What Are Some Scarce To Rare Books Or Pamphlets In US Philately?

What are some scarce to rare books or pamphlets in US philately? Does anyone out there in Stamp Community land collect scarce to rare philatelic books?
Not necessarily pricey but collectable.

Most information is now readily available online but I find it interesting to hold the original in my hand or have on a shelf. To me it's not too much different than collecting stamps or covers. The original intent is no longer there (i.e.stamps - to mail a letter or book to provide information) but the desire for ownership is.

My own experience, I have been trying to complete a set of Pat Paragraphs as the individual pamphlets as issued by Elliot Perry. I have gotten all but 3 issues (#4, #5 and #9) with the original brown covers. Mine are not perfect but OK. Full sets are out there, but I don't to buy the full set now as I'd have too many duplicates, also too pricey for compete set. Jim Lee and Leonard Hartman have provided several. I send them an email every now and then and over past several years they have been replying in negative. I guess individual pamphlets don't come in often enough. So I see these 3 pamphlets as scarce.

I do. My specialty is philatelic literature related to US essays and proofs, but I branch out elsewhere too. If you want info on essay/proof literature I can help. There are a number of rare books, pamphlets, etc., including Brazer's price lists, Mason, etc. In particular...

Copies of the Essay-Proof Journal are occasionally listed on e_bay, though they're usually somewhat pricey. Though I have hard copies of select issues, the entire run is available on the Newman Numismatic Portal. The EPJ published two indexes, one at their 25th anniversary and another at their 50th. Let me know if you want the exact volume numbers for those indexes and I will try and locate them for you. Here's the main search link:

https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/searc...of%20journal

While not rare (more like "scarce") I'd like to mention the American Philatelic Congress books. These can be purchased individually for relatively little money. Do a search on e_bay for "American Philatelic Congress" and you'll see that prices range from $10 – $20. They're a wonderful resource on a vast range of topics. And to that effect you'll want to refer to the APC index:

First, a link to the APC website where you can read about the contents of issues dating back to 2009: https://americanphilateliccongress....ngress-book/

Then, there is a printed index of the APC books 1935–2006 available from the APRL. Go to the APRL online catalog and search for "index to congress books". In the mid-90s I purchased what was then a two volume set of these indexes, probably from Leonard. They're relatively thin.

Otherwise, I'd suggest posting back with a list or range of topics, or specific publications that you're looking for aside from Pat Paragraphs.

I do too. There are many hard-to-find titles. Many years ago I heard that the literature of philately is more voluminous than any other hobby and that "a scholarly philatelist would typically have a philatelic library taking up as much space as their collection". Certainly a common occurrence among the old-timers who assembled their own libraries before the internet age. Even with digitization of many resources, I still see that as true. I just renewed seven society memberships last night and have a few more to do. So it is not uncommon for a "deep collector" to spend 5-10% or so of their philatelic budget on literature and memberships.

As you have found with "Pat Paragraphs", assembling complete runs of pamphlets, journals and auction catalogs can be a challenge, especially those 50+ years old. And they can take up considerable space. The long-term survival rate of many publications in their original print versions is quite low. How easy is it to find a run of original Linn's issues from the 1950s? Siegel catalogs from the 1940s? American Philatelists from the 1920s? (My own modest run of Pat Paragraphs has issue #1, then skips to #20 before being fairly complete.)

Similarly, many of the monograph titles were printed in quantities of only a few hundred to satisfy the demand of the era. They are challenging to find and hold their value fairly well. Few are ever reprinted.

An interesting example is the Philatelic Sales Agency's price list published periodically over the past 100 years in various formats and titles. Though printed in large quantities, each issue was soon replaced by the next issue. The survival rate is nil. Don's Stamp Smarter webpage has assembled many of these as a crowd-source project. Few collectors saved very many of these, but collectively the result is impressive as a digital reference.

Lastly, I sense that few philatelists assemble runs of vintage Scott catalogs (useful for value trends and numbering changes) or collect vintage stamp albums other than Big Blue and its relatives.

Not only do people collect them but can sell for high prices

Unless bought by a book collector, I cannot imagine why someone would prefer this over Michel's 2nd edition (2013) English language Gulf States catalog, available at half (or less) of this price. Far superior as a reference.

All IMHO, of course.

John

It may not be prefer, I have Michel's first edition 2007/8 second edition 2013 and this one and did not pay $109 for all of them. But there is some different information between them.

I was only watching this to grab a second copy if it had went cheap. It did not!

Have to put a plug in here for Phil Bansner. He has almost 1300 philatelic items of literature available for just the US.

https://www.philbansner.com/philate...terature.htm

It is great to see there are others who enjoy owning books, pamphlets and journals (and their reading) related to our hobby.

Thanks to all for the suggested ideas and sources as well.

I feel even more regret now about not bidding on the last lot in Siegel's last sale of the year- a literature lot. The list of titles was impressive (there were at least 3 titles I knew should bring the low estimate of 750), and I made an assumption that it would sell high. So I did not call to get info on shipping cost or quality. I had already spent my self-imposed limit when the lot came up. It opened well below estimate and even paused a bit where next bid would be 500. Should I go for it or not? I chickened out. I did not know enough and if I won it, it could make up almost half of my total bids. O well, maybe another time?

$109...45 bids
Crikey!

I bought mine for a dollar
(but agree Michel Gulf states, is a cracker (Free gift from an SCF Member "PostmasterGS"
(albeit I disklike Michel's "Blocks " for souvenir sheets )

When I am out and about, I check used book stores, car boot sales
Sales of outdated catalogues at your library


You can pick up old scarce monographs for pennies, you just need imagination.

Every op shop I visit, I open with "anything on stamp collecting?"

Not rare US, just things picked up over time.



Not Mine.