Hinge Or Mount Post 1960 Hungarian Mint Stamps

I'm in a bit of a quandry. I have a complete run of MNH Hungarian stamps and miniature sheets from 1960 through to 1990 and its time to put them in an album, in this case, I will be using Steiner pages; I had considered DAVO but felt quite queesy after seeing the price involved.
Sooo, the big question is, do I hinge or mount these?
Mounting will be time consuming and expensive but on the other hand, I feel quite crappy about hinging any MNH stamp.
I know, that at the end of the day, the decision will be mine to make but I would appreciate any ideas, comments and suggestions as on how to go about this

A further option would be to pick up a decent used album. If you look at lot 558 in the current Somerset Stamp Auctions auction, for example, there's a set of Kabe hingeless albums covering 1871-1991 (with stamps) with an estimate of £500. That would be less than half the cost of buying hingeless albums for your later period, and much more attractive than using Steiner's pages.

http://www.somersetstampauctions.co...rent-auction

I agree .

If you decide to go with Steiner, I would personally mount all MNH stamps. It will look nice and you will preserve the stamps.

I have this thing using anything other than mounts/and or stock pages for MNH items, regardless of the country...

John

Another option would be a stockbook ? They are usually much less expensive,


Peter

I'd add that, unless there's some value - unlikely with modern Hungary as I recall - I'd use hinges without compunction! I'd hate to think how much you'd spend on the large size mount-strips that you'd need.

Once the stamps have been hinged they will never be MNH again. I use mounts for my inexpensive stamps from Eastern Europe. I may be putting penny stamps in nickel mounts but I will leave them to the next owner in the condition in which I received them. I think if you mount them you will be pleased with the results. Of course, it is ultimately your choice.

When you are done please post a few images of your pages.

I struggle with this exact same dilemma, hinging a MNH stamp feels like bad stewardship to me. But hinging just is so much faster, easier and cheaper than mounting. My intuition is that for 1960's Hungary there are probably vast reserves of MNH material stored away way more than collectors will ever need and collectors hinging MNH here and there couldn't possibly make a dent in the supply. But there could be other areas where this is not true, and still just doesn't feel right. I personally am increasingly inclined to lean towards mounting side of this debate.

I divide my collecting into two basic types; 'fun' albums and 'investment' albums.

'Fun' albums are the collections that I do primarily for my enjoyment and hold mostly intrinsic value for me. Yes, I do have some higher value stamps in these collections and they occasionally are in mounts but 98% are hinged with vintage hinges.

'My 'investment' collections are more specialized, better quality albums, and have many mounts; I would estimate that about >60% are mounted in one fashion or another. The balance, which tend to be older used or modern stamps, are hinged with vintage hinges.
Don

Haha, don't look at Schaubek or Lighthouse, then!

No one can answer this, but yourself.
If you feel crappy hinging, then Mount.

After a while, you may feel crappy wasting money for common stamps
using mounts.
Eventually, you'll end up with a routine that justifies your own parameters.

A lot of us have been through a similar quandry.
I have 5 Stamp Album volumes of Hungary, and my result was

Mount the scarcer (Scott CV) items that have full undisturbed gum
Mount all Souvenir sheets
Any stamps with gum disturbance, hinge marks, I hinge, without guilt.

Hi Moose

I agree with Rodney. Only you can answer the question to hinge or not.
Personally, I use only blank quadrille pages and everything is in mounts. I did not like the look of a page with hinged and mount. So, way back I decided to use a mount for everything, cheap or not.

Jerry B

I mount everything! Got tired of throwing away hinges when I updated a bunch of stamps. Check the cat value between MH and MNH. It more than often covers the cost of a mount and once it's mounted, it's faster than hinges.

Most catalogues, I think, only price for unmounted mint or used from a cut-off point that varies between publishers, but is, for example, 1960 for Yvert, earlier for Gibbons's BC listings. So quite what the difference between unmounted and mint would be is hard to tell. Given the relatively low prices for most post-1960 stamps, and, in this case, the lack of demand for eastern European material, I'd expect the differential to be marginal.

Complete modern Hungary collections in hingeless albums come across the auction block regularly and sell for a pittance if at all. You won't have the fun of filling them though.

For my foreign collection, if a stamp had a catalog value more than $1, use a mount, otherwise hinge it. In hindsight, I would modify that rule to use mounts for items I "paid > $1" for something rather than "catalog value >$1".

Perhaps the most cost effective way to do it, amongst Steiner pages, would be to use Vario pages for the MNH material?! If your Steiner pages are 8.5x11 punched 3 ring, Vario stock pages can be integrated easily. They even have clear pages now. I haven't done the math, but using stock pages would have to be comparable (if not cheaper) to using mounts on a printed page. All of this presumes that preserving mint never hinged is important to you. If it isn't, well, to each his own...

John