Which Unitrade Would Best Fit My Needs As A Definitives Collector?

I collect definitives of Canada including perfs, shades, dies, any/all tagging, papers, date imprints- almost anything that is not an error. I don't collect any form of errors including flyspecks.

My question is- does the basic Unitrade cover definitives varieties well, or is the specialized needed to capture the types of varieties mentioned above?

Hi Shermae,

There is only one Unitrade catalogue that I'm aware of. The Unitrade Specialized Catalogue. Unitrade is quite specialized for definitive sets, especially the more recent catalogue issues. For example, my 2022 catalogue lists tagging and papers quite extensively. While it's based on the Scott numbering system, it goes into a lot more detail. It's well worth getting a copy.

I don't do much with tagging, shades or paper types though so it still may not be at the level you're hoping for. If you're looking for known tagging varieties, for example, you might want a more specialized listing for specific definitive issues. Robin Harris (who is also Unitrade editor) published a series of books on of this nature, which are available on his website: adminware.ca

Mr. Harris also gave a talk a few months ago about the evolution of the Unitrade catalogue that you might find interesting. He went into what got added to the catalogue each year to make it progressively more specialized. It's on YouTube:

Hope some of this helps! :)

Madbaker thanks so much for the very useful response and video link. I learned a lot!

Shermae

I have many spares that I would gladly offer you. Send me an email with your wish list. I will be away for a couple of weeks but will get them off to you after that :)

Dianne

That's very kind of you Dianne! I collect only MNH- does the offer still stand? :-)

yup

email sent, Dianne!