Advice On 2020/2021 Supplies?

I'm like JBuck, I picked up the low cost flips as the quality seems to have changed for the worse on all. I also use the BCW binder.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...e=UTF8&psc=1

RATS! I do have advice.

Call me "uninformed."

I faced a similar (if you'll allow) problem. I did not inherit; I bought -- a large coin collection half a century past. I rejoined it for the first time three years past. Quite a few albums, I must tell. In those three years, among other interactions with the coins, I have managed to strip at least a dozen albums naked, exiling the empties to a cold corner, while modifying one -- so far.

Why did I strip so many albums? I did so because I regard the albums themselves to be obsolete. They mark a bygone (for us) age of accrual.We have accrued. That's our problem! They once served to enhance an adventuring collector's relationship with his coins. They served as a display of that adventuring in relationship with fellow collectors.

What did I do with the coins I pulled? I put each in a 2x2 enroute to my modern-day album. I could easily store these in a box, but a BCW three ring binder sheet (cost: $0.19 on Amazon) holds 20, My BCW sheet goes into a three ring binder ($2.00 at Walmart. I store six to eight sheets to a binder. I will store eight penny sheets, but never eight Ike dollar sheets. Two dollar binders have weight control issues.) My coins never go completely out of my sight (that in sight aspect is the lure of albums, so I preserve it ). If new information about a coin variety reaches me, extracting, reexamining reinserting 2x2's is safe and simple. I pay two and one-half cents to replace any I destroy. Many of my scrapped albums reveal minor unrepairable damage.

Here's my salvation: I give each 2x2 a penned serial no. That serial no. lives in a computer spreadsheet column. (Digital spreadsheets cost next to nothing). In the column next to the serial number reads what the album will offer beneath the coin: 1945D or 1953S etc. - that's all the album offers except, perhaps, a back cover mintage number printout. I don't bother, but loading that column or any other would be a cinch. My next columns record grade, condition, maybe last PCGS auction price and anything else relevant. I keep backups on inexpensive thumb drives.

Why did I keep one album (so far) intact with modification? This was because my assessment of bygone album value is not the "absolute rule of law" in coin country. As I went through my complete Walking Liberty half album researching data for spreadsheet columns, I came across data (unavailable half a century past) that warned a few coins need lives of their own outside the albums -- outside Dansco AND outside my substitute for the old albums. I bought replacements which lacked these errors and varieties off Ebay and reassembled the Dansco.

When need comes to wrap my mind around what coins I have, I view my spreadsheets wherein columns return much more of my stored hard won unlost info than any pretty album ever could. meanwhile back at the 2x2, a few of them also have a note or two of info hen-scratched onto them that would defile a pretty Dansco.

You did say, "., even if it something I mentioned and you can make me look at things from another "side" of things. Anything is greatly appreciated." Did you not?

Kevin

Thanks to both Kcm & hfjacinto! You are definitely right Kevin. I love to hear what others have done. You never stop learning. And thank you for the links hfjacinto. I will take a look and see what I can come up with.

Which works until the computer 'crashes' and all that data is lost. I have FOUR dead computers sitting in my garage and HUNDREDS of 'floppies' full of (mainly) all the family photos taken over the past 30 years or so. I'm hoping to someday find a way to grab all those pics and various historic data (like expense sheets of all my coin purchases since 1995) to put into CD's.
Even then, I've heard CD's and DVD's are on their way out too, so who knows what the next 'gimmick' might be.
I've learned to now put copies of almost everything to old fashioned paper.

Off topic, get an external Hard Drive. I copy everything on my laptop to the harddrive once a week so the most I lose is a week. If its important I copy it over that day. I have a TB drive that cost about $100. I lost a few photos when my last laptop crashed, but I had the photos in the camera so I just downloaded it again.

@atticguy External (USB) floppy drives can be found pretty cheaply, and they still work on modern PC's. I've used one on a Windows 10 box.

@simplysavage922 I personally don't use Danscos, as they expose coins directly to the air more than a flip would--and also are hard to get coins into and out of without touching the surfaces. Mylar flips are cheap and offer good protection (that's what I use personally), but it seems like you're trying to get away from those--so I'd say cardboard 2x2s in a binder are the next best bet...