Scott Specialized Cat, (Digital)

Does anyone have experience with the Digital Cat.?
Is it worth buying?
I searched for #388 and got 194 items, most of which have nothing to do with #388.
Are all searches like this? Unless I'm doing something wrong I see no reason to purchase it.

Dave

Comments

  • 17 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Perhaps specifying the country in the search would make a difference, albeit you're in the Specialized?
  • Sorry, I didn't clarify that it is a US Specialized Cat.

  • edited November 2022 0 LikesVote Down
    No, no...no worries...I knew that. I was wondering if when you did your search for #388 if adding the country name (U.S.) to the search parameters would have gotten you the results you were looking for. I'm not familiar with Scott's digital catalogues, but if their entire offerings are digitized, a simple search for '388' may pull every 388 ever issued by any country. So....even though it sounds like you're in their US Specialized anyway, maybe adding 'United States' to your search would help (as in, 'U.S. 388').
  • edited December 2022 0 LikesVote Down
    Dave,
    I only use the previous Scott catalog... we decided to stop at 2022, which we can view "forever" (ie. as long as Amos leave the old website there). We use SMQ for any serious values for range of condition or Jumbo's as it's the only source for such values, and Scott dropped the famous "Yellow pages" (Graded values) from the specialized catalog in 2021 (hence why we made the move to SMQ after buying their separate, uselessly sized "Stamp Values" which were pulled out and replaced by this book).
    Amos have had falling sales for some time, they are trying to "shake things up", and apparently they're making horrible decisions based on the monthly/annual subscription nature of software. But people don't use catalogs like software, so in my view, this will be a failed experiment, and for the 4th time in a decade, they will end up changing their strategy again. It COULD work, if they would enable broader access to digital copies (i.e. a $299 a year subscription for access to EVERYTHING, but they're trying to nickel and dime everything, and since you only get access for 1 year for the price of a catalog that you could previously keep forever, it doesn't make sense). Guess they want the "New iPhone every 12 months" kind of excitement around this idea, but once again, they're catalogs. Not tech gadgets.

    Now I'm curious though, you mentioned you were doing a search for 388, do you have some kind of "trial" access? Didn't know they were doing that. We made the decision to boycott their "new" idea all together, so we don't want to encourage them. But when you search for 388 do you search for #388 or just 388?
    Take the # out if you're searching for that.
    Also, if it's some kind of trial, they may have turned functional search off?

  • I won't switch to the digital version until it is less expensive than using the printed copy. Right now the printed copy is in the range of 50% more expensive than a one-year subscription to the digital version. However, I can use the printed copy for multiple years and then sell that copy once I order a new printed version. The digital copy just does not make sense to me as long as the printed copy is available.

    If they made a digital copy a forever copy without updates, only then would I consider it.
  • I searched my digital online 2018 Scott Germany for 388 and got 92 hits. It returns every instance of that string of characters: 388, 1388, A388, B388, SP388, etc.

    No amount of “fine tuning” the search term with #388, No. 388, or anything else filtered the results. I always got the same 92 hits.
  • Not very enticing
  • Have you tried enclosing 388 in quotes..."388"? That should return results for that specific string.
  • I purchased the Digital Specialized Catalogue thinking it would be less expensive than buying 2 paper catalogues, (i have one in my store and one at home).
    Everytime I searched for 388 I got 194 hits, Ted only got 92, I wonder who is the winner in this case.
    Most of the hits had nothing to do with 388, they must have a real genius writing their software, I got hits for 4388; 3887; etc.
    Including anytime 388 appeared on pages of text.
    Amos offers a 5 day trial, I called and canceled after 3 days.
    The woman I spoke with was totally unapologetic and simply informed me that "that's the way it is".
    They have a long way to go in order to make it workable.
  • The one improvement I noticed (did their little trail yesterday, but it's not complete catalogs, more a "demo" of the interface across a few pages, and a few select countries).

    The one thing I LOVED was, they go t rid of that stupid page turn "sound" every time you clicked on a new page.
    Not exactly worth the subscription cost, but...
  • I was using my 2018 Germany catalogue.
  • Ted,
    I'm confused... are you using the old books.scottonline.com or the new amosadvantage.com?
    The former allows viewing of all the previous catalogs you've bought, but it is not integrated to the new site. The latter is a new site, and you must subscribe to each book at a separate fee, though things like the US Specialized they are now "including" the identifier (pretty useless) and the graded values (useful) at "no extra charge", though a printed version of the book is $79 and the fee for the digital version is $109...
  • I’m on the old system with my previously purchased catalogues. I am boycotting the new Amos, including their printed catalogues and Linn’s Stamp News.
  • I am also using the "old" digital scottonline catalogs and actually like them. The search function leaves something to be desired but I'm used to it now and have a good idea where the pages are for the country I'm working on. Seems like the "new" online catalog model is very expensive to me.
  • Right but for clarity, Dave's question was about the new Amos system... so it is different.
  • Yes it is as I understand. I think Amos said that they improved their search engine for the new format but it still exceptionally expensive compared to the other options.
  • It supposedly searches across all catalogs, but I assume that means the catalogs you have bought, OR if it finds it in another, and you want to see that results, maybe they try to "upsell" you to an additional catalog.
    I boycotted it too, but I poked around with their trial. The interface is a little different but not that much. Mostly what they did was fix a lot of annoying UI issues, like the stupid page turn sound that you would have to turn off EVERY time you started a new catalog. They also have 4 options for "transitioning pages", and my favorite is just "Instant" I don't need to see a page turn... bloody hell.
    But yeah, the old books don't have that, they all have the untra-annoyo-mode turned on and all you can do is mute the bloody sound thingy.
Sign In or Register to comment.