US Philatelic Albums

Gregory Kottler

Time to start a new album. What are some of the better albums, other than Mystic, that have good descriptions of each stamp? There are some great options that contain only the Scott # and image, but I like the additional info that Mystic tends to include. Most I've found are less than ideal with cheap pages.

Kris Weinschenker

It depends on how much money you want to spend

Scott Payton

Have a look at these:
https://www.stampparaphernalia.com/united_states_stamp_album_pages.htm

Chris Diaz is a good guy. And they cover most desirable aspects of US. If you do decide to go with his stuff, please mention that I sent you there.

Kris Weinschenker

You can also make your own custom albums with various software...

Gregory Kottler

Thank you Scott Payton! I just checked out Chris' pages, they are fantastic, looks like I've gotten my new frontrunnner!!

Scott Payton

One other plus is, he generally sells mount kits as well, which will cover mounts for every issue. It's pricey, but good in that you don't have to go seeking all the odd sizes. It's very convenient.

Steve Maurer

I second Kris's comments. My collection is made up of a hodgepodge of printed pages from various collections that I purchase. Whenever I want to add more pages for a specific country or clean up a mix of commercially printed pages, having that custom printing capacity for a very inexpensive cost at my fingertips comes in very handy. (By the way I chose Steiner pages)

Scott Payton

I make a lot of pages too, but that's not the question the OP asked...

Kris Weinschenker

Where can you get an album???

You can make one...

[Deleted User]

When printing your own pages,
is it necessary to use museum quality acid free paper?

George DeKornfeld

Its not "necessary" but its sure as heck advisable !

Scott Payton

"What are some of the better albums, other than Mystic, that have good descriptions of each stamp?"
Was the question. Not "Where can you get an album"... note the 6 words after the comma.

Greg Doll

Scott knows how important commas, are.

Kris Weinschenker

I can make my own album with descriptions ....

QED

Gregory Kottler

Some day I hope to have the time to create my own pages as I would love to immerse myself in that kind of project, sadly time does not allow for such luxuries. Scott provided some great feedback, I really like the pages he shared and they are exactly what I am looking for, with regards to placement of my collection as it currently resides in stock books and I am returning to the hobby after a very long break. While cost is always a factor, I'm not too worried as I just need the pages and the album itself seems to drive the largest factor of price. Though I'm being patient to see what all is available, times are very different from when I initially began my collection! The number of options seems to be limitless compared to the dark ages we once lived in. The search for the perfect page can be overwhelming and I was just in need of some direction from somebody far more educated than I on the topic, that's all.

Kris Weinschenker

I'm slowly but surely building my own album pages to supplement my collection.

Tom Gates

I have a couple sets of US States albums from Collectors Supply House out of Canada. Was going to use this series to create two sets of Mint stamp albums from 1970 or 1980 to present. One for each of our daughters to give them sometime down the road. They have good write-ups on the stamps on each page. Similar info to the Mystic US stamp albums. The CSH albums are the typical two post, larger page format.

I had also gotten - some time ago - a set of Mystic albums for my Used stamp collection that dates back to its start in early 1960's as a kid.

What I've found is that I really like the Mystic set. Especially for the use of the Scott numbers. It really helps me stop and try to decipher which particular stamp I've got when two or more look identical, but may differ in perf, tagged, etc. And the 3-ring binder format with 8.5x11 pages works best - for me anyway. And the Stamp catalog/database software I use to track the stamps in the collection(s) has a page making module. It also has been OK'd to use Scott numbers, so I can create the base pages with the numbering and supplied stamp images.

So I bought two more sets of the Mystic albums to replace the two unused CHS albums.

Also had two sets of the Harris Liberty albums - when my wife and I got back interested in doing more collecting in the 1980's, got a Harris set, but that 'model' disappeared and could no longer get supplement pages. So bought into the newer Harris Liberty albums. But again, the downfall was the lack of Scott number identification. As we moved stamps out of the old Harris set, noticed at how many times we had guessed wrongly about stamps, or completely missed details for proper inclusion in the album.

Basically tossing in my 2 cents on some that I've made use of. I've come back around to using the Mystic albums. The one thing that they were real inconsistent with are what they call the mini sheets. Ex: the Hollywood Greats series. They may have a place for the entire sheet, but nowhere to put a single. And sometimes the other way, have a single spot and nothing for the mini-sheet. A year ago they came out with a mini-sheet album for 1994 onward for just mini sheets. If I do get into a bind, I've simply purchased blank Mystic album pages and used the software to print my own page to handle stuff. page 255-a for example.

Sorry, that's probably well over a dime's worth by now.