Wizard El-Cheapo Coin Albums - Review

Finally bit the bullet and got six of the inexpensive albums from Wizard Coin Supply:


(note pic taken from their site)

There have been previous posts concerning these - so here is my experience with them.

Are they worth the 5.00 I paid?

Yes.

I would put them close to being on par to the older Whitman albums I have. The cover just "feels" a little bit lighter on these. I won't manhandle them.

Cons:
1. The gold lettering on green cover/pages is a little more difficult to see, I find myself tilting the front of the album to catch the light (room lighting) to read which album I have picked up.

2. In one area of the dime album, the dimes tended to want to slip into where the "plastic" slide cover goes. I think this is b/c they made 1 sliding cover for 3 rows of dimes which gave the covering of the page a little too much area to "slacken" and allow the dimes to enter the area the slide goes into. However, since this only occurred in one 3-set of rows, it may just have been a fluke.
It took very little effort to get the dimes to sit positioned in the center of the main insert.

3. You cannot add pages to them like (I believe) you can to Dansco albums.

Pros:
1. They get coins out of my old Whitman folders that tended to degenerate the reverse of the coins I had in them.

2. Contain all the proof etc. "extra" spaces.

3. This was a faster way to get the coins out of the folders than trying to put them all into 2X2's (which I like - but time consuming).

4. By choosing not to go name brand, my total cost was 30.00 for 6 albums. Had I gone with name brand, least inexpensive site I could find would have cost me 109.00 for 6 albums.

5. The 79.00 I saved can be used to fill a lot of the proof coin holes (which I never intended to collect years ago but am now looking forward to getting as part of the collections!

6. Has indexed thumb tabs on their pages so the plastic slides are easier to access than Dansco (and other albums without them).


If I wanted to add pages, eventually, I believe it would be little trouble to dismantle the album, drill 3 holes to correspond to a suitable 3-ring binder, look into getting some brass grommets for the drilled holes (just as a precaution) and then add what I want.

If albums had been available this inexpensively when I started out collecting in the 60s, I likely would have a number of nicer, non-damaged coins.

Overall rating:
I got my money's worth and am happy with them