Regular vs. Hingless Stamp Albums
When I used to collect stamps, I always wanted hingeless albums. But that was because I was impatient and in a rush to put my newly acquired stamps in albums. Eventually, I reached a point where I couldn’t find hingeless albums for the countries I wanted to collect (by the way, this is how Palo Albums was started). So I opted for regular pages and started cutting my own mounts. I became very good at it after a while and was able to considerably speed up the process over a short period of time.
On the other hand, I was never totally happy with the quality of my mounting. Every now and then, a mount would be crooked or cut too small. No matter how hard I tried, I could always see the difference between my work and a professional hingeless album. So I continued buying hingeless whenever I could and regular when I couldn’t.
This worked for my collecting needs. But all of us are different. What works for one is not necessarily ideal for another. There are pros and cons in purchasing regular or hingeless albums. If you are not precision oriented, cutting your own mounts may turn into a nightmare. I’ve seen some mounted stamp collections that I just want to throw in the trash can; mounts for square stamps that are cut in trapezoid shapes, a set of 5 identically sized stamps in 3 different sized mounts, or a combination of black and clear mounts on the same page.
But if you are precise, you can save quite a bit by doing your own mounting. We did a study a while back to determine the cost of regular versus hingeless albums. If you buy our regular pages and packs of mount strips, we calculated you can save about 20% to 30% over the cost of our hingeless albums. You then need to calculate your time to cut and attach the mounts. However, in my opinion, time spent is irrelevant as I discovered that when I was cutting my own mounts, I was spending more time with my stamps - which is what the hobby is all about.
That’s not to say you can’t spend time with hingeless albums too. What I really enjoyed about these albums was the ability to quickly fill them up and then go back and admire each page. I’ve always believed that stamps should be looked at in an organized manner. If you collect coins, they may be in slabs or coin holders and then tucked away in bank vaults. If I’m collecting something, I want to look at it often. And what better way is there for that than a great looking album?
I think that, in general, one would rather have a hingeless album, but in the end it may just come down to cost. They are not cheap. However, if you collect classic USA stamps, you can theoretically put $20,000 worth of stamps on just one page. At that point, the cost of the album is moot.
In summary, your selection should depend on:
- The quality of your collection
- Your ability (or non-ability) to accurately measure, cut and attach mounts
- Personal time
- Available funds
Whatever you decide, also think long-term. You want to be sure to enjoy your stamps for years to come. If it is merely a short term investment, just put your stamps in stock books. But for a quality collection, top notch organization and beauty can increase your collection’s worth immeasurably.
5 Responses
Bill
Back around 1964, at the age of 13, I began to get serious about stamp collecting and changed to a Scott National Album and started using Harco Blue Ribbon mounting strips (acting on advice from a cigar chomping dealer located on 26th St just west of Kedzie in Chicago), cutting them to fit. Fortunately, I did a good job and continue to this day much the same except for having to use Hawid mounts which most closely match the Blue Ribbon mounts. I now have US, UN, and Canada collections of singles and plate/MI blocks and all mounted uniformly matched and it must look good because I have won a presentation award and always get compliments – and even an offer to mount someone else’s collection! I did not take it though because it is a labor of love and not an avocation HAHA. Good article.
Richard
A well thought out and finely written article. I am so inept at cutting my own mounts I have gone entirely to hingeless albums. Perhaps hingeless is overkill for my collection but the hingeless albums do allow me more time to work on research and to view the “mounted” items immediately.
Thank you for the article.
Richard
A well thought out and finely written article. I am so inept at cutting my own mounts I have gone entirely to hingeless albums. Perhaps hingeless is overkill for my collection but the hingeless albums do allow me more time to work on research and to view the “mounted” items immediately.
Thank you for the article.
Claude
Very thought provoking. I do both hingless and my own cutting of clear mounts.
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Katie
August 18, 2018
Wow.. Great article! So right now my child (she has just turned 7) has caught the stamp bug.. Which is GREAT! Also it has reinvigorated my lust for the hobby. Sadly.. My mother didn’t give a sh*** about my collections…and…… Well.. She threw them out!!!! Ugh.
At present and now that I am in ‘grown up’ capacity & can choose what albums or books I want? Well I want hingeless!!
I see no point to hinge stamps when it is so easy now a days to find hingeless albums. We have a dozen stock books but what I would like to do is restart my Canada collection hingeless. Looks like approx. $300 per volume ? Fine. But how do you just start over? (Sad face) and what about the little one? Remember the days where they sold the kiddie albums or ‘starter kits’ in the actual post office?? Gone are those days… Sigh! #tommytricker #stamptravel #hingeless #stamps #stampcollecting #children