Any Updated Davo Hingeless Pages For Missing US Stamps?

Hoping against hope that there's some info out there I may have missed on the topic. While I love my Davo hingeless albums, and use them religiously outside of Palo for some esoteric countries, the lack of spaces for most earlier US coils (primarily W/F) and some other issues is still driving me nuts. Appreciate any info, assuming there is any.

On a related note, I can swear that there used to be one or two "C" numbered pages for coils on the older albums, so if my memory isn't totally off on that, any info on these would also be greatly appreciated.

I've always heard that Davo includes only one version of every stamp, leaving out most (all?) stamps with different perfs, coils, watermarks, and so on. I like this idea as I think too many stamp albums go into way too much minor detail, asking you to buy and include stamp after stamp that looks exactly the same as all the others. U.S. collections, for example, are typically supposed to include flag stamp after flag stamp, all seemingly identical except for minor perf differences and so on. I'm not a fan of that.

Of course, if album designers put all the extra versions of stamps on separate pages you could simply leave them out, and that would be fine. This is often done by album makers with souvenir sheets, another frequently big waste of time and money as far as I'm concerned -- and basically a tax on stamp collectors since the public hardly ever buys them.

So if you're expecting Davo to issue pages for varieties of the same stamp, they may not
do that.

That doesn't mean you can't use a blank page to mount these varieties, though. Drawing a careful page layout isn't difficult. Or simply mount the stamps using mounts neatly lined up. Both methods can look good.

I've had good luck printing my own page layouts onto blank Davo pages. Since Davo's blank pages are never all-blank but always include their single-line border, any page layout you design must exclude a page border. I've used the inexpensive Steiner page layouts to do this. Converting these layouts to Word using an online PDF to Word convertor is easy. Then on my computer, I go through the saved pages and select the page border of each page in the upper corner and hit 'delete' or 'backspace' and the border disappears. Printing that page out on normal computer paper gives me unbordered "originals" which I use at Fedex to print onto blank Davo pages.

Alternately, you can also flip the blank pages over and print on the entirely-blank reverse side. You'll end up a nice layout on one side and the back of each page having the original one-line border, but it doesn't detract in any way, as far as I'm concerned.

Have fun.

No!




Different watermarks, generally, are included on the primary pages.
Their policy on perforations is unclear. Sometimes, they are included on the primary pages. Sometimes, there are additional pages at the back of the album. But they may ignore them.
GB has Machin phosphor bar varieties at the back. NL has syncopated coils at the back, but some issues with two-sided perforations are included on the primary pages.

They started out as a local publisher. Their cooperation with Stanley Gibbons made them a small international operator. They, since, have expanded. however, their main markets are the Dutch and Belgian markets, and, more recently, the UK. Their albums are based on the local preferences.

It makes no sense to design albums for a few specialised colectors. So you will see some depth but no true specialisation for the Germanies, France, Netherlands and Overseas, France, Belgium, and UK. Other countries will be more basic depending on the popularity in their main markets.

Individual pages can be ordered. They are made in Germany. You may send them an email inquiring after the existence of the pages.

NSK, you've objected ("No'!") to the first half of my sentence which was about what I'd "heard" which is then qualified by the second half. "I'd always heard you were a sharp dresser, but today's outfit convinces me otherwise." Would you do that with this sentence? Taking an entire sentence as one statement is a better approach.

My point was that Davo, and many album makers, don't usually (often? ever?) accommodate all sorts of varieties -- but perhaps Davo does that for some countries on separate pages you can leave in the album or remove?

My overall point which I think you support is that Davo is not the album you'd want for all sorts of varieties of U.S. coils that the OP was asking about. As you say, the most detailed albums are the ones issued in the country you wish to collect -- Stanley Gibbons for GB albums, perhaps Scott for U.S. albums, and so on. Scandinavians seem to collect various perf varieties of the same stamp -- which U.S. collectors don't do -- and most of the major album makers don't provide spaces for these. Which led to the creation of Stender brand albums (and maybe others) which do provide spaces for those varieties, though those albums are not well-known in the U.S., I think.

The "No!" was not so much an objection as it was a statement that DAVO is a very basic album that willy-nilly adds varieties. They hardly include even Dutch perforation varieties, but do not ecxlude all. Watermark changes, often, are included, but not always. They include phosphor and fluor varieties, but few variants of those. Coil stamps, sometimes, are included. But not always.

As for your latest statement: the present one-country albums, including those for the UK, Isle of Man, and Channel Islands are rebranded DAVO albums. They had more specialised album. They, however, outsourced their albums.

Very few publishers include all stamps in their albums. The big German brands, however, do better than most.
I agree that blank pages offer an alternative.

There, always, is more to it than just geography. Many people will start with a pre-printed album, even many of us who specialise. Albums that have spaces for all kinds of varieties, only, are economically viable if there are many collectors of those varieties.

If DAVO / Stanley Gibbons would include spaces for all types (not even plates) of the Penny Red Stars and all visible plate numbers on surface-printed stamps, they are very likely to chase away most GB collectors.

I do agree that a good option would be a local album and add blank pages, or, if available a specialised album. One drawback of adding blank pages is that you might sometimes be adding pages with just one or two stamps, Of course, designing your own album would be even a better solution. But few know they will ho beyond basic stamps when they start collecting.

I can easily see the publishers perspective since adding pages takes resources and ups the price of the product. After all, they have to stay competitive. My way of dealing with supplementary material (minor catalog numbers, unlisted varieties etc.) was to add blank pages notated as necessary. For myself, it seems a bit trifling to angst over page aesthetics since only myself and whoever buys the album when the end of the road is reached will see it. Does anyone exhibit their album at a stamp show? Never heard of it. Like a comic performing for their dog, who cares if the material sucks a little (and maybe it's not bad!).