Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
StampData has some advantages over the various other online catalogs out there: 1) no dependence on anybody's proprietary numbering system, 2) deep knowledge of philately, for instance links from overprints to base stamps, currency types, etc, 3) wiki-type online editing of everything, and 4) effectively unlimited capacity for multiple images of each type, usages on cover, and so on.
The downside is that this is a not a fancy corporate project, and the site itself is a little plain-looking - my focus has been on building up the data and adding different ways to work with it, not so much on marketing. In addition, there is some learning
curve for editors. On the plus side, as I'm the developer of the code, there is good turnaround for getting suggestions implemented!
Site membership is free, but if you're interested in editing, there's a permission that I need to enable - send me mail to get that.
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A Herculean effort but impossible to maintain. Even if you are retired, do not take time off to sleep, eat, and a few other things, you cannot keep up with this, and especially not make a buck or two.
Richaard
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Heh, I do have a few software tricks to make it less work! But for instance, I understand that Scott only has one person to handle new issues. If one assumes 10,000 new stamps worldwide each year, as a fulltime job that comes out to 12 minutes for each type, which is actually pretty leisurely for a task that needs less than a minute for data entry, and another minute for scanning if the postal authority hasn't supplied digital images already. OK, it does take a little extra time to multiply the face value by two to get that carefully-chosen catalog value. 
If new issue entry work were spread amongst a couple dozen people, it might amount to a a couple of hours per month apiece, not exactly a killer burden.
The website actually pays for itself in continuing to serve its original purpose, which is to keep me from buying duplicates at shows. I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a nice stamp and thought "nice, never seen one of those before", and the database says "uh, you have it already"...
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Stan:
I'll have to be content to stand in the reflection of your glory and in the radiance of your optimism.
Your project is emerging as the philatelic world's electronic colossus of Rhodes. I wish you legions of volunteers
and ever-expanding success.
I frequently have to go to my 20kg user-manual to figure out how to open my laptop (I am so 1990's) and reluctantly decline to help.
Persevere.
John Derry
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If you've ever looked at a Scott catalog and thought "I could do better", you might like to take a look at my website StampData. This is an effort to create a complete and detailed worldwide catalog online. It presently includes over 159,000 stamp types and over 29,000 images, and I calculate it to be about 20% complete. To get it all the way is going to take more than just my personal effort, and so I'm looking for people to sign up as editors, either overall, or specializing in particular areas.
StampData has some advantages over the various other online catalogs out there: 1) no dependence on anybody's proprietary numbering system, 2) deep knowledge of philately, for instance links from overprints to base stamps, currency types, etc, 3) wiki-type online editing of everything, and 4) effectively unlimited capacity for multiple images of each type, usages on cover, and so on.
The downside is that this is a not a fancy corporate project, and the site itself is a little plain-looking - my focus has been on building up the data and adding different ways to work with it, not so much on marketing. In addition, there is some learning
curve for editors. On the plus side, as I'm the developer of the code, there is good turnaround for getting suggestions implemented!
Site membership is free, but if you're interested in editing, there's a permission that I need to enable - send me mail to get that.
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re: Worldwide online stamp catalog: StampData
A Herculean effort but impossible to maintain. Even if you are retired, do not take time off to sleep, eat, and a few other things, you cannot keep up with this, and especially not make a buck or two.
Richaard
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this post
re: Worldwide online stamp catalog: StampData
Heh, I do have a few software tricks to make it less work! But for instance, I understand that Scott only has one person to handle new issues. If one assumes 10,000 new stamps worldwide each year, as a fulltime job that comes out to 12 minutes for each type, which is actually pretty leisurely for a task that needs less than a minute for data entry, and another minute for scanning if the postal authority hasn't supplied digital images already. OK, it does take a little extra time to multiply the face value by two to get that carefully-chosen catalog value.
If new issue entry work were spread amongst a couple dozen people, it might amount to a a couple of hours per month apiece, not exactly a killer burden.
The website actually pays for itself in continuing to serve its original purpose, which is to keep me from buying duplicates at shows. I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a nice stamp and thought "nice, never seen one of those before", and the database says "uh, you have it already"...
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The past is a foreign country, they do things different there.
02 Mar 2012
08:32:01pm
re: Worldwide online stamp catalog: StampData
Stan:
I'll have to be content to stand in the reflection of your glory and in the radiance of your optimism.
Your project is emerging as the philatelic world's electronic colossus of Rhodes. I wish you legions of volunteers
and ever-expanding success.
I frequently have to go to my 20kg user-manual to figure out how to open my laptop (I am so 1990's) and reluctantly decline to help.
Persevere.
John Derry
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this post