Michel (Re)enters The Line Of Worldwide Classic Specialized Catalogs

Posted this over in the thread on what defines the classic era in the main forum last night and thought it should be reposted here for everyone's info looking for reference works.

Was checking out the new release listings for stamp catalogs over at Dutch site http://www.collectura.com and saw these pop up in the New and Upcoming Releases section










So looks like Michel is re-entering the market for Worldwide classical era catalogs after an absence of a decade.

Interesting that Michel is limiting its definition of "classical" to pre-1914, though on further reflection I can see the logic. The Belle Epoque world was blown to bits by the guns of August, setting the world on a completely new developmental trajectory in its wake.

Both volumes are huge (720 pp for the Europe, just over 1000 for the Ubersee) so must have a TON of specialized listings thrown in, but then that is what one would expect from Michel.

Considering how Scott has dominated this niche of the collecting market with its Classic Specialized (with Yvert taking a small piece with its Classical Era catalogs), will be interested to see how Michel's contribution shakes things up. Scott has done an amazing job with the Classic Specialized, and I'll wager the Michel alternative will lead to Scott adding more material in several areas to keep itself as the market leader in this area which has seen a lot of collector interest over the past few years.

Gene - are you planning to pick these up and do a review?

Otherwise I might need to investigate myself.

I noticed that none of the stamps decorating the covers are from the era.

I'm sure that "Don't judge a book by its cover" is very true here, however.

For some reason, the cover stamps in the early promo photos that Michel publishes rarely match what eventually ends up on the cover. It's been the same for the last couple years' Germany Specialized catalogs, and has caused me to look twice to verify I bought the correct catalogs.

Jim I prob will not be getting them any time soon - they are NOT cheap (ca 100 Euros Each...before shipping!) so will go on the "Wish list" for now.

But definitely curious to see what they will contain. 1800 pages to cover the world up to 1914 suggests a lot of interesting specialized things that probably no other catalogue has, other than maybe some of the other Michels..and even then they may do what Scott does and add additional content beyond the listings in their "regular" catalogs, esp for the Ubersee volumes.

Definitely a great time to be a WW classic-era collector!

Here are the links to the Michel webpages on these new catalogs. Note the Europe catalog release date now pushed back to early Nov.

http://www.briefmarken.de/michelsho...pa-2017-2018

http://www.briefmarken.de/michelsho...ee-1840-1914

I find the "to 1914" cut-off point a bit strange. Why not at least go to 1920, after the war? Or 1940 like Scott does? In fact, to me the best "classic" era cutoff point wold be about 1950 before the modern flood of cheaper stamps began. For most countries the era up to 1914 involves relatively few stamps. For the U.S., for example, that period includes only about 400+ stamps. For other countries, there will be even fewer stamps. For Italy, it's not much more than 100 stamps. Plus "officials," postage due, etc. if you collect those.

I get the logic behind 1914, but one could also make the same argument for 1918 (end of WWI). For a European catalog publisher, it makes sense to go with one of the major European milestones that marked a huge shift in the political landscape, since those events inevitably drove major changes in issuing authorities, etc.

It would have been just as logical to go with 1939, but judging by their page estimates, that would have caused the catalogs to be too big. Current estimates are 720 pgs and 1,200 pgs for the two volumes, and the outer limit for Michel's new hardcover format is probably about 1,300 pgs or about 2 inches. Hopefully, the high page counts for that short of a period means the catalogs will have Michel's specialized level of detail.

I know why Scott picked 1940, but as a collector of a European country that date has always been problematic. Numerous new issuing authorities and occupations appeared in 1939-1940 and were gone by 1943-1945, and they end up split by the choice of 1940.

Of course, after I typed that, I went to Michel's website and they've updated the listings to show a date range of 1840-1900, not 1914.

Actually, with respect to the Scott Classic Specialized catalog, they use a split date: 1952 for British Commonwealth (so as to not split the King George VI material) and 1940 for the rest of the world. Using 1952 for British Commonwealth was a smart choice IMO.

As noted, the coverage has now been reduced to 1840-1900..

Klassik Europa 1840-1900
704 pages, Release November 10, 2017
98 Euros

http://www.briefmarken.de/michelsho...pa-2017-2018

Klassik Ubersee 1840-1900
(USA Specialized coverage)
1200 pages, Release December 8, 2017
98 Euros

http://www.briefmarken.de/michelsho...ee-1840-1900

I'm a bit disappointed, as the earlier announcements had the coverage to 1914.

But it is good to see an updated Europa 1840-1900 catalogue after a ten year hiatus.

And an Ubersee 1840-1900 catalogue has never been published before.

2100 pages of catalog to cover just to 1900

1200 pages specialized US For just the first 60 years!

My understanding is that the Übersee isn't just US. It will include all overseas (non-Europe), but will include specialized US.

To quote Michel:

And not hard to get to 1,200 pages in this arcane world. The Gibbons Queen Victoria GB Specialised comes in at around 500 pages.

Although Michel states the coverage is to 1900, is that a soft cut-off?

here is the German..

"Wann das Ende der "klassischen" Periode anzusetzen ist, ist schwieriger zu bestimmen, viele gehen vom 1. Weltkrieg als Zäsur aus"

Google Translate does not seem to be getting the meaning right into English. Could a reader with good German understanding interpret?