Buying A New Scott Catalog

From whom can I buy a Scott catalog and be certain that it will arrive in pristine condition? Not Amazon, for sure! Every time I buy a book through Amazon, the book arrives banged up due to inadequate packaging.

Because the Scott catalogs are so expensive, I want mine to arrive with no damage whatsoever.

Thank you!

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Barnes and Noble sells Scott Catalogs and they package their stuff well. You can also buy them directly from the publisher at http://amosadvantage.com. You'll pay close to full sticker price for them at either of those venues, though. You can usually save 20% or more if you look around a bit. You can save 50-75% if you don't mind buying an edition that's a year or two old.

If you order a sample of 1 from Amosadvantage, it will come in a box that is the exact size as the book.

Hinger is dead-on. Why pay full price for something that will be out of date in a matter of months?

Jack

Over the past several years, I've ordered Scott catalogs from several different dealers. Although Amazon was not among those I used for the Scott catalogs, I have used them in the past for book orders, so I'm pretty sure I understand what you mean about them not always being packed carefully enough to keep them from getting dinged either in the packaging process or in shipping.

The two dealers that I thought did the best job of carefully packaging the catalogs were Golden Valley (used to be Gopher Supply) and iHobb. I've also purchased from Subway, and they were just under that level of care. Ironically, I encountered the most dinged-up items when I ordered from Linn's/Scott/Amos directly. (This was on several different occasions.)

I suspect that you could call Golden Valley, iHobb, or Subway and tell them you plan to keep the volume for a long time, and ask them to pick out a copy in pristine condition and wrap it really carefully for shipping. This is just my opinion, but I suspect you'll get the most responsive consideration from Golden Valley.

I'm not affiliated with any of these companies, other than as an occasional customer.

Let us know what you end up deciding to do.

Thank you, everyone, for your advice. I will try Golden Valley first. I really like its easy-to-navigate website.

Paul, I would also call them to discuss this. I'm sure you could just order it over the phone. I've only spoken to them a couple of times, but they were very nice. (Polite Minnesotans!)

Certainly, I will contact Golden Valley and discuss the matter before I place my order. Better safe than sorry.

A Scott catalog is a very expensive book, and I expect it to arrive in perfect condition, not just "almost" perfect, with banged up corners, etc.

I totally understand. For the last several years, I've been buying a new set every year and then selling off the prior one, and the dings that occurred in shipping the volumes to me originally did not help my trying to sell them subsequently. (I treat them pretty gingerly myself, since I know I usually expect to sell them later.)

Agreed that buying the Scott catalogue volumes is a major outlay of funds and you want them to arrive undamaged. If you're a subscriber to Linn's Stamp News, you get a discount on things like the Scott catalogues. I'd return any that came bent or otherwise damaged. I imagine that when Scott begins dividing up each volume into two smaller volumes, as they say they will do, the books will ship more easily. They are very heavy books, kind of ridiculously so.

I buy used since I don't really need the latest prices or the last year or two of stamp issues -- and I'm a bit cheap about everything that isn't an actual stamp.