Future Of Scott Album Accessories?

Or they could divest themselves of these product lines. They have no "business model" at this point. At least not any model that remotely resembles a functioning business.

For years now they have had either short or zero inventory of many, many SKU's ready to ship. They provide no real "expected" date. They are leaving money on the table every single day as potential customers turn to competitors or internet platforms such as ebay to meet their needs. As they hold customers payment info waiting for product Amos's cost of goods goes up . Most certainly it skyrocketed over the past four plus years either from inflation or tariffs or both. They have the perfect system in place to squeeze their own bottom line. Ridiculous. IMO they don't want to be in this business any longer but aren't sure how or when to get out.

That too. Like the catalog business, they were not investing much into it but simply milking the cow. Subway Stamp Supply is also a shadow of itself.

Subway confirmed they don't have any in stock, just repeating that they are on back order, no estimated date.
I did see a large 3-ring binder and slipcase on ebay. I have one of those already. I'm looking for the smaller ones, which are easier to handle.
Haven't heard yet from Amos.

Not having inventory isn't a smart business model, it's a business model that lets you barely stay in business. I guess if you're the 1 of 1 company that has a product people will wait for it might work. Our hobby is screaming into the 20th century.

Westpointphilatelics has 2 of the 3 inch green Specialty binders with slipcases. These are previously used and have the cloth hinges, not the metal-hinged variety. $49.95 USD each. Free shipping.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1777425660...lbum+binders

traintiques427 has 5 used, 3 inch metal-hinged Scott Specialty albums - no slipcase - for $49.99. Shipping is $13.77 https://www.ebay.com/itm/2572933637...lbum+binders

"I dunno boys, just-in-time worked for Toyota - where'd we go wrong?"

I received this in email from Amos:
"We are supposed to receive our binder order in late January. "

We'll see. I did suggest they post that information on the website.

The financial woes at Amos go back a stretch; presumably they didn't have the cash on hand to order/inventory adequate stock. Which, of course, creates a negative vicious cycle pointed out here: low stock drives away customers, reducing demand, etc.

Much has been written elsewhere about (mis)management at the company, but there's also no denying the brutal reality of market and demand forces as mentioned here. Yes, *you* might still be actively buying those Specialty or International binders, but the number of buyers each year is dwindling. Relatively little money to be made in philatelic supplies, so it's not shocking to see underinvestment.

I personally steer mostly clear of binders because I don't like how they look, don't like their heft/bulk nor their tendency to fall apart easily, etc., so I'm a bound albums guy. The occasional side collection that I do have still in binders have been migrated over to the standard 3-ring variety, thus ensuring no supply chain headaches down the road.

Most of the recents posts are spot on in regards to Amos.

In the mid-1980s when I started seriously collecting (after years of using H.E. Harris stamp albums), I was all in with a Scott National binder & slipcase and a Scott specialty binder & slipcase for plate number coils. Over time, I became disillusioned with the thin pages and lack of spaces for varieties that I wanted to collect (color errors, tagging omitted varieties, imperf and imperf between errors). In 2009, I completely changed up my collection and transitioned to Lighthouse Grande binders (with slipcases) with pages I designed and printed myself on 110-lb then 65-lb cardstock. I currently have 42 Lighthouse binders in my collection.

Reading about the issues many are now encountering, I'm glad I made the switch. Not sure I could wait up to a year for pages and/or binders.

Just my 2¢.

I think that's a smart way to go and designing your own pages with the information you find most relevant and interesting can be as enjoyable as collecting the stamps themselves.

Chris2015:

Smart? Maybe - it depends on how much you have to change over. The more you have, the more expensive it will be. Did that once - NEVER AGAIN. Tossed 5 H.E.Harris albums in the trash. I now own 19 Scott Specialty Albums with slipcases and I keep adding on.

When I got back into collecting after I retired, I made the big $$$ mistake of trying to keep collecting plate blocks as well as the usual single and coil pairs. I SHOULD have sold the small plate block collection and used the monies spent since on them to increase my singles and pairs. We get too soon old and too late smart.

Making one's own pages can be both fun and expensive if you use the large Scott blank pages; less so with Mystic 8½x11 pages; even less so with 8½x11 card stock. You will go through a boatload of printer ink or laser toner cartridges. If you print on the big Scott blank pages, you'll need a wide format printer. You biggest investment though will be your time. I use AlbumEasy to design my pages, but do all my test printing on cheap copy paper. I go through a LOT of copy paper getting frame sizes correct, correcting spelling or grammar errors, and simply changing my mind on the relevant texts. Being OCD has its disadvantages.

Could I remind you boys and girls (sorry, Chris, I know you've heard this song too often), that you don't need to print anything. Get yourself some blank quadrille album leaves, a pen and a ruler, and off you go.

I have made a lot of mistakes (such as just printing the wrong page) but I save messed up pages and scrap 8 1/2 x 11 paper for proofing pages. I will get stamp boxes size information from Steiner pages.

With DIY, one gets to choose where they want to get cheap or splurge - binders, paper, inkjet/laser, etc.

Yes, I do know Geoff! You are a quadrille page user from way back . I'm actually starting to use blank quadrille pages for my extras that don't have a place in my Big Blue, does that count?