Reliable Catalogues For Issue Dates

Hi All,

I'm sorry to sound like I'm whining but I'm getting somewhat disgruntled with tracking down correct issue dates.

I collect Disney themed stamps, what is seen by many as 'Wallpaper' stamps, but my collection values at around AUS$5,000, with more to come.

In an attempt to get my collection in date order rather than by country, I'm getting mixed information from various catalogues. Some give one date, another a different date and some just a month/year.

Can anyone point me to the most accurate catalogues out there?

Best Rgds,
Dave R

It's complicated by the fact that stamps may be available to the trade before they are on sale in a particular country. And, of course, some wallpaper probably never appeared in its nominal country. I use Gibbons dates for my Commonwealth stamps, Maury for the French area. Some catalogues - eg Yvert - just give a year, rather than anything more precise.

A lot, if not the vast majority, of these stamps were and are issued by countries that never released them locally. They, purely, are intended to make Disney fans part with their money, Even if they are released in the country of origin, they may not pop up for a long time after having been issued. These countries, usually, are not good at documenting anything. The dates. rarely, are known. If catalogued at all, the dates are based on information that does not come from the source and will be best guesses.

It is unlikely there will be reliable information on what, in essence, is an institutionalised swindle.

"World Classic Stamps?"

You might contact somebody at the American Topical Association to see if they give more reliable information.
www.americantopical.org


Peter

"but my collection has a catalog value at around AUS$5,000, with more to come." Edited for clarity, I think.

@classic_paper

May I suggest:



Do not be surprised when another Disney enthousiast is willing to cough up that kind of money.

Price vs value. May I suggest a subtle difference:
Catalog price: when a company/publisher stands behind their listings and sells them at the listed amount.
Catalog value: when they don't. Scott would be an example, since c1940.
But that is a tangent from the original question.
I agree, actual issue dates are not known for many of these for the reasons given.

Legitimately-issued Disney stamps were coordinated by Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation for years. I believe that they had exclusive rights to create and market Disney-themed stamps for their client countries. (I could be wrong about that.) You might see if they have a list available.

https://www.igpc.com/

I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope, though.

You could also see if a Scott/Linn's digital subscription includes archived issues (though I don't know how robust the reporting of newly-issued stamps was in the Eighties and Nineties...I would assume it was pretty good).

All of this is only going to get you close.

Not sure how accurate it is because it's keyword dependent, but Michel's online catalog is searchable by topic. If I put in "Disney", it returns 433 sets worldwide with Disney stamps. Just perusing the listings, they all appear to have issue dates listed – though again, no idea as to accuracy. Screenshots below, click to enlarge.

Try going to Stamp World. A quick advanced search for Disney stamps showed 3772
stamps.

Does that site have reliable issue dates?

I don't know how reliable they are, but it does have issue dates and pictures of the stamps.

Stampworld takes its information from other catalogues. It is unlikely to be more reliable. It is good as a basic listing of stamps.

"Stampworld takes its information from other catalogues" (agreed) and sells your personal information; quite a business model for a 'free' website.
Don

As the lead editor for the other major online stamp catalogue, I guess the question is where would online catalogues get there release data data if not from published catalogues of some sort?

The fun comes when the published catalogues disagree with each other. The solution I use is to accept the date accepted by the "catalogue of record" for a country. So for former British Empire that is Gibbons, for example. Even that is not 100% perfect since you still get occasional differences between catalogue publisher and agency producing stamps but in the end one has to kinda choose the source you feel is most authoritative.