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RodT

As a slight aside

Don't you think that most of the above should have been either specified ab initio by the person responsible for site design , or by an even remotely competent webpage builder?

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When a man comes to me for advice, I find out the kind of advice he wants, and I give it to him

Well, I certainly would have (having analysed, specified, designed, programmed and documented many computer systems in an IT career spanning 35 years).

The buck though stops with SG management who would set their requirements and budget. I suspect this attempt was a 'toe in the water' to see what revenues can be generated from online sales.

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Only philatelists dare visit KoalaStamps, the new kid on the stamp block: http://www.koalastamps.com

Yes.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

Found you get the info for free anyway...without images which is basically what your paying for. I asked them if they were going to advance it at all as the ads say much more info in the paid version.

At the time I was looking for the specialized info like printer info found in the specialized books etc;. Not going to happen. I was refunded.

No surprise there. A friend had a subscription and I tried it out at his place. Not worth the money. Descriptions did not even match the catalog 100%

I concluded that SG hired programmers who were only minimally knowledgeable about stamp collecting. Shame because it has the potential to be a useful tool.

One thing they need to do is decide which level of their catalog and which year is the basis of the software and publish that info.

I also think that a fully illustrated option based on selected specialized catalogs could sell well. In effect, it should be the catalog itself where you can click on the stamp or set, then condition and add it to your sheet. You should have the ability to increase thte size of the stamp on your monitor as well.

As SG struggle to even get a numbering system right or release printed catalogues without hundreds of errors (witness Decimal Definitive Issues Vol 4 Part 2) why should their on-line efforts be any better?

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Regards .. Dave
Visit the Machin forum at : http://www.stamp-collector.co.uk/MachinForum

I have merged the new thread started on 30 April with the older thread.

My tuppence worth: I have been a subscriber for a number of years and have always queried whether it was good value. The new version is a big improvement in many ways, particularly as it is much, much more up-to-date.

However many of the previously good features have disappeared and the result is generally disappointing. For reasons I won't go into here my subscription was extended until the end of this month so I will renew it then as a sign of good faith. However it will not go beyond that extra twelve months unless big improvements are made.

Much has been promised but at this time only cosmetic changes have been made. SG have indicated that most of the problems will be addressed in the new version due soon. It is hard to have any confidence as the time taken to change the service was inordinately long and well outside the period advised by SG, The due date was changed again and again and again ...

I will not join in the chorus of they must do this and they must do that except to say that the views of stamp collectors are just as important as the views of IT experts. At the moment it is not possible to use the application unless a hard copy of the catalogue is also to hand. This defeats the purpose. I, for one, cannot afford to purchase the full SOTW and my library have not renewed their subscription this year.

Unless the product is improved very quickly it will soon disappear. That would be a matter of reget.

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Here to learn
Here to enjoy

I dip in to "My Collection" every couple of months or so. It is good that it is now posting upcoming and past fixes but there is still so much to do. After having taken my subscription money for so many years it still has very much of a beta feel about it. Top of my to-do list would be
1) To load SG Part 1 Commonwealth catalogue
2) To reinstate set prices
3) To bring back the old country names in the search list
4) To make the data entry procedure more fluid (If you have a block of four, you have to enter one stamp, then go back and edit your collection and change the quantity to 4).
5) To sort the problems with exporting data in spreadsheet form
6) To speed up the process. I have superfast broadband but each operation takes for ever. I am not a computer expert but do they just need to get a better server?

Regards

Roger

Dear Friends,

I am using the "Stanley Gibbons 'My Collection' Online Tool” for some time now. I see that the search does not work properly in ANY OF THE pages .The previous version of Stanley Gibbons 'My Collection' Online Tool was working fine, but not with the latest SG values .I am not using the "Stanley Gibbons 'My Collection' Online Tool' any more these days as I could not do the search for the stamp I am looking for.

I have reported this to the "Stanley Gibbons" in December but looks like they are never going to fix this problem.

I was using this tool when I buy stamps from ebay .Now I don't use this "Stanley Gibbons 'My Collection' Online Tool" as it does not show me the detail .

When I seach for an Indian state stamp it shows all the pages in Indian state and all wrong images .
When i see this I just close the website.

The search problem is not only in the "Stanley Gibbons 'My Collection' Online Tool but this is an overall problem in the "Stanley Gibbons" website.

If you go to ebay and do a search on Indian & select the Stamp option it shows all the stamps available for sale from India and in the proper order.

I now need to keep my Stanley Gibbons catalog by my side to refer the buying price from ebay.

If I am out of country, then I do very less purchase from Ebay .

Thanks,
Regards,
John

Perhaps SG may wish to advise when the next release of the software is scheduled for release.

The fixes and upgrades listed on the site are numerous and urgently required. How long do we have to wait?

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Here to learn
Here to enjoy

I would like to use this thread to ask Rob Beeson StanleyGibbonsRB) whether any genuine collectors were asked to establish what was exactly needed in the product, tested Beta versions of this product, or in any way involved in acceptance testing?

It seems to me that without involving end users of stamp software every step of the way, rather than programmers who think they know what people want is a recipe for failure.

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

Now you're just being silly Norm

SG consult "ordinary" stamp collectors????

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When a man comes to me for advice, I find out the kind of advice he wants, and I give it to him

Moi? Silly?



Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

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When a man comes to me for advice, I find out the kind of advice he wants, and I give it to him

Can I just ask if Rob is still monitoring this thread? His last post was 29th November 2011 and since then the new version is out, up, running, and coming in for some serious criticism.

I reluctantly renewed my subscription this year (after letting it lapse for three months) but have to say I am less than impressed with it. Echoing what most others have said on this thread it simply hasn't been designed with stamp collectors in mind. It has the feel of a site that has been designed by committee.....

Rob, if you are still listening we're all still here and we're all still frustrated with the look, feel and functionality of the site. There are many here, myself included, who are happy to offer constructive criticism to help you get this right. You only have to ask....

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Rob last looked at Stampboards on May 18 2012, so he still pops in every now and then. Whether he chooses to reply to anything is, of course, up to him.

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

Hi. Our IT team are aware of this thread and monitor it constantly for feedback. They are still working hard on fixing/improving My Collection and I believe a fixed version will be launched soon. I'm sorry I can't offer any more detailed information than that at present.

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Rob Beeson
Stanley Gibbons

Hi Rob,

Nice to see you are monitoring - email me if you want some more feedback?

Regards

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Rob Beeson
Stanley Gibbons

A question for you, one former SG employee to a current one, nothing to do with IT/'My Collection' Online Tool whatsoever.

Has Publications ever thought of bringing out slip cases for the 'Exeter' albums? Every time I show up at the London offices I always ask the question but I never have had an answer.

Kindest regards

Richard Debney

Re Exeter Album Slipcases

I'm afraid we aren't going to be producing these and in fact the albums themselves have now been discontinued.

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Rob Beeson
Stanley Gibbons

Rob Beeson
Stanley Gibbons

I knew about the 'Plymouth' album but not the 'Exeter.' I trust the leaves, since they fit the 'Devon,' will continue for the foreseeable future.

It would be a shame to restrict the quality end of the album range to the newly acquired 'FG' range together with the 'Oriel' and 'Philatelic' albums.

Kindest regards

Richard Debney

To get this thread back on topic, has anyone here been using MyCollection since the upgrade?

I have had limited time and immediately saw some big improvements but also some areas where changes are still needed. However, and it is a big however, I have managed to get into the catalogue only once from about 5-6 attempts.

I can choose a country, date or cat. no. but then the screen just hangs and goes nowhere.

Before I send an email to SG - am I alone in this problem

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Here to learn
Here to enjoy

Kevin,

Exactly the same problem here in the UK. I've given up on it and have reverted to my old Stamps of the World 1977 printed edition.

It would be nice to actually get this working but from there this needs serious work before I would renew.

Regards,

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Hi guys. I have forwarded your issue regarding the screen hanging when you attempt to login to our IT team.

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Rob Beeson
Stanley Gibbons

Hi Rob,

Just to be clear it's not a log in issue. It is in country and year selection where it hangs.

Regards,

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Thanks Jon. That is correct Rob - after you have selected the criteria to bring up your stamp/s you click on Search and nothing happens. That happened the first time I looked, was OK the second attempt but has not worked since.

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Here to learn
Here to enjoy

OK Jon, thanks.

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Rob Beeson
Stanley Gibbons

This is the advice from out IT team:

With the updated version of My Collection being launched yesterday, the problem may be being caused by a cached page in your browser.

Please log in as usual, and when you land on the My Collection homepage, press and hold the CTRL key (bottom left or right of the keyboard) whilst pressing the F5 key (top middle of the keyboard).

This will force the browser to reload the new page from the web server and should rectify the problem.

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Rob Beeson
Stanley Gibbons

Thanks Rob

Clearing the cache has solved that problem.

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Here to learn
Here to enjoy

Hi Rob,

It worked without clearing the cache on my laptop but I'll check again on the home computer later.

Regards,

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Dear Friends,

Today I had logged into SG "My Collections" Online Tool .
I was surprised to know that the search functions are now working fine for India & Indian States!

But see that Images are still missing & I hope that the missing Images will be available soon. I had been waiting for nearly from DEC 2011 – JUN 2012 to use the working Tool.

Many Thanks to StampBoards users comments on SG Tool & our S.G ROB who made it happen .

Regards,
John

Checked and it worked once the page was refreshed (using a Mac). As john_udt says though, ideally we'd like to see the images there for each stamp.

Jon

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G.B, Barbados, Line Engraved, Intaglio & Recess printed stampshttp://www.barbadosstamps.co.uk

Three months later.

How is it doing now?

I bought a subscription to it, but I won't renew.

The online catalogue is of no help since there isn't enough picture or description to find in which serie a stamp goes. I find it funny that the online catalogue doesn't contain the same material of the printed version. Maybe SG should seek inspiration from movie collecting application like DVD Profiler or from media center application like XBMC, where one can search a database for a movie and the info are then fed from the database to the user collection. I really don't see why I would have to manually enter data that should already be in the online database.

As it is now, I don't see what advantage there is to use SG online app over a local database made in MS Access or Bento/Filemaker on the Mac or even a simple spreadsheet.

A question for Rob - the printed version of SOTW 2013 has been released, but the online catalogue hasn't been updated. Can you tell me why and how long we have to wait.

I would have thought the online catalogue would have been updated well before the printed version as the data is all readily available. Surely someone just needs to press the 'update' button.

Thanks, Rod

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Only philatelists dare visit KoalaStamps, the new kid on the stamp block: http://www.koalastamps.com

I have just discovered that there is no automatic reminder to renew the subscription to "My Collection" and so was suddenly told I was not a subscriber. SG staff were sympathetic and so I renewed.
When you check your account on this UK company you discover they are using US date formats for this application. So while I read that I had last renewed eleven months ago on 9th December in fact it was fourteen months ago on 12th September.
I just wish they would put as much money in to sorting "my collection" as they do in to advertising stamps for investment on the financial pages of newspapers.
Regards, Roger

Hi ,

I got my SG account re-activated again few days back & now When I add the stamps Under "Cochin" like going to

Search SG Catalogue Data>India>Indian Feudatory States >Cochin >

After I add the stamps I want and when I come to "Collection Management Page" , I see all the list like the below.

India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 7 £ 5.35 £ 1.75 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 8 £ 5.35 £ 3.25 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 9 £ 5.35 £ 6.75 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 10£ 5.35 £ 6.90 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 11£ 5.45 £ 6.90 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 12£ 5.90 £ 6.90 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 13£ 6.30 £ 6.90 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 14£ 6.40 £ 6.90 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 15£ 6.50 £ 6.90 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 16£ 6.50 £ 9.40 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 17£ 6.60 £ 9.40 Simple Detailed
India / Indian Feudatory States / Cochin 21£ 7.00 £ 9.40 Simple Detailed

It looks like a Problem as it is suppose to show only one date with all the stamps .

Can any one tell me if you have seen such issue and any advice ? I am using "Google Chrome" .

Thanks,
Regards,
John

This repetition of items in the collection seems to be a recent occurance. I hope that it will be resolved in the overdue upgrade of My Collection. With the hard copy release of Stamps of the World now on library shelves I expect that action will be seen very soon.

There is is a rather cumbersome solution to the problem - until the fix arrives. When adding new items to the collection include one additional item which is not in your collection. When finished go to Collection Management, select the last of the repeated countries and delete the unwanted additional item. All of the redundent listing will then disappear.

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Here to learn
Here to enjoy

Now included in the FAQ of My Collection:

Q: How can I remove duplicate territory entries if they appear?

A: There is a known issue with the automatic recalculation process in which duplicate entries appear in the Collection overview. If this happens, clicking the Recalculate button will reindex your data and remove the duplicates.

The recalculate button is top right.

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Here to learn
Here to enjoy

Hi Kevin,

I was about to ask SG to close my account as I have see issues does not get resolved , good that you gave me the tip .

Thanks for sharing me this information that was very useful .

Regards,
John