If You're Lucky Enough To Have Scott Catalog PDFs...

I think I just found out a great workflow for me.

I bought the 2009 Scott Catalog CDs off of ebay and loaded them on my iPad a while ago. I had been using iBooks to read through them as I sort out my stamps. I have found this far more convenient than pulling out the paper Scott catalog that now sits in my basement.

I was reading a thread on here about how people track their stamps and noticed a good number of people track their collection right in the catalog, by marking the catalog.

Well, a doh! moment hit me yesterday. I went and bought GoodReader on my iPad, which allows you to annotate PDF files. I moved the PDF files into GoodReader and used their annotation tools to underline anything I already have in red (you can obviously pick the color of your choice).

So far, it's working very well for me. Only issue right now is that Scott stopped making PDFs of their catalogs, so I am trapped in 2009.

I have the 2005 pdf version. No clue why they would stop making the pdf versions; just easier and saves so much paper!

Ram

According to the emails I exchanged with them, it was concerns of piracy. I guess people were posting the PDFs online somewhere. I got a 6 CD set off of ebay for $100.00. A lot cheaper than the printed catalog (though it was the 2009 catalog and I bought them last summer, so they were out of date.)

The fact that you can annotate them adds that much more to their value.

This thread prompted me to pull out my copy of a single CD piece of software I bought back in 1999 by Palladium Interactive, Inc., that was a first attempt to be able to inventory stamps based on the Scott Catalog. I don't know if this was the first year they came out with this software or not.

While it's ancient by today's standards, it's an interesting piece of stamps and computer software history:

Wow, back in the days when CD-ROMs based software was all the rage. Very cool!

So I had a talk with the fine folks at Amos and it seems the 2009 catalog I bought on CD off of ebay were most probably pirated copies, which is annoying. So, beware buying Scott catalog CDs off of ebay.

Sorry, I didn't want to publicly say anything, but now that you know already. I knew you had a pirated copy based on how you were using your pdfs. Also, the 2007 edition is the LAST edition in which the print function is enabled. After that, the print function is security disabled (unless you have hacked the files). So if you can use the print function, then those files are pirated.

I posted at length about the software and problems with pirated software in a few older threads, as well as ranting about how Amos shot themselves in the foot.

I would say >95% of the so-called Scott CDs that are selling on auctions are pirated. One ebay seller even had some pirated CDs mixed in with genuine CDs (he had made a bulk purchase from another source and thought everything in there was the same).

Unfortunately, my monitoring over the years has revealed that ALL the Scott WW and Specialized CDs exist as pirated software. Shrink-wrapped doesn't mean a thing. Even the proper labels/images on the CDs doesn't mean a thing. Pirated CD are almost always on consumer grade CD-Rs that are "burned"; that is not how commercial grade CDs are made. They are also made from a different type of CD, although your CD drive usually cannot tell the difference. So you can always spot a pirated CD just by looking at the "shiny" side of the CD and/or by checking the spray-on CD lot numbers.

I'm sorry that you got stuck with pirated software.

At one point Amos did sell CDs, so there have to be some legit copies out there somewhere. With printable CDs out there, it's pretty easy to make a good looking fake CDs.

If the PDFs were restricted in any way, I would have just used aPDF to remove any restrictions off the PDF and load them on the iPad anyway.

Its one thing to "obtain" pirated software. That's a conscious decision you make. I'm more annoyed that that I spent money on pirated stuff.

Amos is all happy with me because I actually bought the app and the US specialized catalog.

There are, but not that easy to find.



Good for you!

k

Crap! I just looked and low and behold... I can print mine... grrrr

Yeah, it really pisses me off that I spent $100 on ebay for something someone torrented.

Ah well. I have the iPad app and I'm good now.

I was going to say that Scott has released a iPad version of the new catalogs... available on iTunes or something.

also, that ultimate collector software... I bought one of those once and hated it..... glad they don't make it any more.

My copy of Scotts 2009 lets me print also

You can use a screen capture program to print out selected pages of your Scott PDF's. It's really too much trouble, though, to try and print out an entire Volume this way.

You can do this with the iPad app, too, but it's a bit more effort. Capture the page to your camera roll, then e-mail the graphic as an attachment to your desktop account, then print. Again, this works best with just a few pages.

When you factor in time, effort, ink/toner and paper, plus a binder, it's better to just pony up the money and buy the book for $69.99.