Pushing 330,000 All Different Worldwide Stamps In One Collection .

I like your notation of MNH on these. How often have you checked "mint" stamps in a mount, only to find it to have a hinge mark?

Landoquakes---- The rule I made for myself is if it is MNH put it mounts ,if it is hinged then remove from mounts and hinge it , all used are hinge unless it is a older stamp or if it is a high catalog stamp then placed in a mount .

Dealers will check a few stamps in mounts and if any are found that was previously hinge ,then they quit looking and just call it all hinged . No they don't spend hours sorting stamps in mounts for MNH to MLH, they just discount everything as hinge.

floortrader all nice sets. When you mean older stamps are mounted, what is your cutoff year?

Still working on my goal of building a collection of stamps which most worldwide collectors are missing ,trying to find those difficult stamps ,not those high price gems but those rare stamps not found in most w.w. collections .

Rare can be those $1.00 stamps that escape most. I still have a worksheet or list of a large group of 25 cents minimum value that just seem not to exist .

Greendragon ----- I use mounts on those 1880 or earlier if they are on soft or thin paper . because the glue on hinges may be stronger than the paper itself . This also holds true for some later issues too.

floortrader you are well organized.

Here is a WW collection problem that arises from time to time. You buy a very nice well-mounted collection but the album does not match yours. What do you do? Do you ruin hundreds of dollars in mounts and binder and spend 100s mounting it new into your album or just accept non-matching albums?

"Do you ruin hundreds of dollars in mounts and binder and spend 100s mounting it new into your album or just accept non-matching albums?"

There is a third option -- don't use mounts, which I use only for highly valuable or very delicate or old stamps. Hinges are cheap and quick.

I have a strong preference for postally used, which makes using hinges even an easier choice.

Assuming that most of us don't have homes stocked with books similarly rebound in expensive leather in the manner of a Victorian library, I don't understand an obsession with having stamp collections in identical bindings. Yes, I prefer to have stamps from a particular area in the same binders, but I have a range of binder types across my collection.

I like binders with slip cases. The added expense is just another example on how we all have different preferences on how we spend money on leisure activities.

I don't have any devotion to slipcases per se, but they keep the dust out and they support the spines of the binders. Worth the extra, if available.