On Purchasing A Scott Catalogue

I recently put together a 2012 set on ebay to give to a friend's son who recently started collecting. They didn't have any older complete sets listed (at least I couldn't find any) but they had all of the 2012 volumes in different listings by different sellers. All total, including postage, I gave $48 for the set. It sure beats what I gave for my 2019 set!

I would probably describe myself in similar manner to the primal poster. I have both a US collection and a WW collection. For the most part, I collect the world up to 1940. However that means I still have a lot of WW stamps post 1940. My US collection does contain some scarcities. My catalogues currently consist of a 2018 classic specialized, a six volume world catalog (Scott) from 1990 and a US Scott specialized from 1996. My albums consist of the 4 volume Scott international up to 1940, Scott international to 1945, mystic heritage for the US. Anything good however or of high catalog value however is placed separately in the smaller dealer 6 ring stock
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I see no reason to update the us specialized since the nuances it contains compared to 1996 don't interest me. For example, I think the distinction of calling US Scott 60 a trial issue now labeled 70TC as compared to 70c somewhat arbitrary. The essential information on US classic issues hasn't changed enough to justify the price of a new catalog and if I just needed all of the new Scott numbers, the mystic catalog for free does the job.

I have compared the information, including pricing for the 2012, 2016, and 2018 versions of the Scott classic catalog. Again, the changes therein do not justify my buying an updated issue from this point forward.

If I were the poster, and collected only up to 1981 and was interested in identification primarily, I see reason to purchase a recent catalog when a much older one would serve your purposes and at a fraction of the price