philatelic analytics platform

Welcome to perf48

perf48 is a philatelic analytics platform for the data-driven stamp collector.

FAQ

What is perf48?

perf48 provides worldwide stamp data and analytics as a service, and artificial intelligence-driven recommendation engines, to manage and optimally grow a stamp collection. Unique in the philatelic world, perf48 is for worldwide stamp collectors who want to use data to make analytical decisions to efficiently acquire stamps to optimize how they grow their collection.

If you tally how many stamps you own for each country, perf48 is for you. If you rank the countries in your stamp collection from first to worst, perf48 is for you. If you estimate what share of each country’s stamps you own, perf48 is for you. If you set data-driven goals for growing your collection, perf48 is for you. If you want an electronic record for every stamp in the world, so you don’t have to do the data entry, perf48 is for you.

How does perf48 work?

It’s simple and easy. Just log on to your account, choose a country, and click on the stamps you own (you can specify mint or used). You can browse all the stamps in chronological order, or use over ten filtering criteria to search for a stamp. As you click on stamps you own, perf48 awards you with color-coded badges where your collection is strong. As you scroll through the database, these colorful badges pop on the screen, helping you to see where your collection is complete. This data visualization is unique in the philatelic hobby. At the same time, perf48’s artificial intelligence engine kicks in and automatically recommends which stamps will most-optimally grow your collection. By adding these recommended stamps to your collection, you will spend your budget most efficiently, and achieve your growth goals more frequently and more quickly, making our great hobby more rewarding.

I already track my collection elsewhere (e.g. paper-based list or spreadsheet or Access database). Is this meant to replace that?

perf48 doesn’t have to be your central collection management system, though many of our users do use perf48 that way. You can use perf48 alongside another stamp-tracking system. It works great alongside a catalogue you may have open on your desk. Use your legacy stamp tracking system for operational collection management and use perf48 as your analytical platform, to set collecting goals and view recommended collecting strategies. Most collectors find that after an initial setup of clicking on the stamps you own in each country, the maintenance is minimal; just commit to making one click for each stamp you add to your collection going forward. Seeing the badges appear, analytics (like share owned) increase and recommendations update becomes addictive, and is well worth the light overhead to keep it current.

How is this different than other websites and catalogues?

perf48 is not a catalogue; catalogues are graphical layouts of things for sale. Unlike most stamp websites, perf48 is not about buying and selling stamps. perf48 is different; it is for using data to understand and analyse your stamp collection as it compares to the universe of stamps which exist. It’s about using analytics to make decisions about growing your stamp collection. Using perf48, you focus on data about stamps. Every stamp issued in the world is a row in the database. With a digitized record for every stamp, stamps can be counted, ranked, summed, averaged, sequenced, and the stamps you own can be compared to the universe. perf48 enables you to interact with data to visualize, understand and set objectives for managing and growing your stamp collection.

It’s not “either/or.” Most users use perf48 alongside a traditional printed stamp catalogue. Besides being able to query the data and to help you know where to start looking in your print catalogue, perf48 helps to answer what portion of the universe of stamps is realistic to collect, how to create dense areas of completeness within each country, how close are you to your goals and the best way to get there while spending the least amount of money possible. Catalogues can’t do this.

Can I download the data to my local computer?

perf48 is a software-as-a-service offering and at $2.48 per month, is priced accordingly. The data remain in the cloud and you are subscribing to have access to the data and for perf48 to operate, manage and update the software and the stamp data centrally. Like other service-based cloud platforms (e.g. Netflix, Spotify, etc.), subscriptions do not include the purchasing or downloading of data to a local computer for unlimited or perpetual use.

Does perf48 list catalogue numbers?

perf48 has members all around the world, who use many different stamp catalogues in their home countries. Every stamp can be referred to by many catalogue numbers in different parts of the world. There isn’t screen real estate to display them all. perf48 listings are in chronological order so most of the time they go in the same order as most catalogues anyway.

Many stamp catalogue numbering systems are not open-source; they are copyrighted content. It’s not that we choose not to use catalogue numbers; it’s that their copyright owners forbid their use. perf48 provides a uniquely open-source option. Instead of looking for others’ proprietary numbers on our site, think about it the other way around: many of our users write our set number next to the picture in their print catalogues.

Most importantly, catalogue numbers are not necessary for analytics. You don’t collect catalogue numbers, you collect stamps. Catalogue numbers don’t matter when analyzing or visualizing your stamp collection data. A catalogue number is not necessary for this; catalogue numbers exist to facilitate buy and sell discussions with stamp dealers or between collectors, so you agree on the stamp you’re trying to buy, sell or trade. perf48 is all about using data to visualize where your collection is complete, comparing countries, running counts and analytics, and identifying which are the next-best stamps to collect.

Is it hard to use without photos?

In lieu of pictures, you browse or search for stamps by applying filtering criteria until a positive match can be made. In many cases, a denomination and year are sufficient to identify the stamp, and can be done much more quickly than eyeballing small thumbnail pictures on a page. Where further filtering is needed, perf48 uniquely offers three ways to describe the stamp. There are separate fields for the topic depicted on the stamp, another field for the topic commemorated by the stamp, and a third field with a keyword description. These fields help to triangulate stamp identification in lieu of pictures. Where further clarification is helpful, some sets feature additional descriptive text below the set’s totals bar. perf48’s data-first approach is a critical tool in any philatelist’s toolbox. It may feel strange at first, but over time most data-driven philatelists indicate they prefer interfacing with picture-free data for analytical stamp collecting and seeing patterns in stamp data on the screen.

You've never seen your stamp collection like this before.