What Should I Get For My Next Album

So I am looking for my next album to place all my canceled US postage stamps into. I currently use the American Heirloom hingless album for my mint US stamps but I am looking for something different for my US canceled stamps. I have looked into the Scott Minuteman, 3 Album Mystic Heirloom Album, and Harris album. Things that the album must have are: Scott Number, 3 ring binder, and history about stamp or some of them. Any suggestions?

What do you use and what are the pros and cons?



*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum.
Great Question for the Book & Supply forum.***

Only Scott products are going to have Scott numbers.

Not sure what you mean by only scott products will have scott numbers. As there are several albums that include the scott stamp number in the album of the stamp. For instance my American Heirloom by Mystic stamps include the scott number for each stamp.

Scott Catalog #'s are proprietary property of the Scott Stamp Co. They HAVE sued (or threatened, anyway) others for using their numbering system and put them out of business. There was a stamp auction 'results' monthly back in the 1980's that went away. Those companies that put Scott #'s on their products are doing so at their risk. And Scott has exercised their right to that ownership. There MIGHT be some kind of licensing agreement for your particular album, but that's not Scott's normal way of handling this.

I'm pretty sure Mystic and Scott have a licensing deal, Scott catalogs have a lot of Mystic ads, and Mystic uses Scott #'s all over their albums as well as their stamp sales.

Anyways regarding original question--if Scott # is requirement, that would rule out Harris (which also I think is still 2-post) Another option might be Minkus All-American. But, I'm a pretty big fan of Scott Minuteman. It is pretty compact (only 2 volumes for 1847 to present) and is 3 ring, and has history/descriptions for all of the stamps.

Legal authorities support the position that the first and fourth sentences of "mootermutt"'s post are false to the extent that they refer to using numbers alone rather than the trademark "Scott". Scott v. Krause was litigated briefly in the late 1990s in Ohio, to settlement with no judicial opinions, and Scott's position is legally untested anywhere else. I have represented a client who received a cease-and-desist demand from Scott but its lawyers went silent after I asserted a well-supported counter position. That client continues to use stamp identifying numbers matching Scott numbers, without referring to Scott, in its publications. The fact that its position continues to have a chilling effect on publishers, and influence posts in this forum, is unfortunate.

If you want the stamp info like Mystic, you really do not have a choice. I have a Mystic (not hingeless) and I remade pages as needed to collect stamps like I want (block, singles, etc).

I, too, use the Mystic American Heirloom hingeless albums for my mint US and really like them. My mint US collection ends with 1999, so I eventually decided to form a used US collection to house all of the newer stamps that I receive on incoming mail. Without thinking it through, I naturally chose to order the non-hingeless Mystic albums because I liked the hingeless versions so well for my mint stamps. After they arrived, I discovered that I had made a huge mistake. Mystic Heirloom albums don't have places for individual stamps from blocks or souvenir sheets, which is most likely what one will get when collecting used. I ended up replacing them with Harris Liberty albums without ever having placed a stamp in them. I found the Harris albums to be exactly what I was looking for and have been quite happy with them, though I do wish that they were printed on a little heavier paper. They have spaces for both souvenir sheets/blocks and individual stamps as well.They also have stamp descriptions and are available in a 3 ring version, but they don't contain Scott numbers, which are secondary to me for a US collection.

If Scott numbers are a must, Scott and Mystic are your only two options. A year or two ago, Scott started releasing US pages geared toward the used collector. I haven't seen them in person, but I gather that they have spaces for all of the individual stamps, but not blocks or souvenir sheets, which can sometimes be obtained used.

The Harris Liberty albums fill my needs nicely and I hope that you are able to find the albums that are just right for you!

I make my own pages for a 2 ring binder for my US collection. I use the recent Harris 2 volume (up to 2016 for US issues) for fillers for my collection. You can create your own spreadsheet to categorize and list history about your collection.

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions. They have been extremely helpful and educational in some. Looks like I am going to go with the Scott Minuteman for my US used collection. Thanks again!