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

Continuing to add stamps to my collection from the massive inventory of A & D STAMPS . There is a little magic when you add a complete set of stamps to your albums .

This is the longest set added so far from A&D . Having worked on this my whole life, it still feels "cool" to add something new .

Really don't understand the people who don't like the above Steiner Pages layout . It was made by people who grew up thru the album systems of H.E.Harris stamp albums {1950's to 1980's } ,then we progress into the Big Blue Albums and even to the Green Scott's International's . Both these adult systems became a issue with high cost combine with a failure of Scott Publishing not listening to their buyers .

Just to give you a idea ,in 1975 I purchase the Green speciality series album of Italy for $35.00 ,years later wanting to buy updates to continue the yearly pages the cost of a few years of pages was more than the $35.00 and the new albums were $180.00 for just a new Green album . I could never continue to expand my collection with that album series .

The Scott Green's were too heavy and bulky and way too expensive . I was testing the weight limit of my second floor stamp room . Something had to change . At this point Steiner Pages came on the market . The two stamp pages you see above for MADAGASCAR cost me 10 cents to make .

Life is good with my Steiner Pages .

Totally agree with you.

Having years of experience cramming stamps together on pages does not make cramming stamps together on pages any better looking.

My issue with Steiner (and it doesn't have to be anyone else's) is largely one of design - I don't like the look or layout of his pages. In the Madagascar pages, the problem is his lumping together stamps issued over a long period - you completely lose the sense of what comes when, and how one type intersected with another. I have some printed pages for Madagascar, but you can get as good or better an effect making your own on blank or quadrille leaves.

I'm at 18,500 that I have actually put into mu stamp database but I have 1000s I have not put in yet, gradually getting through it.

I have a very specialized GB and a decent Germany collection that I focus on, but I enjoy doing all the other countries seeing all the different designs and history shown on the stamps.

Geoff, as always, love seeing your materials when you get the chance to post images. The problem you describe is mainly an American one, I think. We all follow Scott at some level even if we have gotten more deeply into international areas using catalogs like Gibbons (as I have). There is a bottom line here, and it's the bottom line. If you are a collector who thinks about selling materials from time to time (think Rogdcam, who is still heavily involved but has sold off collections such as his Russia), it is MUCH easier to work with a US dealer or auction using Scott as your common language.

The flip side of course is if you decide to sell through an international dealer, as I did in 2011 when auctioning my KGVI collection through Dickon at Murray Payne. Can you imaging the "mishegauss" if I had arranged that collection by Scott rather than by SG/Commonwealth?

Beginner readers and new collectors , this discussion is fit for a ride on the CRAZY TRAIN .

First ---don't show me album pages that cost $2.00 to $3.00 each and try to compare them to my pages which cost me 5 cents each for me to print .

Second ---- buying or making pages is nicer if your collection needs a few hundred or maybe 1,000 pages in your life time but all you know I am in the mind-set of 25,000 to 40,000 different album pages ,now when I give you that number it isn't blank pages it is pages with stamps .

As I said above weight was a factor in my life ,no not my weight ,but the weight of 200 plus binders and albums in a second floor room ,the house can't hold that much weight on solid oak bookshelves . another factor was where do I put my stamp funds in fancy binders and heavy pages which doesn't add a penny in the resale or into stamps on 5 cent album pages .I will go with Steiner Pages in a three ring binder because I need that easy access to remove and replace of pages which the fancy binders don't do . The "D" ring binders are even better to keep the album flat when open .

As you can see , cheap and easy is what I want not a lot of heavy expensive binders sitting on a bookcase ,

Floortrader - I wasn't suggesting that Steiner pages should be as good as MOC's at a fraction of the price. The Steiner problem in this case is that, as Shermae mentioned, following a simple Scott list means that stamps issued decades apart end up on the same page.

I'd guess I've made a lot more than 1,000 handwritten pages, by the way. . For me, it's as much a part of the collecting as the auction bidding.

On the subject of why and how Scott would list stuff in their catalog ,it goes back many years to the time when Scott Publishing would follow how American stamp dealers were publishing and issuing price list and how they would advertise in the philatelic magazines and newspapers . This being before we had collectors on line and the international sales grew more popular .

Working and researching a few items for my Forgery collection today .

On iHobb, they sell the full 59 volume Scott International album set for a cool $14,000. If you look at auction sales--such as the upcoming DFK auction--sets of comparable size but which actually have stamps sell for a fraction to a very small fraction of that, suggesting the original owners have spent far more albums than stamps. Gotta wonder if they wish they had spent the $14,000 on stamps instead of albums (or maybe $12,000 on stamps and $2,000 on Steiner pages).

Depends on your goals. And perhaps your resources. It's not my thing, but I can understand why someone might do it.

My recent purchase from the inventory of A & D .

I like that issues are grouped. It makes the pages less choppy and less confusing.