Scott Catalogues In PDF Format?

Does anyone have any experience with Scott catalogues in PDF format?

I need to update my references (a 1983 US stamp catalogue supplemented by a 1996 US pocket stamp catalogue) and have found a vendor advertising the Scott 6-volume set on DVD.

I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of hard copy vs. digital and would appreciate your feedback.

I have both the Scott catalogue's and I find it easier to go to the books than to boot up the DVD,easier to cross reference with the book while viewing stamps from the screen(from Wensy/bidstart/ebay).

I travel alot and find the DVD useful for research, also you can get lucky with a word search in the PDF although its not really formatted for that, its also handy you can pull up multiple screens when crosschecking stamps, you can zoom in, I have abobe acrobat 8 professional so I can cut pastes and edit with it to.

again I'm a technology geek and thus I like the DVD format, but I use the books when deep in the stamp piles as physical stamp pages are easier to turn.
my current project I'm making a personal (PDF) reference guide from Dr Chengs website as I've found it extremely useful, I combine all the pages per country into 1 PDF then I can flick thru it on my PC like a scotts catalog of pictures. its a slow tedious process of downloading each picture to build each archive.

Good idea Ed I'm over 60 and still find it hard to orientate myself around a computer.

Thanks for the feedback.

I think the best solution for me, a U.S. collector with only limited WW holdings, might be to buy the digital catalogues for identifying my WW stamps and get a hard copy of the U.S. Specialized.

The software is also useful to locate some hard to find stamps. However, the search will sometimes skip over some hits. Also, the search is horizontal, not down a column.

In general, I find stamps much faster using the print catalog. So the print catalog is almost always my first choice. When I'm on a road trip, I don't always have a print catalog, so I usually use the software catalog then.

On the legally licensed 2007 and earlier editions, you can print the pages directly. That's very handy for making checklists and inventory. 2008 and later editions have the print function disabled, so you end up having to print screen (yuck).

Beware, there are numerous pirated editions being sold on the internet. In fact, I would estimate well over 3/4 of all the listings that I've seen are for illegal copies. I strongly suggest confirming with the seller prior to purchase. The 2007 and earlier editions are the only ones the do not require registration. Anyone selling a 2008 or later edition and claiming the files can be accessed without registration is selling you illegally extracted software.

KJH, my 2009 version I can print however I have Adobe acrobat 8 professional which allows me to bypass many safety features built into any PDF. so I'm not sure if its my program or the 2009 version. I just printed a page to double check worked great??

If you didn't have to register a 2009 edition, it is not a legal copy. All genuine originals will require you to register before it will do a permanent installation. You can verify this with Amos. 2007 and earlier editions are the only ones that do not require registration.

As far as I have seen, on pirated editions, the print function has been enabled so that you can open and print using Acrobat Reader.

Amos' stupid decision to require registration and disable the print function has done nothing to deter piracy, and has only resulted in people like me no longer buying software updates because they are impractical for me to use. They could have dropped their prices to something reasonable instead, increasing their revenue and killing off a good chunk of the piracy market. But no, they had to do things the stupid way. Guess how their software sales have gone since they introduced the "security" features?

I know the Forum veterans are already tired of my repeated ranting on this issue. Sorry. I hate it when a company destroys their own good product.

Ah, I guess mine was not what I thought I got... OPPS...

I wish Amos would come out with a iPhone app......

I quickly checked the Amos website and cannot find the digital copies of Scott for sale.

If they were REALLY smart, the would sell individual listings of each country. Then I would not have to buy them cut out of the catalog on ebay.

The software editions of the 2011 catalogs are still in preparation. I don't think it will come out until after the final 2011 print catalogs are released. I'm expecting abysmal software sales for Scott, again. Maybe they will learn?

Scott used to issue software catalogs for individual countries a little after the turn of the century. They no longer do so. The last country editions I remember seeing were something like 2002.

BeeSee,

They are listed under the CDs/DVDs heading, rather than the Scott Catalogues one - you can find the here at the link below. The 2009 series is the most current they have listed.

https://www.amosadvantage.com/scott...o=&Tab=stamp

Hi BeeSee




A couple of years ago I wrote Scott and asked the question about individual country print-outs, or regional catalogs such as Stanley-Gibbons and Michel. Their answer was that too many people wanted all six volumes and the US specialized so individual sections was not an option. With the current individual catalog price I wonder how long that presumption will last.

Michel has, or had, an option for printing country sections on demand. I checked the cost of the 3 countries I collect and was surprised that the 'on-demand' was about $20 more than buying the whole South America catalog.

At one time there was a New York dealer that broke the catalogs into sections and each year I bought my three countries from him. Now I buy the sections from an e-Bay dealer since that dealer passed away. Before someone says anything I was told it is legal to break them up as it is the same as buying a catalog for re-sale (not verified).

Jerry B

Yes, it is legal, as long as the seller is providing original pages and none of the pages is photo-copied or reproduced. Beware, that some sellers will sell you a country set in which the first or last page may be a color photocopy. This happens because Scott does not start each country on a new page. The seller may have already sold the country pages preceding/following, so sometimes they photo-copy that overlapping page. If they do that, then it is not legal. It has to be all original pages; otherwise, copying a page and selling it is a copyright violation.

I never thought of that! I will have to check the ones I have when I get home.