Scott Catalog 2018 Edition To Be 12 Volumes

There's also no reason Scott couldn't continue to publish their entire world catalogue in as many volumes as they want for whoever wants the full set and also publish separate regional catalogues, as well. A collector might purchase a set of world catalogues every few years, but keep up with their own collecting interests by purchasing the regional catalogues they need more frequently. For the publisher in the old days this would have been a massive undertaking, but with computers I'd imagine grouping each year's catalogue listings into a second set of regional catalogues would be fairly easy. Isn't that what Stanley Gibbons does now?

As to who buys yearly complete sets of Scott's catalogues, many public libraries do. Perhaps some stamp clubs and stamp organizations do, as well. If Scott's primary market for their entire world catalogue is these few buyers along with dealers who want to reprice their stamps, that seems like an awfully small market. Catalogue publishers also try to sell their catalogue to tens of thousands of collectors, too. But the price of an entire set of Scott catalogues is now so enormous, I'm not sure the "average collector" can even afford it. Gone are the days of the old one-volume world and one-volume U.S. catalogues some of us bought every year or two.

In any case, collectors' needs need to be considered at least as much as dealers' needs. That argues for more flexibility in reorganizing catalogues so they can be sold at more affordable prices and be grouped into collecting areas that suit more buyers' collecting habits -- a British Commonwealth catalogue, French Community, and so on -- along with separate national catalogues for the major stamp countries. This is essentially the model used by Stanley Gibbons and Michel.

As for catalogue pricing of stamps, it's a little ironic that catalogue prices are said to be related to the market values for stamps -- but as soon as the new catalogues are issued, dealers alter prices to reflect the new stamp values. So which is it, the chicken or the egg? Isn't it both? Stamp prices inevitably -- and inexorably -- go up, driven by stamp sale prices and by the subsequent justification for higher prices that the catalogue itself provides. I'm not holding my breath for any great stamp price decline. But I can hope.

Gibbons's Stamps of the World and its regional catalogues are very different things. SOTW is simplified. It doesn't have precise issue dates, watermark or perf info etc, which are, I think, in Scott. However, the regional catalogues contain more information than does Scott. The simplified version flows from the detailed volumes. Might be more trouble than it's worth for Scott to revamp its catalogue and compete in a market where others have a head start.

Doing this digitally is a piece of cake. But Amos almost certainly contracts out the actual printing of the catalogs, and printers will give better rates on higher print runs. Slicing and dicing their catalog like this would result in much smaller print runs for some of the volumes, and/or Amos could end up with countless unsold copies if they don't forecast demand correctly. They could potentially print-on-demand any part(s) of the catalog you'd like, but it all comes down to how much buyers are willing to pay. The price per page would likely be dramatically higher with print on demand or if they sliced and diced it too much.

Personally my pipe dream is a printable online/digital catalog. I'd buy a color laser printer and print out the pages that I would use most often but would probably just access the rest from my iPad or laptop.

Michel does provide print-on-demand catalogs, and prices are definitely steep. For example pod-version of US pages only would be 288 pages, with pricetag of 115€. Alternatively, I could buy the same pages and much more with US special catalog (894 pages, 64€), or go with generic North America catalog (638 pages, 79€). POD is expensive.

As for speaking of splitting catalogs, not sure how many know or follow Michel, but they are once again 'expanding' their current line of catalogs. Some new catalogs this season include 'French colonies' and 'Classics specialized overseas 1840-1914' (they previously had a similar volume for Europe), and number of regional catalogs will be split to even smaller parts. So it seems that Michel is slowly but surely providing collectors both approaches - both geographic catalogs, as well as period-specific catalogs (all available on paper as well as in digital).

-k-

Drew wrote: "I'm not sure the 'average collector' can afford it......." I can afford it, but I'd rather buy stamps than catalogs. I looked at the offering for the new Part 1 in Linn's. I'd be willing to buy the first volume every couple years to get a price update for 1940 to 1974 Angola. I have no need for the second volume of Part 1. I see similar issues with remaining sets upcoming.

Big dealers and auction houses may buy a new set every year as may some larger city libraries. Otherwise, Amos/Scott seems to have little interest in the vast world of smaller dealers, smaller libraries, and collectors. Sad, but on line is the way to go, allowing interested parties to buy the updates for countries that they collect. I have no need at all for fancy wallpaper issued after my self-imposed cut-off dates, in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Scott definitely needs marketing persons who know the 21st century, not the mid-late 20th century.

Artful

Yvert's online offer is probably the closest to your ideal - bad news when the subscription runs out, though!

http://www.yvert.com/cms/descriptio...n-ligne.aspx

One selling point for the new 12-catalogue set that Scott is using, believe it or not, is that now each volume is "lighter" in weight. Who would have guessed that if you cut a volume in half, it would be lighter weight? I suppose that's an advantage, but I'd classify it as the most obvious advantage of all. That makes my old 1968 Scott catalogue the best catalogue of all. It's only a single volume!

I solved the issue by just purchasing the pages I need. It is a lot less than buying 3 different catalogues.