Which Stamp Catalog(S) Do You Use ?

This topic may have been done before..or a survey taken..but now I am curious...if you only use one catalog thats fine..or let us know if you use no catalog at all...i have the 2012 Scott catalogs..the Dutch NVPH special catalog,the Canadian Unitrade and 4 specialized books on Guatemala put out by the Guatemala society..some of these guys must have devoted their lives traveling through Guatemala digging through archives very deep and technical !!

I use Scott, and have a complete set. Due to the high cost, I replace each volume roughly every 4 years. I also don't need to know about the current "wall paper" as my collection is based on the Scott International Parts One through Five (1840-1965). I do have some pages into the mid-1970s for several countries.

I use a 2002 Afinsa catalog for Portuguese Colonies and have an opportunity shortly to replace it with a 2008 edition. I also have the current edition of the Follansbee catalog, for Mexico. I have a number of reference guides, including the Serrane guide published by the APS and "Forgeries of Portugal & Colonies" by D.J. Davies. I have some others, but these are the primary ones.

Scott classic specialized for general foreign, Scott U.S. specialized, Edifil specialized for my Spain collection.

I use US Scott Specialized for US, Unitrade for Canada, Michel Spezial for Germany, RHM for Brazil and Scott International for the rest. All are 08/09 editions. I don't collect 21st century so I don't update too often.
Dan

Well, for the world I use Scotts but do have some of the foreign specialized catalogues for other countries.

For Canada, I use the Unitrade Catalogue only.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I use Zumstein for Switzerland, NVPH Speciale for the Netherlands, and the 1995 PNC catalog for Plate Number Coils along with the yearly supplements that the Plate Number Coil Collectors Club issues every year.

Peter

Hi,
I have a 2012 set of Scotts specialized for US, and the US pocket catalogue. I also picked up a USPS guide to US stamps, a really good deal.

I use Unitrade for Canada and Scotts for everything else. I do have a Scotts specialised for US.

Dianne

As I collect only the Indian States, I use Gibbons, and as prices in this area are constantly moving up, I keep up to date with each new edition. Scott, and the other general catalogues, are worse than useless for the Indian States. (And not much chop for most of the British Commonwealth outside North America.)

I also use the specialised, unpriced, catalogues for individual States issued by the India Study Circle. They give vastly more detail, and they're simply invaluable.

I use Scott only because its from the local library (so free of charge). I should be using Stanley Gibbons though as I am trying to concentrate on Early Commonwealth. (Note the word "trying")

For the US and Canada, I am currently using Harris from 2008.
For France, I use 2011 Y&T and a 1970s Ceres.
For everything else, I use Minkus from the late 1970s, and Scott from the early 1970s. Minkus is much more informative, but Scott gives me the numbers for building my wantlist.

For US I use a 2013 Harris, For UN I use Harris 2013 and Michel UN Specialized 2010. For Germany I use Michel Specialized 1978/79. If I need more current pricing, I will go to my local library which has complete sets of Scott 2008, 2010, 2011.

I use Unitrade for Canada and BNA; SG for British Commonwealth and Michel for Germany and central Europe. I also have SG country catalogs for New Zealand and Great Britain. I am thinking about buying a specialized Michel catalogue for Austria and a Campbell-Paterson for New Zealand but the latter is quite expensive.

For Japan, I use the Sakura catalog. Every stamp is illustrated in color, so it's helpful in getting the correct identification on some of the late 19th-century and early-to-mid-20th century definitives. It's also really helpful on the recent issues, too, especially the prefectural issues, where the Scott descriptions, if they didn't show the stamp, can be ambiguous. They also show all the souvenir sheets.

I also use the more specialized catalog, the JSCA or "Nissen" (short, in Japanese, for "Japanese Specialized"). It's a bear to use unless you're fluent in Japanese (I'm not), but lists all the paper and perf varieties for definitives, plus also some cancels. It's now in 3 volumes, and expensive (maybe around $50/volume on average), but very helpful for specialized work. (It's in black & white, so the Sakura is still a go-to, even with the JSCA nearby.)

-- Dave

I use Scott for USA and most of the world. The exceptions are Unitrade for Canada and occasionally I refer to Yvert for France.

I have used Scott for my US and Worldwide, but have recently acquired additional catalogs as I work through various countries. I have Zumstein (Eastern Europe), Ceres (French Colonies), and Yvert (Europe and French Colonies) and a Michel catalog on the way.

I base everything on Scott, and then add to it with the other catalogs (varieties, etc.) -


Also - For my own reference, I add little notes in my Scott Catalog that tell me that one of the other catalogs has more info. i.e. I write a "Z", or a "YT" next to a series if Zumstein or Yvert has more info.