Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
When I took up stamps again, around twenty years ago, I travelled around local stamp fairs and did a bit of ordering up by post. Such were my finances at the time that I would seldom venture beyond £25 at any one time - a modest sum of money for which I could nevertheless buy a good number of stamps that I needed for my collections.
My mistakes were many. I bought bits of sets cheaply and wound up without the top value and have had to buy them all over again. I did not heed the advice offered to me that on each visit to a fair I should buy a single, expensive stamp of the same value as the rest put together. I eventually found myself with nothing to buy except expensive stamps, and so naturally had to revise my idea of what constituted an 'expensive' stamp. Once it was £5, which seems laughable now. That figure rose sharply over twenty years.
However, there remains an upper limit, even though, with the mortgage paid, I have rather more disposable income than I did before. I'll come clean and reveal that the most I have paid for a single stamp is £100 (for the Nazi 'This War is a Jewsh War' propaganda stamp) and that I instinctively balk at paying sums of that sort for a little piece of paper and will not do so again! (I'm sure I said the same the first time I spent £20, or £50, on a stamp.)
This is completely illogical - to say that all stamps under £100 that I need to fill in blanks in my albums are therefore 'worth' getting, and that buying an Ostropa sheet or a Croatian Storm Division set for around £200 each is just not on. Or not now anyway.
Crazy? Am I the only one with this odd attitude to stamp purchases? Must I wait until I am 80 (it's not all that long now) before the ante goes up to £200, or £500? And what about you? I bet you've spent £2000 or more on a stamp! You feckless person!
So, what are stamps worth to you? Have you actually bought everything available you can afford? Do you suffer from Upper Limit Creep? (And my genuine apologies to those for whom a £100 stamp represents a self-indulgent, smug and wasteful profligacy... I won't do it again, honestly. Not yet.)
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Money and stamps? Depends on how badly I want the stamp.
I have paid over catalog for many stamps. If I'm missing one stamp to complete a set, and the seller didn't have anything else I wanted, I'd buy the stamp and pay the shipping bringing the total to well above catalog value. To me a complete set is worth it. Also, I recently bought a set of two stamps, cataloged less than a dollar. The price and shipping cost me almost four times catalog value. But, that set let me complete a country, and no one else had it at the time.
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It occurs to me that a factor in stamp expenditure may well be how a stamp is actually bought. I prefer attending stamp fairs where dealers know me and I can leaf through their stocks, though I have bought a fair bit from dealers by post. I seldom use the internet, and never ebay, for broadly timorous reasons.
I'm not certain of this, but from what I read on SOR I'd say that American collectors buy more 'at a distance' than face-to-face, for simple geographical reasons. Here, just east of London, I can get to a stamp fair pretty much every weekend if I want to. That is how I explain my increasing accumulation of covers and postcards (more of which are on show than European stamps at any fair) - when I draw a blank on stamps I feel I have to justify the trip by picking up something else! You don't get that by post or online.
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02:53:53pm
" .... So, what are stamps worth to you?..."
When I need, ( actually want.) a particular stamp that stamp has a specific value, and depending on my immediate finances at the time I see it in our auction, that value is likely to have but little relationship to what Scott thinks that stamp, or set of atamps, is worth.
Assuming that while scanning the auction pages, I later come across a second copy of that virtually identical stamp in roughly the same condition, that "Value" approaches zero.
If I somehow find a second copy in my possession, that value is not likely to approach what I may have paid for the first copy and, if a low value item, will also approach Zero, while if of a reputedly "Higher Catalog Listing," I may be quite happy to trade it for far less than what I paid for the first copy.
Such is the fleeting nature of a stamp's value.
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"My old buddy Joe used to say.."a stamp is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it " !"
I wonder about the value of our collections in the (near) future when there are fewer and fewer 'somebodies willing to pay for it'
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Chris, when you're pushing up daisies, does it matter what someone pays for your stamps?
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As Sammy Cahn may have written:
Stamps and money, stamps and money,
They go together like salt and honey.
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"It occurs to me that a factor in stamp expenditure may well be how a stamp is actually bought. I prefer attending stamp fairs where dealers know me and I can leaf through their stocks, though I have bought a fair bit from dealers by post. I seldom use the internet, and never ebay, for broadly timorous reasons.
I'm not certain of this, but from what I read on SOR I'd say that American collectors buy more 'at a distance' than face-to-face, for simple geographical reasons. Here, just east of London, I can get to a stamp fair pretty much every weekend if I want to. That is how I explain my increasing accumulation of covers and postcards (more of which are on show than European stamps at any fair) - when I draw a blank on stamps I feel I have to justify the trip by picking up something else! You don't get that by post or online."
Twenty odd years ago, I worked near the Strand in London (you know the place; where Stanley Gibbons is based). There were numerous stamp shops in that locality and once a month, the Strand Palace Hotel stamp fair.
I spent many long lunch breaks, face to face with the dealers. So being able to view their stock at close quarters, rather than in the virtual world, was perfect. I was able to find quite a lot of material for my one country collection in those days.
Unfortunately, I am no longer in that area; nor are the (real) stamp dealers.
So that left me with my local stamp fair (I too live east of London) and a couple of others in the vicinity. The trouble was, the material was not there to be found. In fact it still isn't there.
My only choice was to go online into an auction environment. Suddenly the material was in front of me, albeit on a computer screen. The downside of course was firstly, not being able to handle it and secondly, every man and his dog could see it too.
But the benefits have been numerous:
I have found more material globally. Consequently, I have been able to monitor prices and compare the quality of listed material (using my PC), that I was unable to do at the dealers table. I no longer have to endure the dealer's "I charge 50% of Gibbons prices but 75% for NHM" entrenched pricing.
As I am more informed about the true market price of the material in my field, I can pitch in the price I'm happy to pay and walk away.
The point I'm making is that it is not just for geographical reasons that many collectors revert to online buying. Material for certain countries and specialised fields are just not held in the majority of your average dealer's stock. When occasionally they are, we have to pay through the nose!
This leads me to Guthram's original point.
"How much is a stamp worth to you? By which I mean, is there any sum of money beyond which you think it ridiculous to spend on a stamp, assuming you had the money, and assuming that you 'wanted' the stamp?"
If money was no object, I think I would have trouble restraining myself from paying a substantially large sum, for something actually needed in my collection.
Fortunately, I would not have to venture into the stratospheric realms of the 'British Guiana 1c Magenta', or the 'Sweden Tre Skilling Yellow', as I have no interest in owning anything (in such poor condition) for self promotional purposes.
Back to the real world. Since I started buying online, I have twice broken my 'highest price paid at a dealers table' record. I was not caught up in a bidding frenzy on either occasion but just saw an opportunity to buy something that would be unlikely to surface again at a price I could manage, if my bids were successful.
However, after the shock and initial euphoria of winning, I still went outside riddled with guilt and gave myself a damn good thrashing!
And I guess it will happen again too. I just don't learn from those beatings!
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04:29:42am
".... However, after the shock and initial euphoria of winning, I still went outside riddled with guilt and gave myself a damn good thrashing! ...."
I know that feeling well, however it usually starts immediately after I've placed an exceptionally enthusiastic bid and lasts until the hammer drops. Then the euphoria renews itself if I won or sometimes a sense of reality sets in as I realize that even losing I had bid too much and I become grateful there is at least on other person with less sense than me..
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"I wonder about the value of our collections in the (near) future when there are fewer and fewer 'somebodies willing to pay for it"
I used to wonder a bit what would happen in the future until I learned that stamp collecting has become a status symbol in CHINA! Woohoo!!!
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My record, thus far, is $612.50 for a single stamp. That was for O71 and I will probably pay about the same amount for O69 and O70. I have some nice proofs for placeholders, but it would be sweet to complete that set!
There is only ONE stamp I will pay over $1000 for and that's 356. I watched a 3rd Bureau 10c Washington coil with a pulled perf and a cert sell for just a tad over $1000 about 10 years ago. If that stamp came back around and I had the money saved up, I might actually pay over $1000 for a stamp.
Other than that, $500 is my limit. My #2 was less than $500. #39 and #122; less than $500 each. $5 Columbian less than $500. C15 Zeppelin less than $500.
Lars
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01:31:42am
" .... Chris, i have no allusions about what someone might pay my heirs for our stamps...i am here now and the stamps are here now..thats all that counts ! ...."
When that day comes,I will be glad to be already dead, or I'd die once again of a broken heart.
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The Stamp Forum has a great on-line live auction once a month. (I think you have to be a member for 2 weeks in order to play.) They had a Canada #4 last month, a bIG collection of Canada, too, plus much more.
I won a lot of almost 150 small queens. I'd show them to you, but I put them in Vario sheets, and for some reason my schizophrenic scanner won't scan the sheet as one entire page. This month's auction will be March 15th. So far, I've seen Ireland pages, and cindy's plus more that I can't remember right now.
Check it out.
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We've all heard, "It's only money." And I believe the Packard automobile slogan once was something like, "The quality will be remembered, long after the price is forgotten."
I am also a model car builder and collector. I've paid $500 for a rare model car. I'm currently contemplating buying a $500 spray booth for my workroom. I could afford both and will enjoy having the new spray booth. So be it.
I think we've all moved that line in the sand of what we'll pay several times. I can remember, "I'll never pay over $100 for a stamp." Then we did it. That made the next move to over $200 that much easier. And so on as we climb that pyramid. I'll even justify it that I'll sell off some duplicate material to finance it, but then I never do.
As I seriously collect only one stamp, and opportunities to grab truly rare items are often one shot deals. I spent over $200 each on half a dozen of the 300b booklet panes. I don't even remember what I paid for the incomplete, but still stapled booklet. Don't wanna know! And into the private perforations, I'm sure I spent $300 getting the last of the elusive cataloged ones to complete that collection. Now, if I came across some of the scarcer ones commercially used on cover, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
There are currently a couple of way over priced covers on eBay that have been for sale there eternally. I have them book marked and when those sellers come down to reality, or I win the lottery, they are mine! 
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"have been for sale there eternally. I have them book marked and when those sellers come down to reality"
Have you ever tried contacting a seller? Make an offer, all they can say is no..... eventually they may get the hint....
Try it, hope it works for you
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""Have you ever tried contacting a seller? Make an offer, all they can say is no..... eventually they may get the hint....""
I have negotiated prices down on eBay by a percentage, with reasonable dealers. But some of the things I have bookmarked are like $500 asking price for a cover that should sell for $100-200. Those guys think they have gold.
When I first saw some of the prices on eBay I told my wife that we were rich!
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I usually am very careful about not paying too much for a stamp, a set, or other philatelic item.
However, when I am looking for something special then I am willing to spend more than the catalog value. I also will buy stamp sets in order to obtain a particular stamp for the collection (I paid $35.00 for a set that had one stamp I wanted that was worth 85 cents - but it was a significant stamp for the collection).
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06:46:09pm
I have no control, and so I have to avoid shopping for stamps. I try to especially stay away from eBay. Unfortunately, a member of a local stamp club, who is "internet challenged," requested that I locate some modern US he was finding difficulty to locate. So this morning I searched eBay for him. When I was through I had located all the items he needed, and spent almost $200 on items I didn't!
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"When I was through I had located all the items he needed, and spent almost $200 on items I didn't!"
Of course you needed them. You're just in denial. Poor guy.
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03:54:58pm
" ... There are currently a couple of way over priced covers on eBay that have been for sale there eternally. ..."
That happens even here. There are, as of last night, several items that are continually relisted and never get a bid. There are at least two books in the Approvals section that have been there probably since before X-mas and have zero sales.
I think the member actually has forgotten that he posted them.
I suppose some day someone will see them and think, "What a bargain" and puff, both buyer and seller will be thrilled.
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A couple of my favorites that have lived on eBay for years...
A postcard of a very formal lady, comes up in my Scott 300 cover searches. I've lived in PA for 5 years, and I remember looking at it back at my old house!
A Cuban stamp that's missing a corner, about an 8th of the entire stamp. But there it is, listed for less than a dollar for eternity!
A US cut square, not cut square, but some child cut it ragged all around the oval, not 1/32 of white around the edge... and knicking the design... again, relisted over and over again for less than a dollar!
What is the logic here?
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How much is a stamp worth to you? By which I mean, is there any sum of money beyond which you think it ridiculous to spend on a stamp, assuming you had the money, and assuming that you 'wanted' the stamp?
When I took up stamps again, around twenty years ago, I travelled around local stamp fairs and did a bit of ordering up by post. Such were my finances at the time that I would seldom venture beyond £25 at any one time - a modest sum of money for which I could nevertheless buy a good number of stamps that I needed for my collections.
My mistakes were many. I bought bits of sets cheaply and wound up without the top value and have had to buy them all over again. I did not heed the advice offered to me that on each visit to a fair I should buy a single, expensive stamp of the same value as the rest put together. I eventually found myself with nothing to buy except expensive stamps, and so naturally had to revise my idea of what constituted an 'expensive' stamp. Once it was £5, which seems laughable now. That figure rose sharply over twenty years.
However, there remains an upper limit, even though, with the mortgage paid, I have rather more disposable income than I did before. I'll come clean and reveal that the most I have paid for a single stamp is £100 (for the Nazi 'This War is a Jewsh War' propaganda stamp) and that I instinctively balk at paying sums of that sort for a little piece of paper and will not do so again! (I'm sure I said the same the first time I spent £20, or £50, on a stamp.)
This is completely illogical - to say that all stamps under £100 that I need to fill in blanks in my albums are therefore 'worth' getting, and that buying an Ostropa sheet or a Croatian Storm Division set for around £200 each is just not on. Or not now anyway.
Crazy? Am I the only one with this odd attitude to stamp purchases? Must I wait until I am 80 (it's not all that long now) before the ante goes up to £200, or £500? And what about you? I bet you've spent £2000 or more on a stamp! You feckless person!
So, what are stamps worth to you? Have you actually bought everything available you can afford? Do you suffer from Upper Limit Creep? (And my genuine apologies to those for whom a £100 stamp represents a self-indulgent, smug and wasteful profligacy... I won't do it again, honestly. Not yet.)
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re: Money and Stamps
Money and stamps? Depends on how badly I want the stamp.
I have paid over catalog for many stamps. If I'm missing one stamp to complete a set, and the seller didn't have anything else I wanted, I'd buy the stamp and pay the shipping bringing the total to well above catalog value. To me a complete set is worth it. Also, I recently bought a set of two stamps, cataloged less than a dollar. The price and shipping cost me almost four times catalog value. But, that set let me complete a country, and no one else had it at the time.
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re: Money and Stamps
It occurs to me that a factor in stamp expenditure may well be how a stamp is actually bought. I prefer attending stamp fairs where dealers know me and I can leaf through their stocks, though I have bought a fair bit from dealers by post. I seldom use the internet, and never ebay, for broadly timorous reasons.
I'm not certain of this, but from what I read on SOR I'd say that American collectors buy more 'at a distance' than face-to-face, for simple geographical reasons. Here, just east of London, I can get to a stamp fair pretty much every weekend if I want to. That is how I explain my increasing accumulation of covers and postcards (more of which are on show than European stamps at any fair) - when I draw a blank on stamps I feel I have to justify the trip by picking up something else! You don't get that by post or online.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
05 Feb 2015
02:53:53pm
re: Money and Stamps
" .... So, what are stamps worth to you?..."
When I need, ( actually want.) a particular stamp that stamp has a specific value, and depending on my immediate finances at the time I see it in our auction, that value is likely to have but little relationship to what Scott thinks that stamp, or set of atamps, is worth.
Assuming that while scanning the auction pages, I later come across a second copy of that virtually identical stamp in roughly the same condition, that "Value" approaches zero.
If I somehow find a second copy in my possession, that value is not likely to approach what I may have paid for the first copy and, if a low value item, will also approach Zero, while if of a reputedly "Higher Catalog Listing," I may be quite happy to trade it for far less than what I paid for the first copy.
Such is the fleeting nature of a stamp's value.
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re: Money and Stamps
"My old buddy Joe used to say.."a stamp is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it " !"
I wonder about the value of our collections in the (near) future when there are fewer and fewer 'somebodies willing to pay for it'
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re: Money and Stamps
Chris, when you're pushing up daisies, does it matter what someone pays for your stamps?
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04:54:50pm
re: Money and Stamps
As Sammy Cahn may have written:
Stamps and money, stamps and money,
They go together like salt and honey.
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re: Money and Stamps
"It occurs to me that a factor in stamp expenditure may well be how a stamp is actually bought. I prefer attending stamp fairs where dealers know me and I can leaf through their stocks, though I have bought a fair bit from dealers by post. I seldom use the internet, and never ebay, for broadly timorous reasons.
I'm not certain of this, but from what I read on SOR I'd say that American collectors buy more 'at a distance' than face-to-face, for simple geographical reasons. Here, just east of London, I can get to a stamp fair pretty much every weekend if I want to. That is how I explain my increasing accumulation of covers and postcards (more of which are on show than European stamps at any fair) - when I draw a blank on stamps I feel I have to justify the trip by picking up something else! You don't get that by post or online."
Twenty odd years ago, I worked near the Strand in London (you know the place; where Stanley Gibbons is based). There were numerous stamp shops in that locality and once a month, the Strand Palace Hotel stamp fair.
I spent many long lunch breaks, face to face with the dealers. So being able to view their stock at close quarters, rather than in the virtual world, was perfect. I was able to find quite a lot of material for my one country collection in those days.
Unfortunately, I am no longer in that area; nor are the (real) stamp dealers.
So that left me with my local stamp fair (I too live east of London) and a couple of others in the vicinity. The trouble was, the material was not there to be found. In fact it still isn't there.
My only choice was to go online into an auction environment. Suddenly the material was in front of me, albeit on a computer screen. The downside of course was firstly, not being able to handle it and secondly, every man and his dog could see it too.
But the benefits have been numerous:
I have found more material globally. Consequently, I have been able to monitor prices and compare the quality of listed material (using my PC), that I was unable to do at the dealers table. I no longer have to endure the dealer's "I charge 50% of Gibbons prices but 75% for NHM" entrenched pricing.
As I am more informed about the true market price of the material in my field, I can pitch in the price I'm happy to pay and walk away.
The point I'm making is that it is not just for geographical reasons that many collectors revert to online buying. Material for certain countries and specialised fields are just not held in the majority of your average dealer's stock. When occasionally they are, we have to pay through the nose!
This leads me to Guthram's original point.
"How much is a stamp worth to you? By which I mean, is there any sum of money beyond which you think it ridiculous to spend on a stamp, assuming you had the money, and assuming that you 'wanted' the stamp?"
If money was no object, I think I would have trouble restraining myself from paying a substantially large sum, for something actually needed in my collection.
Fortunately, I would not have to venture into the stratospheric realms of the 'British Guiana 1c Magenta', or the 'Sweden Tre Skilling Yellow', as I have no interest in owning anything (in such poor condition) for self promotional purposes.
Back to the real world. Since I started buying online, I have twice broken my 'highest price paid at a dealers table' record. I was not caught up in a bidding frenzy on either occasion but just saw an opportunity to buy something that would be unlikely to surface again at a price I could manage, if my bids were successful.
However, after the shock and initial euphoria of winning, I still went outside riddled with guilt and gave myself a damn good thrashing!
And I guess it will happen again too. I just don't learn from those beatings!
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
06 Feb 2015
04:29:42am
re: Money and Stamps
".... However, after the shock and initial euphoria of winning, I still went outside riddled with guilt and gave myself a damn good thrashing! ...."
I know that feeling well, however it usually starts immediately after I've placed an exceptionally enthusiastic bid and lasts until the hammer drops. Then the euphoria renews itself if I won or sometimes a sense of reality sets in as I realize that even losing I had bid too much and I become grateful there is at least on other person with less sense than me..
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re: Money and Stamps
"I wonder about the value of our collections in the (near) future when there are fewer and fewer 'somebodies willing to pay for it"
I used to wonder a bit what would happen in the future until I learned that stamp collecting has become a status symbol in CHINA! Woohoo!!!
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re: Money and Stamps
My record, thus far, is $612.50 for a single stamp. That was for O71 and I will probably pay about the same amount for O69 and O70. I have some nice proofs for placeholders, but it would be sweet to complete that set!
There is only ONE stamp I will pay over $1000 for and that's 356. I watched a 3rd Bureau 10c Washington coil with a pulled perf and a cert sell for just a tad over $1000 about 10 years ago. If that stamp came back around and I had the money saved up, I might actually pay over $1000 for a stamp.
Other than that, $500 is my limit. My #2 was less than $500. #39 and #122; less than $500 each. $5 Columbian less than $500. C15 Zeppelin less than $500.
Lars
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
21 Feb 2015
01:31:42am
re: Money and Stamps
" .... Chris, i have no allusions about what someone might pay my heirs for our stamps...i am here now and the stamps are here now..thats all that counts ! ...."
When that day comes,I will be glad to be already dead, or I'd die once again of a broken heart.
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Dogs are my favorite people. I hang with this one as often as I can.
21 Feb 2015
02:00:14am
re: Money and Stamps
The Stamp Forum has a great on-line live auction once a month. (I think you have to be a member for 2 weeks in order to play.) They had a Canada #4 last month, a bIG collection of Canada, too, plus much more.
I won a lot of almost 150 small queens. I'd show them to you, but I put them in Vario sheets, and for some reason my schizophrenic scanner won't scan the sheet as one entire page. This month's auction will be March 15th. So far, I've seen Ireland pages, and cindy's plus more that I can't remember right now.
Check it out.
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Approvals
re: Money and Stamps
We've all heard, "It's only money." And I believe the Packard automobile slogan once was something like, "The quality will be remembered, long after the price is forgotten."
I am also a model car builder and collector. I've paid $500 for a rare model car. I'm currently contemplating buying a $500 spray booth for my workroom. I could afford both and will enjoy having the new spray booth. So be it.
I think we've all moved that line in the sand of what we'll pay several times. I can remember, "I'll never pay over $100 for a stamp." Then we did it. That made the next move to over $200 that much easier. And so on as we climb that pyramid. I'll even justify it that I'll sell off some duplicate material to finance it, but then I never do.
As I seriously collect only one stamp, and opportunities to grab truly rare items are often one shot deals. I spent over $200 each on half a dozen of the 300b booklet panes. I don't even remember what I paid for the incomplete, but still stapled booklet. Don't wanna know! And into the private perforations, I'm sure I spent $300 getting the last of the elusive cataloged ones to complete that collection. Now, if I came across some of the scarcer ones commercially used on cover, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
There are currently a couple of way over priced covers on eBay that have been for sale there eternally. I have them book marked and when those sellers come down to reality, or I win the lottery, they are mine!
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re: Money and Stamps
"have been for sale there eternally. I have them book marked and when those sellers come down to reality"
Have you ever tried contacting a seller? Make an offer, all they can say is no..... eventually they may get the hint....
Try it, hope it works for you
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Approvals
re: Money and Stamps
""Have you ever tried contacting a seller? Make an offer, all they can say is no..... eventually they may get the hint....""
I have negotiated prices down on eBay by a percentage, with reasonable dealers. But some of the things I have bookmarked are like $500 asking price for a cover that should sell for $100-200. Those guys think they have gold.
When I first saw some of the prices on eBay I told my wife that we were rich!
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re: Money and Stamps
I usually am very careful about not paying too much for a stamp, a set, or other philatelic item.
However, when I am looking for something special then I am willing to spend more than the catalog value. I also will buy stamp sets in order to obtain a particular stamp for the collection (I paid $35.00 for a set that had one stamp I wanted that was worth 85 cents - but it was a significant stamp for the collection).
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
17 Mar 2015
06:46:09pm
re: Money and Stamps
I have no control, and so I have to avoid shopping for stamps. I try to especially stay away from eBay. Unfortunately, a member of a local stamp club, who is "internet challenged," requested that I locate some modern US he was finding difficulty to locate. So this morning I searched eBay for him. When I was through I had located all the items he needed, and spent almost $200 on items I didn't!
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re: Money and Stamps
"When I was through I had located all the items he needed, and spent almost $200 on items I didn't!"
Of course you needed them. You're just in denial. Poor guy.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
18 Mar 2015
03:54:58pm
re: Money and Stamps
" ... There are currently a couple of way over priced covers on eBay that have been for sale there eternally. ..."
That happens even here. There are, as of last night, several items that are continually relisted and never get a bid. There are at least two books in the Approvals section that have been there probably since before X-mas and have zero sales.
I think the member actually has forgotten that he posted them.
I suppose some day someone will see them and think, "What a bargain" and puff, both buyer and seller will be thrilled.
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Approvals
re: Money and Stamps
A couple of my favorites that have lived on eBay for years...
A postcard of a very formal lady, comes up in my Scott 300 cover searches. I've lived in PA for 5 years, and I remember looking at it back at my old house!
A Cuban stamp that's missing a corner, about an 8th of the entire stamp. But there it is, listed for less than a dollar for eternity!
A US cut square, not cut square, but some child cut it ragged all around the oval, not 1/32 of white around the edge... and knicking the design... again, relisted over and over again for less than a dollar!
What is the logic here?
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