2024 Scott Classic Specialized [worldwide]

Has there been a 2024 Classic Specialized thread yet? If so, I missed it.

The release date was pushed back from last week to next week. Still in time for Chicagopex, in theory.

Not a lot of exciting editorial changes, as far as I can tell. The press release is here:

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...rs-1840-1940

but the TL/DR summary is:

All new on-cover listings added for Jordan and Syria and updates for Denmark.

New treatment of the Ataturk issues.

Reworked Rhodesia Double Heads and Admirals.

Portugal and colonies are revised in both values and minor varieties.

All in all, not too sexy. (Lots of references to value changes, but those are less exciting to me, generally speaking.)

I think I'm correct in saying that there were not too many editorial additions in the 2023 edition, either. Mostly Feudatory States and some additional numbers in Zanzibar. The other listed changes were largely value changes.

I think I can make it another year before updating.

Me thinks I could make it another decade.

It strikes me as pretty lame. It has been known for decades that there were at least 2 printings of the Ataturk definitives from 1931 through the late 40s or early 50s. The same can be said for the Thailand definitive starting with Scott 264. There were 2 printings of this set as well. But I don't know if Scott has ever listed them in the regular or specialized cats.

The use of "value changes" appeals to those most likely to buy.

'Value Changes' LOL

Don

This year does look more minimal than usual, with many of the updates just being carried over from the Standard. The Portugal & colonies listing changes look most of interest.

The changes in the last several years have been incremental - I have a 2016 and 2021 and the changes between them are minor, both in revised listings and valuations.

Don't get me wrong...it's still the best thing that the publisher puts out. I'll continue on a two- or three-year replacement schedule. I was just hoping this one might have had a bit more meat on the bone, considering last year also felt a bit anemic.

I wonder how the loss of Sergio plays into future editorial additions?

Other issuers of specialised catalogues (eg Gibbons GB Specialised, Yvert 1840-1940) don't publish a new edition each year - in fact, there are often long gaps. I'm slightly surprised there's enough of a market to justify an annual publication schedule.

Will be interesting to see how Scott's coverage of the Atatürk definitives will now compare to the extensive listings in the Isfila specialized catalogue from Turkey.

One change I wish they would make is to extend listings for non-Commonwealth areas to the end of 1945 so that the entire WWII era occupations such as Generalgouvernment in Poland were completely covered. I mean they have already broken the 1940 date with Commonwealth so why not go ahead and move the rest to coincide with a year that really does mark a break/ end of an era

I certainly agree. It would make life much easier.

Presumably, given that may BC collectors divide their stamps by reign, the 1952 decision was a commercial one - no point in risking the loss of some of your market. I can see a world of complexity in extending the rest to end-1945 - I can see why they stopped in 1940, which is a logical point, given the geographical changes in Europe.

I don't see anythng so complex that they could not do it. They have everything they need already anyway.

I always get the feeling that the editors are not fans of change.

I think that catalog publishers are fans of selling catalogs and the advertising located inside them. Who is willing to buy an annual set of largely reductant expensive catalogs?

Catalogs have two primary purposes, identification and values. What percentage of new/changed identification content is added annually? In my opinion this percentage is pretty low; by far most of the new content is the latest stamp issued for the previous year which has a much smaller audience. Catalog values represent the other potential changed annual content. But dealers, sellers, auction houses, stamp organizations and hobbyists want to see values increase, not drop. I think that publishers are not likely to want to include catalog values decreases. And if you factor in inflation, the catalog values for most stamps have not really changed much in the last 75 years.

Given the above, I often wonder why people (other than new issue collectors and dealers) are willing to spend money on updating their catalogs.

Publishers have new opportunities with digital catalogs. But so far, I do not think any of them have figured out how to take advantage of it. In fact, they seem to me to have doubled down on the old profit models. Time will be the judge if they have made the right decisions.
Don

I buy a new set of Michel's Deutschland-Spezial every year. As to why...

Being a specialized collector, I'm often competing in the market for some very specialized, hard-to-find material. When new variants, sub-variants, or sub-sub-variants get added to the catalog, the demand for these items goes through the roof. The sooner I can see that there's a new variant and find a copy, the cheaper it will be. Often I can grab one before the dealer/seller realizes they are selling a newly cataloged variant, so I can get it at the basic issue price instead of the higher sub-variant price, frequently saving more money in a single transaction that the cost of the 2-volume catalog set.

You do have a good point, though. For most, annual updates are unnecessary.

Whether the digital offerings make sense will vary from collector to collector. A two-year subscription to Yvert's 1840-1940 and two 1941-60 volumes will set you back around €50, which is around a third of the cost of buying hard copies of the three books. An annual sub to the France and Monaco catalogues is around half the price of buying the two.

DJ - I seem to remember that you'd tried some of these?