I know what you mean about Davo pages not lying flat, but in my experience the only albums which have pages that do lie flat are ring binder albums and springback binders with linen-hinged pages.
Two-post binders from all manufacturers, including Davo, tend to curve pages, and the more pages in the binder, the greater the curve. The exception is perhaps Lighthouse and to some extent Schaubek pages which have a series of elongated cut-outs or holes (which look a bit silly to me) that allow the pages to bend more easily and then lie somewhat flatter. That 'almost' solves the problem of pages bending or curving in two-post binders. It seems to work reasonably well. Lighthouse albums, however, are very expensive.
Ring binder pages will lie completely flat (not to mention making it very easy to add and remove pages). But then there are the rings staring at you. It's not the best look, in my opinion. It reminds me of school 3-ring binders. Of course some collectors may find ring binders a modern look. I want some elegance in displaying my collection. In Europe, 22-ring or other multi-ring binders somewhat solve this problem, looking less like school binders and looking more sophisticated.
Springback binders, an older style still around today, were widely used back in the day by collectors like FDR, the British Royal Collection, and so forth. So perhaps they're a good and elegant choice. But they also curve their pages. At least they do if you use regular pages in them. But if you use the far more expensive linen-hinged pages, they bend very comfortably and do lie flat. I imagine these were the pages used in FDR's and the British collections. But they're awfully expensive, so they are hardly an ideal solution. Linen-hinged pages are also only sold as blank pages, not as country album pages. So they have limited use.
Some manufacturers have tried to find an economical way to get pages to lie flatter without expensive linen hinging. Besides cutting out elongated holes, which does seem to work pretty well, one approach is to score the inner edge of each page with one or two indented lines. This makes the page bend a little more easily and more completely -- as if you had bent the page back and forth a few times. Davo does this on all its pages. As long as binders are not over-stuffed, Davo pages lie a little flatter than you might expect, though not completely flat, it's true.
All stamp album binders and pages are a trade-off. If you have a great deal of money to spend, you get the very best. If you have little money, you make do with what you have. If you're somewhere in the middle like most of us, you look for the best combination -- the most affordable price which gives you a good looking, workable album.
I like Scott albums because of their appearance and their affordability. I like Davo albums for similar reasons -- high quality pages with good layouts, well-made binders, availability of dustcases (which I use), general availability of their products, and relative affordability. Davo albums cost more than Scott albums but a good deal less than Lighthouse, Schaubek, and others. But Davo still has a fairly upscale look. I can put up with some curved pages. I try not to overload each binder. And a big plus for me is that every volume of every Davo album includes a slipcase. Adding a slipcase to other albums costs $15-25 each. That's not cheap.
Schaubek is another very good choice. Their pages lie fairly flat because of the elongated holes they use. But their slipcases cost extra and their country album prices seem higher than Davo. Most importantly, they don't provide full coverage for stamps from many countries. Their pages often (always?) start in the postwar era. I don't really know why. It's hard to build complete country collections in Schaubek albums.
After years of debating and "researching," I've pretty much settled on a combination of Scott and Davo albums -- along with a few other oddball albums.
Also note that just as in the old competition between Scott stamp albums and Minkus albums, each manufacturer publishes albums for some countries but not others. For some countries only one manufacturer (or two) offers an album -- another limitation. So, depending on what you collect, you may have to buy albums from a few album manufacturers to get what you want. |
Posted 04/09/2016 12:58 pm
