Catalogue Values - An Aid or Impediment to the Hobby?
In one of my earlier posts to this blog I wrote about the many misconceptions surrounding catalogue values and how they are often misused by collectors and dealers alike. In this post I wanted to share some of my thoughts as a dealer about the impact that catalogues have had on the hobby in general. On the plus side, catalogues serve several very useful functions: They help a collector to become aware of the scope of extant material available in a potential area of collecting interest as well is indicating to a collector the potential level of detail they can get into should they wish to. A collector can view catalogue listings to decide if an area they are potentially interested in collecting will provide enough scope to maintain their interest or not. So they are useful in helping a collector make educated decisions about where they want to concentrate their collecting efforts. They provide information about stamps sufficient to give a collector a working knowledge of a p...