Storage for worldwide stamp collection (pt2) -pre-printed (commercial) stamp album pages
As stamp album pages are a lengthy topic, I have decided to split this post to 3 parts. This first part covers pre-printed (commercial) album pages, the second will cover DIY (printable) album pages and third one will focus with blank pages. Let’s begin with pre-printed (commercial) stamp album pages.
Pre-printed (commercial) stamp album pages
Some Aland stamps on Davo commercial album page
Pre-printed album pages provide spaces with illustrations and/or descriptions of each stamp that is to be placed in each space. This is both a benefit and a curse. Some collectors like the possibility of filling gaps and having precise roadmap of missing items; for them a pre-printed album is a blessing. Others (like me) love to explore/research and include (non-major) variations where possible; this is where the limitations of pre-printed albums show up quickly as the albums have no spaces for these.
Not all pre-printed stamp album pages are equal. The origin of album pages plays a major role on what’s included and what’s not. US based album pages usually list stamps “the Scott way” (by purpose in somewhat chronological order) while European pages usually obey strict chronological order. In all cases, the ordering of stamps is usually somewhat different than in stamp catalogues. Catalogue numbers are very rarely printed on stamp album pages (due to copyrights).
Stamp album pages have major differences in level of completeness that a collector needs to be aware of. For example Scott International includes spaces only for stamps that are “easy-to-acquire”; leaving a huge number of stamps out of the picture. It’s also very common that stamp album pages don’t contain watermark positions or rare perforation variations.
Old (pre WW2) worldwide stamp album (Kirjan Postimerkki albumi)shows only some images of stamps and has very few spaces.
Another angle on quality comes with the way stamps are affixed on pages. The budget version stamp album pages require use of stamp hinges; something many young collectors dislike. Deluxe-versions (often referred as hingless stamp albums) provide pre-attached mounts for each stamp…Deluxe and budget version can (and in most cases will) have differences in page paper quality.
Most pre-printed pages are fitted to maximum of 10-15 stamps per page with fixed space for each major stamp issue. Organized this way a worldwide collection would require at least 35,000 pages. And that is the minimum. For example the highly popular StampAlbumsWeb worldwide album pages span over 71,000 printable pages; that is nearly 20 meters if piled.
To preserve space, many of the older worldwide albums had two-side pages. This saves space alright, but many stamps have (and will get) damaged because of this. This approach provided also problems for anyone wanting to exhibit their collection. Thus modern pre-printed album pages are made usually one-side.
Space is costly, and luckily there are methods that make use of two-sided stamp album pages safe. The first trick is to place a glassine interleave between two-sided pages; glassines usually cost around 10€/100 interleaves. Alternative method is to place a two-sided page inside a (archival quality) page protector; these cost approx. 50c/piece. These solutions cost a premium, but they also save money in form of saved space and binders.
Finally let’s talk about the costs of pre-printed (commercial) stamp album pages… There are two possibilities here. The first option is single-country stamp albums. These are usually very complete and of good quality; but come with heavy price of approx. 50-200€ / country (budget version) up to 200-800€ (hingless deluxe version). A complete worldwide collection storage would easily pay anything from 10,000€ upwards.
The other solution is to go out and buy a worldwide commercial stamp album. These are very scarce, most famous being Scott International (or Green Scott album series). I think Scott International covers over 50 volumes these days having more than 35,000 double sided pages (and spaces for “only” 250,000 stamps). I’m not sure what’s the latest deal with complete Scott International, but I remember seeing some “one-time-offers” with price of approx. 5,500US$.
As the price of commercial stamp albums is steep, the markets for old/used album pages thrive on eBay and other collector sites. In general used album pages (or complete albums) cost approx. 40-50% less than new ones.
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It is my experience that nowadays most people prefer a black- or white-paper stockbook for storing their collection. much cheaper and all freedom to arrange as you like. I admit that you can not take part at an exhibition with such an album.
I agree that stockbooks (and stockpages) are preferred solution these days; at least in Europe.
-keijo-
Hi Keijo, Great blog! I’m a general worldwide collector too.
The Blue Scott International Albums had spaces for 200,000 stamps by the late 1970’s (or so the old advertisements say) so I am not sure what the total would be now. I would guess that it is more than 250,000 though. I wound up going with used Scott Internationals, you really can save quite a bit by going that route. A used Volume 1 1840 to 1940 scott international album would run between $75 to $200 US with several thousand cheapie stamps inside.
Afer a while though, stockbooks make a lot of sense by the time you get into the 1980’s where there is one scott international volume a year or two volumes a year!
Hi Pete,
thanks for the information. That was quite useful piece about Scott International’s.
In Finland (as well as rest of Europe) used/old Scott albums are pretty hard to come by. Buying them directly from US (auctions) is more than tempting, but… Once you add custom fees, VAT, postal rates etc the price of “cheap buy” is far, far away from being cheap
Nice website. Lots of interesting stuff to read.
I just restarted my stamp collection after a nearly 20 year break. I just picked up right where I left off. It was like I never stopped, though it seems more fun now that I have a little more discretionary income plus the Internet adds additional sources of stamps. I am consolidating from a few albums that various family members used over the years plus one I bought online.
I am currently using a “Minkus New World Wide” stamp album that I bought in High School, with supplements through 1992. This has been a great album, though being a single volume World Wide album, I am quickly running out of space. The album is quickly approaching the exploding point so I ordered a new matching empty binder and plan to split it in two, adding interleaves as a stopgap measure – it has double sided pages that tend to get tangled.
I actually really enjoy “filling spaces”, so the pre-printed album format has been nice for me, but I am trying to figure out what I will do as I “outgrow” the current album and to resolve the fact that I am missing nearly 20 years of missing supplements. Since Amos bought Minkus, it appears the only supplements are from the gigantic worldwide set or individual countries. Not much for the intermediate collector.
Are there any rumors floating around how long Amos will keep printing Minkus format? I understand they have already switched to Scott numbering.
Options:
1) Hand made pages as needed. I’ve made a few of my own pages by hand, using blank Minkus stock… the results are OK but I actually prefer filling spaces.
2) Buy the world-wide Minkus supplements from Amos for the last 20 years (eek – maybe just the U.S. supplements)… As I run out of space in the pre-1992 sections of my album, get the individual country binders. I am in the U.S. For better or worse, it seems like Scott is the easiest if/when I can’t get Minkus anymore.
3) Fill up my pages and then start printing pages as-needed from StampAlbums.com. This seems like a decent approach as I only print what I need. It may cost more per page but I get immediate gratification and the cost is spread out as I collect. My only concern is how to merge these pages (presumably 8.5 x 11 inches) with the Minkus sized pages (9.5 x 11.25 inches). Thoughts? Should I just go ahead an intermix them or possibly insert them in sleeves? Has anyone tried either of these? If you print your own pages, do you buy “real” stamp binders or just put them in 3-ring binders from the stationary store?
Are there other intermediate level options that won’t cost me 100 times what I spend on stamps? It seems Amos (Scott) is working up a bit of a monopoly here in the U.S. but I would consider publishers elsewhere if there is something appropriate. After all, I am collecting WORLDWIDE stamps
@mrprgrmr…
From business point of view it would make sense to produce them as long as there’s enough demand/sales. It might be worth asking straight from Amos what their plans are….
I fear not…. Pre-printed album pages are somewhat closed business, and with the exception of Steiners pages, the offerings (from SG,Schaubek, Lighthouse, Davo, Lindner etc) can become quite expensive if collecting worldwide.
As an alternative option… You could always try to go after some mounted collections on traditional/online auctions. For example I’m right now looking for a lot of Channel Islands up to 2005 that’s been mounted on Davo Hingless pages. For the current price it would be a bargain for anyone needing the pages alone. Like old catalogs, used album pages aren’t worth much
Thanks for the ideas. I might try looking for some used Minkus pages on eBay. Are there other good auction sites for stamps?
Also, I found on albumpages.net that I can order Minkus sized prints of Steiners pages for U.S. $0.25 each from Rick Simpson. At first glance that sounds like a lot for a sheet of paper but when I calculate the cost of good paper and ink cartridges, this might be cheaper than printing my own. The only downside is it will take a bit more preplanning. I can’t just pick up a stamp, print out the page and mount it.
Maybe I’ll do a trial run. I have more options than I thought!
@mrprgrmr… eBay has likely got the most volume, but You might want to check out also DelCampe and StampWants (just google for their names, and you’ll find them easily).
Re, pushing the costs further down… You might also want to contact some local printers, and ask how much they would charge for printing of pages (be specific when asking for quotes – state how many pages, paper size and paper type etc). They might give you an offer that’s very competitive. It’s a bit more work though.
Thanks.. the local printer might be worth a try. I just got the second binder, so I will be busy for a while. I wanted to make sure I had a plan moving forward before I spend a lot of time on the current format. Sounds like there are enough options that there is no need to change direction now.
Just an update. Over my long weekend, I purchased a subscription to Steiner’s site. I started printing some pages on 65 lb. card stock and found that intermixing letter sized paper (8.5 x 11 inch) with Minkus (9.5 x 11.25 inch) was not too upsetting and more feasible than hiring a printer. The only problem is that I like the new pages better than the ones I already have!
I think I may end up slowly migrating many of my stamps to the self printed pages. I already built a small binder for Australia. I had been avoiding an envelope of Australia stamps because I didn’t have any space left on the Minkus pages.
I estimate my production costs are about 10 cents (U.S.) per page for paper plus ink. Maybe not cheaper in the long run but it’s nice that it grows organically with my collection – I’m only printing pages I have stamps for. No empty pages
I have a question for those who have printed their own album pages–has anyone had a problem of the toner or ink transfering to the opposite page, or worse, to a mounted stamp? I worry if this will happen with time and pressure.
@Doug… I almost forgot to reply on this (sorry)…
I can’t answer for printed album pages, but as I have printed quite a lot of (business-related) stuff with various types of printers, I do have some experience on this matter.
Yes, it’s possible. But a lot depends on ink/toner, paper, storage conditions and the printer itself. If there’s something fishy with one of these, then transfers become very possible.
Possibly the best advice I can give is don’t even try to be cheapskate, as it backfires. Use original ink/toner, use good quality paper and other storage materials, and put some effort into proper storage (controlling excess heat & humidity & pressure is a must do operation)… If all goes well, then it will likely last till the end of days; at least I haven’t had major issues in 20+ years.
Possibly the only thing you can’t really control is if there’s something quirky with the printer (for example laser printers can use too much/little heat to ‘melt’ the toner into paper).
So the bottom of it all… There’s really no way to say for sure.