On 4/25/2012 10:45 AM, gogu wrote:
Hi all! Since I've recently started collecting stamps (I've
collected stamps as a young boy but randomly and most of them
cancelled), I have a few dumb questions: 1) is there a guide for new
collectors like the one for coins "Coin Collecting for Dummies" or
similar?

There are various beginner guides on amazon under $10
including Stamp Collection for Dummies.

When I was a kid, there was a nice guide I got free from one of the big
companies. It included an identifier section, about 6 pages, that I
believe would have identified two of the three in the recent thread. It
had both words in latin, greek, and cyrillic and some pictures. I later
bought Linn's Stamp Identifier, which expands greatly free version.

I want (mostly) to learn the stamp collecting terminology and all
those acronyms I don't fully understand...

Online auction catalogs have a 'abbreviations' section that defines the
ones they use.

Looking as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_collecting
I discovered https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/World_Stamp_Catalogue

2) I saw that all stamp collectors are using a SG numbering system
which I presume comes from Stanley Gibbons catalogues. Question: are
all catalogues (Scott, Michel, etc) using the same numbering
system?...

Unfortunately not. Each publisher has its own *proprietary* system.
Scott has successfully prevented some commercial uses without license.

There have been proposals for a unified non-proprietary world system,
but change is difficult. Here is one:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/World_...mbering_System

3) Can one purchase some decent catalogues for specific countries
without having to purchase the entire catalogue for the whole world
which is usually over $200?...Which companies have such catalogues
by country?

Scott has specialized US. SG has same for GB. Ditto Michel and I presume
Yvert for Germany and France. Some countries have a specialized catalog
by a in-country publisher that does not, as far as I know, do worldwide.
Sweden, Switzerland, Italy come to mind.

Thank you all for your insight.

tjr