Stamp Periodicals

So I am curious what stamp periodicals you read/buy on a regular basis? I guess I should start, no?

As mentioned in another thread I read Linn's Stamp News online. Also, there is a bookstore near my home that carries Stamps Magazine and Gibbons Stamp Monthly. I'll pop in there and buy the magazines if I see a couple of articles that I might like to read.

The rest of my reading are society publications - Topical Times, American Philatelist and Haiti Philately. I was regularly reading the SOSSI Journal, but decided not to renew my membership in the Scouts on Stamps Society, so I guess I won't get that one anymore. If I run across a copy of the Israel Philatelic Journal, I'll pick it up. I guess that goes for most publications - if they're free (or a bargain on ebay) I'll pick them up but most either are far enough out of my interest area OR far enough out of my quality expectations that I won't pay anything for them.

In my experience there are very few benefits to a (very expensive) publication subscription.........especially now that there are all sorts of philatelic news / discussion boards on line.

I agree with CanadaStamp. In the UK there are three magazines, Gibbons Stamp Monthly, Stamp Magazine, and Stamp and Coin Magazine. I used to get these but years ago gave up buying them for the following reasons:

All three seemed to have similar main feature articles each month (whatever was hot at the time).
There were more pages of advertising than there were of philatelic articles.
The same information and more could be found on-line with no great difficulty.
I prefer to spend the money on stamps.

Terry

I've always been curious as what people in the US read besides Linn's. I look forward to this thread populating.

My very favorite is the American Stamp Dealer and Collector magazine from the American Stamp Dealers Association. You can preview a copy here:

http://www.omagdigital.com/publication/?i=59317

A close runner-up is the American Philatelist from the American Philatelic Society.

I also look forward to Topical Times from the American Topical Association.

The American First Day Cover Society has a nice publication called, "First Days."

I check Linn's out from my local library. I'm always a week behind, but you can't beat free!

I've been taking the Seal News for over 30 years. You should check it out.
http://seal-society.org/

I disagree with Canada Stamp and Terence ...
As much as I like something like this forum, the organization, diversity and professionalism of a publication is better than trying to peck and hunt down news online.
A publication puts everything in one place and brings order.
Linn's and McKeel's are up there, for sure. I also have enjoyed the Stamp Insider - now exclusively online - a regional publication with its start in New York state. http://www.stampinsider.org/

In the past few years, I have decreased the amount of paper coming in to my house. I used to get Linn's but the cost got to be prohibitive to mail to Canada. What I presently get are Canadian Stamp News, Card Talk and the journals of the RPSC , BNAPS and the TPOSS.

I used to have a source to get Gibbon's Monthly, but don't any longer. For myself personally, I found the articles in Gibbons to be quite interesting. I particularly liked their postal history items, along with some interesting photos with most.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Thanks, centerstage98, I LOVE Stamp Insider!

At this point I'm looking for a publication (or even web site) to tell me about new issues worldwide with a little description about the content of the stamp. Linn's has the Scott monthly update, but it doesn't tell you about the stamps. And the articles they do publish on new issues kind of pick and choose the countries. They always have US, do a half decent job of Canada and England, and once in a while cover some countries in Western Europe. Good luck seeing single article about stamps issued in Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa or South America.

I subscribe to the paper version of Mekeels and Stamps http://www.stampnewsnow.com/ and I get the monthly APS magazine. They do start to build up in the basement though! What to do with all those back issues... keep/toss? It's hard to decide.

Go to the website, download the PDF and toss the original after say, 1 year?

Like 'landofquakes' stated, I too have many articles and had to decide what to do with them. My decision was to keep the articles I want. Most I want to scan and keep in files and do an alphabetical listing of them so that I can just look up any individual item. In fact, I am in the process of doing this now.

Once I have them scanned, I will just recycle the paper.

Some of the articles out of these different papers and magazines are just too good to throw out, so, the scanner solves that problem. All of my articles and images are being kept in Word files. Some of the articles are too much work to scan (too many phases), because of the smaller scanning bed and article layout, so, I will still keep those physically in 3-ring binders.

It will be a lot of work, but, once done, I will have my library at my fingertips.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I am lucky in that I get to read some of the publications for free once my stamp collecting buddies are done with them.

Dianne

I can't reply to this thread for fear my wife might read it !

As a relative newbie, I'm only subscribed to Linn's Monthly and at a mere $20 per annum that's not a bad deal for some useful information. I like paper, I look at a digi screen 8 hours a day so I try to avoid it for "fun", call me old fashioned. Thanks for the Stamp Insider link, those are worth perusing. John