Is The Title A Factor In A Collectors Choice In Purchasing Their Album's?

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Or maybe it's something else completely different ….inheritance, copyright date, or any and all that are worth more than your current album? Is there a preferred album that a serious collector's will always be the go to choice? Can I get the community's opinion on what they might've had for the ultimate album not what's inside but the album itself?

To me it seems that creating one from scratch would be the preference of a professional collectors. I would like you to know I am a beginner if even that title. One who's inherited the stamps and knows absolutely nothing about Phila. Collecting.hopefully this isn't a stupid question please tell me if it is so I can delete this post. My newly acquired album. Let me know if I should start a new one from scratch or would it be better to use one that has already been started.

I'm really bad at where to post. I will be more cautious from here on out.

Yeah, strange looking postcard! Oh well, stuff occurs. But there is an easy fix. See that shot note down there in the lower right corner? Where it says Send Note to Staff ?
Click that and ask the mods to move the post.

Using old albums is fine as long as the paper isn't brittle, discoloured, foxed etc. In most cases, it will be. But you may find that, if stamps are already included, they may not be arranged as you would wish, Generally easier to start afresh, perhaps with a stock-book if you aren't sure what you'd like to collect.

Every collector will have a different view on what is a "favourite", and this will be determined by what s/he collects.

Part of the fun of collecting is you get to call the shots and create your own world. That being said there are some things to contemplate when it comes to albums.

Is the paper good for the stamps. Is the PH going to hurt your collection. Is the binder going to fail sooner than later. Do you want modern catalog numbers to align with the album(s). If you use mounts how will the paper handle it. Does the layout still make sense. Can you insert extra pages (not for older bound albums). Will you likely have to start from scratch in a new album anyway. There are others.

On the other side, some of these older albums can't be beat for aesthetics. The bindings are sometimes amazing with tooling and gilding.

Personally, I have had at least a hundred of these 19th and early 20th century albums pass through my hands and while I was tempted to use one or three to house a collection logic dictated the answer to be no for the reasons I outlined above. I ended up with less elegant storage but did get that new car smell that I could amend to fit my collection as it expanded.

Everybody makes their own choice . There are people like me who start with one album ,then they out grow it ,and in my case I've have out grown 4 different albums or album sets .

I bought old (like 1940s old) versions of Scott International (Big Blue) for my international collection. This was mostly based on that I like full pages, so I don't want a complete listing of stamps I'll never be able to afford, and I like that they aren't as crowded as Minkus. Minkus really doesn't support mounts, either. More to choose from to buy, as well. I wish I had had $600 to buy a new set, but such is life, I think I'll enjoy $600 worth of stamps in my old album much more.

I do the Mystic American Heirloom for US, with their upgraded deluxe binders. The hingeless version is in my reach now, but I'm too invested in what is probably a 80+% collection through 2000, so I'm not re-mounting, though having Scott numbers would be nice. I chose White Ace for my Ireland collection, in Leuchtturn binders. It's a bit eclectic on how it lists stamps, but the quality is fantastic, I'm sure most of us have received stamps from dealer with the fine White Ace pages as stiffeners for the mail. I don't really need a green & orange header on every page, it's a bit wasteful, but it does look nice.

Vintage stamp albums are potentially interesting in two key ways:
* If they have stamps in the spots then they are all pre date of release which increases the odds there are some premium values of classics on vintage albums (pre 1940)--mostly for those albums that were printed to target advanced collectors (note that there were other books that targeted children)
.
* They might also have vintage art and good coverage attacking someone that thinks they would be a nice collection to augment/finish

Here are a few examples from USA companies (Europe has Gibbons and others):

Scott "browns" - these have excellent coverage and look (similar to the Scott Specialty pages) and stop at 1940. Some collectors seek them out for starting a new collection. The pages have been reprinted by Subway Stamp Company.

Scott International (Big Blue) - these are a subset of mostly the more affordable stamps so that completing them to 1940 is a reasonable goal. It's not a perfect selection of more accessible stamps with some being on the higher price side.

Minkus Global (red) - are a competitor to International with more spaces. Their numbering system is out of business.

Harris - Citation and Standard - these are large single and two volume albums. A 1963 Citation single volume has pictures for an amazing number of the more common stamps. The challenge is that strong collections look like wallpaper with the entire page covered in stamps. It's a great place to start for those wanting to find a spot for mixes of WW stamps (to 1963). The Standard is often in 2 volumes a goes to 1970s but at the cost of some spots. Supplements were sold so collections can have several volumes.

Scott Master Canada has wonderful descriptive text about each stamp and graphics.
The Heirloom USA albums also has great text and pics about the stamps.

Harris Liberty is a very popular USA album for decades with text descriptions. There is a similar Canada album. These are more Specialist albums but not as advanced as the Scott National.

Minkus made Country specialty albums full illustrated. They numbering system did not use "back of book" so each year had air mail, postage due, etc. The pages were thin.

Scott, Harris and others made WW albums for different levels of collectors. These are plentiful on the used market with stamps and the entry level albums are a good clue that the stamps are probably the most common. I don't see many of these albums having much interest and resale except for the stamps (and those are assumed to be common). I bought a 1928 issue with 500 stamps for $5 at a Stamp Show.

There are wonderful "hingeless" albums fully illustrated, well organized but expensive.

Steiner and other printable pages are now available with Steiner matching the Scott Catalog and offering all the years and countries you want to print. The layouts have space for mounting. A near complete Scott International collection to 1940 moved to Steiner dilute the collection across a lot of pages if it's not an advanced collection.

Albumeasy supports page creation and users have posted country pages for printing.

Album page creation is time consuming and becomes a hobby unto itself so many find Steiner the easier path. Palo makes hingeless pages fully illustrated from Steiner layouts on larger paper. They are more expensive but eliminate the need to cut mounts.

Custom pages written by hand can be the most impressive when the author has calligraphy and artists skills combined with knowledge of the stamps. Quadrille pages are helpful to use as a start.

Floortrader and I must be brothers when it comes to our succession of albums. The point was made that you might not like the order in which stamps are arranged or described. There is no PERFECT album, not even one you made yourself. Creative types are not static; there's always a new idea bubbling up.

I went from Harris to Scott to handmade albums, and currently have about 14 of the last two. Once I learned to use AlbumEasy to make my own pages, I went off the deep end with it. The only thing that stops me from completely re-doing my collection for the third time, using all self-created pages, is the cost in time (free), new mounts, new blank page stock (can I buy blank Scott pages by the case?), printer ink, and of course, the needed wide format printer. Even if I won the lottery, at 82, I'm not sure I have enough life time left to finish the job.

I blame my late Grandfather. Paw-Paw started me down this rabbit hole 75 years ago.

I do not use older albums but I like looking at them as I would an old history book. I like seeing country names like Persia, Belgian Congo, etc. since it reveals history and how people collect when crowded together on double sided pages and everyone was using hinges.

Most of us growing up have gone thru a series of albums and have seen and handled various albums . By the time we are putting money into our collections we already know what works for us .