Album

under construction

A stamp album is a way to permanently house your collection. After all, you can only go so far with an Altoid box or shoebox. Still, there are alternatives in stockbooks and stockpages. The latter are good choices for smaller collections, collections with no printed albums like topical/thematic collections, and just general storage and sorting.

Pre-printed
There are a number of brands of albums and the one you choose is always based on personal taste and possible choices. There are albums for individual countries and/or related areas, or for worldwide general collecting.

For starters, for country or area collectors, you'll have to see if your favorites are covered by a brand or not. Keep in mind that album formats and sizes are proprietary, so mixing and matching brands won't work unless you want some ugly pages. That said, blank pages of specific brands might help you accomplish what you want to do.

Then, the decision will probably be whether to buy pages with or without mounts pre-installed. This saves a lot of time, but all manufacturers use clear mounts, not always preferred by collectors. Meanwhile, Lindner has an interesting system of having a pocket page tooled into a light cardboard page, allowing quick inspection of backs. Also, some collectors put MNH or mint stamps in the pocket page and hinge used stamps directly on the page.

Binder construction is different from brand to brand. There are ring binders and post binders of different types. Ring binders allow pages to lie flat, but depending on ring size can potentially cause some scuffing if stamp are not in mounts. The rings can can break or get misaligned even if carefully handled; replacement rings normally don't exist since binder systems are proprietary. It can be easier to add or change pages with ring binders. Meanwhile post binders are very much less prone to breakage. Post binders do not usually allow pages to lie completely flat unless the pages are designed in any case, capacity of both types is probably less than you think. Some post binders (we're looking at you, Harris) use the cheesiest aluminum screw-type posts (common today) that only can be opened from one side and have the cheapest screws that allow no settling so that screws can be screwed back wihtout a lot of trial and error.

Neither type should be completely filled solid; page wear and damage is inevitable that way. Both types can prove problematic if pages are not punched near perfectly. There should be slight play between pages and binder support when turning pages, otherwise page holes will wear out or catch and tear. . Brands include:
 * Davo site
 * Harris site
 * Lindner site
 * Minkus Amos pages for Minkus
 * Palo site
 * Schaubek site
 * Scott site
 * Stanley Gibbons site

You can get a vague idea of how various brand pages are laid out on but questions remain unanswered without seeing and comparing in person. Questions directed to the seller are probably necessary, but be aware if the album comes as a sealed unit, sellers will be reluctant to rip open packaging to answer questions since they won't be able to sell it as is.

Other things to consider are:
 * Page format. How are se-tenant sets handled? Specifically, how are strips presented as well as se-ten sets that are larger than the available page size (e.g., US issues in panes of 50 different designs)? You should decide to keep those intact, in which case you need alternate storage like a mint sheet file.
 * Paper type and color. Paper weight ranges from typing paper weight to light card. Most pages are bright white except for Scott Specialty (country) albums that are in a cream color.

Worldwide albums
Unfortunately, there are no longer the variety of choices that there once was.

programs
Programs are available to create your own pages.


 * the Stamp Album Web download aka Steiner album pages
 * the free Albumeasy software
 * StampWeb has a good number of user-created country albums using AlbumEasy

True DIY
If you have an artistic bent and the time to use it, you can create your own albums using blank or quadrille pages.





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