Albums and Storage

First Need....an Album!!  An album can be printed or blank pages, printed would be bound or loose leaf, printed should always be loose leaf.  Printed albums are normally simple pages with lined spaces and  pictures of common stamps and pages are normally double-sided. These can come in booklets for minor expense or volumes for higher prices. The next higher grade of printed albums will have a more detailed layout of various sets and short explanations of each set or single and usually hold between 15, 000 to 20,000 stamps.  You may think that is a lot but it doesn't take long if your an avid collector to put a lot into these albums. The better albums of this type are loose leaf but they do go out of date much more than the more expensive albums which are printed on one side of the page so stamps are not facing each other which can be cured by putting blank pages or glassine or acetate pages which will eventually make your albums a bit chubby and harder to handle.  The more stamps that you get will eventually need to use sectional albums which could be any of a variety of options...by country or continent, airmails, commemoratives, blocks, sheets, etc.  If you plan on collecting the whole world and its history plan on about 50 or 60 albums!!!  Post binders are very popular for these types of albums.

Blank page albums are popular with collectors who wish to make their own arrangements and also for those who wish to do exhibitions for stamp shows. These pages are completely blank or have borders or quadrille line for lining up stamps. Albums of any kind should be stored on the bottom edge and should not be crowded on a shelf or a sticking process could take place in humid weather. Dust covers can be used to protect the albums.  Three-ring binders are popular to use as albums and are usually hold 8.5 x 11 inch pages.  Look around on the Internet or in hobby stores and see what might fit your needs the best.