Catalogues on CD

"John DeBoo" wrote in message
...
I can only speak of the Scotts cats, and the features you mention
are
sound. The one thing I do not like about them is the lack of
portability, unless one has a laptop. If all your work is done at
home
and you don't expect to need portability, then they are a viable
option.
After looking at the Scott US Specialized, I opted to stick with
paper, even if my old ones are B&W, not color.
John

Douglas Myall wrote:

These have begun to appear in recent years and I am wondering what
members think of them. For myself, I think they should be
searchable,
printable (with colour images), navigable (easy to look up a given
stamp) and browsable. What features do YOU consider essential or
desirable?

The Pipex account is dead. so to contact me direct use:


Douglas


OK so it would be a good idea to make the CD copyable, e.g., to one's
laptop or hard disk.

I find it surprising that one would also want the paper copy if one
could print anything from it, especially as it would be in colour
whereas a paper copy probably would not.

On another tack, I certainly would not expect to pay the same for a CD
and a printed copy. Moreover, the postage on a CD is much less than
that for a heavy book.

Also, with a CD there is no turning of pages and no wear and tear in
use.

Douglas

Douglas Myall wrote :


OK so it would be a good idea to make the CD copyable, e.g., to one's
laptop or hard disk.


Douglas,

It is perfectly feasible : the Philatelix (Dallay) CDs (for France,
Monaco, ...) I mention in another post are perfectly copyable on one's
hard disk.

When you first install the CD, you may use it 30 times only.
But you obtain a private key number which depends on the serial number
of your own computer.
Then you mail this private key together with the serial number of the CD
to the designer of the software.
Within hours, he sends you back an activation key which unlocks the
software.
(This to prevent illegal copies)

With this product, I just have to click on the icon on my "desk" and 2
seconds after, the catalog is open.


--
All the best,
Pierre Courtiade
courtiade at free dot fr

wrote
In another reply, there is mention of Scott putting the catalogs on DVD
and thus reducing the number of CD's to one. Truthfully, I do not think
that will ever happen, Scott likes to make money.

Regardless of Scott's chokehold on the market and their apparent
unwillingness to meet customer expectations and service their client base,
Scott cannot stop a purchaser from creating a DVD version of their CD
catalogues. It is well within the fair use/fair dealing ctieria for a
purchaser to create a more convenient method of accessing the products. Not
to mass-produce same or distribute it, but to make a copy for their own use.
Or to have someone else do it for them.

If Scott isn't willing to improve the mouse trap then others will. Such are
market forces and competitive responses to market needs. And they won't be
able to use Copyright to prevent innovation.

"Marios Theodossiou" wrote in message
...
For those looking for DVD, EzStamp has been on DVD for the past year
with over 115,000 color images and over 118 databases available.
Powerful searches built in so can be used as an inventory or
as a digital catalog.

Yours is a nice product, Mario, but the front-end interface really needs
improving. Dunno about others, but I find the screen clumsy and it has a
'first generation' feel to it. Many of the keystrokes/clicks are
counter-intuitive as well. And then there's the browser. It still lists
folders then files. It's a pain if you have lots folders/files and are
trying to open a collection that doesn't start with A. Better to have the
program recognize all the collections in the directory and simply list them.
A mouse click selects the one you want. No need to scroll through
alphabetical lists of collections' folders and then collections' files to
get the one you want.

"Douglas Myall" wrote in message
...

OK so it would be a good idea to make the CD copyable, e.g., to one's
laptop or hard disk.

Very easy to do. Lots of software programs exist to do this. Does Scott
prevent the user from installing the CD completely on the Hard Drive? If so,
that sucks. The software by Mario installs the images to ND so you dont'
need to bother inserting a CD if you dont' want to.

Douglas Myall wrote:
snip

OK so it would be a good idea to make the CD copyable, e.g., to one's
laptop or hard disk.

You can probably do that now although I didn't try with the one CD I
borrowed. I'f you've lots of HD space its an option.

I find it surprising that one would also want the paper copy if one
could print anything from it, especially as it would be in colour
whereas a paper copy probably would not.

Color is important oftimes, especially if the prices is the same or
less, however B&W isn't that bad either. Don't forget that if you
scratch the CD the entire thing is kaput (provided you did not make a BU
or copy to the HD)! If you lose a page from your catalog it's simply
one page. Cat doesn't require a power source either.

On another tack, I certainly would not expect to pay the same for a CD
and a printed copy. Moreover, the postage on a CD is much less than
that for a heavy book.

Very true, however companies will feel the value is greater given the
sheer amount of data onthe CD or DVD and will price accordingly.
Whatever the market will bearsigh.

Also, with a CD there is no turning of pages and no wear and tear in
use.

Continual swapping out of CD's in the tray and jewel case will cause
them to scratch and go turtle much sooner than a book will by turning
its pages.

John

"Phil Ately" [email protected] wrote:

If Scott isn't willing to improve the mouse trap then others will. Such are
market forces and competitive responses to market needs. And they won't be
able to use Copyright to prevent innovation.

I will second this.

I have been bidding on some of the Scott CDs on eBay. On the lots I bid on, whether I won or not,
the seller offered to provide me the entire Scott Catalogs on DVD media. And get this - for the
price of the one CD volume I had bid on.

This is never stated in the listings - its via email. But this deal was offered to me by two
different sellers of CDs on eBay.

The entire Scott Catalog on DVD media - for the price of 1 CD volume.

Of course, that's piracy. But since it's not mentioned in the listings themselves, there's no way
to get eBay involved. I guess the Scott people could start trolling the eBay listings themselves,
if they wanted.

And they could get some DVD versions in the market next year.


|---------------------------------------------------|
| Edward A. Locke |
| |
| http://spacestamps.amhosting.com/ |
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I have my own method. I check with the local library and find out when
the reference room is discarding last year's catalogues and replacing
them with this years. I just bought all 6 books of the 2003 Scott's for
$6. I thought that was a pretty good buy.