Digital Stamp Catalogs

I went ahead and subscribed to the digital Scott's Stamp Catalog this year.  I have a set of 2021s that's getting pretty old, and we had been using the library's set of 2023s but we're returning those this weekend.

The digital set is pricey at $549 for the year but it doesn't weigh 80 pounds and take up a whole shelf in the other room.   The physical copies are over $650 now and the next year starts coming out in March.   The digital catalog should update as the new volumes are published.

I like the digital version a lot.  It's convenient having every volume on my tablet or laptop or the desktop in the office where we print orders from, wherever I need a price.  

You can keep the main page open and click a volume to see all the countries.  Click any country and it loads the catalog pages for that country in a new tab.   Each country has a list of sections with an entry for the start,  #500, #1000 and so on.  So it's easy to click near where you need to be.

The search is not nearly as advanced as they claimed.  One box doesn't cut it.  There should be separate fields for year,  number and description at least.  As it is,  if you load France and search for "994", you will get every year or number containing 994.  Sure, you can find every place where hedgehogs are mentioned, but that's less useful to me.

The main benefit is being able to zoom in,  as opposed to sometimes needing glasses when reading the tiny numbers.   No need to worry about bending the spin or spilling something on the big investment.

It works best when going through a single country for a few hundred items.  I often have stacks from all different countries and it takes some navigating to get through them, but it's still much easier than having to go all the way out to the other room and swap pounds of paper off the shelf.

I was hoping they would add more images to help tell different printings apart,  but we still have just the text explanations to work with.

Overall  I'm glad I went ahead and did this.   I started adding 2026 prices to our new listings, and the 2027 updates should appear as soon as they are ready.   Well done.

They also have the classics catalog available in digital form.  I think it's $149 for the year, which about the same as the hardbound 8-pound volume with the tiny print I can barely see anymore.

Sometimes, I just flip through pages and read sections I haven't worked with in a while.  Never stop learning.
 

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