Thoughts On The 2019 Scott Digital Catalogs?

I am just getting back into stamp collecting after a 20 or so year break and was getting ready to order new catalogs from Scott (US Specialized and Classic Specialized) when I saw a reference to their digital versions. I quick search of the web only turned up some negative reviews based upon the 2016 or 2017 versions.

Has anyone here tried out the 2018 or 2019 versions and can you give me a short review?

Thanks!

Anghus,
I started using the digital versions on an exclusive basis about 4 years ago. Scott made a major change in their philosophy around 2012 or 2013, (don't remember which year), that annoyed me, where the catalogs all became "online" where previously you would download a big file, and it was all an "offline view" of the catalog. It took some getting used to with the new versions, but once I got used to it, I found them a lot better. I used to have to take a lot of time to tab out my catalog every time I got a new one, and to keep them on hand as you know they are HUGE, and take up lots of shelf space. Now they take up 0 shelf space, I have access to any/all catalog, I now also only buy a catalog as I need it, and then I have it instantly (that is very nice). I do recommend a few things though 1) have a BIG screen. Makes it work so much nicer, and run it at its maximum resolution (if you can). That's why you want the big screen great detail.
The other great thing is searching, and it's so much easier than trying to "search" a book you otherwise have to memorize page numbers even when you have it tabbed out.
You can search for anything "Bugs Bunny", and it will show you a list of listings that have that text in it. This is really helpful when you can't remember the Scott #.
Don't know where in the encased postage is? Just type in "encased postage" in the search, and it takes you there. Looking for a specific proof? Type 163P3 into the search bar, and it will show you a list of areas in the book that that value can be found.
Searching for stuff is great. If you're also the type that knows the page number and just want to go there, at the bottom right of the form, just put in the page number (even "A" numbers like A39) and it will take you there instantly.
Changing between pages can be down with mouse or keyboard or clicking on arrows in either direction.
On the whole "interacting" with it is a little different than the books, but once you get past the "learn curve" (which only takes a few days 3 - 4), then it's well worth the effort.

Classic Philatelist, thanks for your quick response. One question, once you "buy" the digital catalog, do you have to "buy" it again the next year? In other words, is it an annual subscription kind of deal? In the past I typically did not buy new catalogs every year, maybe just every two or three years. Also, the negative reviews I read from 2016/2017 were mainly complaining about the search function. Has that issue been worked out? How, for instance, would you search for a particular catalog number? If you just type in the number I assume it would bring up all occurrences of that number wherever it might appear, as a price maybe, not just as a catalog number.

Oh, another question: can you export data from the catalog, such as exporting prices to a database or spreadsheet containing your inventory?

Thanks for your help!

No change to the 2018 or 2019 version. Still no offline version. Still no pinch and zoom. Each page is still a scanned image and not an actual rendered page with nice smooth text.

I buy the pages I need from https://scottcataloguepages.com/ and scan them in myself.

Scott/Amos is still in the '90s. I haven't bought a full set in years, but I buy the paper Classic every other year, alternating with Gibbons Commonwealth. They do what I need them to.

Every few years, I take one to our local print shop and have them shear off the binding in their guillotine, and then I scan it. I don't bother scanning for OCR. I'm not sure how well it would work, anyway.

With an Epson scanner and you select PDF format, it will do the OCR before saving the file.

http://1dollarscan.com/

Send them a book. They cut off the binding and scan the book to a number of formats for you and responsibly recycle your book.

The pricing looked low...$1 for 100 pages?

I'd pay for a real online Scott catalogue, but slapping a bunch of scanned pages up is pretty lame, in this day and age. There must be some kind of database driving their listings in any case, just a matter of developing a UI/app to present that. Easy to outsource even if they don't have the technical expertise in house.

It's amazing to me that Scott still hasn't gone to a relational database catalog. Hire some interns to knock-out the data entry and it's a short step to an online, always-current catalog.

I subscribe to Michel's online catalog, and I have couple volumes of Scott's online catalogs. The differences in their approach are striking.

Michel's catalog is subscription based, whereas Scott's is where if you bought a volume, you always (theoretically!) have access to it. The benefit of Michel's approach is that the data's always current and searchable. With Scott, the catalog is nothing more than an e-Book identical to their paper catalogs. It isn't very easy to search, doesn't allow filtering of search results, and you have to buy new volumes every year to get updated listings.

What I would like to see in a digital offering is images of all stamps. I realize the constraint in print but there is no such limitation in the cloud. Stampworld's images are useful although not the highest quality.

Current Yvert digital catalogue

https://www.yvert.com/A-219313-abon...tegrale.aspx