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Post by shadowrogue75 on Oct 9, 2022 1:07:33 GMT
Hello all,
I would appreciate some recommendations for beginner-level world albums.
Right now, I'm working on the Smithsonian's Stamp for Every Country printable album and that's fun but I have lots more than one stamp for some countries and I'd like to put them somewhere! I'd prefer an album over stockbooks and I'm willing to make my own pages to supplement but would prefer those to just be a supplement.
I also have my eye on the Dover "A First Stamp Album for Beginners" so the pages have a reasonable chance of filling up at a steady pace.
For context, I have stamps from maybe 50 different countries right now. My largest groupings are about 120 Netherlands stamps and 300 South Africa Stamps. Other countries I only have a few stamps for.
My goal is to build my worldwide collection/the album from kiloware, so that would likely mean I won't have that many very early or very recent stamps.
Thanks for your thoughts,
ShadowRogue
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator 
Posts: 5,912 
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Oct 9, 2022 6:21:56 GMT
Thanks for your post, shadowrogue75. I don’t have any particular recommendation for a beginner’s worldwide album, but I would say that whichever one you choose, get a loose-leaf type so that you can buy blank pages to insert where needed. If you already have 300 stamps from South Africa, that could already exceed the space allotment for that country. My first WW album was a Scott Modern Album. It was loose-leaf and served me well for the first few years, when I graduated to the multi-volume Scott International. These days, I just use Hagner stock sheets rather than a pre-printed album. |
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angore
Member 
Posts: 5,699
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Oct 9, 2022 10:17:26 GMT
The problem with beginner albums is that they never have enough space if one has a lot of stamps for a country. You could use Steiner pages. While designed like a traditional album you can print the pages you want as you need them so do not have a lot pages in an album you will never get. www.stampalbums.com/ For $50, you can download anything you want. It covers the world and is actually more complete than Scott's albums. The size is 8 1/2 x 11 so standard printer and you can create your own pages to match. Another approach would be similar to what I am working on. It is a self-made version as well. There is an album you can buy off Amazon.com called "A Stamp for Every Country Album". The creator used Album Easy www.thestampweb.com/albumeasy and he has generously allowed the code to be posted on the album easy web site along with a PDF. You can modify the source code to remove the stamp spaces and have it free form. Unlike the Smithsonian product this is a country per page,   |
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eggdog
Member
I want a new Harley!
Posts: 464
What I collect: It's complicated....
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Post by eggdog on Oct 10, 2022 0:30:27 GMT
I agree with angore about AlbumEasy. Steiner pages have a lot of merit on their own, and since all you do is download them and print them, the instant-gratification content is rich  , but AlbumEasy is more flexible. Since it sounds like you're still checking things out and deciding what interests you, you can make pages for areas and times that you already have a lot of and then make other pages as new stuff comes in. (You can also do that with Steiner, but it's a bit of a different process. For one thing, Steiner strictly follows the Scott catalog, which means that airpost and semi-postal stamps are in their own section, after the standard-postage stamps. If you find yourself getting into the Netherlands, they have gobs of semi-postals, and you might want to keep them with their contemporaries by year, rather than have them sequestered.) Even beginner albums these days are very big and very expensive, especially with the swarms of new stamps that come out all the time. It's not like the good old days in the 1960's when one big fat album could get you through a couple of years or more. The AlbumEasy "code" is a series of scripts that provide instructions for the layout of the page, and the program will turn those instructions into a .pdf. The scripts look kind of eye-glazing at first, and there is a learning curve, but it's not that difficult. It's not like coding Java or anything. I'd also suggest that you get the smallest package you can of some relatively heavyweight paper (60 pounds or up) and see how your printer handles it. My trusty old LaserJet 430 didn't like 72-pound paper, for instance, and it groaned pitifully as the paper went through. If you use regular old copier paper, though, the stamps will probably be too much for it. Others will be able to chime in about paper and anything else. You can search for AlbumEasy, or for Steiner, on this forum and find some useful threads. And, of course, keep asking questions as they arise. |
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clivel
Member
Posts: 386
What I collect: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Rhodesias, South Africa, Swaziland, Israel to 1980, Ireland predecimal, Palestine Mandate
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Post by clivel on Oct 10, 2022 2:59:32 GMT
... and 300 South Africa Stamps .. Do you collect Republic of South Africa, or Union, or both?
Clive
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madbaker
Member
Posts: 802
What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Oct 10, 2022 3:23:14 GMT
Welcome to TSF! You'll not get a definitive answer, of course, but here's an opinion!  For general Worldwide collections, at least in the early stages, I would honestly go with stock pages like the Vario pages or Hagnars. The reason being that you're still learning what types of stamps interest you - the countries, time periods, etc. With loose leaf stock pages you can expand in whatever direction you like as new stamps come in and as your interests evolve. I went down the Steiner path and was committed to printing pages as I needed them. The net result for my (admittedly, beginner) Germany collection was 100 pages with 2-3 stamps per page and lots and lots of empty spaces. I thought I'd fill in the gaps one day, but then shifted to Denmark for a bit, then Great Britain, then Argentina, etc. and haven't got back to Germany yet. (I was collecting general worldwide you see.) These days, when I work on stamps, I'm mounting my Sweden collection on pages I design in Album Easy. (I posted images of the pages here: My Sweden Collection on TSF) I built that collection for over 20 years before I had enough collected to warrant the effort. ---- I'm not saying you are doing it wrong or going down the wrong path though -- it just doesn't work for me.
I still dream of following in the footsteps of 1840to1940 and buying pages for the Minkus Master Global album or a Scott International album. But my album dreams are all about buying crisp, new, unsullied pages, never the stamps mounted on them. Which is a sign, I think.
----
PS - I don't know if it's still viable, but when I started in the mid 1990's, the common wisdom was to buy old worldwide collections on Ebay and get the albums for "free". If you found a decent old album that was in good shape and had some stamps but lots of spaces, you could continue on with it.
But I hear that more folks break them up and form country-by-country lots with them these days, so I don't know what's out there.
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Post by classicalstamps on Oct 10, 2022 7:18:14 GMT
May I suggest you use Steiner's album pages: stampalbums.comThey are almost free, covers worldwide up until today for most countries, and you can just print the pages where you have stamps - as you go accumulating more and more. |
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philatelia
Member
Captain Jack - my best kiloware find ever!
Posts: 3,655
What I collect: Ireland, Japan, Scandy, USA, Venezuela, Vatican, Bermuda, Austria
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Post by philatelia on Oct 10, 2022 10:17:45 GMT
madbaker I agree wholeheartedly with you! The problem with preprinted anything is that they drive the direction of your collection and draw attention to what you don’t have rather than what you do have. Printing your own album pages is a bit much for a beginner to tackle, too. Plus both of those require the added expense of mounts ( I highly recommend avoiding modern hinges.) Also - used printed albums and mounts have almost ZERO value while gently used Vario and Hagnar pages sell well. There is a Vario knockoff available on Amazon for reasonable prices. I bought a few to compare to Vario and they seem very, very similar. So, IMHO, Before you launch into printed albums, buy a few packets of 6 row, 7 row or similar Vario types sheets on Amazon, any old 3 ring binder, a pair of tongs and you are all set! Give that a try first. You can arrange your stamps in whatever order you prefer and rearranging doesn’t require printing new pages or remounting. The added beauty of those sheets is that you can use them for duplicates if you change your mind. You will end up actually spending time with your stamps instead monkeying around with mounted collecting.
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eggdog
Member
I want a new Harley!
Posts: 464
What I collect: It's complicated....
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Post by eggdog on Oct 10, 2022 15:02:02 GMT
I don't know if it's still viable, but when I started in the mid 1990's, the common wisdom was to buy old worldwide collections on Ebay and get the albums for "free". If you found a decent old album that was in good shape and had some stamps but lots of spaces, you could continue on with it. I love old collections. It's rare to get them with pages I'd really want to ever use again, though. You're right about them being hard to find online; I've had my best results buying them at stamp shows. Stamp shows are fun. And you don't have to pay shipping, plus you can tell if they're too moldy to deal with. Also - used printed albums and mounts have almost ZERO value while gently used Vario and Hagnar pages sell well. There is a Vario knockoff available on Amazon for reasonable prices. I bought a few to compare to Vario and they seem very, very similar. About the knockoff, you may be thinking of firstamp on eBay (they may be on Amazon, I wouldn't know). Yeah, I've gone through a few packs and so far I have found that they are the equal of the Leuchtthurm Varios. At least. None of the rows have come detached yet. But I opened all the packages and I forget what the paper insert called them. About 80% of my collection is in Varios and I love them. But when I started out with them, I made a ton of mistakes and spent a lot of time rearranging stamps; not just reordering them, but it actually took me a long time to learn how to center and space them because there aren't any guides on the pages, never mind wrong turns such as whether to mix Weimar Germany officials with standard-postage and semi-postal stamps. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I took all of my wife's 7" rulers (they are popular for craft projects, which she used to do a lot of) and I've gotten pretty good at it. But my opinion is that you have to have some experience before you'll get the most out of Varios. Yes, album pages do kind of force you to follow a routine, but I learned a lot during the process, and by the time I moved on from Steiner (with gratitude for his most excellent accomplishments) and committed to Varios, I knew a lot more about stamps and had a clue, or something resembling a clue, about what to do. AlbumEasy does give you quite a lot of flexibility; you can even do topical albums with it, or one or two years of Russia if you don't want all 119,000,000 of their stamps, or Algerian postage due stamps if that's what you want to specialize in, or whatever. shadowrogue75 , I hope all this hasn't scared you into collecting baseball cards! |
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eggdog
Member
I want a new Harley!
Posts: 464
What I collect: It's complicated....
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Post by eggdog on Oct 10, 2022 15:41:41 GMT
I forgot to mention that there's a cool thread where TSFers show off their DIY pages. It's worth a few minutes of scrolling. |
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Post by shadowrogue75 on Oct 11, 2022 12:01:59 GMT
Beryllium Guy: In a quick look round the internet, looks like the Scott Modern album is out-of-print. Do you have any thoughts on used albums? (I'd probably aim for one with no stamps if I went this route). Re: Hangar stock sheets: Those look lovely. I like the black background very much. angore: "You could use Steiner pages. While designed like a traditional album you can print the pages you want as you need them so do not have a lot pages in an album you will never get. www.stampalbums.com/ For $50, you can download anything you want. It covers the world and is actually more complete than Scott's albums. The size is 8 1/2 x 11 so standard printer and you can create your own pages to match." What a good idea! That would thread the needle for me between wanting an album while keeping the price-point low and having a 'full-looking' album since it'd only be pages that I have stamps for! [hat tip to eggdog and classical stamps also for the recommendation] Re: Knutson's "A Stamp for Every Country Album": <nods> Yes, having one page per country+precedent countries appeals to me more than mixed countries/one country+precedent countries spanning multiple pages as in the Smithsonian album. clivel : I have some Union of South Africa stamps, but more Republic of South Africa stamps right now. I'm aiming to collect both as well as Cape of Good Hope. eggdog : "Even beginner albums these days are very big and very expensive, especially with the swarms of new stamps that come out all the time. It's not like the good old days in the 1960's when one big fat album could get you through a couple of years or more. [. . .] I'd also suggest that you get the smallest package you can of some relatively heavyweight paper (60 pounds or up) and see how your printer handles it. My trusty old LaserJet 430 didn't like 72-pound paper, for instance, and it groaned pitifully as the paper went through. If you use regular old copier paper, though, the stamps will probably be too much for it." Definitely, how to keep my collection organized in a sensible and neat manner while accommodating growth is on my mind. I have various weights of paper kicking around; I'll try a few AlbumEasy pre-made album pages and see how they handle them. I appreciate the encouraging remarks about learning AlbumEasy; we'll see how I do! Do you know if AlbumEasy has pre-set pages that are just boxes? Do you know what I mean if I say that? Like, to fit a variety of stamp shapes; larger than the grid paper? madbaker : "I went down the Steiner path and was committed to printing pages as I needed them. The net result for my (admittedly, beginner) Germany collection was 100 pages with 2-3 stamps per page and lots and lots of empty spaces. I thought I'd fill in the gaps one day, but then shifted to Denmark for a bit, then Great Britain, then Argentina, etc. and haven't got back to Germany yet. (I was collecting general worldwide you see.) These days, when I work on stamps, I'm mounting my Sweden collection on pages I design in Album Easy. (I posted images of the pages here: My Sweden Collection on TSF) I built that collection for over 20 years before I had enough collected to warrant the effort." If I started printing and mounting now, that's totally what mine would look like. I'll check out your Sweden collection. <nods> I'm certainly wondering if I should wait until I have a critical mass of a country before moving forward with getting the stamps on pages. Re: buying old albums on eBay: I'm certainly open to that! philatelia : "The problem with preprinted anything is that they drive the direction of your collection and draw attention to what you don’t have rather than what you do have." Definitely see that in my Canada album -- there are some stamps I will never get due to cost and the blank space on the page filled with stamps just looks at me. Re: Vario sheets: I don't have those, but I have something similar that I could use. As you and madbaker say, they're good for organizing.
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clivel
Member
Posts: 386
What I collect: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Rhodesias, South Africa, Swaziland, Israel to 1980, Ireland predecimal, Palestine Mandate
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Post by clivel on Oct 12, 2022 7:00:05 GMT
Do you know if AlbumEasy has pre-set pages that are just boxes? Do you know what I mean if I say that? Like, to fit a variety of stamp shapes; larger than the grid paper? Barring an earthquake, flood, end of the world or some other unforeseen natural calamity, the next version of AlbumEasy will be released before the end of this month. One of the new features is the ability to add custom grids. So, you should be able to define a grid with boxes of any size, as long as they fit on the page.
Clive
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,699
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Oct 12, 2022 10:48:01 GMT
Yes, I am a big Steiner fan but I do not print every page . I am also big fan of Vario pages because the purchase is an investment. You can repurpose them at any time. One minor downside is stamps tend to move around since it does hold stamps as tight as Hagner pages. I will mix Vario pages with my Steiner pages in a binder to hold stamps not on pages. It may be I want to modify the page at some point or outside my year range. Using Album Easy and LibreDraw (edit PDFs directly) I can create look alike pages to customize in any way I want. My cut off is around 1980 for most countries so if I have later issues I will put on a Vario page and will never get mounted on a page. What I would like is a Hagner page on manila stock for appearance. I would really like the Lindner type in letter size but they are so expensive. I did experiment with adding labels to Varios but abandoned that but know folks like Chris Beryllium Guy do everything this way on Hagners. (mock up). Net if you are totally unsure start with an investment of Varios and then decide later.  |
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clivel
Member
Posts: 386
What I collect: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Rhodesias, South Africa, Swaziland, Israel to 1980, Ireland predecimal, Palestine Mandate
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Post by clivel on Oct 12, 2022 17:28:14 GMT
Another option which I should have mentioned is the system devised by fellow forum member djcmh . He creates key pages which are placed in page protectors, which are then interleaved with Vario pages in a binder.
I think that this makes for a very flexible arrangement.
For an example see his posting here. There are many examples of his pages in the "Show your DIY album pages thread", but the posting I have linked to above also includes a photo of the pages in a binder
Clive
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, but AlbumEasy is more flexible. Since it sounds like you're still checking things out and deciding what interests you, you can make pages for areas and times that you already have a lot of and then make other pages as new stuff comes in. (You can also do that with Steiner, but it's a bit of a different process. For one thing, Steiner strictly follows the Scott catalog, which means that airpost and semi-postal stamps are in their own section, after the standard-postage stamps. If you find yourself getting into the Netherlands, they have gobs of semi-postals, and you might want to keep them with their contemporaries by year, rather than have them sequestered.)
