Storage for worldwide stamp collection (pt5) – Stock pages
So far I’ve focused on “old school” methods for stamp collection storage on this series. Let’s take a look of some of the new (”only” 50 years old) and intuitive ways.
Stock pages (stock sheets)
Stock pages follow the concept of stockbooks with couple of notable differences.
Empty 5-row Hagner stockpage
The main problem with traditional stockbooks is that pages are fixed on the book. Stock pages on the other hand are to be placed on a binder (like stamp album pages), and are thus fully transferrable solution for stamp collection storage.
Stock pages are usually made of (non-PVC archival quality) plastic or card stock. Most stockpages can be purchased either with transparent (showing front and back of the item) or black background with transparent strips. You can even choose whether how many strips you want the stock page to have, as well as if you want single or double sided pages.
Stock pages are a very intuitive, flexible and good solution for worldwide stamp collection storage. There are however also some drawbacks…
If you try to insert a heavy (thick) cover or similar item on a stock page, the page will bend very easily. This can hurt either the items on the page or the stockp age itself… A very common practise is use stock pages where the entire item can be fitted inside the strip; this way there is no need for glassine interleaving pages.
Another very common source of issues are “2nd class” stockpages – these are usually sold notably cheaper price level, but IMO they are not worth the discount (as they will break very easily).
Stored in stock pages a complete worldwide collection of 530,000 stamps would take approx. 18,000 single-sided stockpages or 9,000 double-sided stockpages. As stock pages cost between 4-8€ / set of 5 pages (either single or double sided), the pages alone would cost at least 7,200€ if using double sided pages, or 14,400 for single-sided pages.
In addition one would need a set of quality binders (cost of 5-10€/piece) and possible interim leaves (if using doublesided pages). Assuming a single binder will accommodate 250 stock pages, then 36 binders would suffice; adding 180€ to total.
Hi Keijo,
there is something about your numbers that I don’t quite understand. In general, you assume to put 30 stamps on every page. Thus, 530,000 stamps divided per 30 would require 18,000 pages. Each stockpage has 2 real pages (since it is double sided), so you would require 9,000 stockpages. As these come in sets of 5, you would require 1,800 sets. As each set has a price of around 4 euro (for example that of Prinz Profil System or Leuchtturm Vario), it comes to 7,200 euros. But you speak about 14,400 euros. Where is the trick?
Congratulations for this wonderful and amazing blog!
Hi,
congrats. You found an error caused by sleepy mind (as I usually write these posts in the late nights)
For some reason I had used single-sided stock pages pages in my calculations (causing twofold-cost)… But I’ll edit the entry.
Hi Keijo,
About PVC:a form of PVC(unplasticized or hard PVC) is widely used in stockbooks, stockpages no matter how cheap or expensive these things are. That includes all major manufacturers. Even hard PVC is potentially dangerous to stamps and covers. Usually stamp mounts and approval cards are non-PVC but one should always be careful.I used to buy the expensive stockbooks with clear strips and acrylic interleaving that as it turned out are made of hard PVC. It is possible that the humble stockbooks with glassine strips and interleaving might be safer after all.
Hi Jimmy,
and thanks for sharing your knowledge. It definitely raises some thoughts.