Saving An Old Stockbook

I've recently acquired an old "Ace" trademark 16 leaf stockbook (black pages), which I intend to use as a 'sorting book' when going through the stamps in my many glassines.

However, 4 of the pages currently contain mint stamps which appear to be stuck fast to the pages. Nothing valuable, the books seems to have been used to mainly hold a collection of 'wallpaper' stamps from the Trucial states area - Fujeira, Umm al Quain etc. Some would say pretty to look at, but obstructive to my intended use of the book.

So, does anyone have any ideas how I can save the pages that are currently unusable? Saving the stamps isn't important at this stage, but I'd like the book to look clean, if possible. Removing the affected pages isn't an option - it's a bound book.

Many thanks in advance for any and all ideas.

You can pick up decent stockbooks so cheaply that it's really not worth spending time on rescuing damaged ones. When I acquire damaged ones, I remove the cover, cut the spine and create individual stock-pages that I use for sending ebay lots. You could do this, chuck the pages with stamps adhering to them, hole punch the remainder and put them in a ring binder.

Thanks Geoff,

I guess it's my mild OCD (particularly with books!) that wants everything neat and as tidy as possible. The pages are quite thick card , but if nothing better is suggested I guess that as I'll only be using the pages to sort - as opposed to 'store' - it's a viable option I can explore.

Have a look at Dauwalders' ranges - it's really not worth holding on to damaged books whose cardboard may also be past its best. Good luck!

You could just place stamps over the top of the stuck ones, or cut a piece of paper to slide into the small slots to hide the stuck stamps underneath.

Thanks all.

I've taken another look. The pages are fixed in by cloth tape. I think I'll try to cut out the affected pages and see how the book looks after that. As I say, it'll only be for temporary use whilst sorting.

I have a shelf-load of stock books (Lighthouse) that I use for longer-term storage before I eventually ('some day' - https://goscf.com/t/87406 ) get round to mounting them properly..