I use a combination of old catalog values (2013)and comparison pricing. If I look up a stamp with a catalog value of $1 and there is only one stamp available on Hip and it is priced at $2 I know that it will probably sell priced at 85 cents. If there are a dozen copies available ranging in price from 12 cents to 48 cents my gut feel might be to price it somewhere between 18 cents and 32 cents.
Final pricing depends somewhat on depth of stock - if I have 12 nice duplicates of a stamp someone is going to get a bargain.
Hope that helps
I am a world wide through 1968 collector, with some targeted specialities. My feeling is that other than new listings which have served to fatten up the Scott catalog there has never been significant movement in stamp prices on modern material. I get the Scott Classic to update the critical WW material that sees almost all the valuation changes. I stagger my use of an old Scott set (I am at 2013 now) and rely on Classic for the material I actively seek. I collect WW through 1968.
Being a resident of the United Kingdom and Scott being the catalogue of choice here I accquired a couple of discs of Scott's 2017 catalogue at a reasonable price.
Any item that is not in Scott's I either use Gibbons or compare prices on ebay, Stampworld or other British companies.
if you don't see the need, and it doesn't appear you do, then, well, you don't and I wouldn't invest in newer sets, especially at high prices. Cheaper ones, sure, why not.
My opinion;
Unless you are operating a busy stamp business
there is no particular benefit in purchasing
a "New" set of any catalogs.
I bought a second hand 2015 set two years ago from my local stamp dealer when he bought a new set. Since I don't collect newer stamps for any country I doubt if I'll ever bother to update these. This 2015 set has 6 volumes, I think newer sets are at least double that - way to much room needed if I upgrade!!
you are right, newer catalogues have been further divided into A/B for all but the specialized, giving us 13 distinct volumes, at least from 2018 onward, which is my newest edition, bought used from BobGGGGGGGG.
Looking on AMOS (the producer of Scott) - the 2022 Catalogs are the same 6 Volume Set ? The same breakdown as my older 2016 catalogs. I was not aware they broke them down differently in prior years to 2022 but the new set is shown as the same 6 Volume set for $630 right now and that is suppose to be the sale price. Not sure who buys a set for that price. Based on the feedback - I will just stay with what I have for now until there is a substancial change in the base value for the common stamp again which was the reason I put together a 2016 set. Thanks, Steve
I have older catalogs purely for the purpose of identifying stamps.
I use eBay pretty much as my estimate of value!
In the past couple of years I've updated my Scott US Specialized and Classic because of content additions. Otherwise, I use my 2010 set (gathered over the years) for identification only. If I start a new field of interest I usually get a catalog for the country (Facit for Norway, for example). I am not interested in most new issues so updating frequently makes no sense. I also collect to collect, not as an investment. I do use Stamp Manage for inventory, insurance, and want lists, but I find their values kind of dicey.
I do enjoy paging through catalogs just to look at the pictures.
Geoff
My specialty in collecting is GB George VII and QEII, especially the Machin definitives. I use Stanley Gibbons Specialized catalogues for these periods which I purchased back in the late 80s. They are invaluable for reference purposes especially for listings of variations, they are incredibly detailed in their descriptions of stamps. For my GB specialized collection I would only consider using Stanley Gibbons. I do purchase the SG Great Britain Concise catalogue every few years to keep up to date with new issues and price changes for Great Britain stamps. Other than that I have an electronic SG World Catalogue from 2015 which is useful for referencing stamps from other countries I collect.
I see no need to purchase new SG specialized catalogues, they are expensive and not much has changed, other than the listed price, for stamps I collect.
If I need up-to-date stamp catalogues I wander down to my Toronto Reference library where they stock the current year for Scotts, Stanley Gibbons World and Michel catalogues, very handy.
I use a previously used set of Scott 2016/2017 set. Except for a few countries, I do not collect beyond 1980 (start of Lady Diana and Disney era) so keeping up to date is not an issue.
Scott has been adding postal entities not listed previously due to catalog policy such as the 60's and 70's Arabian peninsular in recent years. The value changes (up or down) are usually not significant to worry about. The modern issues (all the souvenir sheets from many counties) do not interest me.
At some point I will upgrade if anything to the split set since the lighter volumes.
If you like specific countries, I would just order from the seller that breaks Scott albums to individual countries. If you go that path, confirm you are getting all the papers because when more than one country is on the same page, one country will get shortchanged.
Raymond
There are specialists who collect stamps appearing before their official issued date; I suspect your collection is just chock full of early-usage of KGVII.
David
Just looking for some opinions. Every several years I try to buy a new set of Scott Catalogs. I usually look for used copies either on Ebay or Amazon and piece meal an entire set for a year or two earlier than the current editions. My current set of catalogs are from 2016 which I purchased in 2018. So they are now 5 years old. I only collect (and sell) stamps into the 1980's. (except for US Stamps -- which I collect each new year). Does it even pay to buy new catalogs at this point. I do not think the values have changed that much in the last 5 years. What do others think about this ? Thanks, Steve
re: Catalogs
I use a combination of old catalog values (2013)and comparison pricing. If I look up a stamp with a catalog value of $1 and there is only one stamp available on Hip and it is priced at $2 I know that it will probably sell priced at 85 cents. If there are a dozen copies available ranging in price from 12 cents to 48 cents my gut feel might be to price it somewhere between 18 cents and 32 cents.
Final pricing depends somewhat on depth of stock - if I have 12 nice duplicates of a stamp someone is going to get a bargain.
Hope that helps
re: Catalogs
I am a world wide through 1968 collector, with some targeted specialities. My feeling is that other than new listings which have served to fatten up the Scott catalog there has never been significant movement in stamp prices on modern material. I get the Scott Classic to update the critical WW material that sees almost all the valuation changes. I stagger my use of an old Scott set (I am at 2013 now) and rely on Classic for the material I actively seek. I collect WW through 1968.
re: Catalogs
Being a resident of the United Kingdom and Scott being the catalogue of choice here I accquired a couple of discs of Scott's 2017 catalogue at a reasonable price.
Any item that is not in Scott's I either use Gibbons or compare prices on ebay, Stampworld or other British companies.
re: Catalogs
if you don't see the need, and it doesn't appear you do, then, well, you don't and I wouldn't invest in newer sets, especially at high prices. Cheaper ones, sure, why not.
re: Catalogs
My opinion;
Unless you are operating a busy stamp business
there is no particular benefit in purchasing
a "New" set of any catalogs.
re: Catalogs
I bought a second hand 2015 set two years ago from my local stamp dealer when he bought a new set. Since I don't collect newer stamps for any country I doubt if I'll ever bother to update these. This 2015 set has 6 volumes, I think newer sets are at least double that - way to much room needed if I upgrade!!
re: Catalogs
you are right, newer catalogues have been further divided into A/B for all but the specialized, giving us 13 distinct volumes, at least from 2018 onward, which is my newest edition, bought used from BobGGGGGGGG.
re: Catalogs
Looking on AMOS (the producer of Scott) - the 2022 Catalogs are the same 6 Volume Set ? The same breakdown as my older 2016 catalogs. I was not aware they broke them down differently in prior years to 2022 but the new set is shown as the same 6 Volume set for $630 right now and that is suppose to be the sale price. Not sure who buys a set for that price. Based on the feedback - I will just stay with what I have for now until there is a substancial change in the base value for the common stamp again which was the reason I put together a 2016 set. Thanks, Steve
re: Catalogs
I have older catalogs purely for the purpose of identifying stamps.
I use eBay pretty much as my estimate of value!
re: Catalogs
In the past couple of years I've updated my Scott US Specialized and Classic because of content additions. Otherwise, I use my 2010 set (gathered over the years) for identification only. If I start a new field of interest I usually get a catalog for the country (Facit for Norway, for example). I am not interested in most new issues so updating frequently makes no sense. I also collect to collect, not as an investment. I do use Stamp Manage for inventory, insurance, and want lists, but I find their values kind of dicey.
I do enjoy paging through catalogs just to look at the pictures.
Geoff
re: Catalogs
My specialty in collecting is GB George VII and QEII, especially the Machin definitives. I use Stanley Gibbons Specialized catalogues for these periods which I purchased back in the late 80s. They are invaluable for reference purposes especially for listings of variations, they are incredibly detailed in their descriptions of stamps. For my GB specialized collection I would only consider using Stanley Gibbons. I do purchase the SG Great Britain Concise catalogue every few years to keep up to date with new issues and price changes for Great Britain stamps. Other than that I have an electronic SG World Catalogue from 2015 which is useful for referencing stamps from other countries I collect.
I see no need to purchase new SG specialized catalogues, they are expensive and not much has changed, other than the listed price, for stamps I collect.
If I need up-to-date stamp catalogues I wander down to my Toronto Reference library where they stock the current year for Scotts, Stanley Gibbons World and Michel catalogues, very handy.
re: Catalogs
I use a previously used set of Scott 2016/2017 set. Except for a few countries, I do not collect beyond 1980 (start of Lady Diana and Disney era) so keeping up to date is not an issue.
Scott has been adding postal entities not listed previously due to catalog policy such as the 60's and 70's Arabian peninsular in recent years. The value changes (up or down) are usually not significant to worry about. The modern issues (all the souvenir sheets from many counties) do not interest me.
At some point I will upgrade if anything to the split set since the lighter volumes.
If you like specific countries, I would just order from the seller that breaks Scott albums to individual countries. If you go that path, confirm you are getting all the papers because when more than one country is on the same page, one country will get shortchanged.
re: Catalogs
Raymond
There are specialists who collect stamps appearing before their official issued date; I suspect your collection is just chock full of early-usage of KGVII.
David