What Is The Best Way These Days To Identify Stamps?

Hello!

I was an enthusiastic collector for a few years, until I added up how much money I spent on stamps in a year. I still like them, and I still have many stamps that I would enjoy organizing (probably enough to last me the rest of my life). The thing I no longer have is a way to identify them, since I sold my catalogs after I stopped actively buying.

So, I'm curious: what is the best way today to identify stamps? I could buy an old set of printed worldwide catalogs (I'm not very interested in US stamps) on ebay for around $100. Or maybe there's a PDF file of the complete worldwide catalog for sale someplace. It doesn't have to be up to date. Or maybe there's a web site where I can upload an image of a stamp and it would identify the stamp for me. I saw something that said that the company that publishes Scott's provides a subscription service for $99/year. Is that true, and if so, what is its web site?

Thanks very much!

The digital Scott catalog (Amos Advantage) is $550 a year for all of the volumes. The $99 is for only one volume. The printed IMO still is the way to go. IF you want to go digital though here is the link:

https://www.amosadvantage.com/Produ...pDigitalSubs

Get to your local library and check. They probably have a very recent set of worldwide Scott catalogues on hand you can borrow. Its a great way to get started again, until and if you decide to buy new or used ones to continue. Oh, and welcome to the forum.
Mike

If all you want is a quick way to identify stamps, try the "Stamp Identifier" app available at the App Store. Free, with some ads, and you just take a pic with your phone. Mostly accurate and works for world wide. I can't vouch for security issues, but I've used it a lot.

Yep, library. If you find enough enjoyment from the borrowed books, then you can buy an appropriate set. Of course if you are focused on just pre-1940ish then all you would need is a Scott Classic.

Here is the best way to identify stamps in 2025:

1. Purchase 2-3 year old print Scott catalog (should be around $100, as you already found)

2. Purchase a document feed scanner if you don't already own one (around $200)

3. Chop up the Scott catalog using a guillotine sheet cutter

4. Feed the pages to the scanner. Don't forget to enable OCR.

5. Voila! You now have a searchable PDF of the whole catalog, free of any DRM or subscription fees.

6. Re-up every couple of years for $100

The other options you mentioned are not really viable. You cannot purchase PDF of a catalog. They show up on ebay sometimes but they are not legal and get quickly shutdown. Official subscription to Scott costs a lot more than $99. Honestly although I have seen the community sourced online catalogs, I'm not sure how accurate or complete they are. Scott is industry standard by far at least in USA, basically impossible to collect without it. Like trying to drive coast to coast without GPS, map or street names.

All of this trouble is the fault of Scott's stranglehold over the hobby which locks out casual collectors and lower budget collectors who are unwilling or unable to shell out better part of a thousand dollars per year just to identify their stamps. There should be free or very low cost (like max $20/year) tier of service for collectors just to occasionally look up a few stamps. The subscription service is priced for high volume professional power dealers who depend on the catalog all day long for their livelihood, not for hobbyist collectors like you and me. It is terrible for the future of the hobby. There are potential collectors who would like to begin a collection, but unable to even get started due to Scott's barrier of entry.

I have struggled to get the Stamp Identifier app to work very often

I tried it on some 1960's 1970's France stamps hoping it would speed the process vs flipping through my Scott catalog. These should not be hard

I may try it again but using the catalogs is still my best and old school

It's not strictly comparable to Scott, but, if you can speak a little French, an annual subscription to Yvert's world online catalogue is available @€129.

The best way to identify stamps in general is Google image search. A 2 volume international set of Scott's catalog from 1970 is cheap, tho you're stuck with the anachronistic layout based on the Britich Empire. If you are getting much past 1975 you'll be stuck with multi-volume catalogs.

I guess this depends on what stamps you have :).

If they are mostly older, then the Scott Classic Specialized (1840-1940) is a good choice. There is not only US stamps in it, you can get it for good prices e.g. at ebay.
If you want to search certain countries only, you could look what Stanley Gibbons offers as Digital Catalogue.
And as already mentioned, you could also use Yvert which also offers Digital Catalogues.
Unfortunately many online offers are subscription only, I prefer to buy something and own it.

In the end my own experience with digital vs hard copy has shown a clear advantage to the latter when you have anything more than a two digit number of stamps to work on. Between scrolling and clicking digital is a time suck. Just by the physical movements required to locate any given item paper wins. Especially if you tab your catalogs and organize properly. Not to mention that paper catalogs have no connection/hardware/software issues to deal with.

(1) I watch for sales of used Scott catalogs on Amazon and have managed to get most two-volume parts for well under $100. These range from 2021 to 2024 dates, currently. If I have a date on a stamp, just flipping through the hard copy catalogs is usually the fastest way to ID a stamp for me.

(2) There is a data base whose name is apparently banned here that has a huge number of stamps, typically with cites to Scott's, Stanley Gibbons, and Yvert. I think it costs around $100 a year and for me it's well worth it. I don't think I've ever come across a Scott-listed stamp that isn't also in this data base. One significant drawback is that the search function is poorly designed and I can't get it to work properly for searches on more than one word at a time.

(3) Stamp Identifier is a bit of a bait and switch, because the automatic point and click feature hasn't worked (at least on my iPhone) for over a year now. But it's still very valuable, even without that feature. Now, you have to take a manual photo and perhaps crop it, before loading it into the search engine. So, it's definitely slower than it used to be. But for tough attributions, Stamp Identifier can often (not always) save you a lot of time in going straight to the stamp. I just used it extensively in attributing a batch of pre-1949 China stamps, which can be nightmarish to catalog.

(4) The latest option is pretty exciting and free. The new "Google Lens" tool lets you search on stamp images. This is particularly helpful when trying to attribute stamps being offerered online.

(5) Finally, an old-fashioned word search in Google often works very well in attributing a stamp.

The newest way to ID stamps is to use a LLM. I use ChapGPT 4o, but I'm sure others would work. You can check against a catalog. One of the things I like about using AI for this is that it can read the writing on stamp in any language.

The newest way to ID stamps is to use a LLM. I use ChapGPT 4o.

So in English, what the hell does that mean. I wish people would stop using abbreviations and texrt speak. It's just plain rude.

LLM (Large Language Model) is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) term. In essence, one is using an AI-developed computer program to identify stamps.

dynamode how do you use chatgpt for identification? Is it a specific prompt? Is it reliable?
aragorn