Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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I use Steiner pages. For those that do use Internationals, how do you deal with the lack of completeness (spaces for all Scott major variety stamps)?
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Long ago I purchased a set of International blue album reprints (through 1940). I started with Belgium and found that just to mount a rather modest collection I needed to triple the number of pages..The fact that the pages are printed on both sides means that once a page has more than a few stamps on it you need to use a glassine interleaf - it gets very expensive and bulky in a hurry.
If I were still actively collecting I would use Steiner pages, even though I would only collect to 1940 (with a few notable exceptions)... in the meantime I supplement what was started in the Internationals with Vario stocksheets in 3 ring binders.
If funds were unlimited I would use Scott Specialty albums and hire staff.
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I use Scott International, Scott Specialty (for mostly pre-1950 as needed) and Steiner pages (for areas not covered by Scott pages), and a few Minkus pages (for areas not covered by Steiner). All my stamps are in mounts. As Carol said, it does get bulky (I go 1840 to date). All the pages are housed in #5 Specialty binders (the size once offered by Subway).
Starting around the 1980s, the International pages match the Specialty pages, except for the omission (usually, but not always) of souvenir sheets and back-of-book.
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I purchased, and use, the Scott International pages through 2000. For the stamps not pictured, I add them on, if there is room. Sometimes I have been forced to add a blank page for these stamps. For the stamps more recent than 2000 I use the Vario 7 or 8 row black 2 sided Stock Sheets.
A couple of years ago at the Hollywood (FL) Stamp Club there was a mint Scott International Album set for Auction through to about 2015. It sold for about $150., with the Seller offering to help carry them out to your car. A great bargain!! Evidently, the original owner purchased them and then suddenly died.
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The Scott Internationals can be frustrating...yesterday i was mounting some Greek stamps and there were so many from the 1950s-1960s that were not represented on the Scott pages.When i began collecting i thought that the Big Blues were it...i was not aware of the flaws. Later on i saw that the Minkus Global Supreme albums were more complete,but they also have issues. Anyone here using the big Minkus albums ?
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I have used a set of Internationals since the mid-1970s as my ‘fun’ collection; the set is 16 volumes, has pages thru 1976, and has about 100,000 stamps. I use a number of specialized albums for countries I have more interested in. For the Internationals I simply use blank pages when I run into stamps that are not represented on a page but this does not bother me. I did reorganized the pages by country decades ago and dealt with the inane ‘two countries on one page’ publishing. I also have used glassine interleaves for some pages to deal with the ‘printed both side/stamps fighting’ issue. The collection is largely mounted with quality vintage hinges although I have tried a few modern hinges as experiment on some of the common used stamps.
Don
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When my wife and I started collecting many years ago we started with separate albums for a couple countries, Canada, US, Poland and Russia. We eventually accumulated World "stuff" and had no place to put it. So, we bought Scott Int. Vol. I, II, III and IIIA which allowed us to collect up to 1955 and that is what I stuck with. They do leave out a lot of stuff, but I use the margins and spare pages. It is especially annoying with countries that I have a lot of, but I live with it. I must admit Cuba and Peru are problems because, except for a few expensive issues, I am quite complete. But I still find it to be the best solution for me. I find printing my own pages and designing my own albums to be too much work. Have a great weekend and stay safe, especially all you people in high risk areas. Don't worry, it'll be over in a few years!!!
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Collection: 1840 – 1940
My collection is housed in thirteen Scott’s International Albums (blue two-post) with matching slipcases. Each binder has a custom label listing its contents.
The album pages are a combination of:
• Vintage Reproduction Pages - the loose-leaf version of the “Brown International” albums
• Phil Pritchard’s Brown Internationals Update Pages
• Custom pages inspired by the Stamp Albums Web know as Steiner pages.
All pages are single sided and organized in six sections; following the Vintage Reproduction volume numbering not the current Scott’s International Series.
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I have International pages for 1840-1963 in four standard binders for the 1840-1940 parts 1A1-1B2 and four jumbo binders for the Parts II, III, IV, and V pages. Currently I have 10,100 mint stamps in the 1840-1940 binders and 16,000 mint stamps in the 1941-1963 albums for an overall total of just over 30% coverage in the albums. In addition to the International albums, I have standalone collections for the USA, Canada, Finland, Japan, Great Britain, and France in Scott specialty albums. Great Britain and France go into the 1990's while USA, Canada, Finland, and Japan stop in the 1970's due to my use of Scott Hingeless albums in the brown leather binders as produced by Scott.
Recently I have been adding quite a few items to the Japan, France, and Great Britain albums plus have been particularly active with British Commonwealth, Japan, and France acquisitions for the International albums, especially for the issues up to 1952 for the country collections which were fairly sparsely represented previously.
Mostly I collect to the album pages with a few tip-ins when the stamps appear with other purchases and white space that is logical for the additions is available. To put my tip-ins in perspective I currently have 485 additions across the 8 binders that house my International pages. Note that these items are not counted in my current count of 26,100 stamps in the International pages.
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I have “dual” collections - I collect both a mint and a used for each issue, plus varieties and covers so printed album pages don’t really work for me. I’m also really not a fan of mounts and hinges. Vario and Hagnar pages are perfect for my way of collecting. Here is a sample page from my Denmark collection.
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I use a combination of pre-made and home-made albums -
I have 2 six-volume sets of Mystic albums for my mint and used US;
A green Scott Specialty album for US revenues;
A Harris Liberty album for UN;
All the rest - 23 of them so far - are custom made for specialty areas.
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I have an eight volume International album set with perhaps a few thousand stamps just sitting on my shelf. I bought the sections individually a couple years back but after I collated all the pages haven't done much with it. I may be putting it out on Ebay shortly or offer it first on here.
The trouble with something like this is whether to sell it as a collection with the albums or the other way around. These albums are not something you want to have as a secondary interest, they can consume you!
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I disagree a little bit - I am not consumed by the albums. I only use them for countries I have an interest in. It really doesn't bother me if there are countries that are basically empty. Trying to fill the albums, even with the really expensive stamps omitted, would be too huge a task!
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But sometimes you need to attempt something considered impossible!
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Trying to finish any of my main four areas (Canada, US, Russia and Poland) are pretty much impossible, especially the first two. Even a major museum or an incredibly rich person would never finish those two. Are there really any of the early stamp issuing Countries that a collector could finish? I'm not talking about places like Czechoslovakia that started in the 1900's. Most, if not all, of the early countries are impossible.
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I like having the Internationals to fall back on and fill a space or two when things are slow,its tough to get the nine year old out of me. Completing a page is enjoyable.
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I have to agree that completing Canada and the USA is impossible although Bill Gross supposedly managed it for the USA. Completing the Internationals does seem impossible from a time and money standpoint to me. For now my goal is 50% coverage for 1840-1963 although in order to make it a bit more challenging (!) I am trying to do all uncancelled stamps, i.e. stamps are mint no gum, mint hinged, or (a few) mint non-hinged. Currently I am at 75 of 383 collecting entities (not really countries since my spreadsheet which I use for tracking contents in the album breaks down quite a few countries like the USA, Italy, and several others for their possessions and offices issues as a collectible entity) for the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums. Other albums status for 50% completion are at 75 of 249 for the Part II album, 60 of 226 for the Part III album, 95 of 227 for the Part IV album, and 55 of 217 for the Part V album.
Breaking down the countries and their 50% completion status is interesting and provides some motivation as well. I do have anywhere from 7 to 25 collecting entities at 100% completion across the album sets as well. Low point is the Parts 1A1-1B2 and Part II albums which are at 7 and 8 collectible entities, respectively, with 100% coverage while 25 collectible entities are at 100% for the Part IV album which is both the album with the lowest number of stamps required for completion of the album by far and my highest percentage of overall completion at just over 40% coverage in the album.
Now Antonius Ra took on a far more difficult goal of attempting 90% coverage for all of the Scott Specialty albums which he was able to acquire and for which he found the stamps to be interesting. Now that seems like a truly impossible task today starting from scratch due to the sheer time involved in mounting and verifying the stamps. While my collection goal is likely to top out at 45,000 or so stamps over the next ten years or so, his collection goal reached 400,000+ stamps over a 50+ year period of very intense collection building!
Many different collections have been formed by Stamporama members sometimes with a goal in mind but most often for the sheer joy of the process and how certain stamps or post related items strike an individual's fancy. One of my favorites is the New Jersey postmark collection that one member has been building by attempting to visit every post office in the state to get a post marked card from it. A second favorite is the web site created by Jim Jackson regarding the Part I International albums with his detailed review of all stamp issuing entities from the album and the scanned images for Bud's completed Part I album plus various tools to increase the collecting pleasure associated with working on an International album based collection.
I hope my numbers game musings are at least somewhat entertaining!
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I just picked up Scott International Volumes III and IV this week. I have Volumes I (2 albums) and II already. I collect to the album and use stock books, blank pages, and tip-ins when I have stamps that the Album doesn't have a spot for. I also have Scott Specialty and Minkus albums, stockbooks, and Vario pages for country collections. Duplicates go to the International for those countries. I work a fairly demanding job or I would create album pages or go the Steiner route. I chose the Scott International in order to give me more time to actually work on stamps instead of stamp albums. I had Jim Jackson's awesome Big Blue checklist printed and bound professionally for Volume 1 and it's a great help--for some countries I've started a Volume 2 checklist in the margins.
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In addition to the regular 1840-1963 collection, I am, also, adding stamps as they become available as duplicates or for countries removed from later versions of the International album to an International album copyright 1930 as a simple one volume collection. It is in the blue bound cover and when acquired looked almost like it was new despite being almost 90 years old. Originally it had about 150 stamps in it across ten countries. Perhaps of interest, total number of spaces in the album with pictures or descriptions is 21,886 with another 642 empty spaces. I, also, counted up the number of stamps for 1840-1900 to fill the album and came up with a total of 5,726 spaces for stamps from this period.
Mostly I use this as an album that I can easily take with me anywhere so that I can look for stamps for it by matching stamps against its pages. Currently I have 1,276 stamps in the album with only 1 stamp for the USA which is an official stamp not covered by my normal album. Stamp issuing entities with most stamps currently are Austria, Germany, Hungary, Salvador, and India (mostly India States) with from 48 to 95 stamps each. I treat it as a casual, fun album and useful repository for duplicates.
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I am the originator who asked the question. How do you house your collections? I had the feeling that most used the Scott Internationals.
Although many of you do, you also have used a great deal of creativity, in making your decisions. Combining albums, using stocksheets, Scott Specialty albums, blank pages, etc.
Knowing the methods used has satisfied my curiosity on this topic. Each method certainly has its pluses and minuses. Currently, I use Scott Internationals, up to 1959. I was surprised by how many missing spaces there are for each country.
If starting all over, I would choose a few countries that are especially appealing. From there, I would use either Scott Specialty albums or more likely Steiner pages. Using this approach, would yield the most satisfying results for me. However, I would certainly be missing out on all the pleasures of worldwide collecting!
Thank you all for your contributions. It has given me insight on the many ways one can use to store their collections.
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Approvals
While selling stamps on SOR, something has caught my attention. Many of the same buyers purchase older stamps, in addition to newer issues. Do many of you have Scott International albums that cover all these years? I was just curious as to how you store your collection(s). Thanks.
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re: Scott Internationals?
I use Steiner pages. For those that do use Internationals, how do you deal with the lack of completeness (spaces for all Scott major variety stamps)?
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re: Scott Internationals?
Long ago I purchased a set of International blue album reprints (through 1940). I started with Belgium and found that just to mount a rather modest collection I needed to triple the number of pages..The fact that the pages are printed on both sides means that once a page has more than a few stamps on it you need to use a glassine interleaf - it gets very expensive and bulky in a hurry.
If I were still actively collecting I would use Steiner pages, even though I would only collect to 1940 (with a few notable exceptions)... in the meantime I supplement what was started in the Internationals with Vario stocksheets in 3 ring binders.
If funds were unlimited I would use Scott Specialty albums and hire staff.
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re: Scott Internationals?
I use Scott International, Scott Specialty (for mostly pre-1950 as needed) and Steiner pages (for areas not covered by Scott pages), and a few Minkus pages (for areas not covered by Steiner). All my stamps are in mounts. As Carol said, it does get bulky (I go 1840 to date). All the pages are housed in #5 Specialty binders (the size once offered by Subway).
Starting around the 1980s, the International pages match the Specialty pages, except for the omission (usually, but not always) of souvenir sheets and back-of-book.
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Auctions - Approvals
re: Scott Internationals?
I purchased, and use, the Scott International pages through 2000. For the stamps not pictured, I add them on, if there is room. Sometimes I have been forced to add a blank page for these stamps. For the stamps more recent than 2000 I use the Vario 7 or 8 row black 2 sided Stock Sheets.
A couple of years ago at the Hollywood (FL) Stamp Club there was a mint Scott International Album set for Auction through to about 2015. It sold for about $150., with the Seller offering to help carry them out to your car. A great bargain!! Evidently, the original owner purchased them and then suddenly died.
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re: Scott Internationals?
The Scott Internationals can be frustrating...yesterday i was mounting some Greek stamps and there were so many from the 1950s-1960s that were not represented on the Scott pages.When i began collecting i thought that the Big Blues were it...i was not aware of the flaws. Later on i saw that the Minkus Global Supreme albums were more complete,but they also have issues. Anyone here using the big Minkus albums ?
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re: Scott Internationals?
I have used a set of Internationals since the mid-1970s as my ‘fun’ collection; the set is 16 volumes, has pages thru 1976, and has about 100,000 stamps. I use a number of specialized albums for countries I have more interested in. For the Internationals I simply use blank pages when I run into stamps that are not represented on a page but this does not bother me. I did reorganized the pages by country decades ago and dealt with the inane ‘two countries on one page’ publishing. I also have used glassine interleaves for some pages to deal with the ‘printed both side/stamps fighting’ issue. The collection is largely mounted with quality vintage hinges although I have tried a few modern hinges as experiment on some of the common used stamps.
Don
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12:01:19pm
re: Scott Internationals?
When my wife and I started collecting many years ago we started with separate albums for a couple countries, Canada, US, Poland and Russia. We eventually accumulated World "stuff" and had no place to put it. So, we bought Scott Int. Vol. I, II, III and IIIA which allowed us to collect up to 1955 and that is what I stuck with. They do leave out a lot of stuff, but I use the margins and spare pages. It is especially annoying with countries that I have a lot of, but I live with it. I must admit Cuba and Peru are problems because, except for a few expensive issues, I am quite complete. But I still find it to be the best solution for me. I find printing my own pages and designing my own albums to be too much work. Have a great weekend and stay safe, especially all you people in high risk areas. Don't worry, it'll be over in a few years!!!
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re: Scott Internationals?
Collection: 1840 – 1940
My collection is housed in thirteen Scott’s International Albums (blue two-post) with matching slipcases. Each binder has a custom label listing its contents.
The album pages are a combination of:
• Vintage Reproduction Pages - the loose-leaf version of the “Brown International” albums
• Phil Pritchard’s Brown Internationals Update Pages
• Custom pages inspired by the Stamp Albums Web know as Steiner pages.
All pages are single sided and organized in six sections; following the Vintage Reproduction volume numbering not the current Scott’s International Series.
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re: Scott Internationals?
I have International pages for 1840-1963 in four standard binders for the 1840-1940 parts 1A1-1B2 and four jumbo binders for the Parts II, III, IV, and V pages. Currently I have 10,100 mint stamps in the 1840-1940 binders and 16,000 mint stamps in the 1941-1963 albums for an overall total of just over 30% coverage in the albums. In addition to the International albums, I have standalone collections for the USA, Canada, Finland, Japan, Great Britain, and France in Scott specialty albums. Great Britain and France go into the 1990's while USA, Canada, Finland, and Japan stop in the 1970's due to my use of Scott Hingeless albums in the brown leather binders as produced by Scott.
Recently I have been adding quite a few items to the Japan, France, and Great Britain albums plus have been particularly active with British Commonwealth, Japan, and France acquisitions for the International albums, especially for the issues up to 1952 for the country collections which were fairly sparsely represented previously.
Mostly I collect to the album pages with a few tip-ins when the stamps appear with other purchases and white space that is logical for the additions is available. To put my tip-ins in perspective I currently have 485 additions across the 8 binders that house my International pages. Note that these items are not counted in my current count of 26,100 stamps in the International pages.
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re: Scott Internationals?
I have “dual” collections - I collect both a mint and a used for each issue, plus varieties and covers so printed album pages don’t really work for me. I’m also really not a fan of mounts and hinges. Vario and Hagnar pages are perfect for my way of collecting. Here is a sample page from my Denmark collection.
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re: Scott Internationals?
I use a combination of pre-made and home-made albums -
I have 2 six-volume sets of Mystic albums for my mint and used US;
A green Scott Specialty album for US revenues;
A Harris Liberty album for UN;
All the rest - 23 of them so far - are custom made for specialty areas.
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re: Scott Internationals?
I have an eight volume International album set with perhaps a few thousand stamps just sitting on my shelf. I bought the sections individually a couple years back but after I collated all the pages haven't done much with it. I may be putting it out on Ebay shortly or offer it first on here.
The trouble with something like this is whether to sell it as a collection with the albums or the other way around. These albums are not something you want to have as a secondary interest, they can consume you!
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03:54:07pm
re: Scott Internationals?
I disagree a little bit - I am not consumed by the albums. I only use them for countries I have an interest in. It really doesn't bother me if there are countries that are basically empty. Trying to fill the albums, even with the really expensive stamps omitted, would be too huge a task!
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re: Scott Internationals?
But sometimes you need to attempt something considered impossible!
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07:44:44pm
re: Scott Internationals?
Trying to finish any of my main four areas (Canada, US, Russia and Poland) are pretty much impossible, especially the first two. Even a major museum or an incredibly rich person would never finish those two. Are there really any of the early stamp issuing Countries that a collector could finish? I'm not talking about places like Czechoslovakia that started in the 1900's. Most, if not all, of the early countries are impossible.
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Auctions
re: Scott Internationals?
I like having the Internationals to fall back on and fill a space or two when things are slow,its tough to get the nine year old out of me. Completing a page is enjoyable.
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re: Scott Internationals?
I have to agree that completing Canada and the USA is impossible although Bill Gross supposedly managed it for the USA. Completing the Internationals does seem impossible from a time and money standpoint to me. For now my goal is 50% coverage for 1840-1963 although in order to make it a bit more challenging (!) I am trying to do all uncancelled stamps, i.e. stamps are mint no gum, mint hinged, or (a few) mint non-hinged. Currently I am at 75 of 383 collecting entities (not really countries since my spreadsheet which I use for tracking contents in the album breaks down quite a few countries like the USA, Italy, and several others for their possessions and offices issues as a collectible entity) for the Parts 1A1-1B2 albums. Other albums status for 50% completion are at 75 of 249 for the Part II album, 60 of 226 for the Part III album, 95 of 227 for the Part IV album, and 55 of 217 for the Part V album.
Breaking down the countries and their 50% completion status is interesting and provides some motivation as well. I do have anywhere from 7 to 25 collecting entities at 100% completion across the album sets as well. Low point is the Parts 1A1-1B2 and Part II albums which are at 7 and 8 collectible entities, respectively, with 100% coverage while 25 collectible entities are at 100% for the Part IV album which is both the album with the lowest number of stamps required for completion of the album by far and my highest percentage of overall completion at just over 40% coverage in the album.
Now Antonius Ra took on a far more difficult goal of attempting 90% coverage for all of the Scott Specialty albums which he was able to acquire and for which he found the stamps to be interesting. Now that seems like a truly impossible task today starting from scratch due to the sheer time involved in mounting and verifying the stamps. While my collection goal is likely to top out at 45,000 or so stamps over the next ten years or so, his collection goal reached 400,000+ stamps over a 50+ year period of very intense collection building!
Many different collections have been formed by Stamporama members sometimes with a goal in mind but most often for the sheer joy of the process and how certain stamps or post related items strike an individual's fancy. One of my favorites is the New Jersey postmark collection that one member has been building by attempting to visit every post office in the state to get a post marked card from it. A second favorite is the web site created by Jim Jackson regarding the Part I International albums with his detailed review of all stamp issuing entities from the album and the scanned images for Bud's completed Part I album plus various tools to increase the collecting pleasure associated with working on an International album based collection.
I hope my numbers game musings are at least somewhat entertaining!
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06:50:28am
re: Scott Internationals?
I just picked up Scott International Volumes III and IV this week. I have Volumes I (2 albums) and II already. I collect to the album and use stock books, blank pages, and tip-ins when I have stamps that the Album doesn't have a spot for. I also have Scott Specialty and Minkus albums, stockbooks, and Vario pages for country collections. Duplicates go to the International for those countries. I work a fairly demanding job or I would create album pages or go the Steiner route. I chose the Scott International in order to give me more time to actually work on stamps instead of stamp albums. I had Jim Jackson's awesome Big Blue checklist printed and bound professionally for Volume 1 and it's a great help--for some countries I've started a Volume 2 checklist in the margins.
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re: Scott Internationals?
In addition to the regular 1840-1963 collection, I am, also, adding stamps as they become available as duplicates or for countries removed from later versions of the International album to an International album copyright 1930 as a simple one volume collection. It is in the blue bound cover and when acquired looked almost like it was new despite being almost 90 years old. Originally it had about 150 stamps in it across ten countries. Perhaps of interest, total number of spaces in the album with pictures or descriptions is 21,886 with another 642 empty spaces. I, also, counted up the number of stamps for 1840-1900 to fill the album and came up with a total of 5,726 spaces for stamps from this period.
Mostly I use this as an album that I can easily take with me anywhere so that I can look for stamps for it by matching stamps against its pages. Currently I have 1,276 stamps in the album with only 1 stamp for the USA which is an official stamp not covered by my normal album. Stamp issuing entities with most stamps currently are Austria, Germany, Hungary, Salvador, and India (mostly India States) with from 48 to 95 stamps each. I treat it as a casual, fun album and useful repository for duplicates.
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Approvals
re: Scott Internationals?
I am the originator who asked the question. How do you house your collections? I had the feeling that most used the Scott Internationals.
Although many of you do, you also have used a great deal of creativity, in making your decisions. Combining albums, using stocksheets, Scott Specialty albums, blank pages, etc.
Knowing the methods used has satisfied my curiosity on this topic. Each method certainly has its pluses and minuses. Currently, I use Scott Internationals, up to 1959. I was surprised by how many missing spaces there are for each country.
If starting all over, I would choose a few countries that are especially appealing. From there, I would use either Scott Specialty albums or more likely Steiner pages. Using this approach, would yield the most satisfying results for me. However, I would certainly be missing out on all the pleasures of worldwide collecting!
Thank you all for your contributions. It has given me insight on the many ways one can use to store their collections.
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