Okay, this is stamp album related! Now that I'm organizing my USA stamp collection onto pages and into binders, I had this rag tag set of binders going. They all started to look the same, so I figured I needed to label the spines. I have wanted to get a P-Touch label maker and I had $32 in Staples Reward money (I do a lot of business printing for my clients) so I headed off to the store.
I soon found that a P-Touch is the same scam as printers... the basic unit is like $20-50, BUT the tapes are $20+ each! Then the sucker needs 6 or 8 AAA batteries and I can imagine it eats those as fast as the tapes. Suddenly I'm way into my own pocket.
That got me thinking that there had to be a better way. I went and took a look at the binders for sale. The "better" ones were $7 each, but $5 each if you bought three or more. I figured I could get SEVEN brand new binders $35, which would be a few dollars plus sales tax out of my own pocket. And these binders have the clear slot I can put a cardstock label on the spine. One happy camper!
Here's my score in my favorite chair! I already have white, black and gray binders that match these, so I got the colorful ones. The colors that there are only one, is all they had in stock. And what do you know... overnight Staples sent me another $15 rewards certificate!
I am currently putting my airmails in one of the red binders.
Good job! I have become partial to that same type of binder where I can put a coversheet on the front and a label tucked into the spine. I'm not as organized as you though and still have a rag tag bunch of binders for now.
"I needed to label the spines. I have wanted to get a P-Touch label maker "
It's just as well you blew off the P-Touch; while the labels seem to stick fine, when you first apply them,they soon start spontaneously combusting peeling off.
" I'm not as organized as you though and still have a rag tag bunch of binders for now."
Ha! Me organized? I'm only now, at age 57, sorting my teenage collection into binders!
As for pages, I bought 500 of these two pocket clear pages, then created a page for each stamp issue and cut that into 5.5 x 7" cards to fit the pockets. I thought this was a stock book approach for now until I see all that I have in the hoard. But lately I've been enjoying the flexibility to add anything I please.
Thanks Ernie! Originally it was just a stockbook, a warehouse of sorts until I got enough done to create pages. Then the reality of the cost of buying mounts for everything and the finality of those pages once made. So as for right now, I'm enjoying the free form collecting where nothing is finite and I can always add a page at will.
I think it would be awesome to do just what you've done for say Scott #'s 500-800. I can't remember what number it is but all of a sudden covers and plate blocks are affordable. Would be neat to have a display like that for 4 or 5 hundred Scott numbers.
500 two pocket pages...Yowie ! I am spoiled we were getting stamp collections at our club in those Staples fabric binders..so the binders were basicly free...when i went to Staples i went into shock when i saw them selling for $14 apiece...and i never see THEM on sail
"I think it would be awesome to do just what you've done for say Scott #'s 500-800. "
Ernie- I have these pages done from the first 1800s commemoratives through 1962 for commemoratives. I hadn't figured out how to do definitive sets yet, although they have their own albums about now. The 1932 George Washington Bicentennial has it's own album since I have over 100 commemorative covers for that year.
I got those for something like $80 postpaid on eBay. I have maybe 150 pages left and about to reorder. I will add a box of 100 one pocket pages to that for the larger blocks and covers.
Seriously, it was on my Bucket List to organize my stamp collection (hoard) someday. And I'm doing it, and amazed at how much stuff I've always had!