Scott No Longer Allowing Access To Legacy Digital Catalogues

"If not that, then why did they buy Amos?"

They did not buy Amos. Amos still exists. They only bought the stamp catalog part.

The other downside to digital rent is they can raise the prices in the future just like all services do. Even if one subscribes, I would keep a hardcopy.

Amos Media was not investing in the product and not spending any money to make their digital product better. Scott LLC is supposedly doing that.

The fact the prices continue to be high makes me think that they do not believe they will get significantly more subscribers to keep similar revenue/profit. They know some will always subscribe so do not want to leave any more on the table.

I might be missing something, but explain to me exactly how Scott will make more money by giving away the numbering system for free?

I think this business plan was an episode on South Park like 30 years ago

We should consider ourselves lucky we had access to the catalogs for as long as we did after they changed to the subscription model.

The last time Scott did something like this, I think around 2016, the legacy catalogs were IMMEDIATELY disabled and one had no choice but to buy new ones if they wanted to continue to have access.

I too have been in contact with Pamela at Scott but she has not made me the offer others seem to be getting of one year of the new catalogs free. Maybe since my last catalogs were 2020 they are too old for that offer.

I refuse to go hardcopy. I don't have room here for 12 books or space to keep them open on my desk. The digital is really so much better. But the price point is inane.

However all is not lost.

Note that Scott is now offering the digital subscriptions for a month. So maybe you buy one catalog at a time, and only work on those countries for a month, and then move on to the next.

Also note that your computer will take screenshots or videos of anything on your screen - including Scott digital catalogs.

And if you don't even want to get a month's access to do that... Anna's Archive is your new best friend.

Collectors and dealers are pretty much forced to use Scott numbers if they want to collect and be in business. They have us by the cajunas and there is little we can do about it.

If I chose to sell my stamps online with only Gibbons and Michel numbering I bet my sales would drop by 50% or more.

Anyway there are ways around spending $550/year for digital access.

The expense of catalogs is one reason why the hobby is dying. I bet many collectors don't even spend $550/year on their stamp collections.

I would not be at all shocked to see Scott repeat the 1989-1990 fiasco to reprice the catalog values as online sales in general are way under catalog - just like it was in the late 80s before they revalued the prices. It would be one way to force people to get new catalogs.

Too bad the chiro doc is not longer selling extracts from printed catalogs. What makes the printed catalog less usable is that it is in alphabetical order so you have to purchased 3 or more catalog to cover countries as their name evolved.

His work can be easily replicated should someone wish to do so. It just takes 1-2 thousand as a start and a willingness to list on ebay. The learning curve is how to price the sections to cover the total cost of the catalogs, overhead and seller's time.

I always liked buying the Scott cut up yearly catalogs into individual countries that one ebay seller was providing. Alas, no more. Fire and paper bad.

This change in management hopefully moves past the image of Scott being a firm two generation behind firm and brings a whole new marketing approach .

Stop printing current issue catalogs and go to what many collectors been asking for a "a Golden Age " 1941 to 1970 specialized catalog . Then they are printing a two volume specialized set . Then forget this 12 volume set each year because those 1971 and up really rarely change .

Then forget this 12 volume set each year because those 1971 and up really rarely change .

I don't see a future at all for these "World wide catalogs". The workload is just too much for a shrinking market. And then we have multiple companies doing it (Scott, Michel, Stanley Gibbons), and all are in survival mode, essentially.

I only see a future for those enormous catalogs is if the "big ones" pool their resources and jointly issue such a set.

The new owners of Scott should concentrate on general and specialized US catalogs.

They could certainly cut down on their workload and page count if they jettison the Stamerija issue. But the current group won't because I've been told the story twice that one of them was at a show a number of years ago and they saw someone buying this stuff.

I dare anyone to find a randomly chosen St Thomas or Mozambique souvenir sheet in the catalog. They go one for pages and pages, the vast majority aren't pictured (just a very long list) and the "sets" are often full of subjects that are not related at all besides being topicals.

Yeah, I see them in the Linn's new issue updates. I hate it. If you're going to bother listing them, then show them. Otherwise, why bother?

If they had images for all that crap the page count would balloon. This is why I do not need a new catalog. I doubt many even collect those issues.

Which is why they could drop them if they are struggling