Future Of Scott Album Accessories?

I have noticed that virtually all Scott stamp album binders and slipcases are now listed on amosadvantge.com as on back order with no estimated date. (They do seem to keep advertising them in Linns and other publications though.)
Most supply dealers such as ihobb.com list them as out of stock or backorder.

The stories about Linns and the Scott Catalogue being sold to a new company make no mention of the albums or accessories.
I have contacted customer service at Amos to see if they have any further information and will post here if I learn something.

Well, the first six or seven years have not resulted in its demise

https://goscf.com/t/68842&whichpage=1

Amos still has the albums and accessories business, if I'm not mistaken - the new company only took over the publications.

It's been a couple of years but the last time I ordered a Scott country album set from Amos Advantage it said, "includes items on back order." I went ahead and made the purchase and the items I ordered showed up in about four or five weeks.

We need to distinguish between album pages (which they simply print on demand) and the binders and slipcases. Those actually have to be manufactured.

Also discussed here during the last few weeks.

In a world where we're used to getting everything shipped in a day or two, it might seem unusual for a company to take orders and ship weeks later. But Amos's approach isn't just unusual—it's smart.

By producing much of their material on demand, they keep overhead incredibly low. Think about it: trying to stock every page setwould take up huge amounts of storage, require constant organization, and drive up costs—especially for items that don't sell quickly. How many Scott Marshall Islands Blank Pages can they sell in a year? On-demand production avoids all that, letting them focus resources where it really counts.

Binders work the same way. They're specialty items, and there are already plenty of used ones circulating. Maintaining a large inventory would be expensive and wasteful. Producing and distributing only what's needed keeps costs down, reduces clutter, and allows Amos to deliver products efficiently.

In short, what might seem like a slow shipping process is actually a smart, modern strategy that benefits both the company and the customer. It's efficiency and quality over unnecessary inventory—and that's a model worth appreciating.

There needs to be a balance between "efficiency" and customer service, although I suppose if you have a monopoly on the production of certain items, that may be less important, up to a point.
I have no problem with "print on demand" for the pages. They generally have supplied them in a week or two.
Part of customer service is providing adequate information. "On back order no est. date" is not adequate. Some sort of statement about when (or if) items will be available seems to be appropriate.
By the way, there don't seem to be much in the way of used 3-ring specialty binders and slipcases available on ebay.

Does Amos take your money upfront, or only when goods are shipped? If the former, presumably the US has consumer leguslation that can be waved at them.

So, hrh51, what sort of factual answer do you want?

Would this satisfy you, "We print on demand and have no way to predict when future orders will come in. As such we can not provide a date estimate unless you tell us when future orders come in."

Would that work? Yes, I did not think it would make you happy, while also being an exact answer.

Just to show you I can predict the future some times, the score in the 2026 Super Bowl will be 0-0 (zero to zero) at kick off.

Edit to add:



Yes, but when they do, they sell well in spite of the shipping costs.

They do not charge your card until they ship, which is as it should be.
Again, the situation with the binders and slipcases is different from that of the album pages.
What they do with the album pages is they have a queue that your order goes into and they get printed in about a week or so.
I've always had good service on those.
The binders can't be done that way. I'm sure they don't have a dedicated factory set up just for making these, which don't fit any sort of standard (unlike paper).
So, they really do have to print a batch of them and maintain an inventory to some extent.
They might say something like: We have run out of XXX. We'll produce a new batch by the end of January (or whatever).
The alternative is for people to contact them individually and say they would like an XXX. There's no way to preorder it. They would then have to keep track of how many people have expressed such a deisre (rather than an actual order count).
That doesn't seem to be workable to me. But maybe they'll reply to my email with more information.

There is print onDemand which is perfectly fine and these album pages come within a few weeks. The problem with AMOS is the binders and some mounts are missing and they have been missing for months. Every dealer is sold out everywhere for big blue binders and Scott Internationals can be difficult to come by. Why can't they produce binders? Just conjecture but probably tariffs and confused trading for parts have interfered with the manufacturing process.

To answer though the future is grim because the past has been grim. Amos should have stocked up like every other big business did before the Tariffs. It was shortsighted not too. It looks like a slam dunk in hindsight and it looks like a slam dunk without hindsight as many companies big, medium and small saw the possible chaos on the horizon. This along with AMOS not printing all countries onDemand for the international Series are big blunders. I support AMOS and I want them to survive a long time for the sake of stamp collectors.

I use custom leather-look 3-inch D-ring binders in my business, and I buy them, domestically, ten at a time. I can place an order and have the binders in three or four days. That's about the equivalent of print on demand.

If I ordered 100 at a time, I'd save a couple dollars on each one. But then I'd have to store an extra 90 binders and front the money. A larger company would probably go for the lowest practical price and store the excess. Within reason.

All of this is to say that it is completely imaginable that Amos is ordering binders on demand. Whether they actually are, I cannot say.

I assume your binders are a standard size (for 8.5 x 11 paper, say?). Scott's are a custom size and material. The slipcases are also a special item (consider how hard it is to get slipcases for standard binders).
So it's not really the same situation.

As noted in the start of this thread, this has been going on for years and recent events have not helped. The situation is not likely to improve since it discourages new collectors and pushes collectors to other alternatives.

If Mystic decided to sell a Scott compatible album binder set, I am sure they would have them in stock.

What Amos could go is from a retail model to a "group buy" model where they announce a pre-order window and if they get the minimum number product would be shipped by a certain date. This can remove some uncertainty that is likely freezing the market.