Stamp Albums

[Slingshot]

I never had a stamp album that fully met my collecting style, so I have gotten into the habit of making my own pages. I think that standard size 8 1/2 x 11 paper will eventually become the most popular page size amongst computer savvy collectors. Stampalbums.com provides free US pages from 2005 - 2014 that you can download and print out on your computer by the year, they also sell a comprehensive set of world wide and classic pages and you can download and print whatever you want for $30 a year. I avail myself of their free bordered quadrilled blank pages, one of several options available, that I print out on cardstock archival grade paper which will probably outlast the stamps mounted to it, and find that a very satisfactory arrangement as my collection can often wander off on a single stamp or issue for several pages. I only mount stamps to one side of the paper and the cardstock thickness just works so much better than regular paper. The biggest problem will be the color of the paper you choose to use and a very light off color white or even beige seem to work best.
In the past I have used everything from notebook paper, graph paper, and typing paper as album pages, the biggest drawback is of course not as much room on the page to mount stamps, but with some thought to arrangement that is manageable. Also notebook paper and printer ink will run if it gets wet, and could pose a danger to the stamps mounted on a page that somehow gets wet. To work around the ink issue, I just take a page to the local copier company and have them runoff as many as I need onto the cardstock paper I supply and that ink is not as affected by moisture, also this is still less expensive and more satisfying for me than buying albums or pages from a philatelic supplier.
After all the stamps are the true focal point of a collection and the albums are just a way to organize them into a cohesive unit. Of course if you are short on time and doing general collecting then a pre-printed album might be the way to go. Everybody has different collecting needs and there is a solution for all of us. Cheers!!

 

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[Tom Bigbee]

Slingshot... Years ago when I collected stamps I had the small hinges to mount stamps in my album. This way they could be removed if need be without much, if any damage to the stamp. Now that stamps have adhesive backs (sticky) what do stamp collectors use now to mount their stamps? Do they just stick them in an album with no way of removal or have they come up with something new?

 

[Slingshot]

I am guessing that you are talking about mint stamps - unused with the adhesive still on - which are now usually collected by the full sheet, since pre-printed album pages indicate that is how they are to be collected, and mounted in a plastic sleeve on the album page. This is possible only because the sheets are smaller than they were in the lick & stick era. Definitely a rich mans game, as the expense of collecting a mint sheet as opposed to a single and those plastic sleeves add more expense and are just one more nail in the stamp collecting coffin. Singles can be collected but the stamps adjacent to the one collected must be removed to leave a bit of the backing around the margins of the stamp to be collected and then mounted in the album as a single, once again using a plastic sleeve, as some of the backing paper will not allow adherence with a hinge. Of course the stamps removed from around this one must either be used right away, or set down on some spare backing paper to await being used for postage.
As for collecting postally used singles of the modern self adhesive stamps, most, if not all now, will not soak off the envelope paper as the new adhesives used are not water soluable, and I have ruined several nice commemoratives trying to get them to release in water. They can be removed using a variety of pretty harsh chemicals, like a certain brand of oven cleaner. That leaves me out as I've had my fair share of chemical exposure already, and as for kids using these to remove stamps from the envelope paper, that is just not a good idea. So, collecting a used self adhesive single from a letter now is best done by cutting it out with scissors and leaving a margin of the envelope paper around the edges without cutting into the stamp. Then the stamp can be mounted with a hinge in the album. The only problem with that is trying to keep all the margins pretty much the same on the stamps you are collecting this way.
Last but not least, the new hinges are not peelable, despite all the claims by the modern manufacturers, as the old Dennison's were when they were still being produced back 40 years ago. I've tried every brand I could get my hands on, including foreign manufactured hinges, and none will peel cleanly from the stamp or album page. If you move a stamp you must be careful to make sure you limit damage to the album page only, and the hinge will need to be soaked from the back of the stamp to avoid thinning it as it surely will if you try and peel it off. The old Dennison's are still available, but will set you back a minimum of $10 for a pack of 1,000. The last 1,000 pack of Dennison's I purchased at a stamp store cost me .25c, but those days are history now. The silver lining to this cloud is that you no longer have to worry about stamps working their way loose from the album pages and dropping out, as they might as well be set in concrete with the new hinges.

 

[FC-Treasure]

IMHO, if you are building a collection that is intended to have value, you should use hingless mounts. stamp hinges reduce the value of all stamps. I do a fair bit of stamp selling on eBay and being able to say "Mint Not Hinged" in your listings is very important for achieving maximum return.

Meticulously maintained, thoughtful, custom built pages with added extras (color variants, interesting cancels, stamps on covers, autographs, newspaper clippings, etc) are what get collectors excited. For one thing, it shows that the collector was above average and cared about the quality of their collection. It makes a buyer think that there may be something of big value hidden in the mix. Now, take meticulous, custom built pages with extras and add 50-75 years of age to them (e.g. they were created 50-75 years ago), and wow, the value goes through the roof.

 

[Slingshot]

Hinges will reduce the value of mint stamps but have zero impact on the value of used stamps. I only collect postally used stamps myself and wouldn't waste my money and time with mounts.

 

[FC-Treasure]

Hinges will reduce the value of mint stamps but have zero impact on the value of used stamps.

Sorry, didn't mean to question your collecting, was just offering a perspective from a part time stamp dealer. Hinged complete collections, which is what is generally sold from estates, get dinged in value regardless if they are new or used due to the uncertainty of how easily the hinges can be removed (think thins, tears, hinge remnants, wrinkles from not being firmly mounted, etc especially if the pages have been subjected to moisture, pressure, frequent browsing, etc).

Honestly, if we are talking post 1930's era used stamps, its a non-issue because they won't have much value anyway.

Once again, don't mean to offend, just wanted to offer up what a dealer or auction house is looking for in a collection. You get bonus points for having a creative collection with custom pages and you may be able to create value even with the modern issues if you do color studies, error stamps or other innovative collecting approaches, but the hinges are always a warning sign to buyers.

 

[Slingshot]

No offence taken, seriously. I've been actively collecting for over 50 years and the only hinges I've ever seen that wouldn't soak off in water were the white thin ones used in the 1890's - about 1920, and I've been told they used horse hide glue on them. Those seem to predominate in the old Scott Brown and International albums of that era, but I see less in albums that originated outside the US from the same era. Seems like the glassine hinge appeared earlier in Europe than they did here.
I collected MNH for about 20 years and realized that I could have purchased a very nice set of used Zeps for the amount of money I had spent on mounts. I sold that collection and pursued postally used stamps and have never regretted my decision. I specialize in SOTN US, and well centered clean ones are as rare as the proverbial needle in a haystack, and searching these out keeps my collecting active and affordable. Good luck in your collecting & Cheers!!

 

[Sleepwalker_9]

I know exactly the nasty hinges you are talking about Slingshot. They stick like crazy, I was never sure what the glue was, but it was like potato paste ... real nasty stuff. Like yourself I have specialized in US stamps for many years. I keep a MNH collection, a used collection and a back of the book collection, postal history and errors. You are quite right about aiming for quality stamps ... original gum, no blemishes, well centered, clean, nicely postmarked, perf pips in all corners.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Of the collection I posted about with the Canadian WWII letter, there is one international album dated 1935 where the stamps are hinged. For the most part, "my benefactor" collected used stamps he filled into envelopes by Scott number. He also collected new blocks of 4 and segregated those into vellum (?) envelopes. There's a whole lot of first day covers, and he really loved Boy Scout related issues.

I spent a couple days going through the 5 boxes picking out used stamps where I had more than 3 multiples, got several hundred by Scott number and sent them to a TNet member's 9 year old son. We need to get the kids collecting again! It was a pleasure doing that, and it got me exploring those boxes again. I tried to get my son into it when he was a child, and in exploring the boxes, I found that actually had taken real interest in it, and he never told me - we could have done it together. But he gets the collection when I pass.