Transitioning From Scott To Michel For Germany

Thank you for that list, Roberto59. I'll save it for future reference.

To what has been said, I would add:

Sassone for Italy
Maury for France (better than Y&T)
Facit for Scandinavia. Although, I use Michel Northern Europe for this area and I'm satisfied.
SG for British Empire & Commonwealth
Hibernian for Ireland

To me, it's clear that Scott is the worst option for Europe and the British area.

I would like to add two observations regarding Michel catalogs.

For Germany Michel is the best. The one area where things could be greatly improved is the numbering of watermarks. Many different watermarks have the same number (typically "1") and some identical watermarks have different numbers for different regions. For example, Soviet Zone watermark 3 is DDR watermark 1. I would prefer a unique identifier. Scott got this right.

Years ago I bought a Michel US Specialized just to see how a different publisher would organize the same stamps. The layout makes more sense and appears to be more coherent. But since nearly every dealer uses Scott numbering it would be a pain to use Michel numbers. One example of organization - Scott lists about 6 major numbers for the 1851-57 1-cent Franklin imperforates. Michel uses ONE number and lists all the major varieties under that one number. That will never happen with Scott as not only are the numbers "famous" but would reduce the value of all the varieties.

You mean "nearly every dealer in USA and (perhaps) Canada". Because in Europe, most dealers don't know about Scott. Just, if you're collecting US, Scott's the choice.
I've a set of Scott's, bought as pdf on ebay for purchasing European stamps (my only collecting area) in US & Canada and because I use Steiner pages for some of my collections. But, as I always say, I don't like Scott at all.

Thanks PostmasterGS for the English version of the prefix / suffix explanations in Michel.

I have the Michel Introduction for English speakers, but hadn't see that set of explanations, where did you pick it up?

It's from their English version of the Germany Specialized catalog.

Aha, I have the Austria specialized for my Bosnia collection, and that's only available in German.

As reflected by a few other members, I have been able to work my way through the mostly logical listings, but I was a bit confused by the differences between all the Capital and lower case lettering. The scheme makes a bit more sense in English.

When you switched to Michel, what album do you plan to use or will you create your own?

Since I use only high-quality bound stockbooks, it was easy to rearrange stamps according to Michel's organizational layout. Have done the same using Yvert & Tellier for France. But I recognize that printed albums don't allow for that flexibility. Whatever catalogue you use, you're more or less bound to follow the album's layout. It's one reason I use stockbooks instead.

I originally put my Bosnia collection on Steiner pages. I soon had too many items that went beyond his spaces (so many perf varieties here). When I picked up my Michel catalogue, I decided to go with all new pages that I made up using Album Easy. Because I was in charge, I put everything in the Michel order.

The freedom to arrange in the way that you prefer is indeed nice. Especially if you want to display variants (e.g., of color) or interesting cancellations. I also like to keep at least two copies of each stamp: mint to show the design and cancelled to show postal use. Pre-printed albums seem too restrictive.

Michel is no doubt more detailed than Scott, but I believe you'll find that their prices are even more misaligned with reality than Scott prices are. Not as bad as Stanley Gibbons, but definitely "optimistic".