Michel Makes A US Specialized Catalog

Just found this on their website:

http://www.briefmarken.de/michelsho...katalog-2014

Wonder how it compares to Scott.

Wonder if it provides any clarity on the VERY confusing world of early US?

I wonder. Too bad they don't have it in English. I would love Scott to have the competition.

As a frequent user of their Deutschland-Spezial, I bought an old one in B & W (1992) to see how they handled US stamps.

With typical Teutonic efficiency, I found the summary tables (e.g. W/F series) and diagrams are very useful. The level of detail seemed to rival the US Scott Specialized.

IMHO, If it ever came out in English, they could give Scott a run for their money!

Dan

Actually this is old news... Michel as had specialized US catalog for a good number of years/editions; this is just the latest (9th) edition. I haven't seen this one (yet), but I've used the earlier editions every now and then.

As for how it compares to Scott Specialized... The most major difference is that there are no revenues or other non-postage stamp sections that are in Scott US Specialized. But if you can live with that, then it's very well on the par (and sometimes well beyond) with Scott especially with modern stuff. The 'Michel way' to organize listings, series, varieties etc. makes it far more easier to use than Scott IMHO (but on the other I've been using Michel as my primary source for 20+ years, so I'm accustomed to it).

Possibly the biggest downside is that Michel is still in the process of shifting to full color illustrations. So you are abound to come up random pages with mix of color & b/w illustrations on the pages (it's the same with every recent Michel catalog). Personally I find this extremely annoying, but I guess it's the price of progress.

Just my 5 cents worth,
-k-