Michel quo vadis - Why are no Michel numbers listed in the online catalog?
Answer: The Michel numbers are protected by copyright and the Schwaneberger publishing company (publisher of the Michel catalogs) has not given permission to use them.
Why not? This can only be surmised, because a communication with this company is not possible. All the letters remain unanswered - even the registered letter, in which a pre-franked and pre-addressed reply-envelope was enclosed, was ignored. Similar experiences are made by other collectors. There are forums where this customer-unfriendly policy is discussed extensively. It states: „...my attempts to get in contact with the Michel editorial office were so far unfortunately without success.. ".
One should really think that the Schwaneberger publishing company should strive to consolidate and expand its position as a market leader in the German speaking area by spreading its Michel numbers. But this is probably a fallacy.
For the website BICYCLE PHILATELY it is only a small blemish, when the Michel numbers are not listed. Because of the large number of issues not covered by Michel (private mail services, personalized stamps, ...) it was necessary to create a separate numbering for this website - similar to catawiki or postbeeld.
As a consequence, Michel numbers will no longer be recorded from 2017 onwards. The savings on the Michel-Online-Catalog are invested in the maintenance of this website and in the purchase of bicycle stamps - the clearly better investment.