On Apr 26, 2:23*pm, "gogu" wrote:
ave (re)start collecting but in a very "unprofessional" manner;-)
I do not collect/hunt for rarities, I'm just collecting stamps from 4
specific countries that *please* my eyes!
So I've decided to collect stamps from Greece, Vatican, Romania and San
Marino.
I don't know if later I'll decide to extend to other countries but it's less
probable.
Returning to what pleases my eyes, I mainly like representations of arts on
stamps, like paintings, sculpture, etc, also figures with ships (old),
statesmen etc.
Based on this I suspect that older catalogues will be of no help to me at
this moment.
What I need is catalogues for these four countries for their modern stamps,
let's say 1900-1920 and later.

I have an old "Balkans" cat which covers Greece and Romania up to
1986, and an "Italy & Switzerland" which includes Vatican and San
Marino to 1996, if they're of any use.

Well thanks for your kind offer!
As I said I don't think I'll need one right now but if you want some stamps
from Greece (stamps I can find in the post office I mean) or used stamps
from my young child collection, I'll be more than happy to help, just let me
know.
The only problem is that I travel much abroad (some times even for a month)
so I can't send anything fast, I can do it only when I return home for a
week or 10 days...

I have a fairly large collection of the older Greek stamps, but not
much after 2000, so save your used stamps for me until you're ready
for the catalogues. Or if you're likely to be in the UK for long
enough to exchange parcels, get in tough.

BTW, what's the difference between a "full" catalogue and the "simplified"
version?
I've seen this on eBay and although I understand what it means "simplified"
I don't know what it lacks compared to the full version.
Less pictures maybe, or pictures only in b&w?...

The "Simplified" cats do not list varieties of perforations, shades,
watermarks, printing methods, slight size differences, etc. They often
combine long-running similar designs into a single set instead of
spread throughout the years (which sometimes makes it easier to find
things). They may also omit some types of stamp like mini-sheets,
foreign occupations, postal savings, etc. Nowadays both simplified and
specialised cats are usually in colour (the old ones I offered above
are b&w). As you suspected the specialised cats have more photographs,
but even they do not include every member of some of those difficult
sets where every design is different. Some of the specialised cats
have design indexes, e.g. you can look up all stamps which depict
particular places.

BTW if anyone else reading this wants an old (possibly very old) SG
specialised in exchange for stamps the same offer applies -- the
stamps are of more value to me than the small amounts of cash the cats
might raise.

Chris