Asking About Usage Of Catalogues

Regarding digital catalogues (I assume there's no need for a new thread):

1) Assuming many collectors sell their old catalogues when buying a new one, how does an original file look like?
Is it with links between pages?
If a seller says it's PDF - is that an original?

2) I saw an add for 6 volumes of Scott 2013, and 6 volumes of SG 2014:
Were these really issued that year?
If these are simplified WW catalogues - what is the extra info in the rest of Scott and SG specialised (?) catalogues?

3) If the WW catalogues of Scott, SG and Michel deal with the same stamps, what is the difference between them? Is there a use to buy more than one of them?

I thank anyone that will express his/her opinion.

Michel does have strict rules that deny any kind of sales of their digital catalogs/services. So if you buy one of their USB sticks catalogs, or access to online library, you may not sell them in format (even if you managed to save the data otherwise).

I think other catalog publishers are more or less the same lines (haven't checked for a while). It is all about subscription based thingie - you no longer 'own' the physical asset, all you have is your username and password that gives you access to read the assets.

But this is one of the reasons why buying a printed copy is still generally a cheaper and preferred option. You can use print catalog as long as you want, and eventually when you want to sell it, you can still get some of your money back. With digital offerings such is not possible, but money once spent is gone forever.





Varities, details, illustrations...




Each catalog uses a different numbering/identifier scheme, so if you buy/sell/exchange stamps globally then having a copy of each major catalog makes life easier.

And different catalogs provide different level of details for different countries.

-k-

Thanks for your detailed reply. It helps me a lot.
So, if I see offers of DVD or download links at ebay, are they not the original digital catalogues that were sold by the authors?
As for the general catalogues, do they include BOB stamps?

Gibbons's Stamps of the World includes postage dues and officials.

To give you a visual idea (sorry about the rough and ready photos), the first image below shows two pages from Stamps of the World, showing GB from 1840-1958:



The next three are from the GB Concise catalogue, and show the issues of Edward VII only:







And these are the three volumes of the GB Specialised:



The key thing is to get what you want and need. You can have a perfectly good time collecting stamps using Stamps of the World and never looking at a specialised catalogue, peering at a watermark or measuring a perforation!