Worldwide Stamp Catalogue

I just ordered the Heirloom/Voyager deal from Mystic stamp company (3 volume Heirloom US albums with 200 US stamps plus 2 volume Voyager US with 1000 worldwide stamps for $87.00) and I am very excited to start transferring my world stamps out of my old 1977 Statesman albums. The Voyager albums do not have images, they are just quadruled pages, so I am just planning on mounting the stamps that I have in chronological order, as I am not planning on adding too much to my world collection (I specialize is US, Great Britain, Canada, and Germany). My question is, what is the best Worldwide catalogue to use that will correctly show all of the stamps chronologically, but for a decent price? I have an old Minkus set that ends at 1977, but they where $400.00 per book back then, so I am afraid to even look up their price now. I am not too interested in having a bunch of the extra information about the stamps, just a basic listing with images so I can sort my stamps prior to placing them in the album.

If you know where to look, the basic information on those collecting areas is probably available for free online.

For example, with regard to Germany, if you go here, you'll see links to stamps of Germany pre-1945, Berlin, East Germany, West Germany, and modern Germany. Within each of those areas, there are links to the individual years. Within the individual year pages, there are tables showing the basic issues, with data including dates.

If you are looking to stay cheap, try the library. I have a very old black and white catalogue that I always have around, but when I need better info, I just check out the volume I need. But the time I renew it on-line a few times, I ready to return it and maybe get the next volume. This way it is always up-to-date, which you can not get by purchasing them.

The Michel catalog is available in English online on a subscription basis. Never used the online deal, so I can't say whether it's user-friendly. I like the German print version though.
Here's a link: http://www.briefmarken.de/datenbank...guage&mwsid=

I believe they also have a "junior" catalog in print, which is a simplified version of the Michel volume for Germany (contains 1849 to present) at about 1/8 of the cost of the full version. But I don't know if they have that one in English. I would check ebay.

There was a thread here about the Harris US/BNA catalog:
https://goscf.com/t/23044&SearchTerms=US/BNA
That might be a reasonably priced alternative to some of the expensive ones and it covers both US and Canada.

I subscribed several years to MOK before dropping out last year. Here's a review I wrote in late 2009:
http://www.stampcollectingblog.com/...atalogue.php


Michel has also a program called MichelSoft (several DVDs), which is of much better value IMHO. But it's in German only, and also more expensive than the online catalog.

I actually solved my own problem accidentally yesterday. While adding some Canadian stamps to my Stamp Manage 2012 collection, I thought "why not use Stamp Manage to put my worldwide collection in order?" It has a large quantity of stamps from every country, can be sorted in Scott order or issue date order, and it has images! I will probably be able to use my old Minkus book for the ones that are not included. The more I use Stamp Manage, the more I am realizing that it does not have to be "just" a stamp database.. well worth the $80 I think.

Well, the Internet makes the world a lot smaller!

scb, your blog was actually one of the first resources I found for my new hobby. Thanks for the wealth of info, it's great to know that you are on this forum!

Congrats in diving into WW collecting! Quad pages makes things easy. Do the Voyager albums use 8/12 X 11 pages?

I have not received them yet, but they appear to be 8-1/2"x11" in Mystic's standard "lay flat" 3 ring binders.