by Lloyd A. de Vries

Amos Media, the largest philatelic media publisher in the U.S., appears to be having financial difficulties. Amos publishes the Scott Postage Stamp Catalogs, Linn’s Stamp News and Scott Stamp Monthly, as well as publications for other hobbies.

In a discussion in The Stamp Collecting Forum started by veteran philatelic writer Ken Lawrence in early October, readers revealed they had not received their printed copies of Monthly for several months and columnists for both that magazine and Linn’s reported receiving no payments for their articles since June. [Disclosure: The author of this article is a Linn’s columnist who has not been paid since June.] In addition, printed editions of the Scott catalogues that were due for release on or after September 1 were on back-order, with no date of delivery, and remained so at the end of 2024. Digital editions are available.

Printed editions of Coin World magazine, also published by Amos, also were not available, according to a post on a coin collectors forum.

In early December, Amos Media advised print subscribers via email that printing of SSM would resume with the December issue and the catalogues would be shipped in early 2025. The company blamed a “business dispute” with its printer that had been resolved.

The problems with the printed copies of SSM follow a disturbing pattern. Abruptly in mid-August, Linn’s Stamp News announced it was immediately halting the printing of its weekly newspaper with the current issue, and it and future issues would only be available online. The announcement said SSM would continue to be printed and mailed to subscribers who had chosen that option. However, the September issues failed to arrive in mailboxes.

In reply to an email query from The Virtual Stamp Club, Amos Media chairman Rick Amos [below right] apologized for the lack of communication with readers.

“We’ve had an issue with our printer and several times over the past month we thought it had been resolved. It now has and Scott Stamp Monthly will return soon,” he wrote “We are waiting for the date in which the December issue will be mailed to subscribers. Once we do the dates will be published on our website and sent via email to our subscribers.”

He did not address the problems with the catalogues, which was included in The VSC‘s inquiry.

Amos is the only person listed in the “Our Team” section of the Amos Media website, and his biography there is outdated: It says he is also president of another company, which he left more than ten years ago. On LinkedIn he describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur” and both his current ventures and his residence are in the Chicago area, about 250 miles from the headquarters of Amos Media in Sidney, Ohio. One wonders at how involved he is in running Amos Media.

Although Amos told The VSC in that November 22 email that “no decision has been made yet if we will still print the October and November issues,” an email to subscribers in early December said those issues, plus September 2024, would not be printed. Print subscribers will have their subscriptions extended and advertisers will receive at 30% credit toward future advertising but not a refund. The ads did appear in the digital editions.

“We are pleased to announce that the Scott Stamp Monthly December issue will be mailed during the week of December 16th,” said the message, signed “The Linn’s and Scott Team.” “Furthermore, the Scott Specialized and Classic catalogues will be mailed sometime in January and February 2025.” The message was repeated on the editorial page of the December issue of SSM.

Some subscribers reported receiving printed copies of the magazine on December 24.

“Issues with suppliers” are often the suppliers’ unwillingness to provide the product or service without getting paid. “If this were a book we’d be be looking at Chapter 11,” commented collector Lawrence Sherman on The Virtual Stamp Club‘s message board.

In late December, Brookman Stamp Co. advertised an alternative to the Scott Specialized via an email sent by the American Stamp Dealers Association: “Are you STILL waiting for the Scott US Specialized Catalog?” was the subject line.

The Scott books are the major catalogues for stamp collectors in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The first Scott catalogue was a 21-page pricelist in 1886 by New York City stamp dealer John Walter Scott. Scott Publishing was acquired by Amos in 1984 and the operations moved to Sidney, Ohio, near Dayton. Today, the catalogue is six volumes plus related specialty catalogues and thousands of pages and costs nearly $700 from the Amos website (list price $1,034.92).

The major catalogue publisher for British Commonwealth issues, Stanley Gibbons, also has been in financial trouble, reorganizing in December 2023 to relieve itself of a debt burden.