New series of blog posts in the pipeline - Reviews of Specialized Catalogues from around the world

I've been relatively scarce the past several weeks and for that I apologize.  Work has been very hectic lately for me, still working 48 hour/week shifts.  Also had some family drama, as my mother-in-law first moved in with my partner and I, and then a week later passed away. My mother-in-law was 86 and was in late-stage conditions of Alzheimer's Disease, so while her passing was not completely unexpected, the demands on my free time were taken up for the most of May by preparations to move her in and then the unexpected demands of dealing with my mother-in-law's passing, as my partner was her last surviving child.

June has only been a continuation of the stresses of May at work, though I finally took my first week of vacation the week of the 19th to the 25th. It was my first vacation in nine months, and had been originally scheduled for April but due to my hospitalization in April due to a blood infection, I had to reschedule the vacation week.  I have another week of vacation in July, but as I have friends from overseas coming to visit and plans to spend a few days in the St Lawrence Valley and then in Montreal and Ottawa, I had to spend a good bit of my June vacation preparing for that.  At least I can say life is not dull, but free time to spend with stamps and my other hobbies has been at a premium.

The good news is that July is looking less hectic to a degree.  After months of being short staffed, my department at work is now full staffed as of this week.  Once we get past the 4th of July holiday, I should be working 40 hour weeks going forward.  You do not realize how much an extra day away from work can help keep you sane and give you personal time to do things you want to do! My friends from overseas will be here most of the last two weeks of July so that will be a demand on my free time, but after that I should finally be able to have more time to work on stamps and my other hobbies.

This is not to say I have completely ignored stamps over the past couple months.  I was not able to attend World Stamp Expo in New York as it was held during the Memorial Day holiday, one of the busiest holidays for meat and seafood departments, and with the weather having been so nice this year it was really busy and gives me pause to think how busy the 4th July holiday will be especially if the weather is as gorgeous and warm as it has been here the last couple weeks.

I was able however to get a chance to attend COLOPEX 16 here in Columbus.  The regional APS show held each year by the Columbus Philatelic Community, it was a nice show.  Not quite the grand show it used to be in the 1990s to be sure, but nice enough as it was with some great exhibits and about 25 dealers in the bourse accompanying the show.  Found some nice French colonial material that day, and overall it was a great afternoon of philatelic fun for me.  In 2018 the annual APS Stamp Show will be held here in Columbus, so that will be something the local philatelic community will be gearing up to host.  If it is as good as previous APS shows held here in Columbus it will be a great philatelic time to be had by all.

Now that things in Real Life are beginning to allow me more free time, I am going to start a new series of posts here in this blog over this next several weeks.  The idea of the posts was suggested to my by philatelic blog master Jim of the Big Blue blog.  As those who regularly read my ramblings here on this blog, I have a love of specialized catalogues, and my library continues to grow as I add more countries into the mix.  In fact I think I am currently focusing more on the catalogues than on stamps themselves, in part because I am setting up my collections and so need to have the catalogues now to properly lay out my pages for all the varieties that specialist catalogues provide information.  Jim suggested that I consider a series of posts reviewing the various catalogues in my collection and compare them to the Scott Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue that many collectors use when they want access to a bit more information on specialized material from the golden age of philately.

Sounded like a winner to me, so the plan I am working on is to start posting the series one country/catalogue at a time. Hopefully the readers of this blog will find these review useful and, as always contribute suggestions for improvement.  And a special thank you to Jim for the excellent idea he planted in my ear.  I can only hope my postings are remotely as educational as his posts for BigBlue, though I will be covering the whole catalogues I review which means there will be quite a bit of post-1940 discussion as well.

And speaking of Specialized Catalogues, with the sudden approximately 10% drop in the value of the UK£ against the US$ in wake of the Leave victory in the EU referendum,  British catalogues are now a nice bit cheaper than they were a week ago.  Since I think this drop in value is only somewhat temporary, I decided to place an order for a bunch of Commonwealth Specialized catalogues from Stanley Gibbons.  The fact that SG is also still facing a great deal of its own financial turmoil (its stock is now down to approx  UK£0.12 per share now) and the potential that something bad may happen to SG in the near future as a company also motivated my decision.  The result - I have 13 catalogues heading my way from Britain and hopefully they will be here sometime in the next week.

If you are in the USA and collect British and or Commonwealth material, now is an excellent time to pick up some items from British retailers while the UK£ readjusts in valuation to deal with the new realities of the UK leaving the EU.  Make hay while the sun shines!

My current catalogue library...and my love of specialized catalogues! (Repost & Update)

As my last post indicates, I have quite a few specialized catalogues in my collection. I LOVE specialized catalogues. Part of the reason is due to the sheer number of varieties you often find listed, which makes shopping for stamps all the more fun if you have the chance to find a variety that is only listed in specialized catalogues in the stock of a dealer who does not know.  To quote Glen Stephens, the moderator of collection forum Stampboards, "Knowledge is POWER".  Another reason I love specialized catalogues is that it lets me set up my albums to include spaces for all known varieties. No, I may not ever own many of them, but one can always dream, and there is always the thrill of the chase.

And finally, for collectors in the USA, the realization that Scott does not list many items that would be considered basic issues in other countries is a frustration that only the overseas specialized catalogues can redress, at least until such time as Scott finally provides listings in its Classic Specialized Catalogue. One of my current bugaboos with Scott is its complete failure to list the Parcel Post stamps of Algeria.  First released in 1899 (twenty-five years before the first Algerian-specific postage stamps) the Parcel Post (or as the French say, Colis Postaux) issues have a strong following in France and are considered a basic part of any Algerian collection, and the Maury catalogue lists almost 220 major number varieties (and lots of minor varieties to boot!)

A selection of Algerian parcel post stamps from a Delcampe listing. Just don't spend time looking in the Scott catalogue for them! 

The oddest thing about this Algerian parcel post question is that Scott DOES list similar parcel post issues for mainland France, which were added to the Classic Specialized catalogue in I believe 2012. So for Scott not to list the Algerian issues is even more anachronistic now than it was when the French parcels were not listed either.  Scott editors, if you read this, please consider listing these issues - there is plenty of market data available!

So what do I have in my library currently. Here is the current listing :

1. Scott 2015 Classic Specialized Catalogue 1840-1940
2. A complete set of 2012 Scott General Catalogues - all 6 volumes
3. 2009 Scott US Specialized Catalogue (I will probably get a newer version this year)
4. Maury Timbres de France 2011 edition
5. Maury Timbres de l'ex-empire français en Afrique 2006 edition (I wanted to update to the 2014 edition but it has gone out of print already!)
6. Maury Timbres des bureaux et anciennes colonies français en Europe et Asie, 2011 edition
7. Maury Timbres des DOM-TOM 2009 edition (catalogue for the current Departments and Territoires d'Outre-Mer, except St Pierre & Miquelon and French Antarctica, which are in #8)
8. Maury Timbres des Principautes et Terres Polaires, 2011 edition
9. İsfila Türk Pulları Kataloğu 2014 edition
10. GJ Catálogo Especializado de Sellos de la Republica Argentina 2009 edition
11. Stanley Gibbons Specialized Australia Catalogue, 9th edition
12. Stanley Gibbons Specialized New Zealand Catalogue, 5th edition
13. Stanley Gibbons Specialized Brunei-Malaysia-Singapore Catalogue, 4th edition
14. Afinsa Catalogo de Sellos Postais : Portugal, Açores e Madeira, 2005 edition
15. Afinsa Catalogo de Sellos Postais : Portugal, Açores e Madeira 2000-2012 supplement
16. Afinsa Catalogo de Sellos Postais : Colonias Portuguesas, 2011 edition.

Unfortunately the Afinsa catalogues are no longer produced as the publisher went bankrupt in wake of the Afinsa Ponzi Scheme Scandal but copies can be found in the second-hand market with a little searching.  Maury no longer lists catalogues on its own website, my guess is all the latest editions are out of print as well, though again the aftermarket will have copies.

Over time I am sure my collection of specialized catalogues will grow. I desperately want a copy of the Unitrade Specialized Catalogue of Canadian Stamps but the current 2015 edition is out of print, though the 2016 edition should be available in late 2015 and that will be purchased this year!

EDIT : Since the original post my collection has grown and now also includes :

1. Brusden-White Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalog : Kangaroos, 2015 Edition
2. Brusden-White Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalog : King George V, 2014 Edition
3. Brusden-White Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalog : King George VI, 2015 Edition
4. Brusden-White Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalog : Queen Elizabeth II 1952-1956, 2015 Edition
5. Brusden-White Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalog : Postage Dues,  2014 Edition
6. OBP Belgium 2016, 61e, 2 volumes (vol 1 - Belgium, vol 2 - Ex Colonies)
7. RHM Catalogo de Selos do Brasil 2013, 58e
8. Unitrade Specialized Catalogue of Canadian Stamps, 2016 edition
9. Stanley Gibbons Collect Channel Islands & Isle of Man, 2016 edition
10. Filatelica Chilena, Catalogo Especializado Chile 2006
11. China Stamp Society Specialized Catalog of China to 1949, 2016 edition
12. Michel Germany Specialized 2014, 44e, vol 1 1849-1945
13. Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Concise Stamp Catalogue, 2015 edition
14. Philatelica Hungarica 2016-2017 Hungary Specialized
15. Stanley Gibbons Specialized India Catalogue, 4th edition
16. Zonnenbloem Indonesia 2016, 54e
17. Farahbakhsh Stamps Of Iran, 54e, 2015 
18. Sassone Italy Specialized 2016 v. 1, 75e
19. Hibernian Ireland 2014, 2e
20. NVPH Netherlands and Former Colonies 2016 Speciale Catalogus, 75e
21. Campbell Patterson Specialized Catalogue of New Zealand Stamps, 2015 edition
22. Tracinda South Africa Stamp Colour Catalogue 2013, 32e
23. Ciardi Catalogo Especializado de los Sellos del Uruguay, 2006 ed

You may be thinking wow how can he use all these catalogues, most are not in English!  Well, I fortunately have fair to good reading ability in nine different languages (French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic and Persian) as a result of years of training as a graduate student in Islamic History at Ohio State.  But, I find that most catalogues are organized in such a way that someone with little foreign language knowledge can, with the help of online translators, get the main jist of what the catalogues are saying.