I Am New To Stamp Collecting

What stamp guide do you recommend. I am sticking to US stamps for now, but I am thinking of a world stamp guide.

For an actual stamp catalog, you can get a Harris catalog for US stamps only. That isn't too expensive (search Amazon for "2026 United States Postage Stamp Catalog & Price Guide, 91st Edition", it is $26.80 right now). The 2025 edition also covered Canada and UN, but it doesn't look like they cover that any more. The Scott catalog is the standard for worldwide but a new one would be a thousand dollars or so.

Online there are sites like stampworld.com. The best way to identify a stamp is Google Lens, which is free and does better than apps that are supposed to be able to identify stamps.

https://www.theswedishtiger.com/ID.html will let you identify old US stamps.

It gets it wrong very frequently.

This is where you want to start:

https://stampsmarter.org/index.html

Forget the Harris catalogs. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY uses the catalog system. It would be penny wise and pound foolish. Get a used Scott US Specialized.

I think you do a dis-service to the new collector. The Harris is a great, inexpensive reference for the beginner. I have both a Harris (2oo1) & a Scott Specialized (2022). It helps the newbie to visualize the issues. I could care less about values (until its show time). It will allow the beginner to realize the large varieties, & price disparities in issues. Give them a more meaningful idea of the economics to collecting. The Stamp Smarter is good for some ideas as to differences as it explains (I think) the minor differences of the classics in particular.

Good luck with your venture. (Understand that the Scott catalog is 6-two piece volumes at a cost of $100+ a volume, if you're thinking of a world-wide collection. WW might be good for a topical or a specific country to complement the US collection).

Eligies - Point me to a single ebay listing, auction house, dealer price list, Linn's article, published work that uses Harris numbers. While I wait, I will tell you that a huge part of collecting is communicating in the same language as others and no one communicates in "Harris". The money you spend on Harris could be used on Scott because as you yourself point out you end up there anyway.

The Harris catalog uses the Scott numbering system. It's a good catalog for someone not looking for the depth of information in the Scott Specialized.

Dale

A Scott US Specialized might be overwhelming for a newbie. A Scott Vol 1A might be better (or Harris if they use Scott numbers).

I like this website for new collectors trying to figure out what to do - classicstampcollector.com. Maybe I like it because I created it :)

I do not think a Scott specialized is needed unless you collect early US. For years I never owned a Scott. I just used one of the dealer price books (remember Minnesota Stamp and Coin). You just need to normalize,

I like the Scott US Stamp Pocket Catalogue. A new one will be up to date, but if you can set a cut-off point for dates, you can get a used one on ebay. If you collect pre-1940 US, a used Scott Catalog for any time after 1945 or so will do fine, but will be necessary to differntiate some issues. A new worldwide full Scott Catalog will be several volumes and will take up more shelf space than your stamps.

The issue is that the US in particular, and most countries as well, increased their stamp issues fantastically starting in the 80s, so a catalog going to 2025 will be 4 times as large as one going to 1975 (this applies to albums and collections in general). I recommend trying to limit to a certain year. My US collection stops at year 2000.

Regardless of what you decide, there is no wrong answer, it's all about the fun of the journey.

they don't, I know that. What the Harris does on the cheap is provide a value with a picture and a reference # (Scott) for all the US issues. If the collector decides to go all-in' and start to expand the collection he can go to the web sites, peruse the many offerings & decide his best options. It's a BASELINE tool for beginners, something to reference. The values provided are references. He's starting out, give him some optimistic views for staying with it. (Scott values are crazy, ebay offerings are crazier. Scott catalog volume price is expensive. (I've been collecting since the mid 60's. I bought my first CATALOG set of Scott complete at a show in 2015, it was a 2010/2011 mix, I forget when I got the Harris but it is a 2001, I do not think I bought it new )

I am probably going to go with Scott or even Harris. Thank You everyone for your knowledge.

The good news is you can buy used catalogs for substantial discounts or get a hand me down. Values do not change much,

The American Philatelic Society/APRL sells a lot of donated books through the APRL website,

Look up Better World Books - they always have used Scott catalogs. Get a used one from a few years back and you won't pay much. I bought a 2022 Vol 1 a & b for my sister for a TOTAL OF $15.00 usd.