The Biggest Mistake? Or May I Do What I Want?

At the current price of over 10 cents (US) for each mount, it is cheaper to just throw away the glued stamps when rearranging a page as replacement stamps are far cheaper. The OP's collecting area trades at a discount from face.

As alub wrote he would just throw away such a collection in the aftermarket when the OP was done. I would guess that few folks would see any value in soaking the stamps off (their actual gum would release them) to get full face value as postage on mailings.

Sadly, glued down or not, the OP's collection has near zero resale value and little use as mailing postage.

I remember Don Denman on this board once mentioned that his stamps were his for now, but will be someone else's in the future. The idea was to ensure that we should be good stewards of our stamps for those who will own them later on.

So, although you do own your stamps and can do what you want, the biggest issue is that someday they will be someone else's and you have committed this "heresy" not only to the stamps today, but for the owner of the stamps when your collection is passed on.

Ray