Michel Catalogues In PDF Format?

Looking for a copy of Michel for Austria, I see on ebay that it's being sold in PDF format from the Netherlands at a cost much lower than the physical book. From earlier posts I see that piracy has been a big problem, and I'm not interested in anything illegal. Does anyone here know anything about Michel in PDF? Here's the ebay post:

Michel Mitteleuropa (Central Europe) 2017 (102nd) edition in PDF format
Item Information
Condition:
New
Quantity:
5 available / 19 sold
Price:
US $6.95

Limited quantity remaining
More than 78% sold
Shipping:
FREE Expedited Shipping from outside US
International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges.

Item location:
's-Gravenhage, Netherlands

Michel does sell its catalog as a series of PDF thumb drives.

https://www.briefmarken.de/michelsh...keywords=pdf

The last time I tried to get one of these, they didn't ship to the US.

Your Netherlands site may be a reseller or an illegal copy.

Dan

Thank you, danstamps54. I checked out the Michel thumbdrives through the link you provided and, yes, I'm now pretty sure that the ebay seller above is not legit. The low price alone points in that direction. Furthermore, the seller wants to provide a link to convey a download: another thing that makes me nervous. Unless others reassure me, I'll stick to printed books. Easier to use in any case.

Although it may not apply to a thumb drive copy, I had no issue ordering as book copy of the Austria Specialized Catalog shipped direct from Michel to the US at the beginning of 2019.

I now believe that all the Michel PDF's on ebay as most likely pirated, i.e., illegal. Michel doesn't sell them and doesn't seem to have authorized anyone else to sell them. The prices are ludicrously low and most sellers are in Russia. The one who's supposedly in the Netherlands could be anywhere. Mode of delivery is supposed to be via a link provided directly to the buyer's email, and who would risk that? After a bit more research I'll consider reporting this seller.

And like BrentAbba I'll look only for the physical book from a reputable dealer. The idea of saving money with PDFs seems nothing but bad.

One further thought. When I ordered my specialized catalogue from Michel, I picked up a closeout deal on the prior year version (so my Jan 2019 order was the 2018 volume) and it was half price straight from the publisher.

Brent

Wrote to seller of the product in the OP above. Asked if this is an authorized version of the Michel catalogue or a pirated, i.e., illegal copy. Seller responded that he offers "privately made high quality scans"—no mention of authorization. So I now assume that all these PDF downloads for sale on Ebay—and there are literally hundreds, mostly from Russia, China, or Ukraine—are all illegal, sold in violation of copyright laws. Not for me.

On a related note: I tried to buy a hard copy book version of the same catalogue and was surprised to find that currently the US is not accepting packages weighing more than 500 g or thicker than 2 cm from Germany or, presumably, anywhere else. So, for now at least, that option doesn't exist either.

There are the Netto standard or specialised catalogues for Austria, as well as Michel.

This isn't entirely accurate. It's still possible, but only at a higher shipping rate. I'm not positive, but I think they're not accepting first class parcels, but they are accepting airmail parcels??? Or something like that. I've still been getting large shipments of books from Germany, but have had to pay for a different shipping rate, about 50%-100% more expensive than normal. I've also had several auctionhouses sitting on shipments for months, so who knows what the truth is.

danstamps54 ... the thumb drives contain only extracts of the original catalog (Auszug aus dem MICHEL Japan/Korea/Mongolei, GUS als PDF auf USB-Datenstick)!

They never ever would give someone the complete catalog in pdf format. There's no real copy protection, when you are able to print it. So the Russian and Chinese copy guys would have less work to do.

If you are not a collector of 2015-20 stamps, an old catalog from ebay would do anyway.

Hard copies also have no copy protections, it only takes a photocopier.

In my opinion legacy publishers use the 'we don't want to move to digit because it can be copied' as an excuse. No one can stop others from stealing IP; it happens every day in every industry completely independent from the medium.
Don

An older copy for Austria is what I want. Those I've found so far are offered by used book dealers in Europe, and they're not shipping to the US "bis auf Weiteres."

tommtomm,

You're correct. they are "Auszüge aus den jeweils aktuellen Normal- und Spezialbänden." I probably should have been more specific.

I prefer digital catalogs to paper and I wanted to see how much information was omitted. I'm still using my paper Deutschland-Spezial. My cutoff date is 1990.

Michel claims to have a personal dedication and a watermark on each page to "protect" their copyright. It apparently doesn't work well.

Dan

EMaxim,

Be patient. A paper copy of the catalog probably will surface on ebay in time. That's where I bought mine a long time ago.

Subway Stamps sell Michel catalogs in the US. I checked their inventory and didn't see Austria.

Hang in there!
Dan

Good point, Don. Which of us has never made a photocopy of printed matter that was supposedly protected? Nevertheless, I'm not comfortable with unauthorized PDF versions for several reasons. 1) How good are these purportedly high-quality scans? And how complete? 2) Do I really want to give my money to pirates rather than to the publishers we all depend upon? 3) The PDF files are delivered via email. I'd be nervous (to say the least) about allowing Russian or Chinese pirates, or even Dutch pirates, access to my computer through downloads.