Cost For Scott Supplements

I just bought the Minuteman 2018 supplement to compare to the Mystic Heirloom 2018 supplement, and I'm very confused by Amos' pricing structure.

I REALLY like Minuteman supplement. It's well laid out. It has stamp descriptions. It includes a spot for every major Scott catalog number. And se-tenants are connected always, and almost always in the configuration a collector expects.

What I don't like it the price and the paper. The supplement costs $20 and the paper is really thin.

The Mystic Heirloom 2018 supplement paper, though not as nice as Scott National paper, it still thicker than Minuteman paper, and only costs $7.50 for the supplement.

The thing that confuses me most about Amos' pricing is that the Scott National supplement, which has much better paper than the Minuteman, is also $20.00.

How can two supplements, on two different grades of paper cost exactly the same?

Scott National pages are also slighty larger than Scott Minuteman pages and actually have more pages, right? So not only does it have higher quality paper, but more pages and larger size than Minuteman. You're right, it makes no sense to have them both be the same price.

Andy,

You are making the assumption that Scott prices based upon raw cost. When selling proprietary items it is often priced based upon other factors. Also, the cost may not be significantly different when you add overhead fixed expenses. It is not uncommon for different brands to have different pricing models.

Mystic likely prices to sell supplements so you will buy their stamps.

It sounds to me like you're looking a gift horse in the mouth. Wouldn't it be better to ask, "Why does the better Scott National supplement on higher quality, larger paper only cost as much as the obviously cheaper Minuteman supplements?" And this way you'll feel better, too.

The answer to the question about pricing is to consider standard business practices. Within a certain range of quality, almost all album supplements cost about the same price to manufacture and sell. That price depends a lot more on the seller's costs for advertising, storage and shipping than on paper or printing costs. Those matter, too, and higher grade paper may cost a little more, but at a certain price point all supplements are going to cost about the same because the real costs of the supplement are the cost paid to the printer -- and that's the same for nearly all supplements, no matter how good or poor the overall quality is -- and the cost of storing the product, advertising the product, shipping it and so on. So sellers can sell either mediocre looking or excellent looking supplements on different kinds of paper for about the same price because they both cost about the same to produce and sell.

I used to gasp at the annual prices of the now defunct White Ace album supplements. But that's what they could get for them, I suppose, and I'm sure they had no trouble selling fewer supplements at higher prices than Scott does. Scott prefers to sell more supplements at lower prices. Good for them.

If you really want a heart attack, look at the prices of annual album supplements by Lighthouse, Schaubek, and other high-end album manufacturers. Their astonishingly high prices make a $20 supplement look dirt cheap. Is their paper more expensive? I don't think so. Are their costs of advertising, storing, and selling higher? Probably not. They charge more because collectors will pay more.

Compared to half a dozen other competing album makers (Davo, LH, Schaubek, etc), Scott albums are remarkably cheap for what they are. One of these other publishers' albums covering the entire stamp history of a major European country like France, Switzerland, or Germany sells for between $1000 and $2000 from LH, Schaubek, or Davo. Scott sells a similar album including all the same stamps printed on excellent paper and nicely laid out for one quarter or less of that price. It's like buying a perfectly good car for a fraction of what other cars cost. Who would complain about a brand new, well made, nice looking $7000 car?

If the Scott National included stamp descriptions, I'd be all over that album.




I was a White Ace user in the 90s, before I had kids. But the supplements became unaffordable to me. To get everything I wanted, it was going to cost me well over $80, not to mention the cost of the stamps I would need (two of every se-tenant and booklet stamp)

Stamp album manufacturers do not publish paper specifications regarding paper quality beyond 'acid free' (which is meaningless). So there is no telling what the actual archival quality is, if it varies between album types, or if it varies between production runs and over time. Consumers are left to guess and hope the paper will hold up over time.

Given the growth of 'self printed' album pages, you would think that catalog publishers would be seeking market differentiators; attributes and qualities which would set their products apart from cheap 'acid free' paper that collector might buy at their local big box store. If I were a album page manufacturer, I would be touting the great archival paper that I was using and I would be educating collectors on the difference between cheap 'acid free' paper and real archival paper.
Don

As someone who designs album pages and gives them away, the majority of my work involves making sure stamp names are correct and that stamps have meaningful descriptions that people can understand. Putting boxes on pages is easy.

If you want to differentiate yourself, then definitely tout the paper. Acid free, archival, 100% cotton luxurious paper. Add reinforced hole punches to the list, and you've got something way better than the competition.

But I would also tout that you have accurate descriptions. I think descriptions are exceptionally important, especially if you're collecting the stamp of a country you are not familiar with.

I really like the look of the Scott National, but I really want descriptions. They're worth it to me.

The one thing I have asked Amos for repeatedly is to offer Minuteman pages on National Paper as a Print on Demand option. They refuse to do it.

Agreed, but I assume that publishers prefer that users HAVE to buy their catalogs (matching album space with a catalog number) when mounting stamps.
Don

"The one thing I have asked Amos for repeatedly is to offer Minuteman pages on National Paper as a Print on Demand option. They refuse to do it.'

Why not buy the Minuteman pages and photocopy them onto the paper you prefer? It will work. There's no copyright issue that I'm aware of with your own pages for your own use. You can't sell copies, of course. I've often copied Scott pages onto blank paper when the original pages are worn, torn, or dirty. The result is a brand new page. You'd need to purchase the right size of blank paper, of course, but any print shop can do that.

And if you want to copy onto Scott's own bordered blank pages, just make a suitable template which will cover the page borders on your originals. Lay your originals on top of it, and then copy onto your Scott bordered blank pages. Any photocopy place has the equipment to do this easily. I do it myself at Fedex.

Scott album pages are bigger than US Letter/A4. They're a proprietary size. To do that myself, I'd need to buy a pretty expensive scanner and a printer that can print up to tabloid size. I may be able to take it to print shop and have it done. But I can't believe it would be cheap to do.

There's no scanning involved. This is basic photocopying (xeroxing) onto blank album paper. It's very cheap, the cost of your blank paper plus the cost to xerox which I figure adds up to about 50¢ a page. It's more affordable than you might think.

The key is to buy the paper sized to match whatever album pages you want. Take a sample page to a local print shop and ask. They can match the size, make the pages in any weight you want, and do the hole punching. And if you buy at least a few hundred pages, it's not very expensive. They deal in paper, after all, so this is a very ordinary thing for them to do.

Another alternative is to order from a website which sells all-blank paper punched either with Scott 2-rectangular holes or three-ring holes. The website sells printed Steiner album pages along with blank paper. It's called AlbumPage[dot]net. You can find it by browsing for "stamp album pages". Cost is about 25¢ per blank page. I'm not sure what size the Minuteman pages are, though, or if they are the same size as Scott International, Scott National/Specialty, or Minkus pages. Those are the three sizes of paper (and printed pages) that are sold on this website.

Good luck with whatever you do.