Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2015 2:31:32 GMT
Awhile back we had a discussion about a source of paper for making pages for the Scott International Stamp Albums. I am in the process of replacing all the pages up to 1940 because Scott is quite incomplete before that date. I had been buying Scott Blank pages for the National albums and then trimming and re-punching them to fit the 2-hole International post binders. But at $0.25 per page, this gets expensive in a hurry. So, I have been searching for a paper source for paper the equivalent to the Scott paper. It has taken some time and contacting numerous on-line sources and getting samples sent to me. I have finally found what, at least for me, is a close substitute. It is Rolland Enterprises Inc. paper called Rolland Opaque, 70# Text, Smooth Finish, Natural. The color is a slightly lighter shade of cream and a trivial bit lighter weight than the Scott pages, but close. I got mine from a local print shop. It comes in a variety of sheet sizes, but if you can get 25 x 38 inch size, there is very little wastage when cut to the 9.5 x 11.25 Scott International page dimensions. You can get 8 finished pages from one sheet. (9.5 x 4 = 38 inches and 11.25 x 2 = 22.5 inches). The only waste is the 2.5 inches cut off the 25 inch dimension. Even this is, at least for me, not wasted as I had the printer save these strips so I could make note pads from it. This paper is rated 100 year Archival quality, so it should not affect your stamps or discolor during your lifetime.
Best of all is the cost. I got enough of the 25 x 38 sheets (250 sheets) to make 2000 International Album size pages, including cutting and punching (be sure you tell the printer that the 2-hole punch distance is NOT standard. It is a little wider) for $58.50 + tax. That makes the cost 3.1 cents per page instead of Scott's 25 cents.
There is one drawback. You will need a printer that can handle Ledger (11 x 17) size paper. I bought mine, a Brother Model MFC-J5520DW at OfficeMax on sale for $129. (List $199). It does a great job and it won't take long printing my own pages instead of taking them to OfficeMax to be printed to pay for it's self.
As for the page content (all the boxes, info, etc.) I can highly recommend the CD from William Steiner ($40 at www.stampalbums.com/). The CD contains over 80,000 album pages. Each country is complete for ALL Scott numbers except for the minor numbers. If that is what you need, your all set to print the pages using Adobie Acrobat or Reader. If you, like me, want the color and minor varieties as well as the major numbers, you will need either Pagemaker or CorelDraw to modify the pages. Both of these programs are expensive, but I bought an older version of CorelDraw (ver.8.1) on-line for $25 and it works fine. I can not believe how many hours it must have taken Bill to make all those pages (+ yearly updates) but I am sure glad I don't need to make all my pages from scratch.
Best of all is the cost. I got enough of the 25 x 38 sheets (250 sheets) to make 2000 International Album size pages, including cutting and punching (be sure you tell the printer that the 2-hole punch distance is NOT standard. It is a little wider) for $58.50 + tax. That makes the cost 3.1 cents per page instead of Scott's 25 cents.
There is one drawback. You will need a printer that can handle Ledger (11 x 17) size paper. I bought mine, a Brother Model MFC-J5520DW at OfficeMax on sale for $129. (List $199). It does a great job and it won't take long printing my own pages instead of taking them to OfficeMax to be printed to pay for it's self.
As for the page content (all the boxes, info, etc.) I can highly recommend the CD from William Steiner ($40 at www.stampalbums.com/). The CD contains over 80,000 album pages. Each country is complete for ALL Scott numbers except for the minor numbers. If that is what you need, your all set to print the pages using Adobie Acrobat or Reader. If you, like me, want the color and minor varieties as well as the major numbers, you will need either Pagemaker or CorelDraw to modify the pages. Both of these programs are expensive, but I bought an older version of CorelDraw (ver.8.1) on-line for $25 and it works fine. I can not believe how many hours it must have taken Bill to make all those pages (+ yearly updates) but I am sure glad I don't need to make all my pages from scratch.
