Stanley Gibbons Goes Digitial

SG has announced the availability of their catalogues in PDF form.
SG Digital Catalogues

There is a reasonable saving over the printed version, e.g the 2019 Commonwealth & British Empire Stamp Catalogue is £62.95 digital compared to £89.95 printed.
However, for those of us in the colonies, the real saving is on postage.

Hopefully, rampant piracy will not force them to put an end to the digital offerings.
Clive

I personally would rather have the printed version but the portability of the digital format would be a boon for those who travel, frequent bourses, auctions etc.

As for postage, shop around.

There's a certain well known dealer in the antipodes whose prices are pretty good for the new SG Commonwealth & Empire catalogue when they are released each year.

That said, I still found it cheaper to buy it out of the UK, including postage, and also getting hammered on the exchange rate of course.

Just saw this in email today and I'm very intrigued. The 1840-1970 Commonwealth Clivel mentioned would be amazing to have digitally and more up to date. Makes shopping online easier for me as I can switch from the browser to the catalog very easily. And of course not to mention the additional savings in shipping across the pond.

I actually had high hopes for the Michel online and paid for a year of access. Ultimately I found the Michel too difficult to use with a very unfriendly interface. Sometimes I felt like I was trying to understand listings while looking through a 12-foot tunnel.

Question from a non-Machin collector to confirmed Machinites: Is the GB concise thorough for Machin varieties (for me that means papers, shades, dies, perfs, phosphor bands, and security variations)? I don't feel Scott's is an option for me as I will soon get frustrated with its relative simplicity. I don't currently have a Gibbons of any sort that covers Machins past 1970.

The GB concise is mostly complete on perforations, normal/narrow values, color, and phosphor (left, right,center), print types (litho, recess, gravure), and some gum varieties. It is only missing a couple that meet the above criteria.

The next step would be source (sheet, booklet, coil), various papers, screen values, head types, phosphor colors (blue, yellow, violet). I believe some of these are covered in the SG specialized.

Resurrecting this thread and would love to hear from actual users of the Digital portfolio from SG. Do they integrate well with Windows?