This is free info provided by StampDays and is meant as an idea to help fellow collectors get out from under the over-priced, lower-quality glassines (the new ones are the pits). If you find this useful, please feel free to pass it on to all of your collecting/trading buddies. (Do a "select all" and "copy/paste" into a new email, avoid the forward button, as this will help reduce usage to the spammer crowd). If viewing from the webpage, just give them the link to this page.


Hello everyone,

   This is a system that I devised to replace glassines as my main storage method. I used to keep any stamps that had a quantity of 3 or less in a community glassine for that country. When some sold, I would have to spread them all out on a table, find the right stamps, and then put the unsold back into the glassine. Very time intensive and a major pain in unmentionable places.


Anyway, as to my idea, which works really well for up to about 25 stamps of a kind (but I do have quite a few that are border-line bundle ready and are overstuffed).

It is as follows:


I won a bid for 200 sleeves (baseball card "penny sleeves") and cut up several hundred old album pages (acid free) to the size of baseball cards. Inserted them into the sleeves, added some stamps and labeled them. I liked what I had so I went to a bulk site and purchased 5000 sleeves and 25 storage boxes. They do also sell "houses" for the particular box size that I received, at a very reasonable price.

The benefits to me are as follows:

• Cost - in bulk, they are very inexpensive (way less than a penny apiece).
  
• Safety - they are made out of PVC free plastics, with no photo transference and meant to house similar collectables.
  
• Neatness - info written with magic marker will easily remove with common lighter fluid and a paper towel.
  
• Adaptable - boxes made to house the sports cards come in varing sizes at very low costs.

Hints:

• Labeling - label them on the open side and pick them up from that side.
• Paper - Use acid free paper and cut to size, heavier card stock may also be used but will increase the space needed for storage.
• Cutting - You will need a good paper cutter to keep the inserts uniform. They need to be 2 5/8" by 3 5/8" . To get the maximum number of inserts out of a typical page, cut into 3 strips of 2 5/8" by 11" and then cut them to the 3 5/8" size (you will get nine inserts per page that way).

The boxes that I chose stores the cards on their sides (a small bummer) and were chosen due to the "houses" that are made for them. Others pictured on the bulk site look like they may store the sleeves vertically, but I do not plan on purchasing those at this time. I have filled 166 boxes so far and have not had any stamps "fall out" or to become damaged.

Please use this at your own risk, as no warranty or guarantee of any kind is so implied.





- the boxes      - the sleeves - the houses.

This page was designed & written by DJ