American Philatelist - Catalog Issue

The latest issue (Jan 2022) of the American Philatelist is dedicated to stamp catalog(ue)s. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in stamp catalogues.

Covers the 4 main catalogue publishers and their offerings, the history of catalogues and some more specialized ones. Of particular interest to me were the articles on country specific specialized catalogues - e.g. the ones for Latin America.

All of this info plus more is apparently going to be available at the APS site at https://stamps.org/home/catalog-reference-hub, which is "coming soon" according to the magazine. I checked and it's still a work in progress (main landing page still has placeholder text), but much info is already there.

~Greg

Thanks for sharing this!

Searchable, filterable database of stamp catalogs established a number of years ago https://stampsmarter.org/features/CatalogHome.html

Don

The issue was very good. I really liked Michel's comments about being the most specialized of the "general" catalogs as I read it.

APS is a little behind the times and inward focused. They definitely are not aware of the many resources already available.

Personally, I think Gary's contributions will be missed by us at APS. I am not saying those at the APS are not hard working and dedicated but he was a specialist collector first and most.

The 1st quarter edition of the Philatelic Literature Review (published by the APRL, and accessible online to all APS members) continues on the theme of catalogues, with articles on Stanley Gibbons & "an incomplete review of specialized society catalogs", among other things.

A good follow up read to the American Philatelist issue.

I did not realize the APRL issue was free to APS members. I thought you had to support the APRL.

That's what I thought too, until quite recently...

Online access to all their current/back issues comes with being an APS member. If you would like print, that is extra.

I was disappointed by the APS catalog effort. Just about every collector is well aware of the big names such as Scott, Gibbons and Michel and using the catalogs is pretty self-explanatory. Rather than giving the big names even more publicity it would have been nice to see a really deep dive into all of the reference material that is unfamiliar to many collectors and can be invaluable when it comes to education. APS touches upon quite a few but the effort is IMO halfhearted. For Russia, which has a large and avid collector base, they mention Zagorsky and have a short paragraph that tells you nothing except that it is hard to find. No review of the work nor mentions at all of other resources such as Zverev or Standart amongst others that are extremely detailed and go miles beyond Scott and Michel. A lost opportunity.

Get your point, but to be fair to APS doubt a deep dive was their goal, rather to provide an overview. They also relied on external contributors and those contributions vary widely in quality/detail, as they will.

Related - in addition to the Stampsmarter resource Don mentioned, there's also this one - https://www.worldstampcatalogues.com/. A bit hit and miss but worth checking out if starting in on a new collecting area.

I read the article on SG catalogs and did not really learn anything except a little history of the beginning. I would not call any of the articles critical reviews especially since APS used a lot of material directly from the catalog maker. They were basic information and geared to someone who has not heard of these for whatever reason No one such expect anything really negative such on topics like listing philosophy or pricing. Collecting can solitary hobby so not everyone does not have the same level of information.

For example, a more critical review could be a comparison of valuation guides such as Scott, Harris, Black Book (still around?), etc. This is geared toward US(subject not location) collectors.

The question I have is how does some that collect worldwide get access to worldwide information and supporting materials (albums, etc) at an affordable price?

The first part is a work currently in progress

As for the second part, that remains a do it yourself proposition (which is probably for the best since it gives the individual the ability to determine the contents.)

Yes, it can take a lot of effort to try and find the "right" resources - both print and online - when starting in on a new collecting area.

In my lengthy list of projects to do if I ever have the time - would be to put together a data-driven Wiki-style site with catalogue comparisons/reviews/links. Having spent years in database/app development & catalogue publishing would be an very interesting project. But until a future retirement extremely unlikely to happen...

~Greg

I have offered for years to not only host, but also develop, interesting SQL database-based (the best archival solution for decades to come) projects. The catalog database mentioned in link above is an example of this kind of community project. There are many such community projects (20+) on Stamp Stamper, anyone is welcome to contact me and become a contributor or even the administrator of the community projects.
Don

Edit: I can modify/revise the existing projects if folks have a different vision and want to participate/help.

Thanks Don - appreciate your willingness to host & facilitate these (and agree on SQL).

I wonder when the catalog became so critical to a worldwide collector? How much did early worldwide catalogs cost?

For example, did worldwide collectors collect to an album such as one the many starter albums or Big Blue (use their numbers) and then added pages for stamps without a space (illustrated or blank). One could subscribe to a new issue service to get new issues.

It's a mixture. There were Victorian albums with allotted spaces for everything - the Gibbons Imperials, for example - and ones with blank spaces. The drawback with fastbound albums was that, unless they had a specific cut-off point, it was difficult to add new issues to them. Gibbons abandoned fastbound "everything" albums on the death of George V. I use reprints of the Gibbons Imperial (Empire) and Ideal (foreign) albums.