Thinking Of Switching From Hinge To Mounts

Have decided on the strips and guillotine, but what are the sizes you always have on hand. There are so many sizes and a man could go broke buying mounts. Seems there has to be 3-4 very common sizes you run through tons of, and then the 3-4 you use now and again. Thing a good place to start.
Thanks,
Jay

I recently started with the strips. My wife bought me a guillotine and microscope for quiting smoking, this is what I have learned....

Strips 215mm Long:
20mm U.S. 19th Century Horizontal Coil
22mm U.S. Early Air Mail, 20th Century Horizontal Coils
24mm U.S. Vertical Coils, Xmas (#2400, 2428, etc)
25mm U.S. Commemoratives and Regulars
26mm U.S. Self-Adhesive Commemoratives and Regulars
28mm U.S. Famous American, Champions of Liberty, Virginia Dare
30mm U.S. 19th Century, Virginia Dare; Foreign
31mm U.S. Horizontal Jumbo and Semi-Jumbo (Elvis, Cats, etc)
33mm U.S. Speedboats strip; United Nations
36mm U.S. Hunting Permit, Express Mail, Canada
39mm U.S. Early 20th Century
41mm U.S. Vertical Semi-Jumbo (1977 Lafayette, Pottery, etc)
44mm U.S. Vertical Coil Pair, Garden Flowers booklet panes
48mm U.S. Farleys, Gutter Pair
50mm U.S. Jumbo
52mm U.S. Standard Commem. Horiz. Block (Ecology, Butterflies)
55mm U.S. Standard Plate Block - Normal Margins
57mm U.S. Standard Plate Block - Wider Margins
61mm U.S. 1999 Christmas BookletPane;Overrun Countries#909-21plateblocks

I got this info from globalstamps.com

Before I found this website I had no clue what strips were what.

Hope this helps

I've found that it depends a lot on which album you are using (if any) and what country(s) you collect.

I keep everything Shark listed plus each larger size (for Israel tabs and mini-sheets and souvenir sheets).

You are absolutely right when you say one can go broke on mounts!

Can't be a whole bunch of 19th cent US coils. I believe there are ---none.

Jay,

If you are intending to remount your collection, I suspect you will soon appreciate the glories of albums with mounts. After you get frustrated because you're missing a particular size mount and with your supplier who can't get them to you for a while, you will look at albums with mounts even more seriously.

Just my 2 cents.

Larry

Don't forget to decide if you want clear or black mounts. I was using black mounts for a while, but came across some clear mounts and realized I liked the way they look in some instances.

Black mounts work well if you are trying to show minor variations esp in shade, and also they accent the perfs and centering of the stamp better than clear. I was also using some cream or off-white paper for some pages, and the black mounts make the stamp pop. On some cream-colored papers, older stamps might lose their definition and blend into the background.

However, I have used clear mounts on white paper and paper of various colors and was impressed with how much I did not hate it. If you are using albums or pages where the stamps are close together, I think black mounts start to look crowded. IMHO, clear works better in pre-printed albums with illustrations, like Harris for example.

I've decided to keep both on hand and see what works best for each page. Just what you wanted to hear! Get all of them, sort them out later.

Dave

You can actually by albums with mounts???

Yes. The two major German firms, Lighthouse and Lindner, supply hingeless albums with mounts. Palo Albums do, as well. I can't speak for any others that might be out there.

You do, obviously, pay a premium for a hingeless album.

Yes you do.

They are from what I have seen to be of the highest quality. For someone like me....an average collector....It is way to high for me. If you have a collection as an investment and have the means they are definitely the way to go. I agree it saves you the hassle of finding the mounts yourself.

I recently flipped through the first volume of a 3-volume Davo hingeless Finland album that was pretty much complete, missing only a couple stamps. The full 3-volume set is $350-400.

Unquestionably beautiful, the album was practically luxurious. That being said, it isn't for me. There was not one pair, block, plate number, control mark or other selvage ornament in sight. That's fully intentional, of course, but not my style. I like more flexibility than that.

This picture doesn't do justice to the look and feel of the album, but it gives you an idea of the presentation:

Sounds a little out of my budget range! Thanks all; especially cjd for pic! Wow

I'm thanking of doing just the opposite. Right now I mount everything except used stamps. I'm thanking of hinging everything except MNH stamps and then if they have a CV of over $10. My reasons for coming to this decision are:
1. I never plan on selling my collection. It will be up to someone else to sell them and collect the proceeds.
2. Most stamps in my collection are going to have a low CV so why should I care if they are hinged or not.
3. The money spent on mounts can be used to buy more stamps.

Could someone post a picture of some of these mounts or the sheets (preferably a sheet showing a stamp mounted to it) that everybody is talking about here because after reading this topic I'm a little lost. I have each loose stamp (approx 1000) in its own glassine envelope and then sectioned by Country and sorted in ascending order of their Scott#. I did it this way thinking that was how it was done by everyone else and now I'm thinking I should change my name from Lucky to "Misses Overboard".

What would be the advantages or reasoning behind using sheets/mounts? Does it organize things really well? Or is it more of a presentation thing? Are the stamps protected better that way?

Thanks
Lucky

For quick and easy sorting, and storing until you decide how to mount them, I recommend Lighthouse brand stockbooks.

The strips are crystal clear and they're acid-free.

Yes, so late I find out that mounting collectible stamps in a good stockbook with clear strips is more fun than in a album someone has printed with some but not all illustrations for my stamps !! I sue mainly hinges..but what a pain when I find that one stamp out of a set I have hinged into an album is more "stuck" than I want it to be..the alternative wouild be a big jump in my stamp budget for purchases of mounts !!

yes lighthouse is good also supersafe is supersage. uncle K knows about supersafe too )