Australia was the FIRST country in the world as far as I know, to issue large size annual year books. They started way back in 1981.  Everyone copied them later!  They  are globally popular now.

These large A4 (“Quarto”) sized books contain all the Australian stamps issued in that year, and are placed on sale at year end.  Clear Mylar Hawid mounts are already neatly affixed to each page, so the stamps can be quickly and safely inserted, leaving a beautiful and fascinating stamp product.

For collecting modern issue stamps in the Australian climate these are THE best thing you can buy. Dust, humidity, moisture and insects just do NOT get into the stamps, I have found in my 37 years of buying and selling these books. If I buy an Estate lot where the early year books are stored along with stockbooks and albums, the stamps in the Year Books are mostly in perfect condition after 35 years, and many of the same issues stored right around them have toning/foxing/rust among them.

That is by far the most important point. The heavy SLIPCASES each of these comes supplied in, keeps out dust, and seems to largely keep out the humidity and moisture, that causes foxing. Year Books for the Australian climate are the perfect way to collect modern stamps.

Secondly, the presentation of the stamps and the artwork and detail on the pages, is an absolute credit to Australia Post.  High gloss varnished paper, and double facing pages of info on EVERY stamp issue.  Laden with photos and factual background information.  For collectors with younger children or Grandchildren, this is a goldmine for their education and general knowledge.

The average Australian 12 year old sadly does NOT learn this stuff in school anymore it seems.  Most would not have a clue who George Bass, Murray Rose, Alec Campbell, Edmund Barton, Jessie Vasey, Weary Dunlop, Frederick McCubbin, Roden Cutler, Don Bradman or Lawrence Hargraves were, or even who the British Monarch was when Australia was founded or during WW2.  Sad but true. Teenagers today have ZERO idea of these areas.  

The same youngsters have no idea whatever what a Flannel Flower looks like, what year Western Australia was founded, what the 'Cutty Sark' was, where the 1988 Olympics were held, and when the Snowy Mountains Scheme commenced etc. This is our HISTORY and HERITAGE here, and the schools simply do not teach it anymore it seems clear to me.

The answers to ALL these questions and facts are contained in Year Books. If the Education System does not bother to teach it any more, Grandparents and Parents can do their small bit to educate the next Generation.

Youngsters LIKE looking at these books as they are bright and colourful with lots of photographs. They absorb this knowledge like a sponge.  Anything that can drag them away for 15 minutes from iPhones and iPads, silly on-line games, cellphone text messaging, Facebook, and internet music downloads etc, is a PLUS.

Folks often buy a set of these books right from the birth year of a child or grandchild. They are then an easy present to keep up to date with each ensuing year.  THEN after 20 or 30 years, your gift has turned into an incredibly valuable ASSET they inherit.

As far as 'value for money' - you can't beat these - especially at my prices. Remember you are buying MINT STAMPS here - which is like buying cash in a way.  Look at my prices - for many of the books you are buying them even now - over 30 years since issue, at virtually the PO issue price, like the 1985 book - BEFORE my 27% bulk-buy discount!  All the Mint stamps inside are postally valid in EVERY book - so you can use them on letters and parcels if you wish.  How can you lose?

And children aside, heaps of adults like buying the books, as not only are ALL the stamps in one place so you miss nothing, they are all in good condition, and stay that way. Unlike FDC or packs etc, you do not need to buy expensive albums to house them in. These are fully self-contained, and ready to go neatly on a wardrobe shelf, the moment you buy them.

The Year Books are compact and easy to store - a full set from 1981 fits neatly in a metre or so of bookshelf space. Or store in a box in the garage or spare bedroom even.  As they are in protective slipcases, they are THE easiest stamp product to store, wherever you have space.  And if and when you sell them, you have a saleable and readily traded entity. “Cash”.

The "Leather" (Executive) books are VERY classy.  All have been Black Leather covers with brass corners since first issue in 1986, so they are a fully matched set. Covers are thickly padded and deeply gold inscribed on front and spine and have matching black leather slipcases.  Australia Post charges about $30 more for each one over the regular book, due to high cost of making the genuine Leather covers, (the stamp contents are identical in each year) and almost NO dealer has stock of recent years at any price, from the past 5 years or so.

Many of the books of either type are scarce. The 1988 sold out WAY ahead of time, as it was a popular "Bicentennial" gift for the general public to send to friends and relatives overseas.  Most stamp collectors missed out, and hence the high price.  My keen price is $A95 before any discounts, yet the Seven Seas Stamps colour “ASC” market leading catalogue lists that book as $A210 retail in 2017 Edition.  As you can see, my price is well under HALF retail - before any discounts are deducted.

The 2000 Year Book surprised everyone, by having in it, the Australia “Sydney Olympic Gold Medal Winners” sheetlet of 16.  NO other way could you obtain this sheetlet. Hence my $A120 price - that sheetlet alone retails for $100 in many shops.

I have ALWAYS had the largest stock of PO Stamp Year Books in Australia.  I buy more Deceased Estates than anyone else it seems, and also folks come to me when selling these books, as they know I will buy them.  And I thus MUST sell as cheaply as I can, to MOVE all this stock - or I will drown in it!  Send a link to this page, to anyone you know with a few book gaps - tinyurl.com/AnnualPO

With me you are buying assured QUALITY.  I cannot overemphasise the importance of that.  For starters, 95% of the 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1987 Books on the market are STUFFED.   MOST with inner and outer inside Covers foxed and rusty, and/or “sticky” outers, and not suitable for ANY collection.  I scrap 100s a year of those years alone for postage.  Buy off ebay or gumtree or “friends” who have just ONE of each, and you get their junk.  Kids that have taken them to “show and tell” school sessions, where the pages of books get grubby and stained and gooky etc.  

You pay the same $20 Registered post for a second or third grade copy, as for a good one, and then another $20 to mail the junk back for refund.  And waste an hour, and get raised blood pressure.  A mug’s game.  The average amateur seller cannot see or identify or recognise foxing or rusting - they are quite oblivious to it.  “MY books are SUPERB”.   Yeah, sure.  These folks see these books just ONCE in their lifetime.  I have seen them each day for 40 years!  An experienced dealer is NOT clueless.  I ONLY sell nice books.

Check my '30% Off' discount for 10 year runs - these are GREAT prices as you can see.  Get a massive '50% Off' for buying two runs!  I'd rather make $3 a book profit and sell 10 or 20 at once, than $20 a book and sell just one book. That is where I differ from most dealers.  Also you save a fortune on shipping with carton buys.  One book costs exactly as much to mail, as a 22 book carton within Sydney general area.  You buy more - you pay less.  You do the Maths on that.  Which is why I am in business after 40 years, and most other dealers are not. 

 

The 2003 "Deluxe" and the 2003 black leather "Executive" albums - content is identical in each. All Australia/NZ/GB Year albums come with classy matching hard slipcases/dustcovers.    

**** Spectacular ERROR** stamp Block: MUH or FU - $A175:  The 2020 Australia Year Books I bought all had a very spectacular printing error in there - the entire word AUSTRALIA was clearly *MISSING* on one $1.10 stamp, as well as the issue year - see photo above.   A huge error in this modern era of computer checks.  NORMALLY the PO would simply swap them over for the corrected version, before placing them on sale.  However this year, for the first time ever, all the 2020 annual books did not have stamps loose as usual in a cello bag or Hagner, that you then placed in yourself.  They are now for each set, all printed on a page of gummed paper, with extra design all around them, and perforated within that A4/Quarto sized sheet.  Each page is like a huge A4 size Souvenir Sheet essentially!

So to swap these over by PO, would mean all the completed Year Books had to be destroyed, new pages for that error set printed, and then the entire book totally re-printed again, and that page newly bound in.  WEEKS of extra work.  As the error was not noticed until almost the on sale date, it was WAY too late for all that, as books are bought heavily each year as annual gifts, and in recent years, sell out very fast.  The CORRECT stamp wording was on course on stamps in all the PO packs, on FDC, and in usual mint form etc.  Tons more detail on these here - www.tinyurl.com/Glen1-21 - They got to $500 a book on ebay! MASSES of books will be broken up just to secure this error stamp, the ONLY way to source it, and the rest will sit on wardrobe shelves for decades, un-noticed by the regular buyers at POs. Making complete books scarcer than ever. Only 6,500 hand numbered copies were ever printed of the Executive Album of course. (Stock 583KW) - and they will be Sleepers.

Even single copies used of scruffy covers mailed the year after issue, are getting $160 - www.tinyurl.com/ArtError - Every book or block I sell has added free, the CORRECT MUH version of this $1.10 stamp included along with it, that I managed to source separately! I can supply just the "Country Name Missing" error Block 4 as shown above here, which was on front cover of "Stamp News". (and the normal correct $1.10 stamp) for $A175 MUH and/or central VFU - Stock 583KQ - please specify WHICH, or mint will be sent. MUH AND VFU blocks 4 are just $A325 (Stock 583KB) Or, the hand numbered by PO, LEATHER cover 2020 year book (only 6,500 hand numbered exist globally) for $A299 (Stock 583KW) or pristine unopened PO Deluxe album for $A225 (Stock 583KR).

** Important Note - from the 2005 albums, Australia Post dramatically reduced the number of albums produced.  Far too heavily it seems, and they sold out around Christmas.  The 2005 LEATHER album was for the first time hand numbered in GOLD script i.e.: "Number 5037 of a Limited Edition of 8,000" on front page.  Only 8,000 were produced - a tiny fraction of the earlier years.

Both versions of the 2005 albums contained a special Gold inscribed in margin sheetlet of 5 of Australian Parrots. The PO did NOT release that parrot sheetlet in ANY form via PO's or philatelic sales section - it was only available in the 2005 Year Books.  Retail of that quickly rose to $65 due to worldwide interest from bird collectors and specialists.  A large number of year books were busted down by dealers to remove this very desirable sheet, and those books will forever be off the market, increasing prices even more of already the far the lowest print books in history.

The 2006 and 2007 Leather Books (and all future ones) were also hand numbered to just 8,000 copies.  Indeed in 2020 this tightened to just 6,000 hand-numbered books, and price was now $A159.95 to buy.  Each 2006 book also included an exclusive Queen's Birthday MUH sheetlet of 4 - not obtainable ANY other way.  Dealers broke down many 2006 books to obtain this sheetlet.  Same with the 2007, which included a Botanic Gardens mini sheet not otherwise buyable. The 2008 contained a Beijing Gold Medallists sheetlet not obtainable any other way - retail $50 alone. And so on for each future year. These black leather books are HOT.  Numbered Limited Editions, with special sheets included.