Stamp catalogues and their comparability

Stanley Gibbons produce 2 specialised Queen Elizabeth Decimal Definitive catalogues, volume 4 part I and II.

Scott publishes two worldwide coverage catalogs:  Classic and Standard. They have been issued since the early days of stamp collecting since it started as a price list by Scott. It is used by most worldwide collectors living in North America and some other parts of the world that lack a national catalog.   The scope is limited if anything to keep the catalog size down. It is printed annually in 12 books. They do not do regional products.

The Scott catalog is aligned to their album products - International and Specialized (more complete than International) products that cater to most collectors. Net. If it has a major catalog number (meaning no lower case suffix) there should be a space in the album.

I never expect Scott to add shades, more design variations (except for classic), rare paper, and other aspects for worldwide issues.  I do not even consider the US Specialized catalog to be the end all specialized catalog..

I trust them all knowing their limitations. My collecting interest is closer to a general catalog and only specialize in a few areas. Machins are a good example.  Where does one stop? 

If Gibbons list a few fluorescent variations for Canada djcmh, why then is it not prepared to list fluorescent papers for the GB (Wildings) of its own country, as per this statement made by the late Frank L Walton RDP FRPSL.



It's just does not make sense or is it me ?

In the case of the Canada Hi-Brites, the paper does tend to look "whiter" so that may be why???

No one ever said that Catalogue Publishers were ever consistent in their listing policies. 

Anyway here is the first page of the Canada Centennial Definitive listings from SG's 2020 Canada Catalogue - its "White Fluorescent Paper" listings generally map to Unitrade's Hi-Brite variants

Exactly my point !!!!
If SG can list fluorescent papers for Canada, why not for GB ?

Here is how Unitrade covers the 1977-1978 Houses of Parliament Coil Stamps (from the 2016 Unitrade). Abbreviations represent different levels of fluorescence in the paper - LF = Low Fluorescence, HB = HiBrite Fluorescence LF/fl means low fluorescence on front, flourescence on back (I believe brighter than front). Basically, Unitrade is the "Bible" of Canadian Philately.

I have already contacted Hugh Jefferies in the past but to no avail, as he was always busy doing other things, I have also sent scans to the new GB editor Vincent Cordell, with little or no response.
Maybe their financial restrictions are the cause of the lack of updating new finds !
Michael has already stated that the share price of Stanley Gibbons is currently around 1.7 pence from a previous high of around £3

The answer to the suggestion made by Daniel in his last thread is that I have been studying these Wilding papers now for over 4 years and that is the reason for this particular topic relating to comparability in the listing of varieties.

Consequently I have found there is no parity !

The various catalogs I am sure decide how deep they are going to go. The advanced collector or even some of us topical or theme collectors are not the target. The more information the more pages and that means a higher price. There are far more just 1 country or casual collectors and they need to keep the cost within the price range of those collectors.  

I can't speak much about catalogues for too many countries, but someone recommended Stoneham to for Greta Britain. It is quite detailed, with (perhaps) a bit more detail than Stanley Gibbons specialized, but Stoneham has its own unique numbering system, so comparing it to SG can be a bit of a challenge. Likewise, in my study of France, although Yvert & Tellier is considered the main :"authority" there are a host of other catalogues in the French language (as well as SG and Michel, etc).  Some follow Y&T numbering, whiles others do not. When it comes to types/variants/varieties/colors there is literally no consensus/consistency, and I went back to the earliest printed (and digital) copies to see if I could find where the different paths began (or ended), and again no consistency.

One has to either compile your own information from multiple sources, or pick one  and ignore everything  'outside' its contents.

As to price list- that's relative and a moving target from year to year and the whim of the buyers

IMHO

No published catalogue is universally complete, even in those areas it specializes in.

How many hundreds of articles and monographs on highly specialized topics in philately from all corners of the world are published each year, never mind the countless thousands published in the past whose content is not reflected in the current catalogues published around the world.

Best to think of published catalogues as similar to college textbooks.  The main general catalogs (Gibbons, Scott, Yvert and Michel) provide introductory course coverage on the philately of whatever country you want to talk about. A very good overview, but rather shallow in terms of depth.  For advanced courses, there are the specialized catalogues like Unitrade and dozens of others from around the world that go deeper into topics, appropriate for those that have mastered the introductory courses.  Finally you get to things like monographs and articles in journals, where you are really at the graduate school level of research on specific narrow-focus topics within one aspect of philately.

Once a collector has mastered the basics at the entry level, if they wish they can continue with more advanced study by accessing information in specialzed catalogues. And if they want to go even further on specific topics of interest, then they go the monographs and journal articles.


Re numbering systems - that was what drew me to Colnect in the first place - it was a site that provided the information to translate between different catalogue languages, so you could know that Gibbons X = Michel Y = Scott Z.  Very handy for a collector like me who is more than willing to shop outside my home country to find the best deals on the stamps I want.  

If you just want to look at pretty pictures in a simplified version then you can't expect to get much information, but as far as specialised catalogues are concerned, if the contents of a catalogue are being deliberately withheld (reference the statement by Mr Walton), that is sufficient for me to have my doubts over that particular publication, and possibly having other factors also being restrained or omitted which can add to further concern.

This is the dilemma of every publisher. I own a publishing company (Don't get excited I don't do stamp books) but there is tons of planning before anything is even written. Type of binding can affect pages. Doing something like a fold bind (like a magazine) is set to groups of 4 spiral sets it at 2. More pages is higher cost and cost has to be set by channel of distribution. If each level adds 50% markup it gets complex. Then volume ordered only changes when much larger numbers are ordered. Then you have warehousing costs and a lot of money tied up.

Adding info that will only be needed by a smaller group costs you sales because cost is higher. If your going to sell more to the pretty picture people and not make up the sales lost for the in-depth buyers you have to cut stuff.