Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
My view is that I use the catalogue mostly to arrange the order of my stamps. Value ( subjective) is a minor consideration as I am not likely to ever have something worth more than a $100. I just find myself unable to justify the expense of purchase when I may only enjoy the item for a few years.
In order to gain more pleasure from my collecting I now make up my own pages (thanks Clive) using either the stamps themselves or the internet to obtain sizing and order of sets/issues.
What could be more user friendly would be an extension of Dons post in that the catalogue is available electronically as a one time purchase, subsequent additions being a subscription at maybe three year spells. Similar to the Steiner page idea without having to purchase the whole catalogue/file annually.
Forget the advertising, it puts people off and I am not sure anyone takes any notice and if the package was priced sensibly the cost would not need advert subsidies.
As an internet based file you would be able to have it available almost anywhere at anytime.
Just my thoughts, please feel free to add your own, no worries as they might say down under.
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If value isn't material to you, but stamp identification is, then you only have to purchase one set of catalogs to cover the time period that you collect.
I have the 2012 Gibbons British Commonwealth Catalogue. I use it for identification and non-valuation information only. I also have the Gibbons 2008 Stamps of the World Catalog Set for the same reason, and Scott 2015 Classic Catalogue, along with many out-dated mostly 1990s Michel catalogs.These provide a wonderful reference set, and are used more often than one might think.
I update these catalogs if I run across newer ones in box lots where I only pay a dollar or two for a volume.
I am going to update my Scott Standard Catalogs this year from 2017 to the 2020 edition, because my album pages contain spaces for stamps that are not in the 2017 set. The catalogs are much quicker than flipping through several years of the Linn's monthly magazine with Scott update.
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I wrote this in the Australia thread. I think it lives here quite nicely too.
There's a small mountain, or at least a large hillock, of info the editors could remove, that is of virtually zero importance to most users. Does anyone really care where the six presentation copies went, as they will never be available to anyone? Are the essays of importance to most, for the same reason? The technical details at the start of each listing are verbose and could be pared back, etc etc etc
Why not release the full catalogue digitally online, with a registration fee of maybe $200, and encrypt it so it can't be downloaded (yet!). The data is all digitised anyway.
It's the 21st century, and we're still doing things the 19th century way.
I have dozens of digital catalogues from around the world, most of which were sent to me by well-meaning friends. I don't know the source, but it's clear that there is a demand for online references at a much-reduced cost
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I believe that printing by demand would be the way to go forward with stamp catalogs. Sometimes a printed book is more convenient to handle than an online resource. But imagine you are interested in, say, stamps of Switzerland, but would need to buy a Central Europe catalog even though e.g. Austria does not interest you at all. So why buy the pages you do not need? Somebody else might want the Austria pages, but not the Switzerland ones. Just tell the publisher which country and/or epoch you want, pay for those pages and have them sent to you. Might save paper and money in the long run.
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I am working on a new online specialized catalog, what is my objective? Is my objective to make a buck or is my objective to introduce people to a potential new area of interest? This is the part that the specialty philately that I have never fully understood.
Most collectors have smaller subsets of various interesting types; perfins, precancels, cover and postal history, topicals, etc. We run into these things over the years as we go about our more mainstream collecting but yet when we go to find additional information we are faced with spending money to join a new organization or buy costly reference books. Is this really the best way to expose more people to a specialize area? Would it not be better to offer the tools (basic catalog info, print your own album pages, etc.) to attract and turn a casual hobbyist into a more specialized hobbyist? Why restrict access to information with costly entry barriers? Why not use the low cost of online publishing to expose as many potential hobbyists as possible to a specialize area of interest?
Instead the expectation is that we are willing to invest significant amounts of money populating our shelves with catalogs on Cinderallas, Match and Medicines, Precancels, and Perfins? We are supposed to invest hundreds of dollars a year to join specialized organizations to simply ID a few owned stamps or spend a day or two learning about a specialized topic?
So my choice is…
1 – Publish a new costly catalog that a handful of people will be willing to buy
2 – Seize the opportunity to introduce thousands of people to a new area of collecting
Yes hard copy publishing is expensive, especially in low volumes but online publishing is not. I think that online publishing offers a huge opportunity to present specialty topics to the casual collector.
Don
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For an online worldwide catalogue, I use www.stampworld.com occasionally to assist with identification. It has images for almost every issue I needed to find and has a good search capability. You get access in exchange for an email address.
Of course, it has its own numbering scheme and does not include many varieties but gets me to where I can find it in the printed catalog that is not 100% illustrated.
Al
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'
Mine is almost always a two-step process:
https://www.stampworld.com/en/ ... to find the year of issue, as it has an easier interface for multi-year searching
https://colnect.com/en/stamps ... for the details & multiple catalog numbers (sans Scott, of course)
But that's me.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
(Modified by Moderator on 2019-04-04 17:47:51)
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Don,
I agree with you about the desirability of having publishers sell pages on demand. In fact, as you may know, there's a guy on Ebay who apparently buys Scott's Catalogs and then breaks them up by country and then sells the original pages. I have purchased from him on two or three occasions.
Thing is catalog publishers cannot afford to do this on their own. Who would buy the pages for the obscure little countries? Probably not enough people to make economic sense for the publishers to just sell pages for those entities. It's sort of like cable TV, there are dozens of channels that enjoy just a handful of viewers. These channels could not survive financially without the subsidy provided by those channels that most people actually watch. Same idea applies to mail delivery. I can mail a letter next door for 55 cents, or mail that same letter to Nome, Alaska for the same price. More subsidy.
Gibbons in already in financial trouble and had Lynns not bought out Scott then I wonder if they'd still be around.
David
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I am working on the Tasmanian Pictorial issues, attempting to prepare plating guides, a very specialised area.
As I am now retired I am able to work on this nearly full time with assistance from an American collector. The end result is a number of FREE plating guides which are available through the Tasmanian Philatelic Society as PDF's with more under preparation.
At the same time I am building an excellent collection of these stamps for myself.
Yes. it takes time and money, but if more people become interested in this niche collecting area then it is worthwhile.
Tasnaki
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For those that are interested, https://colnect.com/en/stamps does have Scott numbers. They are listed as Sn. I search unknown dates for stamps by going to country then select face value. It narrows down the search by year. I am sure there are various ways to search stamps, but as ikeyPicky says, "but that's me".
Mel
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While I could see the value of an online catalog, as a worldwide generalist I see a printed set of the Scott catalog as part of the cost of my way of collecting.
There are times when it would be nice to have a smaller, possibly online subset of pages if I am looking to create a checklist of a specific country or countries. I know it would be handy to have access to a few pages during lunch breaks at work, for example.
Ideally I would have a paper copy plus access to an online version. Not sure I see Scott modernizing to the degree where such a thing would be possible, though.
Just my two cents.
Dale
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I thought it better if we discussed the value/price etc here rather than within the Australia thread as it was getting more general.
My view is that I use the catalogue mostly to arrange the order of my stamps. Value ( subjective) is a minor consideration as I am not likely to ever have something worth more than a $100. I just find myself unable to justify the expense of purchase when I may only enjoy the item for a few years.
In order to gain more pleasure from my collecting I now make up my own pages (thanks Clive) using either the stamps themselves or the internet to obtain sizing and order of sets/issues.
What could be more user friendly would be an extension of Dons post in that the catalogue is available electronically as a one time purchase, subsequent additions being a subscription at maybe three year spells. Similar to the Steiner page idea without having to purchase the whole catalogue/file annually.
Forget the advertising, it puts people off and I am not sure anyone takes any notice and if the package was priced sensibly the cost would not need advert subsidies.
As an internet based file you would be able to have it available almost anywhere at anytime.
Just my thoughts, please feel free to add your own, no worries as they might say down under.
Login to Like
this post
re: Catalogues, printed or not
If value isn't material to you, but stamp identification is, then you only have to purchase one set of catalogs to cover the time period that you collect.
I have the 2012 Gibbons British Commonwealth Catalogue. I use it for identification and non-valuation information only. I also have the Gibbons 2008 Stamps of the World Catalog Set for the same reason, and Scott 2015 Classic Catalogue, along with many out-dated mostly 1990s Michel catalogs.These provide a wonderful reference set, and are used more often than one might think.
I update these catalogs if I run across newer ones in box lots where I only pay a dollar or two for a volume.
I am going to update my Scott Standard Catalogs this year from 2017 to the 2020 edition, because my album pages contain spaces for stamps that are not in the 2017 set. The catalogs are much quicker than flipping through several years of the Linn's monthly magazine with Scott update.
Login to Like
this post
re: Catalogues, printed or not
I wrote this in the Australia thread. I think it lives here quite nicely too.
There's a small mountain, or at least a large hillock, of info the editors could remove, that is of virtually zero importance to most users. Does anyone really care where the six presentation copies went, as they will never be available to anyone? Are the essays of importance to most, for the same reason? The technical details at the start of each listing are verbose and could be pared back, etc etc etc
Why not release the full catalogue digitally online, with a registration fee of maybe $200, and encrypt it so it can't be downloaded (yet!). The data is all digitised anyway.
It's the 21st century, and we're still doing things the 19th century way.
I have dozens of digital catalogues from around the world, most of which were sent to me by well-meaning friends. I don't know the source, but it's clear that there is a demand for online references at a much-reduced cost
Login to Like
this post
re: Catalogues, printed or not
I believe that printing by demand would be the way to go forward with stamp catalogs. Sometimes a printed book is more convenient to handle than an online resource. But imagine you are interested in, say, stamps of Switzerland, but would need to buy a Central Europe catalog even though e.g. Austria does not interest you at all. So why buy the pages you do not need? Somebody else might want the Austria pages, but not the Switzerland ones. Just tell the publisher which country and/or epoch you want, pay for those pages and have them sent to you. Might save paper and money in the long run.
Login to Like
this post
re: Catalogues, printed or not
I am working on a new online specialized catalog, what is my objective? Is my objective to make a buck or is my objective to introduce people to a potential new area of interest? This is the part that the specialty philately that I have never fully understood.
Most collectors have smaller subsets of various interesting types; perfins, precancels, cover and postal history, topicals, etc. We run into these things over the years as we go about our more mainstream collecting but yet when we go to find additional information we are faced with spending money to join a new organization or buy costly reference books. Is this really the best way to expose more people to a specialize area? Would it not be better to offer the tools (basic catalog info, print your own album pages, etc.) to attract and turn a casual hobbyist into a more specialized hobbyist? Why restrict access to information with costly entry barriers? Why not use the low cost of online publishing to expose as many potential hobbyists as possible to a specialize area of interest?
Instead the expectation is that we are willing to invest significant amounts of money populating our shelves with catalogs on Cinderallas, Match and Medicines, Precancels, and Perfins? We are supposed to invest hundreds of dollars a year to join specialized organizations to simply ID a few owned stamps or spend a day or two learning about a specialized topic?
So my choice is…
1 – Publish a new costly catalog that a handful of people will be willing to buy
2 – Seize the opportunity to introduce thousands of people to a new area of collecting
Yes hard copy publishing is expensive, especially in low volumes but online publishing is not. I think that online publishing offers a huge opportunity to present specialty topics to the casual collector.
Don
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re: Catalogues, printed or not
For an online worldwide catalogue, I use www.stampworld.com occasionally to assist with identification. It has images for almost every issue I needed to find and has a good search capability. You get access in exchange for an email address.
Of course, it has its own numbering scheme and does not include many varieties but gets me to where I can find it in the printed catalog that is not 100% illustrated.
Al
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re: Catalogues, printed or not
'
Mine is almost always a two-step process:
https://www.stampworld.com/en/ ... to find the year of issue, as it has an easier interface for multi-year searching
https://colnect.com/en/stamps ... for the details & multiple catalog numbers (sans Scott, of course)
But that's me.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
(Modified by Moderator on 2019-04-04 17:47:51)
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re: Catalogues, printed or not
Don,
I agree with you about the desirability of having publishers sell pages on demand. In fact, as you may know, there's a guy on Ebay who apparently buys Scott's Catalogs and then breaks them up by country and then sells the original pages. I have purchased from him on two or three occasions.
Thing is catalog publishers cannot afford to do this on their own. Who would buy the pages for the obscure little countries? Probably not enough people to make economic sense for the publishers to just sell pages for those entities. It's sort of like cable TV, there are dozens of channels that enjoy just a handful of viewers. These channels could not survive financially without the subsidy provided by those channels that most people actually watch. Same idea applies to mail delivery. I can mail a letter next door for 55 cents, or mail that same letter to Nome, Alaska for the same price. More subsidy.
Gibbons in already in financial trouble and had Lynns not bought out Scott then I wonder if they'd still be around.
David
Login to Like
this post
re: Catalogues, printed or not
I am working on the Tasmanian Pictorial issues, attempting to prepare plating guides, a very specialised area.
As I am now retired I am able to work on this nearly full time with assistance from an American collector. The end result is a number of FREE plating guides which are available through the Tasmanian Philatelic Society as PDF's with more under preparation.
At the same time I am building an excellent collection of these stamps for myself.
Yes. it takes time and money, but if more people become interested in this niche collecting area then it is worthwhile.
Tasnaki
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like this post.
Login to Like.
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re: Catalogues, printed or not
For those that are interested, https://colnect.com/en/stamps does have Scott numbers. They are listed as Sn. I search unknown dates for stamps by going to country then select face value. It narrows down the search by year. I am sure there are various ways to search stamps, but as ikeyPicky says, "but that's me".
Mel
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Login to Like.
10:21:52am
re: Catalogues, printed or not
While I could see the value of an online catalog, as a worldwide generalist I see a printed set of the Scott catalog as part of the cost of my way of collecting.
There are times when it would be nice to have a smaller, possibly online subset of pages if I am looking to create a checklist of a specific country or countries. I know it would be handy to have access to a few pages during lunch breaks at work, for example.
Ideally I would have a paper copy plus access to an online version. Not sure I see Scott modernizing to the degree where such a thing would be possible, though.
Just my two cents.
Dale
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