Difficult to say without more information (a photo would have been ideal). However, $20 each sounds too high. But it does all depend on the stamps used, the postal markings and the condition.
I wish I would have had a camera. Condition was good. The stamps used were the King George issue of 1938-1939. Some singles, some doubles. Wish I could tell more. I'm sure they were overpriced as she wanted 20 dollars apiece for some common modern US FDC's.
There seems to be a common theme here. This isn't the first time someone has mentioned overpricing at garage sales. Here in the UK, we have car boot sales; many held on some boggy field or racecourse. The same story applies; childhood collections of complete junk at fairy tale prices.
You can gauge how much these guys sell - they can be seen sprawled out on their chairs with chins against their chests, sucking in flies......zzzzzzzzzz.
We have "Garage Sales" here in Aus.I think it's the same as a Yard Sale in the US.We also have "Trash and Treasure" markets .I used to go nearly every Sunday ,but it started to be the same people selling the same stuff so I gave up .
I have picked up some nice material there ,but sellers offering philatelic items were few and far between.
Brian
seanpashby said,
"I wish I would have had a camera."
I am constantly scouring Garage Sales, Yard Sales, and Flea Markets for philatelic related items like the old newspapers with stamps. Unfortunately, those who sell them, while they may price most common items with proper "Garage Sale" prices, believe any old stamps are undoubtedly rare and worth a lot of moolah. So, I guess in fear of selling those "old and rare" stamps for too little, they price them ridiculously high. And when you tell them (nicely, of course) that their prices are unrealistic, they immediately assume you are trying to talk them down in prices and cheat them out of their just windfall!
Long ago I learned that those kinds of people are not worth educating or attempting a negotiation. They simple believe that everything increases in value with age.
I remember one used book seller who had a ten year old set of Scott's Catalogs that he insisted on pricing at more than what a new set was selling for.
Meanwhile at the stamp club bourse similar volumes went for $5 to $10 each.
It's the same with all hobbies, back in the 1970s when I was 17-18, I worked a bit in the local stamp and coin shop. People would come in with old kids albums sparsely filled with used torn stamps, and they thought they were sending a kid to college with grand dad's old stamp collection. Of course some of them got loud and upset as we told them what they had was worthless. They'd accuse us of trying to steal it from them, even after we had told them we weren't interested.
Same with my model car hobby. There are old ones worth a lot of money, but most of what has been sold the past 30 years is quite common and sells cheap at shows or on eBay. I'll see kits (either unbuilt in a box or built quite poorly by some kid) that I wouldn't give $5 for at flea markets, garage sales and the like with big price tags on them. I just smile and walk on by. There are times that you find a bargain, like a box of old 1950s models marked "Toy Cars" for $5 each, but other people always find those, not me!
Once I was at an antique shop and there was a model of a 1966 Mustang with a $100 price tag on it, marked "Genuine 1966 Toy". I immediately recognized it as a kit that was sold in the 1990s. As I told the dealer, he got irate and told me I knew nothing about the subject matter.. even as I pointed out the bar code on the box! He even asked me to leave the store! Kit is probably still there years later!
While at a garage sale today, for the first time, I saw something philatelic related. There was a box of magazines and newspapers from Sheffield, England mailed to the US in the 1930's. They still had the brown wrappers with addresses and cancelled stamps wrapped around them. Do these have any value? She was asking 20 dollars each and since I don't collect covers or England, I have no idea. At what price would it be worth buying them?
Sean
re: English newspaper mailings
Difficult to say without more information (a photo would have been ideal). However, $20 each sounds too high. But it does all depend on the stamps used, the postal markings and the condition.
re: English newspaper mailings
I wish I would have had a camera. Condition was good. The stamps used were the King George issue of 1938-1939. Some singles, some doubles. Wish I could tell more. I'm sure they were overpriced as she wanted 20 dollars apiece for some common modern US FDC's.
re: English newspaper mailings
There seems to be a common theme here. This isn't the first time someone has mentioned overpricing at garage sales. Here in the UK, we have car boot sales; many held on some boggy field or racecourse. The same story applies; childhood collections of complete junk at fairy tale prices.
You can gauge how much these guys sell - they can be seen sprawled out on their chairs with chins against their chests, sucking in flies......zzzzzzzzzz.
re: English newspaper mailings
We have "Garage Sales" here in Aus.I think it's the same as a Yard Sale in the US.We also have "Trash and Treasure" markets .I used to go nearly every Sunday ,but it started to be the same people selling the same stuff so I gave up .
I have picked up some nice material there ,but sellers offering philatelic items were few and far between.
Brian
re: English newspaper mailings
seanpashby said,
"I wish I would have had a camera."
re: English newspaper mailings
I am constantly scouring Garage Sales, Yard Sales, and Flea Markets for philatelic related items like the old newspapers with stamps. Unfortunately, those who sell them, while they may price most common items with proper "Garage Sale" prices, believe any old stamps are undoubtedly rare and worth a lot of moolah. So, I guess in fear of selling those "old and rare" stamps for too little, they price them ridiculously high. And when you tell them (nicely, of course) that their prices are unrealistic, they immediately assume you are trying to talk them down in prices and cheat them out of their just windfall!
re: English newspaper mailings
Long ago I learned that those kinds of people are not worth educating or attempting a negotiation. They simple believe that everything increases in value with age.
I remember one used book seller who had a ten year old set of Scott's Catalogs that he insisted on pricing at more than what a new set was selling for.
Meanwhile at the stamp club bourse similar volumes went for $5 to $10 each.
re: English newspaper mailings
It's the same with all hobbies, back in the 1970s when I was 17-18, I worked a bit in the local stamp and coin shop. People would come in with old kids albums sparsely filled with used torn stamps, and they thought they were sending a kid to college with grand dad's old stamp collection. Of course some of them got loud and upset as we told them what they had was worthless. They'd accuse us of trying to steal it from them, even after we had told them we weren't interested.
Same with my model car hobby. There are old ones worth a lot of money, but most of what has been sold the past 30 years is quite common and sells cheap at shows or on eBay. I'll see kits (either unbuilt in a box or built quite poorly by some kid) that I wouldn't give $5 for at flea markets, garage sales and the like with big price tags on them. I just smile and walk on by. There are times that you find a bargain, like a box of old 1950s models marked "Toy Cars" for $5 each, but other people always find those, not me!
Once I was at an antique shop and there was a model of a 1966 Mustang with a $100 price tag on it, marked "Genuine 1966 Toy". I immediately recognized it as a kit that was sold in the 1990s. As I told the dealer, he got irate and told me I knew nothing about the subject matter.. even as I pointed out the bar code on the box! He even asked me to leave the store! Kit is probably still there years later!