New Member, Saying Hello, And Asking A Beginner Question

Hi everyone. Thank you for letting me join. Although as a youth I collected single US commemorative stamps with my Dad, I stopped a few years later. Now in my 50's, I've recently started to pick them up again.

Here is my question. I've always used White Ace Supplements. In some instances, when multiple stamps are issued in the same set, White Ace has asked for the whole block of 4 or the entire sheet AND the individual stamps themselves posted separately in their supplements. I certainly understand how to post these in my albums for more traditional stamps, but how do you do this with the peel and stick type stamps without cutting and ruining the neighboring stamp in the sheet to get individual ones? Thanks for the help/insight.

If I want a block, I start with the whole pane (probably 16 or 20 stamps) .. use the stamps around the block for postage and then trim from there. It often isn't pretty.

Each album maker has their own quirks of trying to dictate how a collector should collect. So your question may be two-fold. The first, as you ask, how do deal with handling self adhesives. And more broadly, does conformance to the White Ace model satisfy your collecting desires? Is there an album which better fits you?

Personally, the idea of needing both multiple and singles because an album publisher designs their pages that way does not fit my interests. Rather than being a slave to a publisher, I make my own pages with varying degrees of specialization depending on my level of interest and what comes along.

Just like centerstage98, I would use the surrounding stamps for mail and then trim around the remaining for my collection. I did the same for self adhesive coils. That said, if I have the complete mini sheet or booklet, I usually don't bother with singles or blocks of 4. I'll add that year books that came with stamps often included trimmed singles that either damaged the adjacent stamps or the stamp itself, i.e. the perforations aren't clean.
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Tydibolman,

Welcome home to collecting. Great choice to making your own pages.

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby. Sounds like you are a perfect candidate to become a postal history collector?

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ

Thank you to everyone who has responded. The way my father started me collecting was to go from your date of birth forward....so, so far, I have 40+ years of White Ace supplements, and would rather not change going forward. That is a lot of history using one style :-)

I appreciate the responses, and if anyone else has different ideas or insights I would love to hear them.