In 2007, Michel published a Klassik-Katalog Europa 1840-1900 covering 33 countries. In the ensuing decade, there has not been a new edition and, frankly, I never had the impression that the company was promoting the catalog. So it was a pleasant surprise to learn that a second edition will be published this November.
Even better, the new version will be in two volumes. This will allow coverage to be extended both chronologically, from 1900 to 1914, and geographically, to encompass the entire world. The titles of the volumes are Klassik Europa 1840-1914 and Klassik Übersee 1840-1914 (with the overseas volume offering specialized coverage of the US). Cost of each will be 98,00 €. Based on what happened with the first version, it may be many years before you find these on sale.
(Thanks to DJCMHOH for alerting collectors to the new editon in a post on the Stamp Community Forum.)
8 comments:
I was surprised to see the listings myself. I was looking at the new philatelic literature listing on collectura.com (Dutch retailer with a deep selection of specialized catalogs from all ovet the world) and saw the Michels. Scott has pretty much dominated the field for Classic era catalogs so will be interesting to see if Michel has similar success, esp given its narrower time focus.
I was surprised myself for any number of reasons, not the least of which is I receive an email weekly from Michel which has yet to mention the new catalogs. I was not that impressed with the original catalog vis-a-vis the detailed coverage in many of their other offerings. Hopefully, someone will do a review and post a few scans. (Or perhaps the APS Library will acquire a copy that I can borrow--the APRL never acquired the first version.)
These were actually pre-announced way back with Michel's release program (see pages 20 and 27 at ) way back.
I'm not having my hopes up with the content as the sales talk (which is usually a summary of catalog preface) does not promise much new information (valuation of pairs and larger groups continues to go further, mint never hinged is valued more extensively, and classic US booklets are covered in more detail) compared to existing standard/specialized volumes. So very little meat to bone from regular collectors perspective...
Interestingly Michel about 7 years back said there were not planning updates to classic-catalogs. AFAIK the catalog was not a commercial success back then. But maybe they have noted the rise of worldwide collecting in recent years...
-k-
Update..the coverage has been reduced to 1840-1900.
Klassik Europa 1840-1900
704 pages, November 10, 2017
98 Euros
http://www.briefmarken.de/michelshop/de/kataloge/europa/klassik-europa-2017-2018
Klassik Ubersee 1840-1900
1200 pages, December 8,2017
98 Euros
http://www.briefmarken.de/michelshop/de/kataloge/uebersee/klassik-uebersee-1840-1900
Jim, this is so strange.
Why is the period to 1900 (or even 1914) the "classic" era of stamps? Other than being a round number, what's so special about 1900? 1914 was the year the World War began, so that makes some sense with the catalog covering stamps from the original "prewar" era. I suppose.
But even that seems a bit odd. Why not go to the end of the war, at least, and cut it off at 1920? That's almost a hundred years ago. Scott defines the classic era up to 1940. I'd prefer they go even farther, to after the second world war and end about 1950 or so since that really does end, historically at least, a definable era in world history.
Beyond what the classic era is, to be a commercial success you'd think Michel would want to produce a catalog that covered more time in order to attract more buyers. The great European empires lasted well into the 1950s. Why aren't the imperial stamps to their ending point part of the classic era? Certainly, from the perspective of today, 100 years ago seems more "ancient" than "classic".
I also don't really get who this catalog is aimed at? Are there collectors who collect only the stamps of the 19th century? In large enough numbers to justify a completely separate catalog? Scott's classic catalogue was designed to reflect Scott's own album, the first volume of which covers the period up to 1940. Maybe Michel has, or is planning, to publish a classic era worldwide album covering only up to 1900?
On Michel forums somebody notified Michel's marketing that cover images were false. They admitted the error, and explained that cover mockups are created first (before actual product being printed and prepared), but for some unknown reason these mockup images got used on the web. They will be updating the product images and data shortly.
Just checked and found new cover designs with corrected date ranges at http://briefmarken.de/michelshop .
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