Storage for worldwide stamp collection (pt3) – DIY stamp album pages
Many stamp collectors will try and use DIY stamp album pages because they want to either save money, take part in exhibitions, or they are not happy with commercial offerings. Anyone wishing to enter the path of DIY album pages needs to make some long-term decision and be prepared to pay them accordingly.
The first decision is to decide whether to start everything from scratch or utilize somebody else’s work. From my own experience I can say that building stamp album pages from scratch is not an easy task; stamps (and other items) need to measured, inscriptions and page layout designed etc. It will take weeks, possibly months to get single country album pages complete; especially if you strive for perfectionism.
For common collector, the most tempting route is to buy one year access to so called Steiner pages (read my review here) from StampAlbumsWeb. They provide nearly 71,000 printable worldwide (all era) stamp album pages in printable PDF-format. For the price of 30US$ this site is a bargain – whether you want the pages or just seek inspiration to your own pages… European collectors should note that the pages are ordered “the Scott way” (non-chronological order) and they contain mainly stamps listed in Scott catalogues (meaning many stamps listed e.g. in Michel are not included).
A small sample from StampAlbumsWeb stamp album pages. This one has spaces for Uruguy airmail stamps issued in1930/40's.
The other route is to design DIY album pages from the scratch. The benefit of this is that pages are precisely what wanted – meaning You can build them to match your favorite catalogue, items in your collection etc. For this purpose there are tens of suitable software solutions (with cost of free to several thousands) like Microsoft Word (and other word processing/office applications), Microsoft Publisher (and other DTP applications) and AlbumEasy (dedicated software for DIY stamp album pages). Personal preferences play a major role when selecting the tool for the task; my personal favorite for designin album pages is AlbumEasy mainly because of my background with software engineering/programming.
A piece of my custom Finland stamp album page. It has short topical descriptions for each stamp (below the stamp placeholder) and other small differences to commercial offerings.
Required assets and costs
With DIY stamp album pages the total costs accumulate from small sums. A common myth is that DIY stamp album pages are very cheap alternative. For total costs example I’m using the assumption of printing entire Stamp Albums Web content (71,000 pages) on paper.
Let’s begin with paper… Commercial albums are printed by default to archival quality (acid+lignin free ) heavy weight paper. Bought separately from paper store cost is usually 10-15€/100 sheets ( with notably larger amounts it is wise to buy paper directly from manufacturer or printer, and save money). A complete set of 71,000 one-sided album pages would thus cost 7,100€. Alternatively one could print the sheets two-sided and use glassine interleaving between the pages; this would cost approx. the same but would require half less space (and binders)… The third, and not recommendable way to cut costs is to use lower quality paper; for example usage of normal office paper would cut 90% of costs paper related costs.
Quality binders (at least 3-4 ring bind) from local bookstore cost 5-10€/piece and can accommodate up to 250 pages. For one-sided album pages the binders would cost 1,400€, for two-sided pages the cost of binders would be 700€. And once again, by lowering the quality demands (something I don’t recommend) it is possible to cut 90% of binder costs.
Printing is something many don’t consider as a cost, but it is (in several frontiers)… For cost and archival reasons, album pages should be printed with laser printer instead of inkjet. The actual running cost of laser printing are approx. 5 cents per page, meaning a complete set would total 3,550€. In addition there will be costs relating to electricity, maintenance etc; and possibly the cost of acquisition of suitable printer… A very rarely talked alternative approach is to ask an official quote from a local printer for whole print (with desired paper quality). This is something I recommend doing as it might cut total costs considerably.
Affixing stamps on DIY pages have the same options as with commercial stamp album pages . The cheapest option is of course to use hinges, costing roughly 1€/1000 hinges; adding 710€ to total cost.
So with some quick math, a complete DIY worldwide stamp album would cost approx. 12,800€. But as said, there are several possibilities to cut costs.
Very iNTERESTING INDEED!
Amazing conclusion about compared cost of each alternative.
You should add the time of printing pages in this alternative which is no trivial…
If someone is still interested, in my site http://www.albumdeestampillas.com.ar I sell pages that are stampalbum.com pages translated into spanish.
So long, I’ve done it just for american countries.
Best,
Pablo
Hi Pablo and Vijay,
and thanks for comments.
I have to admit that I personally always assumed DIY stamp pages were the cheapest alternative. But doing this comparison series (and math behind alternatives) has been a real eye opener.
Time spent on printing is very complex issue to review (which is why I left it outside the scope). Older (and cheaper) laser printer models usually print 20-30 pages per minute; modern (best of the breed) laser printers can work up to 100-200 pages per minute. So there can be huge differences in this.
Hopefully you will like the upcoming parts too.
Best,
-keijo-
Back when Stamp Albums Web was free to use about 10 years ago I printed the entire site. I would stop and purchase Hammermill 67 pound cardstock at about $5 per ream in bulk. This is a high quality paper I would go into work 2 hours early and could use their web link and their printer and toner. It took many weeks to finish. To house them I had to purchase 4 heavy 4 drawer file cabinets and install hanging file hardware and purchase the hanging file folders.
When done I moved some of the countries to 3 ring binders but would return them to the cabinets when I was not working on those countries. I kept many out permanently, European Countries, GB, Canada, Australia. This has worked fairly well. I did have some trouble matching stamps to frames as the descriptions were very brief. So these are not for the beginner you must have a full set of catalogs they can be older ones to save money, but it is a very large task and expensive even using someone elses printer and toner.
One reason to try this route, I was using Scott International Albums and the way they are arranged it is very difficut to put the years together they are double sided pages and when one country stops the other side of the page is the next country. Also airmail and special use stamps are at the end of each country so even if you could rearrange pages the airmail and other stamps were scattered through the album. The albums were costing $70 each and made it dificult to look at a single country.
I do not particularly like either approach but the stamp albums pages do use standard sized paper and do fit in standard binders. It is also easy to make a special page to show off blocks or color shade varieties or cancels or covers and bring them into the album
For countries where I specalize I am using Hagnar double sided stock sheets. they allow maximum flexability but are expensive even when you buy 500 pages at a time.
Bill
Thanks for the sharing Your first hand experiences and opinions, Bill.
They do make a great reading
I have a collection of stamps from different parts of the world but I need to buy albums to put them together for protecting them from loss & getting damaged.
What would be the cheapest way of getting good albums? Suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
Hi Bachitter,
my advice is to shop around for local (online) stamp shops and see what they have in offer. Focus on brand names like Leuchtturm/Lighthouse, Lindner, Safe, Hawid etc. If buying by online/mail order, then please remember to take into account the postage costs. They can get very high.
Something overlooked here is that you only have to print the pages that you have stamps for, as I did. Your collection expands over the years and there is no immediate large output of money. I now have 21 albums that I printed over a period of 4 years now. My cost for the albums and paper (I use cover stock as opposed to card stock) is $25.00 per album, not including printing.
@Alan… That’s true. But the same can apply also for stock books, stock pages & other storage methods (with the exception of pre-printed album pages). It all depends on how one lays out the stamps to pages – if you include the empty spaces for missing stamps/countries, then you are bound to pay storage costs upfront. Otherwise you’ll pay only for what you use, but you are bound to move stamps around every now & then.
I had the same experiences Bill had. All in all, I am a big fan of StampAlbumsWeb.
I make my own albums based on my specific collection’s needs. As I collect only used stamps, I do not bother with mini sheets that are usually only unused or cto. With my Canada collection, I decided to include spaces for flourescent papers of only one type per issue, rather than the the three or four different kinds of paper actually used. As none of my stamps have gum, there are no spaces for gum varieties.
At present , I have made pages for Canada, Great Britain (I went nuts with the Machins) France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and pre communist Hungary.
I use Adobe InDesign which is professional graphic design software which lets you incorporate images of the stamps very easily. Images for stamps are available online from a variety of sources.
George Satory
I use Steiner’s pages and just print the pages where I have an item. I have collections like this for Europe and No. America: Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Canada and the US). I still have to take care of Austria and Russia. I have a very nice Ireland collection and a nice superb mint Hans Christian Anderson set I picked up in regular- and small-sized stock books from a Copenhagen shop (had a great time talking to the owner who knew enough English so we could communicate). Those I will leave as is.
I use MS paint, Wordpad, clipart and free fonts to make my album pages for my specific needs. I print only on b&w to highlight the stamps. Usually 1 or 2 sets to a page or I will cut/paste a quadrille and place a nice border around it with a header and some write ups. I’ve been doing it for years so it’s simple for me. I try to make each page unique to the set being displayed. I like to lay everything out symmetrically but I have no need to be exact.
I want my collection to reflect my personality and although I specialize in certain countries, my collection is sort of ‘Go-as-you-please’ to quote Stanley Phillips.
@Joseph… I definitely like the idea that each page reflects the set displayed. It will definitely open lots of doors to “spice up” the story.
After years of debating (with myself) and research, I decided I wanted to design my own album. Each page would be unique and support a theme, rather than a region or year.
Also, I plan to use a Scott or Hawid mount to display my stamps. If my stamps are in a mount, why should I care if my pages are archival quality or not? They’ll never come in contact with the page and I get a nice black background.
Your thoughts?
@Srini… Any storage method is about as strong as it’s weakest link. The mounts do add level of protection, but they are not an invincible barrier…If you are about to spend money on mounts, then using proper archival quality paper doesn’t really add that much to total.
I want to mount and possibly display a George VI Collection (not UK) which includes many varieties.
It’s a maint6 collection and any suggestions would be most welcome.
@Brian… I think some of the key questions you need to figure out before heading onwards are:
* Will you use a computer for designing pages, or make the pages by hand (yes, people do that even today).
* If designing pages with computer, then you’ll have to pick a program to use (albumEasy,StampPageCreater,Scribus just to name few free and commonly used programs; but basically you could go on using Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer). Each program can do the same basic tasks – some easier, some not easily. The differences come in when you want to something more special. Also the learning curves are very different: single purpose tools (like albumEasy and StampPageCreator) are easiest to learn; more advanced programs (like Scribus) require time & devotion just to grab the basics.
* What kind of paper to use (archive quality is obvious choice – but what kind of color, density, texture, size etc)
* Mounts or hinges – and if mounts, what kind of mounts (black or transparent, split vs openside etc)
* If you want to compete / display your collection publicly, then you have to fit the essential parts of collection in specific number of pages so it fits exhibition frames. You’ll also have to take into account what national guidelines say about page size, color, use of material etc.
* If you are doing it just for fun / for yourself, then build it anyway you like.
The rest is mainly copywriting: coming up with the story You want to tell; making it visually attractive and easy to approach etc.
Just some thoughts.
It would be useful as a confirmation of the cost of these DIY album pages (over $7000) to some math. If there really are about 530,000 stamps to collect (total) and Steiner’s StampAlbums web has 71,000 pages to cover the entire history of stamps, that equals about 7.5 stamps per page!
Doesn’t that mean that the number of stamps on Steiner’s pages averages below what most of us would want on a page?
I have printed out a few countries from Steiner’s website and they seem to average well above 7.5 stamps per page. So I wonder where the 71,000 pages figure comes from and is it reliable? Does it include everything including postage dues and other types of stamps many of us would not buy? If so, and if the total of Steiner’s pages we would need to print is substantially less . . . then the total cost would be substantially less. I imagine the figure would vary a great deal from one collector to another, also, depending on many factors.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but I would put far more than 7.5 stamps on an album page. The number would probably be around 15-20 on average per page.
Using 15 per page would cut in half the number of pages necessary to mount all the world’s stamps. And mounting up to 20 on average would reduce the number of pages even more. It seems to me that on standard 8.5 x 11 inch pages (U.S. size), you could mount all the world’s stamps, 15-20 per pages, on about 30-35,000 pages . . . or so. Much cheaper.
I realize that Steiner produces 71,000 or so pages, but would anyone really even want to print all of them? For example, I have a separate U.S. collection in a Scott album. I wouldn’t need Steiner’s U.S. pages. The same for a number of other countries. I imagine even for worldwide collectors, they would not need to print some countries or perhaps some time periods.
So, I am not sure that “a complete DIY worldwide stamp album would cost approx. 12,800€” (including mounts, paper, etc.). Maybe, but maybe not. Most likely, many of us will use some preprinted albums such as Scott (perhaps even some used albums), some DIY albums, and some others like stockbooks. This complicates the total cost estimate, but it’s more realistic, too, I think.
Is 71,000, the number that Steiner gives for the number of his pages? I wonder what the number of pages is in a complete set of the Scott International Albums from 1840-present, just as a way of comparison. They have far more stamps per page than 7.5, so wouldn’t they have far fewer pages? I assume so. Not that this is a cheap option, of course!
My point is not really to quibble over numbers so much as it is to suggest that these totals, as interesting as they are, will undoubtedly not reflect any individual’s real costs. What you collect, the mixture of different types of albums you use, and other factors (even the accuracy of Steiner’s 71,000 page figure which I find a little hard to believe) will all affect your total cost.
Finally, most of us purchase albums over a 20, 30, or more year period, so we spend only a small fraction of the total in any one year. If we added up our total cost of food for 20 or 30 years, we wouldn’t stop eating! I imagine over a 25 year period the difference between spending $7,000 and $12,000 would not seem to be very significant for some people.
@Drew M…
Actually the current figure is roughly 621,000 – for more details see http://www.stampcollectingblog.com/number-of-different-stamps-issued.php
But as these calculations were based on 530k stamps, let’s stick to that.
First, the number of pages (as well as count of stamps) is a moving target. But again, let’s stick to files/situation I had when writing these.
Steiner’s website states there are over 50,000 pages. As where the 71,000 pages comes from… It’s a figure that’s been circling around the Internet. I’ve never counted (or verified it) before as it seemed to be in the ballpark. But just to check the accuracy of my writing, I just build a small script/code that counts the number of pages in PDF-files that I have. And the script stopped at 74,972 pages. Some of the PDF-files do have the copyright-yadda-yadda at start/end, and few page sets are highly specialized or out of the scope (like US precancels and US revenues). So I think that 71,000 pages is extremely close to please the needs of a common worldwide collector.
As for number of stamps per page… The Steiner pages do have a spaces for fair number varieties, so that distorts the assumption of 7.5 pages per stamp on some level. As you (likely) know, Bob Skinner from Filling Spaces blog has also covered the topic – http://globalstamps.blogspot.com/2011/12/page-density-for-popular-worldwide.html – and the few figures in there move between 13-15 stamps per page. But these are based on classic 1840-1940 era (or so I assume) when stamps where smaller. If you move to modern post 1940’s era, stamps get larger in size and the number of ’single stamp’ issues increases. So the number of stamps per page drops down hugely (especially if you look for countries having lots and lots of miniature sheets – say Grenada or Soviet Union).
I fear there’s no right or wrong “stamp density” as the beauty is always in the eye of beholder.
But true, there’s some public criticism on this especially on behalf of classic era collectors. I agree that pages could have more stamps fitted into them – but that’s just my opinion.
Actually they would reflect my costs IF I had chosen to use Steiner’s pages. As you (and everybody reading the blog) know, I have chosen to use stock books as my storage method. But if I would have chosen otherwise, I know precisely what type of paper I would have used, what binders etc…. Only time will tell how accurate my calculations on costs were, but at least for the time being they seem pretty accurate as far as use of stockbooks apply (and I seen no reason why they would not match for other storage alternatives too).
As for whether or not I would have printed all the pages in one go? Yes, I collect pretty much everything, so I would have started out by printing absolutely everything in one go. Though it would have required lots of space (and patience and funds) in one go, I believe it would have been a smarter choice on the long run. Printing pages “as You go” doesn’t seem like an realistic alternative to me. Maybe if one added just few tens or few hundreds of stamps per month it would work out. But for example I’ve added over 1,200 stamps from over 60 postal entities this month alone; with such number I would consume too much time/energy locating and printing pages I need at that specific moment.
I think this depends on how you place/view the question.
If I asked “would you like to put extra $200/year on album pages or stamps?”, I think most collectors would prefer stamps.
Interesting comments and thanks for them. My inclination is to use some kind of album pages to mount my stamps. You’ve chosen stock books. Both work just fine. And the cost of the albums, whatever kind, is definitely worth considering. They are not going to be cheap if you collect the world.
Collecting the “entire world” is a major undertaking and at 500 or 600 (or even 700) thousand stamps the undertaking is well nigh impossible. I imagine at 10 stamps per page, it would be unimaginable to have 70,000 pages of stamps! If someone had albums of 200 pages each, that would be 350 separate albums. That’s a wall of stamp albums. A little hard to imagine–and after spending all that money, you’d still have to buy tens of thousands of stamps.
It may be best, as you suggest, to put nearly all one’s funds into the stamps themselves. My view is more toward the “total aesthetic” of the stamps on the pages. I want the albums themselves with the stamps in them to look really good. So, for me, choosing the best looking pages and albums matters, and I’m willing to spend some money on them.
There are self-printed Steiner pages, preprinted pages, and other options including a company called stampalbums(dot)com which will print Scott size (or Minkus) pages for you! At around 25-30 cents a page, it’s not nearly as expensive as actually buying a Scott album, though it’s certainly not cheap if you need dozens of albums. A 250-300 page album would cost $75 (plus the binder) and you’d need hundreds of them to collect the world. So, any way you do it the album part of collecting is going to be expensive and cost you a few thousand dollars. If spread out over many years, though, this is not too painful — especially if the money spent on the hobby replaces money you would have spent on other things, anyway.
My own approach is to be a little flexible and have various types of collections — some in preprinted used albums, some in new albums, some on pages I’ve printed out for free from various websites. It’s more interesting — and less narrow and standardized, I think — that way. But, whatever anyone chooses to do will work if they are thoughtful about it and careful with their stamps, I suppose.
It is interesting, though, to play with these numbers to consider the true costs of various collecting styles. My first childhood album had perhaps 100 pages and mounted a few thousand stamps. Things have definitely changed.
Interesting yes, And scary considering what happens to albums, stock books etc. once the collection becomes estate/merchandise. Any value there might have been sinks faster than Titanic.
Started collecting whole world and compared costs of albums. Poland for example would cost over £1000.00 DIY much much less. Not using album pages also checked and the cost of stock books etc prohibitive.
So started database to keep stamp details etc so I can add as and when. Album pages produced automatically from the data. I now have nearly 100 albums in variuous stages which suits my collecting style. Producing the albums now forms part of the enjoyment I get from the hobby.
I use good quality four ring binders and paper that is a minimum of 120gsm then two sheets back to back in print safe pockets gives lots of support and protects stamps from prying fingers and thankfully to spilled coffee.
@Dave…
Re, cost of storage… One important issue to remember is that all costs are always subjective to where a person lives. For example I can acquire stock books at “very reasonable” price levels (way below US or Asia prices). But on the other hand, buying quality (archival + buffered) paper for DIY pages is very expensive here.
There are always more elements to consider with any subject about “lifestyle” choices like a hobby. One could buy good quality blank pages (acid-free) and spend the least amount that way, but some people are happier putting stamps into spaces. There is a difference between putting stamps on blank pages vs. pages with a grid, and I prefer the latter since it “organizes” the stamps more regularly. The printed pages (self-printed or purchased) is another step in the direction of organization, and a lot of people just prefer that look for their albums. I suppose it gives them a sense of completing something when they fill each space. So, their spending more money for such pages may be worth it.
Still, when you consider thousands of dollars/Euros for worldwide pages, it’s a little daunting. But, if purchased over many years, it’s no more than what many people spend on beer, barbeques, eating in restaurants, sports, cable TV, or other pastimes that no one every expects to recoup the costs of.
If I spent a few thousand dollaars year for years on album pages, binders and some stamps, it seems like a lot of money. But I spend much more than that every year on owning a car or other far less enjoyable things. I suppose the key to this is to be thrifty in other areas and spread out the expense of collecting over a period of years.
Alternately, buying used albums and getting blank pages when they are on sale or making your own albums can save a good deal of money, too.
I just finished printing DIY pages for Russia 1800-1975 and its States on 24# paper and 2 binders a 4inch and 2.5inch total cost $70. Very pleased with the results.
@dmsheppart1949…. With ink / toner cartridge costs included? Not bad (and above all, You being pleased with the results is the most important thing)…
For the same money I can buy enough stockbooks to fit 7K (very large) to 10K (medium size) stamps.
hi there , having just started using Steiner’s DIY pages & 160gsm paper for scandinavia i realised that the albums will take up more room than i have .so i decided to print double sided & place them in acid free poly pockets ,which adds a little to the cost ,BUT i use 1/2 as many pages which covers that extra cost.
i was thinking of using this doublesided system for DDR
what is the opinion on using these poly pockets long term ?? do they give enough breathing space for the stamps & stop chance of foxing etc??
@Trevor… I think it all depends very much on what the pockets are made of, and what the storage conditions (heat & humidity) are. For various types of (poly) plastic this presentation by APS is likely one of the best overviews in English: http://stamps.org/userfiles/file/pcpm/StampsPlastics.pdf
After examining the available details of various DIY album page generators, I think I would like to try AlbumEasy to set up a few Topical pages as a trial project. I wonder if any readers would be willing to share some .txt files they’ve created to generate pages, particularily pages which include full panes or plate blocks. I presume you just creat a big “stamp?” What about non-rectangle stamps? Is anyone aware of a users group for AlbumEasy?
… Cal (Maryland, USA)
@Cal… Yes. “Big stamps” is the way for creating spaces for sheets/panes etc. large objects.
As for non-rectangle stamps. There’s no way to do that in AlbumEasy (or at least I haven’t come up with it).
Dear Keijo,
I have read with great interest the pages about DIY. One thing is not quite clear about printing. Why is laserprinting so much better than inktjet ? Is there so much quality difference or is it about the sort of ink ?
@Johannes… The difference is how they behave when/if wet. Most inks bleed (smear/smudge) quite some time after the printing. It takes roughly 24 hours for a single page to dry completely (though you can touch and handle it immediately once printed), and even longer if you stack a lot of pages. A similar bleeding problem comes up if the page gets accidentally wet afterwards (though a combination of high quality paper + ink resolves this problem).
With lasers the “ink” (toner) is burned to paper, so there is no such problem.
I collect U.S. Plate Number Coil (PNC) stamps and First Day Covers (FDC)s. I’ve created, printed, and used my own custom album pages for more than 10 years because I found the Scott pages to be impractical. They do not include many of the known collectible varieties and I like having the flexibility of choosing how to present each page.
I spent many years designing the pages as .PNG files, but moved to using Microsoft Powerpoint a few years ago because of the ease in reproducing pages and the level of control over the finest details. Also, I started off using a laser printer for my pages, but after a number of years the toner began to have problems. Now, I use 110 pound stock and an HP Inkjet printer to produce pages. Each strip of stamps is mounted with Showgard cut from a 260mm strip with a Showgard Ortho guillotine cutter.
I recommend designing your own pages to any collector who feels that they can dedicate the time, energy, effort, and money to doing it themselves. It’s rewarding and enjoyable to know that your collection is a true reflection of you and not what some publisher thinks you should be.
@Scott
Hear, hear… Very wise words, that apply not just to album pages, but the way we collect.
In reply to Cal re AlbumEasy – yes you can layout triangular stamps. The command you need is as follows:
STAMP_ADD_TRIANGLE (width height txt0 txt1 txt2 txBL txBC txBR)
If one clicks on the ?/Help Button on the AlbumEasy screen, you will find a complete listing and explanations for all the commands the software supports.
Hope this helps. Also if Cal would like to forward me his e-mail address I would be happy to send him an example .txt file I created for a set of triangular Hungarian 1952 Birds issue.
@Mike…
Very nice! Didn’t know this (bit oddly the command line version nor the online documentation don’t say anything about the existance of this command).