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October 21, 1998
Thoughts on the impending sale of Amos Press,
owners of Scott Publishing and Linn's Stamp News

The potential impending sale of Sidney's Ohio's Amos Press may involve some mixed emotions on the part of both the stamp collecting public---and the principals at Amos who are hoping to get the best possible monetary offer for their company. Obviously, when a corporation is up for sale the sellers should have all of their ducks in a row---i.e., every portion of their business should be without flaws and very much in an upward financial position.

We don't know what the state of things is with the non-philatelic publishing and product ventures of the Amos organization (the Sidney Daily News, Coin World, Moneycard Collector, etc.), but some pertinent thoughts and opinions on the stamp collecting side of their business deserve airing at this point.

Certainly it is true that philatelists are wondering what the Amos sale will mean for the hobby of stamp collecting. One can only wonder...and perhaps, too, one can only hope. For to many philatelists the present state of the philatelic division of Amos offers several unanswered questions:

1) What is the state of the ongoing lawsuit that Scott Publishing filed against Krause Publications in which they claimed infringement of their Scott numbering "system" in the Krause/Minkus U.S. stamp catalog? No buyer of a corporation wants to take on the headache of unfinished litigation. Krause retained the top patent/trademark/copyright law firm in America to handle their side of the action---and filed a brief on May 5th which boldly contended that Scott/Amos didn't have any rights to the Scott numbering system in the first place. An unfavorable settlement could erode the value of the Scott franchise. Scott's licensing practices have alienated many in the stamp industry and opened the door for Krause Publications to revive the Minkus catalog as a competitor.

We think that no buyer of the Amos operation will look positively on the manner in which Scott has handled the "licensing" of their catalog numbers. At the very least, their tactics have been unfair, wholly uneven, and ineffectually applied.

2) All of Amos' philatelic operations have been sorely behind the times in addressing the impact of the computer world on our hobby. Scott's recent release of their United States catalog and inventory software on CD-ROM was a serious disappointment to a vast number of devoted computer-using philatelists who had expected that the CD would be patterned after the Scott U.S. SPECIALIZED catalog...and NOT its truncated U.S. listings in the Volume One of their worldwide catalogs.

Not only that, but Scott should be actively pursuing total conversion of all their printed catalogs to digital media---for both CD-ROM use and for use on the Internet, itself. There has not been any indication that this important and expensive project is even contemplated, much less being implemented. With its hard copy sales down to 18,000 catalogs from as much as 30,000 just a few years ago, electronic reproduction is the only way to stay profitable and competitive.

The need for computerization of the Scott Catalogues is very obvious...especially when one considers that the various catalogues do not have the huge circulation they once had.

In addition, the Linn's buying/selling website known as Zillions of Stamps has met with a rather tepid reception from the collecting world---mostly by failing to produce an online database that is easy to search and use by the buying public. The site does not live up to the full-page ads for ZOS that are running in Linn's. Two major dealers who signed on early have actually removed their stamp inventories from the ZOS system.

3) Scott's product line is now largely unavailable to the small philatelic dealer. In fact, one of the nation's largest stamp dealers has pulled his advertising completely out of Linn's Stamp News because of the uneven manner in which Scott products are made available only to the most well-heeled dealers. This unpopular policy has produced a legion of opponents to the Scott product sales operation. In addition, Scott's policy of offering their products at a discount strictly to subscribers of their Scott Stamp Monthly alienated countless dealers who had carried the Scott line for years.

4) Linn's Stamps News---which can be considered as the flagship of the Amos philatelic operations---hasn't had an "up year" in circulation figures for a number of years. Linn's, which offers their circulation figures on the front cover of each weekly edition, continues to shrink in circulation---even though their subscription promotions (including renting the APS mailing list several times a year) have been extensive. Circulation could continue to descend as more collectors find the Internet to be a much easier place to locate the stamps they are looking for and news can be accessed quickly and without cost through such online publications as Stamps.Net.

Are there some bright corners in the Amos philatelic operations? There certainly are---and they could positively point the way toward helping the Amos operation (and its eventual successor) to sort out these questions in the coming years. Scott Stamp Monthly, which was boldly and imaginatively refurbished by publisher Stuart Morrissey a couple of years ago into a colorful tabloid publication, has growing circulation numbers and offers an effective and inexpensive advertising venue for stamp dealers.

In effect, the sale of Amos Press offers the promise that something may finally change in the stamp collecting world. A new owner always brings a different, perhaps more forward-thinking business philosophy. There is nothing the hobby needs more than a revitalized Scott Catalog and a new approach to the Linn's publication. One can only hope that Linn's and Scott will not again become subsidiaries of large publishers with the primary interests elsewhere.

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