Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

Fair warning, this will surely seem a very silly question, but my involvement in stamp collecting likely still measures less than 40 hours, most of which has been spent unpacking 20 decent sized boxes of stamp "stuff" while trying to maintain some semblance of order, a standard I'd clearly failed by the fifth box.

I'd like to reduce the amount of stuff I have in order to reclaim some of my limited working space. There's a number of old, empty binders and other stuff that can fairly obviously go. There's also a pretty decent sized stack of older Scott catalogs...

Would it be a mistake to consider getting rid of these older catalogs? Would I be better served by purchasing the latest edition, as the newest I have is probably from 1989 or so?

Thanks

time2fish,

Take a look at this thread.

What is your oldest catalogue?

I see a new bookshelf in my future...

Thanks for the link

Specifically for SCOTT catalogues............

Something is better than nothing. You have a reference to help you organize and identify.

If you are inclined to want current information on your stamps and have decided to get a new(er) set of SCOTT, then you can safely pass the older SCOTT catalogues along to someone who doesn't have any. SCOTT rarely deletes valuable info from their catalogues, they just keep expanding in size (and price) to accommodate. The information in your 1976 set of SCOTT will usually be found in your 2010 set.

Some other catalogue publishers have been known to remove information that has proven valuable reference data, in order to allow space for current info to be published.

John A

_________________
Armstrong'sStamps**http://www.armstrongsstamps.ca
Knowledge is Key.....Libraries work!

That depend on how far back your catalogs go, and what country you look at. They have added and subtracted items from the US listings at times.
The most valuable aspect of the really older catalogs (90+ years) is that they show that in general the stamps that are scarce now were scarce then. They did not "become scarce". Also if you use "measuring worth" or some other program to determine the relative values of money over time, many stamps have not gone up much in relative terms, and many have gone down.

From google books, the 1903 standard Scott catalog:
http://books.google.com/books?id=s90Kux ... &q&f=false

The 1923 catalog:
http://books.google.com/books?id=PYsyAA ... &q&f=false

You useful is a 1980s phone book?

There is your answer.

Keep them. To get rid of any catalogue is a mistake, because as has been said, earlier versions often contain information that has been dropped from later versions.

This was brought home to me on this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=36420

What started off as common Hitler heads, are in fact quite valuable stamps. The appropriate info was from a 1997 Michel Specialised, but had been omitted in later editions.

When I'm in Germany I always look in the stamp shops for old catalogues, you can often get sub area catalogues, Saar for example, for a fraction of the new price.

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With kind regards, Jim

I wouldn't 'bother' saving a copy of every year of Scott or similar...imagine the space they would take up. If you just want a 'working copy' of a catalogue, to help pin a number and rough value to a stamp, a catalogue 10 or 20 years out of date is fine (assuming you're looking up stamps 10 or 20 years old ).

Sure you wouldn't put stamps in a circuit sales book or on eBay with such values quoted, but at least the old catalogue would tell you the relative value of the stamp--if the catalogue minimum is 10 cents, and you have a pile of things listed at 30 cents each, you know 95% chance they won't be $20 items now.

Some people keep an old catalogue to use as an inventory checklist--highlight the numbers as you acquire them.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Agreed, but remember, we're only talking about SCOTT catalogues specifically in this thread and the OP sets 1989 as the benchmark of what he has. Other than the journal articles on the Reverse Printing of the Overrun countries issue, I'm not aware of anything significant that has been removed from SCOTT 1972 on that would make them worth keeping over a more current set.

I have several 4x8 shelf units filled with reference books going back to the 1800's, so I wouldn't promote disposing of any literature that I didn't feel were nothing more than boat anchors. As I said originally, something is better than nothing.......

John A

_________________
Armstrong'sStamps**http://www.armstrongsstamps.ca
Knowledge is Key.....Libraries work!

I was talking about Scott catalogs as well. No, a 1979 is not an important catalog unless it is all one has, but there are early catalogs that are important. Since the thread is probably being read by at least some people who do not have literature back to the 1800's as we do, the thought might not have occurred to some that some older lit has value. Getting that idea out there is important; newbies read these threads too.

@glen stephens, re: the usefulness of a 1980 phone book...

Actually just the other day at work (I work for a church) someone came in and was looking for someone, "you know, Jane Smith... she used to go here about 10 years ago?" So off I go to the old church phone directory (we've kept one old copy of each with every new printing) and bingo... Jane Smith's name and address, which for some reason weren't in the new phone books...

So in my case, it's a good thing I had kept an "old" phone book!

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Carmen - Collecting: Canada, Cats, Religion, Royalty, Stamps on Stamps... and worldwide, quite frankly!

Postal history expertizers love old phone books.

_________________
Jay Carrigan
http://www.jaypex.com

All concerned

There was a time period, about 25 years ago, blast I can remember it like it was yesterday, when the older catalogues became extremely useful, if not essential.

For its 1989 editions, the Scott pricing structure changed from being a reference number to being a retail price figure and hence much lower numbers. The dealing community and the auctioneers in the United States went berserk, essentially fearing falling prices. They refused to use the 1989 editions (pale blue in color) and continued to use the 1988 editions (pale yellow in color) in auction catalogues and when pricing stock.

This situation went on for a few years and the 1988 Scotts became quite sought after, some dealers referring to it as the real catalogue. After all wouldn't you want your customers to be willing to pay 25-33% of a higher figure rather than of a lower figure.

At the time of the rebellion Stanley Gibbons came up with an extremely clever advertising slogan for the Part One in the U.S., "The Empire Strikes Back...," a reference to the Star Wars films, popular at the time.

Even now the term "Scott retail" is used by major firms rather the "Scott catalogue." Collectors, of course, continue to think that the catalogue is the catalogue. This view has generally prevailed.

Kindest regards

Richard Debney