arrange them as you will, no blank spaces calling attention to all the stamps you don't have (and perhaps never will), etc. Plus, I get them free, because my credit card gives points that I can use on Amazon. Every few months I get a brand new 60 or 64 page stockbook. Have dozens and never paid a dime. But even if I had to pay, high quality, nicely bound, black page stockbooks would be, for me, the way to go.

I am in favor of black mounts too. They bring the colors strongly.

Only trouble is - some stamps come in as margin singles. I have a habit of not modifying the condition in any sort. So the mounts will trigger people with OCD !

A bit awkward. But to each their own... !

Did you trim a White Ace page to fit in a Vario sheet? Do you do this for all your pages?

Any collector that uses a traditional album has challenges on how to mount material that does not fit the space (like with selvage) or even have a space for varieties.

Space for varieties is one of the main reasons I prefer stockbooks. I aim for both an unused and a used copy of each stamp: one for the design, the other for postal use. There are also reasons for keeping odd or significant cancellations, color variants, etc. Albums make keeping all that together too difficult. But, as ananthveerappan says, To each his own.

Only better ones, expensive and those with certs, I house them within vario sheets. I printed the white ace page in a letter size cardstock . The certs go at the back of the page.

For the rest, I use the the plastic sheet protectors from Walmart.

I pulled many hundreds of thousands of stamps out of mounts , can't believe how many people fill album pages after album pages with stamps in mounts .

I have seen many hundreds of different peoples collections and very very few collections that justify using mounts . They don't increase the value of a collection . TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY . If anything they actual slow down a dealers who is breaking down a collection ,it takes more time .

Somehow in the stamp community we got this stupid idea that a collection is more valueable because it is in mounts ,I ve had hundreds of stamps placed in mounts that really just end up in my trash can .


I even damaged stamps taking them out of some of those strait-jacket mounts .

Sure I have stuff in mounts ,because they are expensive and need to be protected from damage ,but 99.9% of stamps don't quanify for being put in mounts .A $5.00 French stamp will get you the same price if you list it on ebay mint LH or MNH .

My advice is buy a nice complete set to add to your collection than spending money on something that will end up in a stamp dealers trash can. .

Floortrader,

In my case, I couldn't care less how long it takes or doesn't take a dealer to remove my material from the pages. I will most likely be expired when that time comes.

As a US state revenue collector, album choices are basically non-existent. I am making my pages to consolidate my collection into one location (from stock pages in binders; 102/104/106 cards in red boxes, etc.).

I made the decision to use Hawid top loaders because they are easy to use, and I can upgrade from one copy to another with no issues.

I think the hingeless albums also look great, although I do wish I could use black rather than clear mounts. Black definitely looks better, but my OCD clangs when they are not just so...

My US postage collection is in hingeless Scott Platinums, my US federal revenues are in Palo hingeless, and I am making my own hingeless for my state revenue collections.

My opinion is they look great and protect the stamps while they are in my possession.

I am sure there are others who agree with either of us.

You nailed it! I am constantly upgrading and the top loaders make this easy. I like the clear mounts because I can cut a strip to cover the whole row and then I can add mint and used or varieties temporarily.

As for hinges I live in SW Florida and my wife hates air conditioning so hinges curl up about 5 minutes after I open a pack.

I have a Scott international Vol 1 as a side project.

In that, Only expensive stamps and #1's go into mounts. The rest are just hinged.

Putting all stamps into mounts looks unimaginable !

See this volume 1 - It is only 50%. Out of which 99% are hinged.



Also, I am in favor of re-using these mounts ! .. I often get them for free from my dealers...