"For the World of Philately, WWI was a shot in the arm."

This is the title of an article in the latest Kelleher's Stamp Collector's Quarterly, vol 6, #3. If you aren't familiar, the magazine features consistently well written and consistently well illustrated articles. I can imagine non-collectors paging through one in a doctor's waiting room.

The premise of the article is easily discernible from the title, although not so obvious might be the collectors of the era who wanted nothing to do with "enemy" stamps.

But I bring the article up as a reminder that we partly owe WWI for the Junior International which, of course, become the Big Blue. Here is an ad for the Junior  (first issued in 1914) that I posted on this blog in 2008.

 In case the scan isn't clear:

"When you are Daddy's age you will be telling your children all about the great war of 1914 that changed the map of Europe. You will want to show them the splendid collection of stamps you made of all the countries now at war, and tell them about Belgium and Russia and France and Germany. And you will be very proud of your collection, too, because, 'way back in 1914, when you realized how interesting these stamps would be some day, you arranged them neatly, as shown above, in your new JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL ALBUM."

You can peruse the entire issue at this link. The article is on page 34.

International binders

There has been a nice discussion on the Stamp Community forum about buying, maintaining, and repairing binders for the Scott International albums. 

My two cents:

1) If your collection is actively growing, the binders will be subject to significant stress from use. I suggest going with pre-owned binders and using library book tape to keep them viable. When repairs are impracticable or your aesthetic sensibilities are compromised, replace with another set of used binders. Once your collection is approaching completion, then you can spring for new or pristine used binders.

2) An advantage of used binders is that most of us start our collections by purchasing existing Internationals, so you should have a ready supply of binders, at least initially.

3) Non-jumbo binders will tolerate more abuse, but I prefer to work with as few binders as possible. So I house my collection in used jumbo binders, substituting convenience for beauty. If you aren't adding a lot of your own pages, I'm assuming that a complete Big Blue with interleaving will require two jumbo binders or three regular. I'm unclear as to whether page filler strips would change this.

4) Regardless, I highly recommend slipcases, both to help control dust and to support the heavy albums (pages plus interleaving). And let me slip in a PSA for purchasing the latest pages from Amos which are printed on better and heavier quality paper.