Would You Purchase E-Catalogues For Kindle Or Similar?

Yes, but only to save me the trouble of converting my print copies to PDF as I'm currently doing.

Yeah, if Scott or Michel (or any catalog) came out with PDF . . . but they won't.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. Printing is becoming obsolete as mobile technology continues to steamroll ahead. That being said the only time I've ever needed mobile catalogs is when trying to evaluate a collection I am interested in buying, the rest is done from my home office.

The cost of a DVD is around .5¢ compared to probably $30.00 per catalog to print. Once the database is built it only requires each year being added in and hopefully the cost savings is passed down to the collector.

I would definitely want to use e-catalogues provided they are easy to navigate. It's nice having hard copies but they are expensive and take up a lot of room. Also, when you are not near a major dealer that stocks them, they have to be ordered (not always easy) and shipping charges come into play making them even more expensive.

Hi

I voted definitely not.

As catalogs now stand one does have to "flip pages" occasionally (especially with Scott Catalogs). For instance, a particular country's early stamps may be overprinted stamps of another country. The illustration reference, and/or note(s), are in the other country's listings. Referring to Scott, an e-Catalog would be unwieldy until Scott lists issues by date, and not by category; Regular Issues, Air Mail, Official, etc..

In my opinion, until the above mentioned items are eliminated there will always be a need for a printed copy.

Jerry B

I voted maybe. It would depend on how "smart" navigation and searching is and how intuitive the product is overall. If I can easily jump to a page either by Scott number of search criteria I can tailor that would be ideal. Browsing options by year or images or grouping in some way that meets my needs would be a plus.

I'm either a Luddite and definitely not, because subjectively the tactile experience of flipping pages, or sharing a catalog at a stamp show is part of the experience. I'm using an Underwood typewriter now (though then I scan the page and upload it onto this site).

Or else, when they have a William Gibson futuristic neural net connection via some nanotechnology enabled technology, so I don't even need a stupid old e Reader to look at PDFs,..then I'll jump on the band wagon and be a mind in a vat.

Good question though. I voted maybe

I would definitely use Android based catalogs if implemented properly as a completely searchable, indexable digital document, with standard digital book features (bookmarks etc.) and all the images and text in the paper document. Simple renderings of the paper catalogs, such as PDFs, would be useless to me.

My bar for Scott is set so low, I would be very happy with the simple PDFs available for an Android device. To me, it seems really short-sighted that these days they would make it available for Apple devices and not for Android.

It would be too hard to navigate through the pages on a kindle.

These feature are actually possible with PDFs, if the PDF is created correctly. I use PDF copies of Michel catalogs that are completely searchable, bookmarked for instant navigation, and are high resolution so I can zoom in very closely on the photos or text. In addition, using the right app on my iPad, I can highlight, strikethrough text, and make notes to keep track of what stamps I have or don't have. It's a system that I've found works very well.

PostmasterGS,

Yeah the PDF would have to be created properly. I don't trust Scott can do that.

Just curious, where did you get PDF copies of Michel catalogs? I would sure prefer that to my print copies given the tiny size of the book (and consequently the print).

Some of them I created myself using a digital camera, and others I've had professionally done by book scanning service. The scanning service produces great results, but the cost of it basically means I'm paying double for my catalogs.

The ideal candidate for digital catalogs is people overseas. Imagine the shipping cost of a Six Volume set of Scott Catalogs to Moscow.

I would, and essentially do. I have physical copies, but I also go out and download digital copies because I'm not going to lug the physical catalogs around with me. I can put it on my phone or on my tablet or wherever I want and get use out of it, whereas the big, bulky catalogs really aren't as useful for anything but paperweights.

I figure as long as Scott gets their money, I'm going to do whatever I want to do to make my purchase useful to me.