Stamp catalog

A stamp catalog is an important tool for collectors. Believe it. There are several worldwide catalogs available but also many that are country-specific or on specialized areas. They are illustrated, now mostly in color, with pricing (to be taken with a grain of salt unless you know how pricing works), dating, identification, details and notes to help you identify stamps. That said, worldwide catalogs can be quite detailed but can be hard to understand at times and by the limitations of a printed book/books/website, do not contain everything you might want or need to know. Be realistic; you may need more specialized references.

All print catalogs have an introductory section that is a must-read to understand stamps and how to use the catalog. Stamp Encyclopedia will try to provide some understanding of the basics you need to know, but understanding how certain catalogs handle listings is also an important thing to learn. So yeah, some study is needed but can be taken in small doses to prevent headaches.

Each catalog system uses its own unique numbering system, jealously guarded by some so that it can't be used here.

Scott Catalog
The major worldwide reference in the Americas is the Scott Catalog, published yearly. It is now up to 12 volumes plus a US Specialized catalog although a more basic US section is included in the worldwide set. The Scott Stamp Monthly magazine lists new issues to enable collectors to keep up to date.

The listing style is to separate out semipostals, airmails, postage dues, etc., etc. into individual sections for each country. The ordering of countries is, of course, alphabetic, but some countries that others including Stamp Encyclopedia consider as separate entities/countries are listed behind a major country listing while some are not. So, the index/indices is/are your friend.

The Scott catalog prices are idealized in that they reflect the highest quality possible. But the market scheme today is to sell fast so real prices are often heavily reduced from Scott assuming the seller knows what they're doing. Still, Scott pricing allows collectors to separate absolutely cheap stamps from better ones.

The Scott Catalog has recently emerged into the electronic age with its first digital online version, available by subscription. The first edition has been truly underwhelming and much more needs to be done to bring it into the 21st Century.

Michel Catalog
The Michel Catalog, is another worldwide multi-volume print catalog, with volumes arranged by geographical area and renewed every couple of years. Meanwhile, the Michel Rundschau monthly magazine provides catalog listing/new issue updates.

Michel catalog prices are highly inflated. Dealers worth their salt sell for much less. Yet Michel's pricing remains a good guide to separate cheap stamps from better ones.

Its Germany and German-related volumes are highly detailed and are a part of the whole catalog system. Its style is to include (for example) semipostals and airmails with "regular" stamps. the Michel lists a number of things that other catalogs do not such as wartime locals, SCADTA and the Trucial States issues. The print version is in German, but if you are experienced in using stamp catalogs, the symbols used become clear. For the extensive notes, Google Translate is your friend if you don't know German. However...

Michel also has its catalog in a digital online version accessible by subscription. It auto-translates everything into English. This is a proper digital catalog that has 3 user levels. The higher levels have features such enlarged images and saved searches.

Stanley Gibbons Catalogue
The Stanley Gibbons catalogue is another English-language catalog, with various paperback volumes arranged by geographical area. Great Britain and the British Commonwealth are collected in separate volumes. The area volumes are updated every few years with Stanley Gibbons Monthly providing updates/new issues in the meantime.

Stanley Gibbons prices are also inflated. Any dealer who knows what they are doing will discount their prices by quite a bit. Again though, Gibbons catalogue pricing shows the right difference in pricing cheap stamps vs. expensive ones.

The Great Britain and Commonwealth volumes are quite detailed and are a part of the whole catalog system. It also includes semipostals and airmails, etc. within the basic range of listings with back of the book issues following. It is generally more detailed than, say, Scott, and is more logically arranged, there are moments of too much detail for the majority of collectors, especially for classics.

The individual catalogues are also available in PDF format, quite reasonably priced and the way to go in this writer's opinion. There is a full Commonwealth catalogue thar runs up to 1970 only, and is a bargain for that.

Online catalogs
Stampworld (https://www.stampworld.com/en/) is a free online catalog that is also a sale site. You will need to sign up after several uses. It is also arranged by continent. It is very basic, perhaps all you will want or need for the moment for simple dating or identification. Many of its images are far from perfect. Stamp details are kept off the main listing but can be found by clicking on an image.

Its pricing can be all over the place sometimes.

It separates countries into year groups and has semipostals and airmails, etc. into separate sub-listings. It is rather "old-school" but it is fairly comprehensive and importantly, free.

Colnect (https://colnect.com/en/stamps/catalog) gets a mention, another catalog and sale site. The content is user submitted. Each country is organized by year and at last look there are still many individual stamps still missing. There is much more detail given for individual stamps and better quality expandable images overall compared with Stampworld. It does have other catalog's catalog numbers, thinly disguised. You can search by topic/theme, a big plus (assuming the submitter included that info). But this writer thinks the organization is clunky (by year) and again is very "old-school". Then again, so are we.

Specialized catalogs
As noted earlier, the first three catalogs have detailed volumes covering their home countries. Stanley Gibbons has an even more detailed series of books for Great Britain organized by reign/king/queen that are available individually. A specialist may skip over the general catalogs to focus on their specific area of interest. Philatelic booksellers, specialist study groups and eBay are sources, but you're probably going to have to ask someone if specific books are what floats your boat. After all, some country catalogs might be anything from a highly specialized work to a very simplified color catalog. You can ask here at Stamp Encyclopedia or at one of the major discussion groups for stamps.

Some references are ancient volumes that had a limited print run and now command very high prices. Few have been converted to digital; no demand. Overall, there's the full range of availability with some newer ones getting with the times being PDF or Kindle only. As someone with creaking bookshelves for books in more than one hobby, plus a bad back, I'd go for an electronic version over a book in a heartbeat today. Your mileage may vary. Plus, there are some great references online today, FREE. It's amazing what's out there, but you have to look.

So yes, we are being deliberately vague here since there's just too much to cover. One day (AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA), we'll collect a list of specialist books and websites together in one article. Meanwhile, as articles are developed, we'll continue to add such references to country articles as we find them and consider them to be useful.