Storage of Stamp Stock

Roderic Little

Hi all,
I would like some suggestions on the best way to maximize the physical storage of stock mostly small to medium size singles.
My first attempt some years ago was to use the Lighthouse stock books, but I found it hard to keep stock in order without wasting large amounts of space for expansion of a particular line item. Also there is a tendency to overstuff stock books which causes stamps to fall out and get out of order. The more practical way of using stock books I thought would be a loose leaf version and I have tried some from Australia Post, these are quite good being padded but cannot take labels down the spine, which is a drawback and they are also quite expensive.

I then moved to individual envelopes B11 or C6 depending on size required, this allows a full catalogue description and cross referencing on the front with individual items listed by listing ID and crossed off when sold. Anything in really good condition is kept in small glassine envelopes inside the main envelope. I can easily store 20-30 of the same stamp this way, it's a little time consuming but it works well. The envelopes are stored in manageable size (about 300 envelopes) in cardboard liners in large pull out drawers in a cabinet and filed by Country Scott or SG if no Scott equivalent. I currently have a little over 6000 stamps listed.

I am asking because we are moving next month from a largish house in outer suburbs into a small apartment in the city and I cannot take this cabinet with me so need to downsize if possible.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance,
Rod

Roderic Little

OOPS! I just re-read first line, sounds strange I mean minimize not maximize
I was thinking maximize efficiency.

Ted Tyszka

Rod, I have turned to the use of trading card sleeves, which provide a number of advantages. 1st and foremost, for me, was that they are cheap, under a penny a piece, when bought in lots of 1,000 (thus their informal name, penny sleeves).
The polypropylene sleeves are a chemically safer storage environment than acidic glassines. They allow inspection of both sides of a stamp without removal from the sleeve. If a customer happens to ask for a scan of the backside, that is easily done without removing the stamp. And, a penny sleeve with a stamp is thinner than a sales card (and maybe thinner than a glassine, i'm not sure), so you can store thousands in a compact space.

I use a baseball card "monster box," which is claimed to hold 5000 baseball cards.

My entire store inventory of 3400 sets and singles takes up less than half the box. These also come in smaller sizes rated to hold 3200 and 3000 baseball cards, if the larger box is too unwieldy.

For ID purposes, you will need to buy sticky labels. While that, at first, seems like more work and added cost, it only adds a penny per sleeve, making it still less than 1/2 the cost of glassines or sales cards, and using a word processor mail merge function, utilizing the data that is already in my bulk upload file, creating ID labels and sticking them on the sleeves is quick and gives your product a nice professional look.

The only thing you have to be careful about is making sure the sleeves don't bend or fold when placing them in a full row that is becoming a tight fit. Also, when you grab a handful of stamps in sleeves, you have to be careful not to let them slip out of your hands. Those sleeves are pretty slick.

One last thing I find advantageous about penny sleeves is that they are very lightweight, and you can fit more into an envelope before going up to the next ounce postage rate.

Ted

Paul Molloy

Good stuff Ted!

Roderic Little

Thanks Ted
There is a fair bit of very useful information here which I will need to digest as the baseball card storage is not familiar to me. I have been flat out cleaning out 36 years worth of one man's treasure. I probably used the term glassine a little loosely. I have various kinds that are supposed to be acid free some clear some opaque.
As a matter of interest, do you print labels on a continuous roll with a label printer or on sheets on a normal printer. I am sure that our pricing here is outrageous for Avery label sheets. As everything I have in stock is in my database I can print direct from there but would need to buy a label printer and of course learn how to drive it.
Appreciate your input the brand's etc.
Kind regards
Rod

Michael Duehr

Roderic,

You may want to check out labels on both Ebay and Amazon. (Non-Avery labels are a whole lot less expensive) I use labels for my private ID's and I use the 1/2 x 1 3/4 inch labels and I made a template where I can print off 1,000 labels at a time. (I can get 2 ID's per label)

Ted is correct on the sleeves being less expensive but I would not recommend using the BCW's with chrome postcards. (There is something in the BCW's that changes the the coating on the chromes. If you do not do anything with postcards they are not a problem.)

Luree Hughes

Ted, where did you get the box/sleeves? This sounds interesting. Currently I'm using 102 cards and the red boxes. Nice and convenient for me, but as the store grows so does the space. So who's your source of supplies?

George DeKornfeld

Here's an option that works for me: I purchase smaller-sized glassines that come in long-ish boxes of 500 or 1000. When I buy a collection to break up and sell, I'll designate the collection with a key code, for example 'X.' Then, as each stamp or set is ID'd, it goes into one of the glassines. At the top right corner, using a thin-tipped Sharpie marker, I'll code the glassine as 'X1' or 'X2" and so forth, which also act as my private ID numbers for this or any other site. The glassines then simply get put, in order, back into the cardboard box they came from. The front of the box then gets marked with an 'X' to match the collection ID and put on a shelf. When I see something has sold from collection 'X,' its easy to find the box, and the item by the number I designated it with that I keyed into the Private ID box when I made the listing.

The boxes are stackable, but take up very little room. The stamps are already in glassines so when sold, they're already good to go, and I can add any pertinent data to each glassine (eg catalogue number) as need be. There's also no additional expense such as buying red boxes.

With covers, I use a similar approach, but use sleeves and obviously, larger boxes (usually whatever's handy since sleeves don't come in the nice neat boxes that glassines do).

Ted Tyszka

Luree, I get them off the site that shall remain nameless. Just search for 1000 Card Sleeves (you don't even have to specify the category). Ultra-Pro is the big brand name, but I have used several brands (I always buy whatever is cheapest at the time, so long as they specifically say, on the label, polypropylene), and I haven't noticed any quality differences. Right now, it looks like the cheapest is $9.49/1000 with free shipping.

Ted Tyszka

The boxes can be found at a local baseball card or comic book and gaming shop.

Roderic Little

Thanks Michael
I do not do anything with postcards so not a problem.
Interested to hear about the alternative label sources though.
A typical scenario for me would be entering maybe a a dozen line items into my dB at a session and printing a single label to cover the line item location or bin rather than one label for each item id.It does sound like a continuous roll label printer would be the way to go.
Thanks for your response
Kind regards
Rod

Roderic Little

Hi George thanks for your input, it is similar to what I was doing using the empty box ( I used to buy B11 envelopes in 500's for around 2-1/2c each). But then the quality of the available envelopes dropped off to unacceptable. I was trying to keep the envelope as a semi permanent stock location which was okay while I had a lot of space around me. This is not practical now and I am disposing of the empty envelopes to thin out the storage. It makes more sense to adopt what you and others are doing.
Tell me do you also use your own database or do you rely on the HipStamp info to be available permanently.
Kind regards
Rod

Roderic Little

Hi all thanks for your information, there are certainly some good options here and I will not be continuing with the system I have been using. Will now be researching costs here, as they are so much higher than in the US
Kind regards to all and thanks again.
Rod

Roderic Little

Hi again Ted,
I have been doing some follow up on your suggestion re penny sleeves I have attached a screen shot of one that looks about right. Is this what you use.
Regards,
Rod

Roderic Little

Sorry Ted cannot get the screen shot to uplift the ones I have been looking at are 2-5/8" x 3-5/8" I can land 2000 at 2.3c ozzy each.
If you can confirm the size for me it will be a big help.
Rod again

Michael Duehr

Roderic,

On Ebay type label in the search bar and then go under business and industrial. You can look under both brand name or by size and type. Because I use so many of them I usually look for about 40,000 of the size labels I am looking for. (That will last me about a year and a half as I do use them as my private ID's and I cut those labels in half so I get 80,000 total out those) For the size I am looking for you can get 2,000 for somewhere between $11 and $15 US shipped. If I go with the off brand for between $30 and $38 for 40,000 labels shipped. (I have a brother laser printer and I don't have a specific label printer)

The 2 things will find with labels and office supplies,if you go with a slightly larger quantity the price will come down per item as opposed to buying them in smaller quantities. (I try to figure what I will use in about a year to year and half)
Hope this helps.

Michael Duehr

Ted,

You may find that a lot of that is going to depend on the size sleeves and glassines you are using

Just for informational purposes

100 #1 glassines weigh about 1.4 oz

100 #4 glassines 3.6 ozs

100 postcard sleeves which are a bit larger then the #4 glassines 4.2 ozs

100 #5 glasines weigh in at 6.4 ozs

100 standard FDC sleeves weigh 5.5 ozs

100 102 cards weigh in at 4.8 ozs

Not sure how much 100 baseball trade card size sleeves weigh at the moment but it may be quite possible that the smaller size sleeves may weigh in a bit heavier than the smaller size glassines. On the larger sizes it does become obvious that the sleeves win the weight battle.

George DeKornfeld

Hi Roderic - The only part of a database I keep are the scanned images of the stamps and covers that I have for sale. As mentioned, each collection I break up is designated by some sort of key code such as 'X.' Each image goes into a file that is used strictly for that collection (so, file 'X') along with its corresponding item number (X1, X2, etc). When an item sells, I go back to that file and add 'Sold' to the item's scan. After I receive feedback and know the item was received by the buyer, I go back to the file again and delete the item's scans. Since feedback isn't always received, every once in a while I'll groom my files by deleting any items that were sold more than 60-days ago.

Item written descriptions I leave up to HipStamp to maintain for me, since all my glassines are marked with any pertinent information such as catalogue number, year of issue, etc. Due to medical issues and moving, my store here has been on extended vacation for over one year now since much of my stock is buried in boxes, so having HipStamp act as my 'cloud' has come in useful while I was in the hospital and nursing home. That said, a week from tomorrow I finally move into my new house so will be able to re-open my store here at long last (yay) !

Ted Tyszka

The baseball card sleeves are 2 5/8 x 3 5/8 inches.
100 sleeves weigh 1.9 ounces.

Michael Duehr

Thanks Ted

Roderic Little

Thanks again Ted and Michael for the extra info
Cheers for now.

Roderic Little

Hi George glad to hear that it is finally coming good for you. It is bad enough moving house without being sick as well. Thanks for the info it will be a big help as I feel I can do this without wasting time duplicating effort.
Cheers
Rod