Scott Catalog 2015 Digital Plans

Ugh. Don't get me started on that idiot. Right now he's in the midst of spewing his usual anti-American bigotry just because someone dared to request that he install a mobile-friendly board theme, something that could be accomplished in less than a half hour using his admin controls. Instead of simply declining, he starts going off, saying it will cost $1,000 to get the work done and how all Americans are stupid, etc.

I would NOT use anything that moron says as gospel... on any topic philatelic or otherwise.

Anyway, I digress. If memory serves, the Scott catalogs on CD were sold by the volume, the same as the printed catalogs, so they likely were $50 or so.

The biggest problem with the new eBook is that it is a major step backwards even from the iPad versions. The only improvement is that it is accessible from multiple devices. If, however, the interface is as cumbersome as has been reported, it's pretty unusable on mobile devices. At least on the iPad app version, you could pinch zoom, which apparently you cannot on this new one.

They have replaced a bad product with one even worse. Click to zoom might work ok on desktop or traditional laptop devices, but it is not mobile-friendly at all.

I can confirm that pinch and zoom does not work on Android or iPad/iPhone.

There are plenty who are, and those who aren't are becoming fewer and fewer. Amos is in the business of selling information and anyone selling information in this day and age has to make it available in a robust, highly usable digital format. Trying to survive on print and clumsy apps is Amos's Maginot Line, I guess. Information from the Scott Catalogue is probably the only piece of information I use regularly that's not instantly searchable. It's the only one I even tolerate like that, but only because there's little other choice for English speaking Americans who collect stamps.

As far as it only being available with an internet connection, that wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. An online, subscription based model is the logical end game anyway for a lot of reasons.I hope this new app is just a crutch to get them through the next year or two until that model is ready. I shudder to think that they could be so stone age as to not even be thinking about that yet.

I agree, online only is not a deal breaker, if it were a database that lets me generate want and sell lists. But to have nothing more than an online book, where you swipe left and right to turn pages is a deal breaker.

Interesting discussion / comments; especially as some readers have assumed that things would be 'better' in Europe as there's competition. Well, anyone can judge for them selves as below are links to (official) demo-versions of European alternatives:

For Michel eBooks the system is like this:
http://www.briefmarken.de/datenbank...SK2_2011_BSP
Michel uses a Flash/HTML5-based wrapper (called LiveBook) to serve extracted PDF-content, so it's a no-go on iPhone etc. Apple devices. There's no (official) possibility to print, save or download the book contents for offline viewing. The search works quite well though. All in all, this is pretty similar to Olivetti system that Amos uses with Linn's digital version.


And for Yvert eBooks the system looks like this:
http://www.yvert.com/c-792-biblioth...n-ligne.aspx
(Just click the 'Venez tester gratuitement la démo' banner on the halfway of page)
Yvert requires Silverlight, so their eBooks work on Windows-devices only. Again, there's no (official) possibility to print, save or download the books for offline viewing. The search works quite well. Again, this is very similar to what Amos is doing with digital version of Linn's.

The biggest difference with these comes with pricing... Yvert has one 'master license' that gives you access on everything for 99€; it's a pretty sweet price. Michel on the other hand charges 40-80€ per volume with 5 year license (but AFAIK they're working with package pricing that should be announced later this year).

Is it better than the Amos/Scott offering... I'd say they're all more or less on the same bar. All in all, I'd say apastuszak hit the nail when he wrote:




That the way it should be done IMO too... Considering that most publishers likely have the required software (Adobe LiveCycle ES4 or similar), it's not so much a question of money but knowhow.


-k-

The fact that this topic is up to 6 pages in as many days demonstrates how frustrated we are, but also indicates a good demand for Amos --- IF they can rethink their technical issues and deliver the product.

As catalogs go digital, the barrier to entry to other countries will start to break down. Can you imagine trying to buy a full Volume set of Scott if you lived in Australia or England? The shipping cost alone would be a fortune. But with a digital catalog, in theory, we should have competition between catalog makers, at least in the same language. I could see Scott and Stanley Gibbons competing for customers, if their catalog could list values in multiple currencies.

I wonder if Amos would license their catalog data if a 3rd party wanted to develop a better online catalog. Not saying such a 3rd party even exists today, but I wonder what would happen if someone approached Amos with the idea, or wanted to partner with them.

They license their data to the makers of StampManage and EZstamp, so they might. Somehow, I think they might consider it competing with their print catalogs and not allow it.

Indeed. It would be expensive and challenging, but Amos is faced with a monumental challenge as well as a monumental opportunity.

As has every purveyor of information in the digital age. Amos is probably looking at the graveyards of "old media" and figuring maybe it's smarter not to go down that path at all. But Scott has something going for it that Worldbook, et. al. didn't - the hobby (at least in this country) is standardized on Scott numbers. A group of dedicated collectors could launch a wiki-catalog tomorrow, but unless it uses Scott numbers, it's not going to get much use. And of course Scott would never license their numbering system to such a group.

And the reason why they won't do it is because it will anger companies like StampManage and EZStamp. I've had this discussion with them already. I wanted to use an open source collection management program to track stamps, but I thought it was silly to have to enter catalog numbers all time. I figured if I put them in, then I could post an export for others to import.

So, I contacted Amos to see if this violates their TOS. They said I would need a license for the Scott numbers, which they won't give me. The logic was, the product I was giving away was going to be free. This would be unfair competition to their other licensees: StampManage and EZStamp.

Last year I had thought of a numbering system we could have called the "International Stamp Identification System." and every stamp would be granted an ISIS Number. Well... moot point now considering the situation in IRAQ and Syria.

That's easy to get around - how about assigning stamps a GSI (Global Stamp Identification) number

Hmm... So they refused to grant/sell you the licence on those claims? The devil in me is thinking whether or not this kind of behavior would satisfy for antitrust claim ?

-k-

I found Amos is actually pretty nice when it comes to licensing. First, keep in mind this is not simply a copyright issue, Amos has trademarks on their numbers. When I approached them to use their numbers in a online SQL database for non-profit use they only asked that I add the copyright/trademark notices and a small link back to their website. I did have to sign a contract but it was straight forward.

Obviously they have invested large amounts of money in developing and furthering their trademarked numbering system over the years and I cannot think of a single reason that they should not be allowed to protect them as they see fit.

So if anyone is seeking to use their numbers in a non-profit way they will find them quite open and easy to work with. Any commercial use or anything that is simply going to facilitating the pirating of their number system will catch their attention and they will either deny such use or ask for licensing fees. This is not illegal nor is it an anti-trust issue.
Don