Good Morning Stampers!
Just to clear up some confusion, I understand that oversized items like souvenir sheets and multistamp long sets are included in the "20 covers" minimum guideline for approval books. For instance, a long set of 10 stamps only shows up as one item in the tally for the approval book, but the book may actually contain many more than 100 stamps. Example; A book containing 10 long sets of 10 stamps may have 100 stamps within, but will only show up as 10 items on the approval book summary page. Long sets are also physically large and can take up an entire page the same as a cover. The Souvenir sheets are oversized and can fill up an entire page and thus are in the same category as covers. An approval book containing a mix of covers, souvenir sheets and long sets can easily meet the standards required minimum for our approval books while showing a count of under 100.
In summary, if you see an approval book with fewer than 100 items that has passed muster by the approval moderator, look inside and you will probably find many of these oversize items.