Michel Giving Free But Limited Access To Online Catalog

I just posted this on another stamp related website, but as I know not everyone reads that, here's the same bit of news...


I just noticed that Michel is giving FREE access to their online catalog (featuring about 670,000 stamps and 1.8 million pricelistings).

There's a catch though - in order to view images, catalog values and other full catalog details You need to subscribe (roughly 100 euro annual fee for basic account, or 150 euro for premium account). It also displays only 5 sets at a time (which you can go round by searching with catalog numbers instead of full years)

So this is somewhat similar free but extremely limited online reference as Stanly Gibbons AllWorldStamps at http://allworldstamps.com/. But I think anyone not having the printed Michel catalogue at hand will find this useful. Here's a direct link to service (in German): http://www.briefmarken.de/datenbank...hp?_SPRACHE=


Also earlier on the summer Michel announced about Michel catalogs coming as eBooks sometime later this year. Now their website features a section about eBooks with statement "coming soon". I'm already drooling (and my wallet is crying) :lol:

Thanks scb.
English example in the demo..

Thanks.

I saw this a while back and thought it was close to completely unusable. I thought about paying for a Michel subscription, but based on the quality of the demo, it seems like a gamble. That is, you have to assume the subscription service is similar to the demo, and for that low quality interface I wouldn't pay 100 euro.

Now, I like the printed catalog I have, except the print is kind of small, so maybe the eBook, if not too expensive, will be better quality.

@HungaryForStamps... IMHO the paid service is not good/worth it (especially if you have print catalogs), which is why I stopped my subscription (of several years) early last year. It's possible they have made some improvements lately, but as I follow their support forums somewhat closely, I doubt it.

Compared to print catalog, the online catalog is way too clumsy to use efficiently, and has more omissions/errors than print catalogue. Thus I prefer putting my money to printed catalogues (after all you can buy 2 new catalogs for the price of one year subscription), or eBooks (whenever they come out).


But for free service this is pretty nice.... I wonder if/when Amos (Scott) will join the crowd, and open some of their databases for free search

Thanks for the notice, Keijo!



I'm not holding my breath. If they do manage to get it all online, I suspect they will charge 90% of the cost of the print catalogs. After all, the software catalogs weren't much cheaper than the print catalogs.

Could it be that Amos will have learned a lesson and make a future online catalog affordable.

To sleep, perchance to dream...

k

The first of the Michel e-books are now out. Germany Specialized vols 1 & 2. About 100 Euro for the pair or 64 Euro for each part separate.

http://www.briefmarken.de/ebooks

Anyone tried the online version of their global catalog? I don't own Michels but thinking of trying a one-year subscription (though a minimum one year subscription is 96 Euros)

And has Amos Publishing said anything about an online version of Scott. AFAIK their ebooks are only Apple-based and I use Amazon Kindle. Having an online version or at least a Kindle-friendly version would be most appreciated.

Michel's online catalog is usable, but poorly designed. It's not even close to being a suitable substitute for their paper catalogs.

The e-books are even worse. They're scans of the actual catalog pages, but are slow to navigate and are low resolution.

That's why I resorted to having my hardcopy Michels scanned and converted to PDF -- portable, searchable, and high-res.

Did you use a company to scan and convert, or did you do it yourself?

I used a book-scanning service for the 2-volume Specialized, and did the Markenheftchen catalog myself using a digital camera setup. I'm working on doing more, but they take time.

100 to 150 euros is NOT free !!

My mistake Timm I revived an old thread from the dead, should have started a new thread.

With regard to the e-books, I should also add that they're not true e-books. You can't download them, you can only access them online at Michel's website. It's basically a Flash version of the hardcopy catalog.

Postmaster, would you be willing to explain a little bit about the setup you did with your digital camera? I've contemplated doing this for some old reference materials I have, rather than risk damaging their spines by scanning them in. I had Googled about this a few weeks ago, and still found homemade contraptions to be more elaborate than I thought I could do. I'm hoping perhaps yours might be a bit more do-able?

Thanks in advance for any observations you may have,

-- Dave

For the book setup, I used two book easels and two panes of 8x10 picture frame replacement glass, all of which I got at Hobby Lobby. For the camera setup, I used two Ott lights and a DSLR camera on a tripod with remote shutter release.

I placed the easels facing each other to form a 90 degree angle in a V shape. This held the book. I positioned the Ott lights to light the page without shadows. I then placed the glass panes on both halves of the open book to keep the pages flat.

I then setup the camera on the tripod and positioned it where it looked straight at one side of the V. The remote shutter release allowed me to sit where I could flip the pages and remotely trigger the camera. It also allowed me to keep from jiggling the camera between shots.

Once I had photos of all the pages, I cleaned them up in Photoshop, then assembled them in Acrobat Pro and OCRed them to make them searchable.

Postmaster: So, this took, what, about an hour or so? (just kidding)

Seriously, that method makes sense, and is a lot easier than the other setups I had researched. Did you shoot all (let's say) left-sided pages first, then go back and do the right? Or did you reposition the book from left to right, then page turn, then left to right again?

And one other question, if you don't mind: do you have a OCR program you'd recommend? (I haven't used one in years, and they're much improved since then.)

Thanks again for the insights!

-- Dave