Collecting : my collection 03f

Yvert & Tellier is a catalogue that is used in France, Belgium.

The logo of the company is quite interesting too:

We see a snowflake on the left, and a sun on the right.
It's like winter and summer combined.
In French that becomes : "hiver, été liés" (winter, summer combined)
Phonetically pronouced as [yvert é télié] or Yvert & Tellier.


Now back to the catalogues ...
If you're a collector of all stamps, (or a theme collector with stamps from various counties in your collection), then you better have a well paid job.
The complete set of catalogues is not less then 20 (!) volumes!
Yvert isn't updating all catalogues very year (luckily I would dare to say), so some volumes might be a bit out of date, but they will be renewed in the near future.
An overview :

Catalogue of France by Yvert & Tellier

Part 1 : France (updated yearly)
Part 1bis : Monaco, Andorra, UN, french overseas territories (updated yearly)

Part 2.1 : French (former) colonies (2011)
Part 2.2 : Formerly french colonies in Africa : A - H (+ Laos and Cambodia) (2006)
Part 2.3 : Formerly french colonies in Africa : M -T (+ Vanuatu and Vietnam) (2008)

Part 3.1 : Western Europe : A - E (2006)*/**
Part 3.2 : Western Europe : E - L (2008)*/**
Part 3.3 : Western Europe : M - Y (2009)**

Part 4.1 : Eastern Europe : A - P (2010)**
Part 4.2 : Eastern Europe : R - U (2011)**

     * as it is a french catalogue : Germany is listed under A of Allemagne
        and Spain under E of Espagne.
     ** at the moment replaced by
          Part 3.1 (new) : Europe 1 : A - B (2011)
          Part 3.2 (new) : Europe 2 : C - H (2012)

Part 5.1 : Oversea : A - B (2011)
Part 5.2 : Oversea : C - D (2006)
Part 5.3 : Oversea : D - G (2006)
Part 5.4 : Oversea : G - L (2008)
Part 5.5 : Oversea : L - N (2008)
Part 5.6 : Oversea : O - S (2009)
Part 5.7 : Oversea : S - Z (2010)

There's an index catalogue (Tome de référence) (2007)

Example of Part 5.5 (Overseas)

And a very interesting catalogue "Classiques du monde 1840 - 1940" - with all stamps from the 'classic era' until 1940

Yvert : 'Classiques du Monde' 1840 - 1940

As you can see, some countries are updated till 2006.
Bad luck if you started to collect "Canada" from 2007 on ... as there's no catalogue for it.
Well, for those who are in need, Yvert & Tellier found a very good solution.

Each year, a small catalogue is issued, with all newly emitted stamps of that year.
Perfect to be used while waiting for a new complete catalogue.

Nevertheless, this 'small catalogue' has 690 pages ! (only for the year 2011)

Yvert : all new stamps of 2011

General impression :

+++ Nicely designed catalogue, especially usefull for France and colonies.
        Annual edition is a very good idea, especially for new collectors (young collectors)
        as the price for this catalogue is afordable, after several years the prices are a bit out of date,
        but by that time, you can buy a complete catalogue.
---    A bookshelf alone won't be sufficient to hold all catalogues.
        For collectors of a certain area (Scandinavia for example), you need to buy all european
        catalogues, as Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway, are in 3 different volumes.
        Information in the catalogues (except France / Monaco) is rather limited.

Please note, this information is 'as known' on May 2012.

to be continued ...