A review of Stamp Albums Web
For a long time I’ve been thinking about writing a review of William.E. Steiner’s Stamp Albums Web but haven’t really gotten around it. But let’s give it a go… In short the deal is simple and sweet: worldwide stamp album pages for yours to keep and print for only US$30.
The good part of Stamp Albums Web is the price. Single-country pre-printed album series from the likes of Davo, Lighthouse/Leuchtturm cost notably more than the entire Steiner’s offer. And instead of single countries, Steiner is providing worldwide album pages – a total of 71,000 pages. It sounds like a true bargain, but is the deal as good as it sounds?
IMHO a lot depends what is printed, and how it is handled afterwards. If everything is printed at home using a laser printer on high quality acid-free heavy paper and stored on quality binders, the total cost will easily arise up to 12,800€ (nearly 19,000 US dollars) (see the article article about DIY album pages for details). Using an inkjet would very likely increase the total costs by 20-30%, while giving the printing job to commercial dedicated printer would cut the costs (as they can acquire acid free heavy paper on bulk rate).
Very few however need all the pages at least in one go… So I’d say that this is still a very attractively priced offer, especially as the album pages contain many countries not found in commercial album offerings.
Stamp Albums Web's offer is a huge pile of PDF files. Here are just some of the letter A.
The other area of interest is of course the question about quality. Nothing this cheap can’t be of good quality, right?
In general, I find the pages to have a very simple, but working approach. The layout and descriptions of stamp issues are both very clear and straightforward. If something should be criticized about the layout, it is the excessive use of white space on some pages.
A sample of an average album page with spaces for Malaysia/Johore stamps.
But (yes, the dreaded BUT)… The catch is that the pages are very heavily based on Scott catalogues. And Scott is very likely the worst possible source for a European worldwide collector like me. It can lack complete issues/sets and details listed on Michel, Stanley Gibbons and Yvert (the most common stamp catalogues used outside US). If the difference was just few random issues, I would not mind. But sadly it is in the range of tens of thousands listings, if not more.
Another dreaded issue is the level of detail. The pages are sometimes very generic and have places for as such. Take for example Czechoslovakia’s first issue. The album pages do provide places for imperf. and perforated set, and even list various perforations. But there are no separate places for all the different perforations. It makes the pages more compact, but it’s also bloody annoying IMHO.
I like the fact that album pages are provided as unprotected PDF-files. They can be customized using programs with PDF editing features (such as Adobe Acrobat Professional or Open Office 3 pdf-plugin). It’s not a pleasant task, but it is the only way to overcome some of the existing faults.
What’s the final verdict? IMO this is one superb offer if You ever intend to place your collection on album pages. The pages are also a very good deal if You plan on making your own custom pages, as they provide a handy source for stamp measurements and details. Very likely I will use slightly modified Steiner’s pages to house some portions of my collections when they reach the 99,5% completeness level.
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I’ve been using Bill Steiner’s product for about a year now, and it suits my needs very well. Bill also provides all his work to-date on CD-ROM, so, if you have a “cutoff” date for your collecting interests, you can get all the “raw material” for making your pages for one US$30 fee. For US$40 he gives you the CD-ROM and one year’s access to the website. One thing that some (like me!) will consider an attractive feature is that you can just print those pages which you actually have stamps to mount. When I used pre-printed albums it was always kind of depressing to see some pages I knew I’d never have the bankroll that would be required to fill.
I think the greatest part of DIY pages as Steiner’s is whay Larry spots: you only print what you will mount.
Previous releases of the site also included the original Page Maker files, which were able to be modified quite easily.
I use the pages for Falkland area and Spain (translated into spanish). I created Argentina pages based on his work (Although a lot of work was done to suit the argentinian catalog order).
I just wish the PageMaker files were still available as they would make page modifications a lot easier.
I recently returned to stamp collecting after a 25-year hiatus. After researching available albums, I decided to use the Stamp Albums Web pages for the following reasons:
1) they are far more complete than pre-printed worldwide albums;
2) at US$30 (for 50,000+ pages in pdf format) it is an absolute bargain;
3) I like the layout (similar to Scott Specialty albums); in addition to the year of issue for each set of stamps, there is a descriptive heading similar to what is in the Scott Catalogue;
4) I print a page only when I have obtained a stamp (no blank pages in my albums);
5) the pages are single-sided (no interlocking of stamps on facing pages and no need for interleaving);
6) the pages lay flat in a standard binder (also easy to add and rearrange pages);
7) maximum flexibility is provided via included pdf’s of blank pages (blank or quadrille) that allow you to enter the country name and up to four lines of text (sub-headings, dates, description, etc.);
Disclaimer: I am a collector. I am not affiliated with Stamp Albums Web in any way.
I think your website is excellent. Keep up the good work and happy collecting!
“Wish Pagemaker files were available”? Is everyone giving him feedback? I agree that the Scott-centric format is a choice Bill made, but with Pagemaker files we can customize with fonts, descriptions, values, non-Scott items, images, etc., etc.
Using his pages as a base I have creates stupendous pages (and subsequently lost them). I’d love to have an older disc.
I think that is question only Bill could answer. But I’d like to think and hope so. Anyway, that is definitely a idea worth promoting when telling new collectors about stamp albums web.
Anyway, if somebody someday does anything closely as “grand scale” project as Bill has done, I wish they would use an open, non-property file format (like XML, CSV or plain text) to store and share the essential data. It would open up unlimited possibilities for new kinds of tools and services to stamp collectors. But that’s just a dream…
Keijo:
I just stumbled onto your website recently, and am enjoying all the helpful information. I have used Mr. Steiner’s web pages for several years now, and love them. The advantage of only printing a page as you acquire the stamp is of great help. I started collecting many other countries,(after years of specializing in U.S.) because of this inexpensive approach to organize a collection. I use card stock and archival safe sheet protectors for each page. On another topic, I’m very interested in your stamp exchange program and would like to send a selection to you soon.
Hi Graham,
It’s great you like Steiner’s pages . I find them being a great asset as well, but unfortunately (and as written on the review) I find that they need occasional heavy tailoring.
As for my stamp exchange offer, please do join in. The more exchangers, the merrier.
Hello again Keijo
thank you for this discussion regarding printable pages. I hear your concern regarding the “scott centric” aspect of this product. Here is my reaction. it seems there is a “correct” catalog for each country and Scott is the catalog for US stamps. In my limited experience, there are a number of catalogs around the world and if you really want to do it right. Here are my limited findings:
USA – Scott
New Zealand – Campbell Paterson
Great Britain – Gibbons
France -Yvert
Scandanavia – Facit
Spain – Edifil
Canada – Unitrade
Germany – Michel
So creating “accurate” pages for each country would probably require reference to many different catalogs
From Dell, California
Hi Dell,
I definitely agree that (specialized) country catalogs would make the best source of information for “accurate” listings.
But that said, I can definitely understand why Bill (Steiner) has decided to make the pages “Scott centric” first place. That’s what the “primary audience” (mainly US based collectors I assume) most likely wanted… I fear that If somebody someday decides to produce “more accurate” pages , they would simply not succeed because they’d be too alien for most collectors.
I started a re-organization of my collection a few years back and had to go through all the angst of trying to decide what to do. I ended up with dovetailing systems but chose Steiner’s pages for small countries and for a few specialized countries. I went with it because the Pagemaker files were so easy to convert to whatever I thought was important to me. I could add data, remove it, change fonts, move stamps around, add or subtract. It takes time but it made a system personalized to me. When Bill quit displaying the Pagemaker pages, I was livid. The PDF pages are just not the same thing. I had been maintaining an annual subscription for ongoing updates so I complained bitterly to Bill. He never gave me a good reason why he quit but he did say he was quite prepared to send me all the available pages in Pagemaker on a CD if I asked for them. Not a perfect solution but it solved my problem. However, now I no longer maintain a subscription as he offers no new issues in Pagemaker.