Free philatelic catalogs and publications

For my second post, I thought of posting on one of my hobbies. Philately is said to be one of the oldest and widely followed hobby. I caught the Philately bug in my childhood from my Dad. That was the age when there was no internet and computers used to run on Windows 3.1 or DOS. Collecting new stamps of my own country was easy, just keep an eye on the release schedule, go to your nearest Post Office and get the stamps. To get stamps of other countries, old or new, used to be a challenge. I remember writing to my relatives abroad to send me letters stamped with new stamps from their country. Going to the Post Office to get hold of stamps on letters which did not make to their destination. One of course needs some contact at the post office for this. But it was still very difficult.

But with the internet revolution, that happened 10 years ago, keeping up with your hobby is now a lot easier. or might I saw a cakewalk in most cases. Now many post offices around the world publish Philatelic Journals which not only serve as a catalogue of the country’s upcoming stamp issues, but also are a great read, with loads of information about the country and culture. Below is given a list of philatelic publications and stamp bulletins along with their websites.

You can obtain most of these publication by post by registering on their websites.

1. Postfrisch – This is a bi-monthly philatelic publication from Deutsche Post. Unfortunately they only publish it in German. An online archive is present on this site for you to browse if you know German.
2. Focus On Stamps – This is a quarterly publication from Swiss Post. This is available in English, German, French and Italian. You can register at their site and they will mail you a copy anywhere in the world or you can browse through their archive online.
3. Stamp Bulletin – This is a quarterly publication from Australia Post. They will send you a hard copy of their publication if you register on their site worldwide. You can also browse through their archive online and order stamps straight away.
4. Stamp Explorer – This is a quarterly publication fro Australia Post exclusively for children. You can get printed copy only if you are an Australian resident. If you are not, you can browse through their online archive.
5. The Collector – This is the philatelic magazine published by Irish Post. This magazine will be mailed to you upon registration. You can also download them from their website in PDF format.
6. Collections Catalogue – Royal Mail started publishing their own stamp catalogue from 2010. I could not find way to register for a hard copy online but you can browse through it at their site in PDF format.
7. Collections – This one from Canada Post, Collections is a tri-annual catalogue featuring unique stamp products and collectibles released by them. The magazine is published in French and English. They send a hard copy of it anywhere in the world on registration.
8. Details – Another one from Canada Post, Details is a quarterly magazine that brings you the background stories and design techniques on new stamp releases, full-colour illustrations, product descriptions, late-breaking news, technical innovations in stamp design, plus the latest stamp related products released by Canada Post. This has more content than Collections, which serves more as a Catalogue rather than a magazine. This is published in French and English.
9. Greenland Collector – This is a journal published by Greenland Post. This is published in English and Danish. Unfortunately, only subscribers can get hard copies of this magazine by post. You can download the PDF and read them from their site.
10. World Of Stamps – This is a magazine from South Africa Post. This is not a recurring journal like the others. You can get a copy of it by mailing SA Post Office Stamps with subject “Request for 'Exploring the fascinating world of stamps'”.
11. USPS Philatelic Catalog – United States Postal Service releases a quarterly philatelic catalogue. You can order a free copy of the catalogue every quarter if you are a united states resident. USPS currently does not ship the catalogue outside US but you can download a PDF copy of the current publication from their website.

All of the above sites allow online ordering of philatelic products.

If you are an avid philatelist, then there journals are definitely for you and should help you take your hobby further.

Technorati Tags: Philately,Stamps,Philatelic Journals

© PiRATEPiXEL

piratepixel.blogspot.com