Many collectors claim that the literature is too expensive and that there is no point in buying it. If you collect just for fun to kill boredom and free time, you will not need much literature, maybe just some basic catalogues. If you want to pursue your hobby more thoroughly, you can't do without good books. The Internet is full of information, however, these are often only superficial or inaccurate. Printed literature usually goes much deeper. If you want to pursue your hobby more sophisticated, you will find that with increasing time you have to buy professional literature. As your collecting deepens, so will your library. I recently bought another great books for less than 100 EUR - Album Weeds: How to Detect Forged Stamps.
This text was written in the second half of the 19th century (!) and since then the author has reworked it 2 more times. I bought a reprint of the third, last, and therefore the most comprehensive edition. Nowhere on the Internet can you find as much information about forged stamps as in this book. Sure, a lot has changed in the field of counterfeiting since the last edition of this book, new forgeries have been discovered, but these books are kind of foundation stone.
Here is a small example of other literature from my professional library. Most of them are books and catalogues, which cost well over 100 EUR per piece, but their price payed off many times already. Some books are cheaper, some are almost unobtainable.
#profesionalliterature #collecting #stampcatalogues