On Purchasing A Scott Catalogue

I'm happy with an older set because I'm not concerned with value, only identification. Currently, I'm using a 2007 set, purchased on ebay for about $25. If memory serves, I paid more for shipping than the books.

Deals are out there.

Gee----am I the only one who buys a complete new set every two or three years. I keep one set upstairs and one set downstairs . I took two complete sets to the APS Milwaukee Stamp Show for the Childrens/Beginners table .

I have a complete set (minus the US and Classic Specialized volumes) but their dates range from 2012-2015. I'd love a shiny new set every year, but then that's less money I can put toward stamps. I'll begin replacing them when they get worn out - I actually need a new vol 5 (N-SAM) soon as that one is falling apart.

If one just collects one country or a handful of countries, another way to do it would be to buy just the pages for that country from ebay seller chirokmd. Lager countries (Germany, Britian, Russia, etc) are usually around $30, down to just a few dollars for smaller countries who might only take up a few pages in Scott.

Personally I keep hoping for Scott to release The Killer Catalogue App as a monthly/yearly subscription. I know that topic has been discussed many times, but what I really want from Scott is to be able to look up, identify, value *and* inventory stamps from any device with a single web login. It should be searchable by any field in the catalog (cat#, year of issue, denomination, color, etc). Their current e-catalog offering isn't worth paying for in my opinion, especially as compared to what I'm looking for in an electronic catalog. Until then, I'll keep buying 2-3 year old versions on Amazon as needed.

As someone who is looking to possibly purchase a Scott catalog as well, I was wondering if someone could answer a question I have. If I were to get a set from, say, 2010, would there be 6 books or 7? When I look them I see things about Volumes 1-6, but then I've seen other people mention a U.S. specialized volume. Is that separate or part of the 6? Thank you in advance for any help.

Rowland,

Scott lists all of the stamps of the world (including the US) in simplified format in 6 volumes. It's been 6 volumes for a number of years, but I'm not exactly sure how long it's been that many. Scott will be changing the format soon, probably next year. They haven't really said what the change will be, if it will be to 7 volumes in an A-Z format or if they'll start splitting up the world by region.


What I just talked about is the "Standard" catalog - i.e. simplified. The Standard catalog works perfectly well for most worldwide collectors. They also publish two Specialized Catalogs - the US Specialized and the Worldwide Classic Specialized. The specialized catalogs contain much more detailed information, such as values for blocks, pairs, on cover, with certain types of cancellations, etc. The standard catalogs, for the most part, list a value for a single stamp in either used or unused condition and that's about it. Sometimes they'll list a separate value for NH on older issues or some of the more popular varieties (i.e. the ones that get a minor catalog number). Whether you need a specialized catalog or not depends on how you collect. If you simply want one example of each stamp, the standard catalog is fine. If you want to get into collecting stamps on cover, plate blocks, printing varieties, etc, you'll want a specialized.

I believe Scott is looking to make a major change in their printed catalog series . Their U.S. and pre-1940 Classic are money makers ,but the 6 volume worldwide needs to be cut-off somewhere . I was hoping for a 1940 to 2000 series and everything after that will be on-line or CD. They know they can't go to 7 or 8 volumes in the print format .

For the print version, they should split it up by region, with some regions only being updated every 2-3 years or even longer. Europe, and British Commonwealth, for example would probably be updated every year, but Latin America or Africa might only get an update every so often. That way they could focus on 3 or 4 more profitable volumes while letting some other areas kind of take a back seat. Let's face it, a lot more collectors buy Volume 3 (G-I) for info on Great Britain, Germany or Ireland than they do for Haiti, Guinea or Guatemala. No offense meant to collectors (or residents) of those countries, of course.

This is a very helpful topic and discussion. I noticed it's a few years old and didn't see anything more recent. I am a new member so maybe not looking in the right places (or searching properly). Do any of you experts out there have anything new or current to add?
I am trying to decide of whether to buy a set of Scott catalogs and from whom.
Used on ebay or Amazon?
Are these sold/offered on this site?
Paper vs electronic? The Scott electronic version looks pretty weak and just an image of the print file.

My goal is to identify my us and international stamps, note their Scott number for future use, assess value for future trades and learn.

I would say ebay. You can get a reasonably recent set of 6 for $100-150.

Last week the Greene Foundation had a book sale to clear out duplicates and dated material. A set of 2016 Scott catalogues went for $150 ($CDN) at auction. That appears to be a fair market value.
GJP

My stamp dealer retired and donated to me a six volume set at the recycling center where I work.

Turtle 2900: If you live in a sizable town, say 25,000 or so, the local public library usually will have old Scott volumes that circulate. Try this route first to learn if you really want to buy the books.

Trying to look stamps up in the Scott catalog can be frustrating until you get used to its quirks and inadequacies. If you keep plugging, you will get the hang of it.

You can just call the county library and ask how they sell older copies. I have purchased some catalogs for a nominal fee and several came from libraries. APS gets older catalogs as donations so you can contact them. I know since I have sent them some and I got a tax deduction.

As probably suggested elsewhere, I don't know where you live Turtle, but see if there is a local stamp collecting club. You might want to join, or they may have older copies available for a nominal price. Good luck, and let us know what you finally get and where.

"If I'm not very interested in stamps issued after 1981, is there a strong reason for me to buy a more recent set of the volumes"?

The answer to this question is very definitely "yes". That you only collect up to about 1981 does not mean you'd be well off with a 1981 (or 1982 or 1985, etc) older catalogue. All stamps are subject to revision in newer editions of a catalogues, not just in price but in description, colors, perforations, and other information. Sometimes, years later, new stamps are discovered which were issued long ago that you won't even know about if you're using an older catalogue. Or new varieties are discovered, or older stamps that were in the catalogue are removed because it turns out they were never issued after all. Sometimes catalogues numbers are changed. You may think you're dealing with a #1234 when that stamp is now numbered #1245a due to some catalogue rearranging.

Ideally, you'd have the latest catalogue for what you collect "just in case". But more practically, you'll be fine 99% of the time with a recent catalogue from any time in the last decade or sooner. I'd look for 2010 and newer catalogues so the information they contain about stamps from 1981 and earlier is as up to date and valid as possible -- even if you don't much care about all the 1982 and later stamps. That's what I do, anyway. Saves me money and I'm generally as "up to date" as I need to be.