anyone know of any direct distributors for mounts? i need thousands of them and the idea of paying full blown retail for lil packages of 40-50 mounts galls.
one of my projects is a 4 volume mingus global (technically a 3 volume but I added a empty binder and redistrib for space for custom pages) , my "high test" stuff does indeed go into mounts, then glassines, then dealer pages, then the binder,
Check for mounts on Ebay, Linn's or the American Philatelist for a dealer that sells seconds, which I have never found a fault with and have been using for years. You get twice as many mounts as the originals for the same price. I think one of the sellers is a fellow named Smith, in Sarasota, Florida and I know I've seen his ads either in Linn's or the AP magazine. I just took all of my AP magazines to the stamp club last night, so don't have even one around here.
Mike
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"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
I found his name on a different ad in Linn's, but it's the same fellow. Roy Smith, PO box 21117, Sarasota, Florida 34276. I don't have his phone number, but have talked to him a time or two and it shouldn't be hard to get if you want it.
Good luck,
Mike
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"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
The "seconds" do not necessarily mean that the mounts are defective. Could also be the packaging.
I know some dealers sell the strips from broken packs as "seconds". If there are any damaged mounts they throw them out.
A long time ago, I made the decision to put all my stamps in mounts. Took a while to do, but I got it done. Now it's just a matter of putting all new purchases in mounts and then the albums. Takes no time at all now. I keep a supply of all mount strip sizes that come in lengths of at least 150mm, and a couple of extra packs of the smaller sizes (80-mm and smaller) and one of each of the larger sizes (up to 150mm). I don't use the sizes larger than 150mm that much, so I don't keep extras of those. I have been dropping from my inventory all the mount sizes that come in sizes less than 200mm. I find that the strip lengths of 200mm and up come in heights close enough to where it doesn't matter that much. Besides, those "specialty" mounts come in packs of very small quantities and very high prices. I'm saving money by dropping those.
I am not sold on that 811 tape. A few months ago I started working from A to Z on the piles of stamps that I had lying around for what I found to be up to 20 years! Some of the stamps that I bought around five years ago had been mounted on APS approval book pages with the 811 tape. The stamps were stuck to the glassines from residue from the tape. I no longer knowingly buy stamps that were mounted using tape. "Tape" and its implications is the operative word for me.
I've bought quite a few of these "seconds," in the past; I've never discerned any quality issues with them. It could simply be the way Showgard conducts its quality assurance: inspect a sample size from a lot, if a certain number of defects are found, reject the whole lot. That still leaves a very large percentage of perfectly good 1st quality "babies" that get thrown out with the bath water (or sold to Roy Smith).
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re: wholesale/bulk mounts
I buy the mixed bags - I find that is easier unless I have a significant amount of stamps of one size then I'll buy some individual packages but by buying in the mixed bags I'm able to create so many sizes and can easily turn a top opening to a side opening from a residue of another mount. Or those little pipsqueak USSR stamps will fit into the "ends" left over from cutting a full strip - if calculated out I'll end up with a piece of mount that will match those little stamps!
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If you have a Hobby Lobby near you, and if they sell stamp mounts (the one near me sells them, but only the pre-cut ones), you can use their weekly 40% off coupon to buy mounts.
Mind you, the Hobby Lobby coupon is good for 40% off one item. At - what? - 40 mounts per pkg, and 30,000 stamps to mount, that's only 750 trips to the store. They are open 6 days a week. You should be done by September 2018, not taking into account any more stamps you buy in the meantime.
O.K. As is often the case when a discussion thread gets detailed something pops up that I've never heard of- which is good- I learn from it and can usually figure it out. But this time ------ What is 811 tape?
Well, it is possible to sometimes work it out with the cashier or manager to use more than one coupon at the same time. At the least, if you run out unexpectedly, you can buy a pack without waiting for the mail. Works good in a pinch.
Hobby Lobby doesn't stock a big quantity of anything in the stamp area. So don't go there figuring on buying 30,000 mounts. I regularly buy the Super Safe stock book there. They stock ONE. So I will buy it with the 40% off coupon and it's around $10.
I also buy what I believe are Super Safe black stock pages. I buy the ones that have two pockets per page for covers. They stock TWO packs! So I buy the two packs every visit, one gets the 40% off. I still don't have enough to house my G Washington Bicentennial covers!
You could always try bringing more than one coupon in and see if they honor it. First time I did that the cashier told me that it was only one coupon per visit. I asked her what "visit" meant. She said when someone comes into the store that was a visit, and it ends when they walk out the store. I asked her if I went to my car and put what I just bought in the car and came back in could I use another coupon? She said I could. She then looked at me and told me to just go get what I wanted, because it would be kind of stupid to make me go to the car and come back in. At that store they accepted a coupon for each item that I wanted to buy.
We have several Hobby Lobby stores in the area. When I was really needing to buy alot of scenery material for my train layout, I often did the circuit to at least four of the stores. I did this about once a month. I took coupons with me to each one.
At one of the other stores, the manager told me that I could get all that I wanted (of the scenery items) and he told the cashier to give me 40% off my entire purchase. At this store they only required me to have one coupon.
At the other two, one manager would only accept one per visit (I went to the car and came back). At the other store they only accepted one coupon per day. That one was the farthest away, so I often left that off the circuit.
I did this for about six months until I had all that I needed. All I did was ask what was all right with the store as regards to using the coupon.
Well, so much for my Scotch 811 idea. Here's the reply I got from 3M, when I queried them on it:
Thank you for contacting 3M, where we Apply Science to Life, Stationery and Office Supplies Division.
Scotch® Removable Tape 811 is not acid free nor is it archival but it is photo safe.
We cannot make any guarantees on how our products will perform on stamps because of the various components used to make stamps (inks, papers, glue, etc.). We do not do any testing on stamps. We would not recommend using Scotch® Removable Tape 811 to mount expensive stamps.
I use mounts on a couple of focused collections and any HV stamps throughout, but I could only dare to dream of owning a collection worthy of using mounts for every stamp. I love my stamps, but not enough to take out a second mortgage on the house. Hinges will do for the majority.
CapeStampMan mentioned Roy Smith for mount seconds. Roy sells Showgard seconds. I have purchased from him in the past. Excellent service. He advertises in Linns. His phone number is (941)378-4881. Another source for Showgard seconds is showgardseconds.com.