Question About The Subway Vintage Reproduction Albums

I'm considering buying the six volumes of Vintage Reproductions "big brown" album. I have two questions for those who own and use the Vintage Reproduction albums:

1. It looks like for certain countries the album includes a header with flags and heraldry. Are the flags and heraldry included in each of the six volumes? So for example, is there heraldry at the start of Austria in 1850, then again in 1900 with the start of volume 2, then again for the start of each remaining volume? Is it once, twice, three times escutcheon?

2. In collating the six volumes into single country sets spanning 1840 to 1940, did you encounter any issues or problems that you didn't expect?

Thanks in advance.

1. If I'm reading this question correctly, I believe its a one-shot deal for each country.

2. For better or worse, I spread the Vintage reproductions into twenty Scott Specialty Series 3-ring binders (with slipcases) leaving them in the order received (by 'Parts') instead of collating them into individual country runs. Although I sometimes question myself on this choice, I just don't wish to expend the time required to do the collating. To make it easy to find the section I need when it comes to adding stamps, I made a simple table/key that details the countries and date ranges found in each binder, referring to that with identified stamp in tong.

My Vintage Reproduction albums are used strictly for MNH issues (yes, I'll go to my grave with plenty of empty spaces as a result), putting used issues into a brown Scott Intnl bound album that runs up to 1900, with Blue International I - VI into the 1970's, where I stop, date wise. Its been an incredible journey using the Vintage repros, but I love the way they present the stamps, especially as MNH examples (I stare at completed pages for ages each time I turn to one). I can't recommend this series of pages enough.

Thank you for your response. I think I'm sold on the Vintage Reproductions. I agree there's nothing better than a complete page of mint stamps.

I use the regular Scott International which I have in about 40 volumes now. Excuse me for a moment while I go lie down for awhile after that last statement . . . . I should say that my International pages in are slightly narrower (2.5") binder than Scott sells (once sold by Subway Stamp Shop, but no more). In normal 3" Scott binders, I'd probably have "only" 25-30 volumes. The narrow binders are wonderful because I can actually pick them up with only one hand unlike Scott's larger binders. Scott/Amos is dropping the ball by not selling this size binder.

I've collated all the different "parts" I use into continuous sets of pages for every country. I did not want to have pages for nearly every country scattered throughout all the different volumes. That would create repeated headaches finding the right page on which to mount a stamp. I also prefer having a country's stamps together continuously for historical and aesthetic reasons. This allows seeing historical changes in that country, seeing similar stamp designs and themes over time, and it just makes good sense to me. The "every country in every volume" approach would drive me nuts, but you may not care.

This meant I had to combine all the pages for each country. To do that, took me less than a week just an hour or two each day, and it was pleasant enough in that mindless way things like this are. "Sorry, honey, can't do the dishes right now, I have some mindless work to do for the next hour."

I collect the world from the beginning (1840) up to 1975 (Part X) in order avoid the immense flood of stamps that followed. Collecting up to some earlier year might have been even wiser since there are a whole lot of stamps from 1960 onward, but the stamps of the war and postwar era interested me -- plus the 60s and early 70s was when I first got deeply into stamps. So for me, 1975 seemed best. In any case, I felt 1940 was somewhat of an artificial cutoff date that ended too early historically and ignored the modern era entirely.

If I had to do it over again, I'd do it the same way, so I have no regrets.

As for Vintage Reproduction pages, they really are very good, but of course they only cover from 1840-1940. So if you collect beyond then, you'll have to use regular Scott International pages after 1940. Fortunately, by the 1940s and '50s, Scott's International album included spaces for all stamps issued which they had not done in their earlier (blue) International albums which replaced the even earlier Brown albums which were discontinued in the late 1930s. The Browns were turned into the (green) Scott Specialty albums we have today. (There'll be a quiz on this later) Also, note that VR pages are printed on fairly thick paper -- and on only one side of the page -- so you can imagine how many volumes they require to get up to "just" 1940. A lot.

In my albums, I did not use VR pages for the most part. But I had some -- mostly from a collection of British Empire on VR pages -- so I included them for the 1840-1940 period for many countries. So, yes, lots of blank spaces! Anyone got some of those rare early British Guianas you want to send me?

To do the collating, I put each country on the floor of my office alphabetically, facing up, starting with the newest pages (1974-75, "Part X," for me). It does take up a lot of floor space. I gradually added older and older pages to each country's stack. It's perfectly pleasant to do this, especially if you like listening to music or some other distraction. Just keep the dog away! And, no, you may not vacuum until I'm done!

Have fun!

Nice post Drew, just one caveat. I am almost certain the Vintage pages came in two sizes. The smaller size matches the International pages and the larger is the same as the Specialized pages. If you want to collate with International pages make sure you get the smaller printing.