Questions Regarding Israel Scott Catalog Pricing

I am going to be working through some collections of early period Israel I picked up recently and noticed that Scott assigns value premiums to mint stamps with tabs but not to used stamps with tabs. Is there a premium for tabbed used stamps or should I assume that the value stands as per Scott?

Another question, perhaps for another topic but I will ask it here, is that I am running into gutter pairs that have control numbers in the gutter and these are not designated seperately in Scott. Do I need to dig into more reference material such as Bale to properly evaluate these items?

Thank you in advance for your help.

YES, BALE is the Catalogue of choice for Israel specialists, however a Bale catalog is expensive -- but well worth the investment IF you are going to specialize in this area. Scott is a very basic catalogue source with incomplete information and pricing on Israel material.

As for the tabs question, used stamps with tabs are very scarce but nowhere near as scarce as customers who will buy them at a premium.

I collect Israel until 1980 when the currency switch to the shekel. As a result I managed to find a 1981 Bale catalogue on ebay for only a few dollars. Not only was it a lot cheaper but it is also a lot more manageable size wise than the current Bale.

My older Bale does have the disadvantage of only being illustrated in black and white, and also the catalogue values are outdated; interestingly the 1981 value are significantly higher than those given by current catalogues. Also, comparing with an acquaintances new Bale, a few stamps have been given different numbers.

Regarding tabs, everything that applies to mint also applies to used. In both cases stamps with tabs command a significant premium.
Also, in case you are not aware, some stamps were issued with a double tab. If the outer tab is missing on stamps that were issued as such, then the stamp is described as having a "half tab" and is again worth significantly less then the same stamp with a "full tab".
Clive

Thanks to everyone for your answers. Bale it is. The used tabs thing is interesting to me since Scott leaves the early used tabs unvalued. A set of mint will have a "with tabs" total value but the used set value field is blank. As noted above by others perhaps value data is rather scarce for such items. Research is in order here.

If you are not worried about modern issues, the Bale 1998 catalog was the last published by the original publishers. When the new publishers took over, they increased the catalog value of many items, while the actual market was going down. If you are going to collect used tabs, let me know what you are looking for, I have tons in my pile to find new homes for. I don't have the high value ones (7-9, J1-5), but I have a lot of the others. There is not really a market for them, and the mint stamps have come down so much recently (I saw an ad in Linns a week or two ago with 1-6 listed at $140, vs $250 a few years ago). And you can find them on e-bay at prices that make the dealer ad in Linns seem way high.

adcaplan - I might take you up on that. I do have 7-9 and J1-5 but am missing others.

Sure, just let me know what you are looking for.